Editor’s note: Ward Farnsworth, dean of the University of Texas School of Law since June 1, 2012, has faced challenges from his first day on the job in Austin. Farnsworth’s predecessor, Larry Sager, resigned in December 2011 amid controversy over a forgivable loan program to attract and retain faculty members. During Farnsworth’s first year at the law school, the long-running policy and personal battles among the UT System board of regents, the UT president and previous law school dean, William Powers Jr., Gov. Rick Perry and various state lawmakers have dominated headlines about the school.
Farnsworth met with Texas Lawyer reporter Miriam Rozen in his campus office on April 12, the day after the UT System Board of Regents asked to have the Texas Attorney General review, for a second time, the now-defunct forgivable faculty loan program. In emailed responses to her questions after that meeting, Farnsworth expressed a strong will to steer the law school in new directions by making the faculty compensation system transparent and maintaining a focus on graduates getting jobs. Texas Lawyer’s question’s and Farnsworth’s answers are below, edited for length and style.
