Deans

Gary J. Simson, B.A., J.D.
Dean, School of Law

Gary J. Simson joined the faculty of the Mercer University School of Law in July 2010 as Dean and Macon Chair in Law. Simson received a B.A. summa cum laude in 1971 from Yale College, where he majored in Spanish Literature, and a J.D. in 1974 from Yale Law School, where he was an editor of The Yale Law Journal.  After one year clerking for Judge J. Joseph Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Simson began his teaching career at the University of Texas School of Law in 1975 and was promoted to full professor in 1977.

Simson joined the Cornell Law School faculty as professor of law in 1980 and remained at Cornell until 2006. In addition to teaching and scholarship, he spent substantial time on law school administration, including serving as Associate Dean for Faculty Development from 1997-2000 and as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2000-2004.  In 2006, he became Dean and Joseph C. Hostetler - Baker & Hostetler Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He returned to full-time teaching in 2009 and left Case for the Mercer deanship in 2010.

Over the years, Simson has frequently taught first-year Constitutional Law, Conflict of Laws, and a Religion Clauses of the First Amendment seminar.  His constitutional law scholarship in recent years has addressed such issues as school vouchers, Supreme Court appointments, the death penalty and religion, and single-sex schools.  He is also the author of a leading conflict of laws casebook now in its fourth edition and various articles in the field.