The Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost announced the appointment of Katheleen Guzman as dean of the OU College of Law Tuesday, pending final approval from the OU Board of Regents.
According to an email from interim Senior Vice President and Provost Jill Irvine, Guzman has served as the interim dean for the College of Law since 2019, associate director of the Law Center, associate dean of academics and associate dean for research and scholarship. She has also taught various courses “targeting the dimensions of property and its transfer.”
The national search process for the dean of the College of Law attracted 25 “highly qualified applicants.” The search committee — made up of 10 members representing the OU College of Law faculty, students and Board of Visitors, a staff representative and faculty representatives from the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Gallogly College of Engineering — interviewed 12 semi-finalists for a result of four finalists, according to the email.
All College of Law constituencies, other college deans, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and members of the executive team were also requested feedback from the search committee.
Guzman — who earned a bachelor of arts with honors and a Juris Doctor degree with highest honors from the University of Arkansas — was named the MAPCO/Williams Presidential Professor in 2000 and the Earl Sneed Centennial Professor of Law in 2015, according to the email. She received the 2014 Medal for Excellence Award from the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence for Research University Teaching, the 2008 Merrick Foundation Teaching Award, the “Outstanding Law Professor” from College of Law’s student body and a Mona Salyer Lambird Spotlight Award for her leadership from the Oklahoma Bar Association Women in Law Committee.
According to the email, Guzman has served as a co-reporter for the Uniform Law Commission Model Tribal Probate Code and is currently working on an updated edition of Fiduciary Accounting: Principles, Modern Applications, Illustrations along with OU Law professor emeritus Mark Gillett. She is a member of the Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Arkansas bars where she lectures students to prepare them for the bar examination and has recently completed a three-year term on the Yale Law School Association Executive Committee.
Irvine wrote in an email that Guzman’s “consistent record of excellence” is universally known in the OU Law community. She wrote that this excellence makes her “a champion for student success.”
“Her expertise and enthusiasm inspire our students — even well after they have graduated,” Irvine wrote in the email. “I have no doubt she will continue to do great things for OU Law.”
