Missouri law professor Robert Jerry named next UF law dean

February 7, 2003

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — University of Missouri law Professor Robert Jerry has been named dean of the University of Florida’s Fredric G. Levin College of Law, effective July 1.

Jerry succeeds Jon Mills, who will remain on the law faculty and with the college’s Center for Governmental Responsibility, which he directs.

“We are very fortunate to have Professor Robert Jerry taking the helm at the Levin College of Law,” UF Provost David Colburn said. “He is a leading scholar in his field, widely respected nationally and former dean at the University of Kansas. He also practiced law for three years before joining the academy. It is this combination of private-sector experience, and national standing as an administrator and scholar that attracted us to Professor Jerry. We believe he offers the Levin College of Law great leadership for the future, and I am delighted that he has accepted our offer.”

Jerry said he is excited about his appointment and eager to begin his new responsibilities.

“The college has tremendous quality – a strong faculty, a talented and diverse student body, wise administrative leadership, enthusiastic alumni support and wonderful traditions in serving the state and the nation in many different ways,” he said. “All of this has created a strong foundation that gives the college the opportunity to move into the nation’s highest tier of public law schools. That’s what we’re going to work hard to do during these next few years.”

Jerry, 49, currently is the Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law, where he has been on the faculty since 1998.

From 1994 to 1998, he held the Herff chair at the University of Memphis School of Law. He taught at the University of Kansas School of Law from 1981 to 1994, where he also served as dean from 1989 to 1994. His teaching and published books/articles focus on insurance law, contracts, and health-care finance and access.

Jerry received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude in 1974 from Indiana State University and his law degree cum laude in 1977 from the University of Michigan. After clerking for Circuit Judge George E. MacKinnon in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, he practiced law from 1978 to 1981 with Barnes Hickam Pantzer & Boyd of Indianapolis.