LOS ANGELES – Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Professor Sean M. Scott has been appointed associate director of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), the largest and most prestigious legal academic society in the United States, where she will help guide the group’s mission to advance excellence in legal education.
During her two-year appointment, set to begin in August 2018, Scott will be on leave from Loyola, working for AALS at its Washington, D.C. headquarters. She will be charged with developing and overseeing programs to further the association’s goal of improving legal education.
“I am honored to be appointed to a leadership role in the AALS, with which I share many of the same values: promoting diversity in the academy and the legal profession, innovating in the classroom and improving awareness of the role law schools play in society,” said Scott. “I look forward to working toward these and other goals on behalf of my colleagues and peers nationwide.”
An author of numerous op-eds on advances in legal education, Scott has a long history of innovation as a law school administrator and professor. In her role as Senior Associate Dean and Associate Dean for Faculty at Loyola Law School, Scott established Loyola’s Master of Science in Legal Studies (MLS) program for non-lawyers.
Scott has been instrumental in the reengineering of Loyola’s curriculum to add subject-matter concentrations and first-year electives. Leveraging Loyola’s unique location in downtown Los Angeles near the tech epicenter of Silicon Beach, Scott created Loyola’s Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Law program, available as an area of focus to JD, LLM and MLS students. Likewise, she helped launch Loyola’s Fashion Law Project to assist designers and entrepreneurs in the nearby L.A. Fashion District.
As a professor of Contracts, Gender & the Law and Law of Sales, Scott has innovated inside her own classroom. Students have responded by giving her numerous honors, including the prestigious Excellence in Teaching Award by the Student Bar Association and the Distinguished Faculty Award by the Black Law Students Association.
An integral leader at Loyola, Scott has chaired Loyola’s Faculty Hiring Committee and Dean Search Committee. She also has served on Loyola Marymount University’s Presidential Search Committee, and she played an integral role in the restructuring of Loyola’s Career Development Office, including bolstering its staff and helping create a social-justice incubator for recent graduates.
Scott serves on the Board of Governors of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the California Women’s Law Center. Before joining academia, Scott was an associate in the Los Angeles office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. She earned her JD from New York University.
About Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
Located on an award-winning Frank Gehry-designed campus in downtown Los Angeles, Loyola Law School is home to prominent faculty, dedicated students and cutting-edge programs. The Law School strives to instill in students the knowledge they need to excel on their chosen paths. It dedicates itself to preparing students for the rigors of practice with an extensive portfolio of practical-training opportunities, a 18,000-strong alumni network and a focus on social justice. Learn more at www.lls.edu.
About the Association of American Law Schools
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS), founded in 1900, is a nonprofit association of 179 law schools. Its members enroll most of the nation’s law students and produce the majority of the country’s lawyers and judges, as well as many of its lawmakers. The mission of AALS is to uphold and advance excellence in legal education. In support of this mission, AALS promotes the core values of excellence in teaching and scholarship, academic freedom, and diversity, including diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints, while seeking to improve the legal profession, to foster justice, and to serve our many communities–local, national and international. Learn more at www.aals.org.
