Law Dean Lands on National Jurist List

Seattle University School of Law Dean Anthony E. Varona has been recognized by The National Jurist as one of the 25 most influential leaders in legal education in the United States.

The list, published in the magazine’s spring issue, celebrates “voices who are moving the field forward and redefining what leadership looks like in a changing landscape,” noting that the featured leaders “sparked new ideas, introduced reforms, inspired their peers or pushed them to see their work differently.”

Ranking #16 overall, Varona also placed #9 nationally among American law school deans and is the only individual from the Pacific Northwest—and the only Latinx dean—named to the list.

This was not Varona’s first time being recognized by The National Jurist. In 2024, the last time the renowned legal education publication released its rankings of leaders, he was named one of the 20 most influential legal education leaders in the country.

“This honor reflects the extraordinary leadership Varona brings to the Seattle University School of Law and to legal education nationally,” says Seattle University Provost Shane P. Martin. “Tony is a bold and principled leader whose ideas are shaping the future of the profession. We are proud to see his work recognized at the highest level.”

Dean Varona credited the “brilliant work of my phenomenal faculty and staff colleagues, our extraordinary students and alumni, the mission that united and motivates all of us in shared purpose and how much we as a law school, and I as a dean, are supported by our superb university leaders.”

Throughout his three-decade career in legal education, Varona has achieved a reputation as a tireless and visionary leader with a long track record of trailblazing, innovation and achievement.

In July 2022, Varona became the first Latinx dean of any law school in the Pacific Northwest. He similarly was the first Latinx and first openly gay dean of the University of Miami School of Law, where he served as dean until 2021 (when he was named dean emeritus).

Dean Varona is the only law school dean serving on the Administrative Conference of the United States. He also currently is an Elected Life Fellow for the American Bar Foundation and a member of the Washington Leadership Institute’s Board of Advisors, a Ninth Circuit Merit Screening Committee (for judicial selection) and the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on the Dean/Aspiring Law School Leaders.

During his time at Seattle University, Varona’s leadership has taken the law school to new heights of national and international distinction. Since his arrival, Varona has achieved a long list of accomplishments that include:

• The recruitment of the academically strongest—and most diverse—entering 1L classes in the law school’s history.
• New initiatives leveraging the law school’s location and new links to industry-leading corporate partners in Seattle’s global technology hub, such as the innovative Technology, Innovation Law and Ethics (TILE) Institute.
• The launch of a new SJD (legal PhD) program and the largest-ever expansion—well over tenfold—of the law school’s graduate international programs.
• Strategically positioning the law school to receive unprecedented new distinctions such as “Top 20 Most Innovative Law Schools,” #1 law school for public service in the Pacific Northwest and top national law school honors in legal writing, clinical education, international law, business law, racial justice, criminal law, human rights and more.
• Significant fundraising to support student success and faculty resources, including a one-of-a-kind pipeline-to-licensure partnership with AccessLex that will reduce students’ overall financial burden and promote academic and bar success.
• Expanded the law school’s civil rights center to include a new cutting-edge Critical Justice Initiative, led by internationally renowned critical justice scholars.
• The innovative “Hybrid Hubs” initiative, leveraging technology to create vibrant hybrid law school presences in legal desert areas of Washington and Alaska.
• The deployment of a university-wide 3+3 advanced law school admissions pathway, eliminating one full year of time and expense and expediting the licensure of new attorneys to serve unmet demand for legal services across the private and public sectors.

Additionally, Varona has been a leading and sought-after national voice on the importance of making legal education and the legal academy more diverse. He is the founding co-chair of the Hispanic National Bar Association’s Task Force on Law Faculty and Deans, which identifies and implements new and more effective strategies to increase Hispanic/Latino representation in the legal academy.