Rodríguez takes Law School helm

Tina Kroh

New Law School dean Cristina Rodríguez ’95, ’00JD, says the faculty teaches students “how to be fearless in defense of their principles.” View full image

If you ask Cristina Rodríguez ’95, ’00JD, who assumed the deanship of Yale Law School on February 1, which leader she most admires, she will not hesitate. It’s the eminent lawyer Virginia A. Seitz, her boss at the Office of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice from 2011 to 2013. 

“She modeled consensus building married with decisiveness, and having the capacity to listen, but also knowing when and how to make difficult decisions,” says Rodríguez, a leading expert on immigration and constitutional law. She succeeds Heather Gerken, who stepped down last August to become president of the Ford Foundation. 

A native of San Antonio, Texas, Rodríguez earned a BA in history from Yale College, then attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. After Yale Law School, she clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at the US Supreme Court, then taught at New York University School of Law and served in the Office of Legal Counsel before becoming Yale Law School’s first tenured Latina faculty member in 2013. 

Her appointment signaled the depth of respect she enjoys in the field, with former Law School dean Guido Calabresi ’53, ’58LLB, praising her as a “first-rate scholar and teacher in the long tradition of Yale Law School deans” and Richard L. Revesz ’83, dean emeritus at New York University School of Law, touting her “intellectual creativity and deep institutional knowledge.”

Rodríguez says she is deeply honored to lead the institution. “The Law School is a community of pathbreaking scholars and outstanding and ambitious students that stands apart for its intellectual vibrancy, its commitment to the pursuit of ideas through scholarship and open dialogue, and its dedication to public service,” she says. 

The school has seen its share of controversies over free expression in recent years, and Rodríguez underscores the importance of mutual respect among faculty and students in public discourse as well as an openness of mind. Central to the Law School mission, she says, is a “community that allows students to express their disagreement but to do so in a way that doesn’t crowd out views with which they disagree.” 

Regarding a legal profession currently in turmoil, Rodríguez highlighted the school’s emphasis on scrupulous training, exposure to open dialogue, and the development of strong character. “All those things teach our students how to be fearless in defense of their principles and in defense of the integrity of the profession,” she says.  

The law school faculty models that practice both in the classroom and in their engagement in the world. “They are able to convey what it means to be ethical and rigorous lawyers and leaders,” she says.