David Schizer

David M. Schizer is Dean Emeritus and the Harvey R. Miller Professor of Law and Economics; Co-director of the Richard P. Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy; Co-director of the Charles Evans Gerber Transactional Studies Center; and Co-director of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies. David Schizer began his service as the 14th dean of Columbia Law School in July 2004, becoming, at the age of 35, the youngest dean in the School’s history. To broaden the curriculum and facilitate greater interactions between faculty and students, he added 43 new faculty members during his tenure, resulting in a student-faculty ratio at Columbia Law School that has never been lower. As dean, Schizer also established a faculty housing program that helped attract top teaching talent to New York City, and he added a ninth floor to Jerome Greene Hall to provide additional office and classroom space. While strengthening the upper-year curriculum, Schizer launched new centers and programs in arbitration, climate change law, constitutional governance, global legal transformation, the law of India, institutional and social change, intellectual property, Israeli legal studies, national security law, public research and leadership, sexuality and gender law, and transactional studies. He also forged joint ventures with Columbia Business School, including an accelerated J.D./M.B.A. program and the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy. To enhance opportunities for faculty collaboration and exchange, as well as international degree programs for students, he formed global alliances with the University of Oxford, the University of Amsterdam, Sciences Po, and Paris I. Schizer increased the financial support received by Columbia Law School and strengthened support for those working in government and public interest jobs. In seven of his 10 years as dean, the Law School raised more than twice as much money as it was raising before his tenure as dean began, and the $353 million capital campaign he led represents a substantial increase over the School’s prior $150 million campaign. He stewarded the School through unusually challenging economic times and worked personally on behalf of students to ensure that their employment opportunities remained comparable to those of the generations who came before them. In 1971, the faculty enacted a 10-year term limit and Dean Schizer is the first to whom it applied. David Schizer is one of the nation’s leading tax law scholars, and his research also focuses on energy law and corporate governance issues. He looks forward to returning to teaching after his service as dean. Schizer will teach basic tax in Fall 2014 and serve as co-director of the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy; co-director of the Charles Evans Gerber Transactional Studies Center; and co-director of the Center for Israeli Legal Studies.