The Board of Trustees confirmed Dean of the George Washington University Law School Frederick M. Lawrence to succeed Jehuda Reinharz as president of the University, a transition that will occur Jan. 1 2011, the University announced today in a press release.Lawrence has served as the dean of the GWU Law School since 2005, according to the press release. The press release further states that during his tenure, Lawrence brought in the strongest five classes in the law school's history and led five of the school's most effective years of fundraising despite the troubling economic situation. He also recruited new faculty members, increased financial aid, expanded facilities and sought new programmatic possibilities for the law school on national and international levels, according to the release.

Prior to serving in this position, Lawrence taught at the Boston University School of Law from 1988 to 2005, where he received the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, the school's highest teaching honor, in 1996.

The press release referred to Lawrence, the author of Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes Under American Law, as "one of the nation's leading experts on civil rights and free expression." In an interview with the Justice, Lawrence explicitly linked his legal interests with the University's emphasis on social justice.

"I think the professional areas of mine [will] resonate very strongly with the social justice mission of Brandeis," Lawrence said in an interview with the Justice.

The Board of Trustees confirmed the Presidential Search Committee's selection of Lawrence less than 10 months after Reinharz announced his resignation in a campuswide e-mail Sept. 22, 2009. In a Sept. 24 press release, the University explained that Reinharz would serve as president until June 2011 unless a new successor is chosen or before that date.

In an interview with the Justice, Lawrence said that he is "very, very excited" about becoming University president and is "honored" to have been selected. "One of the things I find most attractive is the whole position that Brandeis occupies in higher education, of what I call the 'research college,'" a small liberal-arts school that is also a major research university, he said.

Prof. Len Saxe (Heller), one of three faculty members who served on the Presidential Search Committee, echoed many of Lawrence's views in an interview with the Justice. Saxe explained that Lawrence has "embraced" Brandeis' status as a combination of a small liberal arts college with a major research university, as well as its place in the American Jewish community.

"In some ways, [Lawrence is] a Brandeisian, both in the Louis Brandeis sense [as a civil rights expert and a scholar on how law affects people, and] at the same time, he has a track record at being an exceptionally effective academic leader. ... While we had lots of really extraordinary candidates in the pool, he really stood out," he said.

Lawrence said his strengths include a "strong ability to articulate a mission and a vision [and] an ability to bring people together and to build consensus," as well as his strength as a teacher and his success as a scholar.

Saxe reflected on these strengths as well. "I think he will be a leader who is equally good [at] listening and initiating. He's somebody who will bring out the best in the rest of us, and I think that bodes very well for his potential," he said.

Lawrence's position as president will be his first at Brandeis. By contrast, president Reinharz had been a member of the Brandeis faculty and was serving as University provost in 1994 when he was selected as president.

Lawrence said that coming to Brandeis as an outsider will yield "challenges that any new person ... will have," but that he expects to learn as much as he can about the University. Lawrence explained that in the past few months he has gained familiarity with many of Brandeis' major issues but will be working hard to learn more by Jan. 1.

"Even before taking office I hope to spend as much time as I can just spending time with people in the Brandeis community and find out what people's concerns are regarding the University," he said.

With regard to Lawrence coming into Brandeis from outside the community, Saxe said, "I think having someone who can come in with a different perspective at this point in time is very useful. ... What we found most attractive was his ability to understand our uniqueness and to embrace it."

Lawrence specifically commented in the interview that he was impressed with how Brandeis handled its recent cuts in the wake of the nation's financial downturn.

"The goal is not just to get through this year. The goal is to think about where we want to be in five, ... 10, ... 20 years," he said. "And if you want to think that way, you have to be willing to make serious decisions, and I think the community really came together in a very powerful way on that, so I don't view the results of the last year as anything other than a sign of strength."

Lawrence also expressed excitement about working with undergraduates. "I think about issues of education not just professionally but very personally. My children have just come through college, and there's a high level of insecurity in a college community when students don't know what's going on with how the school is being run," he explained.

Former Student Union President Andy Hogan '11, who served as student representative of the Presidential Search Committee, said he believed Lawrence's future relationships with Brandeis students would be positive. "He really likes to get to know the students, and he knows that we have insights that will help him in his job, and I think it's going to be a good relationship," Hogan said.

"Fred showed he really understands Brandeis," trustee Stephen Kay, chair of the Presidential Search Committee, said in the press release. "What appealed to me was his passion for the University and this job. The social mission of Brandeis and its historic roots in the Jewish community resonate with him on professional and personal levels. He also understands that everyone at Brandeis gets involved, and he really values that."

In his interview, Lawrence said he is grateful that the position of Brandeis president "allows me to draw on a wide range of parts of my personality," including his background in law, his experience in academic administration and education and his Jewish roots. "Almost everybody I've been talking to [about the Brandeis presidency] says the same thing: 'What a great fit; what a perfect fit for you,'" Lawrence said.

"This is not just a job to me, this is a calling," he added.

--Emily Kraus contributed reporting.

Editor's note: Additional information on president-elect Lawrence, including the full text of the University press release, a profile of Lawrence, video interviews and more, is available on the Brandeis University website at http://www.brandeis.edu/new-president/. The Justice is not responsible for any content of the aforementioned website.