Law dean ousted from the University of Miami last year gets new job at another law school
Nearly a year after his abrupt firing as dean of the University of Miami law school, Anthony Varona announced Thursday he got hired as the new law dean at Seattle University, a private Jesuit Catholic institution in Washington state.
“Seattle, here we come!” he said in a statement shared on his personal Twitter account.
Varona’s firing shocked the South Florida legal community and sparked national outrage last summer.
UM President Julio Frenk pushed out Varona in late May, 23 months into his five-year contract, without previously consulting faculty — the standard procedure in universities.
Frenk hasn’t provided clear reasons for pushing out Varona, except for alluding at the time to a lack of fundraising. Students, alumni, professors and other members of the legal community have raised concerns that Varona’s identity as an openly gay and Cuban man lead to his ousting. Frenk has dismissed those rumors.
Two UM spokespeople didn’t respond to a request for comment Friday.
When Frenk demoted him, he offered to let Varona stay on as a tenured faculty member and to keep his title as the M. Minnette Massey Professor of Law. Varona stepped down as dean July 1, retained the Massey Chair and became dean emeritus.
But he also started looking for a new top administrative job. He said he interviewed across the U.S. for months and ultimately got several offers for “outstanding deanship opportunities.”
He chose Seattle University, in part, because it’s a “progressive” law school with “strong social justice missions,” he said. He officially begins July 1.
“Seattle U Law is an ideal place to teach and study law, with tremendous promise and potential,” Varona said.
“John and I could not be happier,” he added, referring to his husband.
Donna Kay Coker, who has been professor at the UM law school for more than 25 years, said Friday she’s “absolutely thrilled for Tony and not surprised he’s landed in a great space.”
However, she clarified that the questions surrounding Varona’s relegation remain unanswered.
“Many of us are sad or angry still about what happened to Tony,” she said. “We still have questions about why it was that he was fired when he had so much support, questions about our relationship with the board of trustees and the leadership, and whether there was any bias involved.”
In mid-August, UM named Nell Jessup Newton, a respected professor at the University of Notre Dame law school with decades of leadership experience in higher education, as interim dean. She succeeded law professor Steve Schnably, whom Frenk named acting dean in late June. Newton agreed to serve for a year and started Sept. 1.
