USC law dean aims to boost scholarship

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By James T. Hammond

Published April 15, 2011

As the incoming dean of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Robert M. Wilcox aims to boost scholarship, and hence the reputation, of legal education on the Columbia campus.

As associate dean for academic affairs at the law school, Wilcox already has presided over major changes in the first-year course of studies. The changes have a certain urgency as the law school has been slipping in national rankings and reputation in recent years.

Wilcox, a legal ethics scholar, will become dean effective July 1, taking over the dean’s role with no increase in his current $207,000 annual salary, USC officials said.

Wilcox succeeds Walter “Jack” Pratt, who will return to teaching.

One of the law school’s issues is the aging facility in which it is housed. The university has patched holes in the roof and made other repairs to the law school building at Main and Greene streets. USC President Harris Pastides said plans for the law school building will be decided with the new dean and will be announced in the next several months.

Meanwhile, Wilcox said measures to raise standards and make USC law school graduates more attractive to employers will include a slight reduction in the size of incoming classes and the addition of faculty.

“We are going to spend a lot of time and effort improving the faculty and programs at the law school,” Wilcox said. “We will be replenishing faculty. We will hire 10 new faculty over the next 10 years. That will have a tangible impact on the academic life.

“We have begun to work on curriculum changes,” he said. “We want to be sure our students can be well-placed.”

USC Provost Michael Amiridis said, “We all want a law school to be proud of.” He said the revenue from the admission of 500 additional freshmen in the undergraduate program will make possible additional spending in the law school, a graduate-level program.

The university will incrementally boost spending on the law school’s programs over several years until net annual spending is increased by $1.5 million over current levels, Amiridis said.


Amiridis said the two main options being considered to improve the law school’s academic space are to either rehabilitate the existing structure or to use university property at Senate and Pickens streets to build an entirely new law school building.

Amiridis estimated the range of costs for the two options to be between $50 million for the existing building and $89 million to construct a new building.

Currently, the university has $10 million already earmarked by the state for the project, plus about $14 million raised from other sources.

Amiridis said the decision on the building, expected in the next 30 to 60 days, will give the administration a goal to bring to potential donors.

Wilcox was one of three finalists identified by USC for the law school’s leadership. The other two were professor Susan Richey of the University of New Hampshire and professor Steve Mazza of the University of Kansas. Mazza dropped out of the race quickly after being offered the dean’s post at the University of Kansas.

Pastides said Wilcox’s knowledge and experience as a professor and an administrator will make him a strong leader who will provide stable leadership and usher in a new era for USC’s law school.

Wilcox is an expert in legal ethics and professionalism. He is co-author of the book Annotated South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct, published by the S.C. Bar, and is a frequent speaker and writer in the field.

He has served as editor, managing editor and resident editor of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal, published by the American Bar Association, and is secretary for the Chief Justice’s Commission on the Profession. He is a member of the S.C. Commission on Judicial Conduct and is a judge for the Warren Burger Prize awarded by the American Inns of Court Foundation.

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