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University of Florida

Merritt McAlister named dean of the UF Levin College of Law

Stuart R. Bell, President 

Dear students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends,

I am pleased to announce that Merritt McAlister has been appointed dean of the University of Florida Levin College of Law following a nationwide search. The appointment is effective immediately.

The Levin College of Law, Florida’s premier law school, is nationally recognized for excellence in legal education, influential scholarship, and public service. The dean’s leadership is critical to continuing to enhance the college’s stature and extend its influence and impact. I am confident that Dean McAlister is the right leader for that role.

Dean McAlister joined the University of Florida law faculty in 2018 and has served as interim dean since June 2023. She is also the Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law.

Before joining UF, she spent eight years in private practice with King & Spalding, where she became a partner in the firm’s national appellate practice. She clerked for Judge R. Lanier Anderson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and for Justice John Paul Stevens on the United States Supreme Court.

She teaches and writes in the areas of federal courts, judicial decision-making, constitutional law and court administration. Her scholarship focuses on issues of institutional design in the federal appellate courts. Her work has been published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Michigan Law Review and Northwestern Law Review, among other top law journals.

She earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law, where she graduated first in her class and served as executive articles editor of the Georgia Law Review. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Rice University.

As dean, she will build upon and expand her record of accomplishment in the interim role, including:

  • Enrolling the most credentialed first-year class in the history of UF Law, with a median LSAT score of 170 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.97.
  • Building an academic success program that resulted in over 90% of first-time test takers passing the Florida Bar Exam for three consecutive years — the only law school in Florida to do so in more than 15 years.
  • Recruiting leading and innovative faculty, including launching an AI Laboratory, landing two former Supreme Court clerks and the top-cited administrative law scholar in the nation.

UF Law is one of the 25 most selective law schools in the nation and one of the top 20 for job placement outcomes. It is currently ranked among the top-15 public law schools.

I am confident that Dean McAlister will propel the college, and the University of Florida, to even greater heights. Please join me in congratulating her and wishing her the very best in her new leadership role.