January 8, 2016
UW law school Dean Kellye Y. Testy to serve as national group president
UW School of Law Dean Kellye TestyUniversity of Washington
Kellye Y. Testy, dean of the University of Washington’s law school, will give her inaugural address as president of the Association of American Law Schools tomorrow night in Washington, D.C.
Testy previously served on the association‘s executive committee and was voted in as its president in October 2014. She takes over from 2015 president Blake Morant, dean of The George Washington University Law School.
“It is an incredible honor for me to be elected president of AALS, and I look forward to spending this next year working with my colleagues in the legal profession to do all we can to re-energize legal teaching, research and service, and inspire a new generation of students to dedicate their lives to law,” Testy said.
Testy has been involved with the association for several years, serving a three-year term on its committee to recruit and retain minority law teachers and students, on planning committees for conferences and workshops and as co-chair of the association’s group for law school deans. She has also been active in the Society of American Law Teachers, serving on its board of governors and several committees.
Testy was named dean of the UW law school in 2009. She received her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University at Bloomington and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Indiana Law School, where she was the editor of the Indiana Law Journal. She started her legal career working at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago while in law school, and after graduation she clerked for Judge Jesse E. Eschbach, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Testy has published extensively on topics ranging from social justice to corporate law and has won numerous awards, including the Seattle 2012 Women of Influence Award, the Washington State Trial Lawyers Public Justice Award and president’s awards from the Washington State Bar Association, Washington Women Lawyers and King County Women Lawyers.
The UW School of Law will be well-represented this year in the AALS, a national nonprofit organization made up of 179 law schools. The incoming chair of the association’s clinical group and incoming co-chairs of the AALS Journal of Legal Education are UW law faculty members, as is the chair of the AALS’ intellectual property group. A UW law faculty member also sits on the executive committee of the association’s group focused on securities regulation.
Testy said she chose the theme of “why law matters” for her term as AALS president, with the goal of helping society understand the importance of the law in promoting wellbeing.
“In our beautiful and broken world, law may not be the only pathway to justice, but I believe it remains the most promising one in our grasp,” she said.
Tag(s): Kellye Testy • School of Law
