UM dean’s lawyer says firing will harm law school; Frenk to work with faculty in dean search
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from Anthony Varona’s lawyer, which the Herald received Friday after initial publication.
Meeting with tenured law school faculty after abruptly firing the law school dean last week, University of Miami President Julio Frenk doubled down on his decision to dismiss Anthony Varona after less than two years on the job, much of that time during the pandemic when schools have been struggling.
Frenk, who met with the professors Wednesday night, did not provide a detailed explanation for removing Varona, saying he didn’t find that appropriate, according to sources who attended the meeting over Zoom.
New UM Board of Trustees chair
Rather, he told the group that the dean reports to him and he has the power to remove him, the sources said. Frenk reports to the university’s Board of Trustees, who named Laurie Silvers, the vice chair and a 15-year member of the Board, as the new chair last Thursday.
Silvers, a graduate of Miami Beach High, the University of Miami (Class of ‘74) and UM School of Law (Class of ‘77), replaced Hilarie Bass, a prominent Miami attorney whose two-year term expired in May.
Frenk, who was named UM president in 2015, didn’t apologize for not consulting faculty regarding Varona’s termination, a procedure stipulated in the university’s faculty manual. He did say, however, he would stay in touch with the professors as he makes future decisions.
“As he shared with tenured faculty at the law school last night, President Frenk is committed to consultation as we proceed with next steps,” UM spokeswoman Megan Ondrizek said in an email Thursday.
Firing of law school dean sparks outcry
Last Tuesday, Frenk announced in an email to the UM community that he had asked Varona, 53, who was named UM’s 12th law school dean in August 2019, to step down, effective July 1. Varona has a five-year contract.
Frenk’s email sparked an outcry among UM’s faculty and alumni and the legal academic community.
Lili Levi, one of two vice deans at the law school, resigned in protest last week. (A 34-year UM law school veteran, she will stay on as a tenured law school professor.) The university’s Faculty Senate passed a unanimous resolution “strongly urging” Frenk to reinstate Varona, saying, “The firing of Dean Varona without appropriate faculty input and consultation has severely tarnished the university’s local, national, and international reputation.”
Frenk did not specify reasons for the termination, only alluding to problems with fundraising. A decline in the law school’s national rankings and low passage rates for the Florida Bar exam might have contributed.
In the email, Frenk said he offered to let Varona, who served for 14 years as the vice dean and associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at American University’s Washington College of Law, stay on as a tenured faculty member and keep his title as the M. Minnette Massey Professor of Law.
Varona, who is openly gay, is a leader in the LGBTQ community and was the law school’s first Hispanic dean. He was born in Cuba in 1967 and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a child.
The most recent protest came from a group of Miami law school clinical students and alumni, who sent Frenk and UM Provost Jeffrey Duerk a letter Wednesday denouncing the lack of transparency.
“Absent clear communication and reasoning, most of us have been left to make our own assumptions,” states the letter, signed by about 70 people. “Specifically, we question whether or not this decision was reached in good faith or if it was the result of private interests or bias.”
The LGBTQ community and others have raised the issue of whether Varona was fired because he is gay. Frenk hired Varona knowing his sexual orientation and that he was the legal director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization.
Ondrizek, the UM spokeswoman, didn’t respond to a request for comment regarding the letter.
Varona’s lawyer says dean’s firing is ‘clearly harmful’ to law school
Varona didn’t attend the meeting with the faculty, sources told the Herald, nor did he respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Debra Katz, Varona’s lawyer, emailed a written statement to the Herald on Friday.
“The President continues to ignore outrage from those who know Dean Varona’s contributions to the law school, and has doubled down on a decision that is clearly harmful to the law school,” the statement reads.
“This firing is a blatant violation of Dean Varona’s legal rights, and the President has yet to answer the most basic questions — why has he chosen to oust Dean Varona now, why does he keep changing the reasons for this rash and clearly unlawful firing, and what role did the trustees play in firing Dean Varona?”
On Thursday, when asked if Frenk notified the Board of Trustees before making his decision, Ondrizek, the UM spokeswoman, said in an email, “President Frenk keeps the Board of Trustees informed of strategic decisions at the University and a change in leadership at the School of Law is certainly one.”
Frenk tells faculty he will work with them in hiring new dean
After the faculty meeting, Frenk emailed a note to the law school professors, which Ondrizek forwarded to the Herald: “I truly appreciate your valuable insights and look forward to continuing our conversation as we work together to move our institution into the future,’’ Frenk wrote.
“As I noted in my announcement last week, and reiterated during tonight’s conversation, new leadership is essential for Miami Law. While we may not all agree on this point, I know we all concur that we have an outstanding university, which we all wish to see grow and thrive. As such, I will continue respecting your perspective and relying on your advice to find the necessary new leadership for our Law School as we navigate together this important transition.”
Frenk and Duerk will meet again with a smaller delegation of law faculty Friday. Ondrizek said that talk “is part of that ongoing process and their perspective will inform the plans for a transition, which — given the timeline — is likely to include appointment of an interim dean.”
Frenk, Duerk and Silvers, the new board chair, will likely meet next week with representatives from the Law Alumni Association, which sent its own reproving letter to the administration last week. Ondrizek said Frenk “will seek their perspective on the qualities most important to them in our next dean.”
Frenk’s team faces a tight deadline: Varona’s termination goes into effect July 1, which leaves about a four-week window for the administration to appoint an interim law dean and a search committee, standard procedures in a dean hiring process.
During the meeting Wednesday, sources said faculty asked administrators to be included in the future process, noting a section of the UM Faculty Manual on interim appointments that calls for “appropriate consultation” in “the case of a vacancy due to resignation, death, incapacity or other similar unforeseen circumstance.”
In his email to the professors after the meeting, Frenk spoke of seeking a new dean to serve Miami’s “marginalized communities.”
“The impressive accomplishments of our Law School faculty and community over its history, which you so passionately described, give me every confidence that we will be able to attract an outstanding new dean — one who will take our trendsetting scholarship and commitment to serving marginalized communities and elevate them with the type of performance our students and their families expect from a Miami Law education,” he said.
Law school rankings and accreditation
Moving forward, some faculty members told the Herald they fear the law school’s negative press could affect the school’s ranking and accreditation.
U.S. News & World Report, which ranks law schools across the country, issues surveys to the legal community, including faculty, judges and lawyers, as part of its rankings. Any negative comments could factor in future rankings.
Additionally, the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which accredits law schools, will review UM law school in 2023. If a new dean doesn’t meet its requirements, that could impact the school’s accreditation, a key metric.
Ondrizek, in an email to the Herald, said the university feels the dean switch will be a positive one: “Our standing nationally and our accreditation are both based on how well we perform. A change in leadership at a crucial moment demonstrates our commitment to delivering for our students — and is aimed, in part, at improving the very performance that rankings and accreditation assess.”
This story was originally published June 4, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
