February 3, 2023
Dear Colleagues,
As a follow-up to my January 23, 2023 announcement regarding leadership transition in the School of Law, I want to share that I have named Professor Haider Ala Hamoudi as Interim Dean.
Haider came to Pitt as an Assistant Professor of Law in 2007, and was promoted to Vice Dean on July 1, 2018 from the position of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, a position he had held from July 1, 2017. From 2013 to 2017, he served as Associate Dean of Research and Faculty Development.
Haider’s scholarship focuses on Middle Eastern and Islamic Law. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Arab Law Quarterly, a position he has held since September 1, 2018. As with his Islamic Law work generally, Haider’s scholarship in the law of the Middle East focuses on the law as it operates in the field rather than as it exists in texts and commentaries. He spent most of 2009 in Baghdad advising the Constitutional Review Committee of the Iraqi legislature, responsible for developing critical amendments to the Iraq Constitution deemed necessary for Iraqi national reconciliation, on behalf of the United States Embassy in Baghdad.
Professor Hamoudi earned his JD from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He also holds a BSc from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
I sincerely thank Haider for his willingness to take on the interim role. A national search for the next permanent dean will begin early in the fall semester.
I also want to particularly acknowledge former dean Amy Wildermuth’s leadership. Upon arriving at the University in 2018, Amy worked to help advance the mission of our School of Law. The school has made important progress—even as it navigated a global pandemic. The efforts of her team yielded a record bar passage rate in 2019. Of special note is the development of the MSL Online program and the creation of the school’s stackable graduate certificate programs in Corporate Compliance, Health Care Compliance, Human Resources Law, and International Business Law and Dispute Resolution.
In addition, Amy devoted significant thought to equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives during her time at the helm. That support has included the creation of the Student Advisory Committee, among other community-building efforts.
All of this is meaningful work—and I am deeply grateful for Amy’s efforts.
In the time ahead, I look forward to continuing to support the School of Law as it charts its course forward.
Best,
Ann
Ann E. Cudd
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor
Professor of Philosophy
University of Pittsburgh