The interim dean at Dickinson Law in Cumberland County has dropped interim from his title, but his time at the helm has an expiration date.
Penn State’s Board of Trustees on Friday approved Gary Gildin as dean of the law school but only until a national search to fill the position can be conducted. That is expected during the 2018-19 academic year.
Gildin, also a professor of law, has served in the interim role since May 2013 when the school’s unified, two-campus law school was separated into two accredited law campuses. The American Bar Association approved the separate operations in 2014 for Dickinson Law in Carlisle and Penn State Law at University Park.
Both law schools began operating as independents with the class admitted in fall 2015.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my interim dean position has been to partner with the faculty, with the advice and wise counsel of our alumni, to reinvent a curriculum designed from the very first day of law school to produce profession‐ready graduates,” Gildin said in a statement.
He has has been on Penn State’s faculty since 1979 after spending three years as a civil litigator in Chicago. He regularly teaches in international, national and statewide continuing legal education programs for practicing trial attorneys.
Over the years, he also took sabbaticals from the school to serve as assistant public defender in Cumberland County. He previously worked as a law clerk to Judge Sylvia Rambo in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
