For release: February 6, 2013
For press information, contact Curt Guenther, 901-678-2843

Peter Letsou has been named dean of the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis. Currently dean of the Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Ore., Letsou will begin his duties June 1.

Peter Letsou

M. David Rudd, the University’s incoming provost, said Letsou “brings a wealth of experience as an academic leader, a sitting dean and a legal scholar.”

“With his leadership, and the accomplishments of our faculty, students and alumni, we will continue to raise the national profile of our law school,” said Shirley Raines, U of M president.

Letsou has been at Willamette since 2002, serving as dean and associate dean for the past seven years. Previously a professor and director of the Center for Corporate Law at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, Letsou also spent seven years at George Mason University School of Law. He has been a visiting law professor at the University of Connecticut and Emory University.

Letsou has a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School. In 1987 he was associate counsel for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition. Letsou has also practiced law in New York as an associate with two private firms.

"I’m delighted to be joining the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law as its next dean,” Letsou said. “A public law school with a distinguished history and an exceptional faculty, facility and location, the School of Law is uniquely positioned to respond to the challenges now confronting legal education. It’s a privilege and an honor to be selected to lead such an outstanding institution."

The Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2012. It has been recognized by preLaw magazine as a “best value” law school. Since 2010, the School has occupied the historic former U.S. Customs House in downtown Memphis, adjacent to the city’s judicial and legal community.