Dear Members of the Law School Community,
I cannot let my last moments as dean pass without sending to all of you a short note thanking you for everything this community has done to make these years as dean so wonderful. From the staff, to the students, to the faculty, administrators and alumni, all of you in your different ways have helped make this place what it is today.
It has been an honour to work with you, to build something together and to serve our law school and university. I will miss you.
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and to wish all of you the very best.
Mayo
May 1, 2014
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By Lucianna Ciccocioppo
Under a canopy of cranes parked outside the Rowell Room, more than 200 alumni, faculty, students, staff and friends attended the formal farewell event April 28th for Mayo Moran, the first woman dean of the law school. It was a fitting venue, located next to the construction site of the Jackman Law Building, her signature accomplishment as dean.
“The law school has really defined my life for the last 22 years,” said Moran, as she warmly thanked the many people she met and worked with to help her achieve the many accomplishments during her tenure here, from SJD student to top administrator.
MC Cheryl Regehr, vice-president academic and provost of the University of Toronto, joked that she and Moran at one time early in their careers belonged to a “group of women deans of single department professional faculties that consisted of just three of us.” She praised Moran for launching innovative programs at the Faculty of Law, such as the Internationally Trained Lawyers Program, the executive-style Global Professional LLM, the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights and the Centre for the Legal Profession. Regehr said the redevelopment of the Jackman Law Building was “the most pressing need for this Faculty and students, which will serve future generations in a really wonderful way.”
University Professor Michael Trebilcock, who has been on faculty for 42 years, called Moran a “larger-than-life dean” and Alexis Archbold, assistant dean of students, thanked her for her “incredible impact on the law school community,” for attracting strong faculty and staff who wanted to work with her—and then allowing them to lead.
Brendan Stevens, president of the Students' Law Society, said the dean's warmth, teaching and leadership "best capture why students at this faculty have been so fortunate to have Dean Moran around." And campaign cabinet co-chair Tom Rahilly said he enjoyed the opportunity and had fun working with her to make the building a reality.
“Leaders succeed in part because of their skills and capacities,” said Moran, “but so much is about having people believe in you. Thank you to everyone who has made a difference.”
Moran—the torts scholar, feminist jurisprudent and single parent selected to make history as the first woman dean of the law school—said she’s now “very happy to join that august group” of past deans and make a move across Philosopher’s Walk to Trinity College, as the newly elected provost and vice-chancellor, effective July 1, 2014.
Photos: Michelle Yee
