CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Following a national search, Jamelle Sharpe has been selected as the 14th dean of the College of Law, effective Aug. 16, 2023, pending approval by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Sharpe’s title will be dean of the College of Law designate and Guy Raymond Jones Faculty Scholar until board approval.
Sharpe, who joined the College of Law faculty in 2008, brings more than a decade of administrative leadership to the role, having served as associate dean and senior associate dean for academic affairs in the college. Sharpe has served as a Provost Fellow and as a fellow in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's Academic Leadership Program. In 2018, the provost selected him to chair the Urbana-Champaign campus’ Consensual Relationship Policy Review Task Force.
“I congratulate Professor Sharpe on his appointment. After a highly competitive, national search, Professor Sharpe emerged as the clear choice to lead the College of Law,” said Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost John Coleman. “I commend the search committee and Provost leadership for selecting a candidate who is a highly regarded scholar, has a strong understanding of the college and is uniquely qualified to advance its strategic priorities and initiatives.
“Professor Sharpe has demonstrated experience as a collaborative leader and has proven he can systematically and programmatically execute a vision, and I look forward to working with him.”
A nationally recognized expert on federal administrative law and the federal judiciary, Sharpe’s research focuses on the constitutional and statutory divisions of policymaking authority between courts and administrative agencies. He is frequently called on to provide analysis and commentary for media outlets on a variety of issues, including judicial politics, separation of powers and immigration law.
Before joining the College of Law faculty, Sharpe served as a Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. Prior to that, he clerked for the Honorable Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York.
Sharpe earned his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was managing editor of the Yale Journal of International Law. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature from New York University, where he graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.