In her second year at the Law School, Franita Tolson’s, ’05, mindset toward learning changed. It was during a year-long seminar with Lisa Bernstein, the Wilson-Dickinson Professor of Law, where Tolson would listen to presentations from young legal scholars and work on her own scholarship. She realized that this was a path she could follow.

As the seminar progressed, Tolson stopped worrying about grades and started focusing on expanding her foundation of knowledge. She read more, never missed a class, and spoke with professors every chance she got, all with an eye towards becoming a law professor.

After graduating, Tolson clerked for Judge Ann Claire Williams of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Judge Ruben Castillo of the Northern District of Illinois. She also became a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern University School of Law, where she polished her scholarship on employment discrimination. Later, she switched her focus to election law, a field that puzzled and fascinated her, and began deepening her knowledge.

Years later, after accepting a professorship at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law in 2017, Tolson had another mindset shift. Still new at the school in 2019, she became vice dean for faculty and academic affairs. She was working 14-hour days, still teaching and writing, but also doing TV interviews and testifying before Congress. However, administrative work appealed to Tolson because she enjoyed helping her colleagues and her students.

In 2023, Gould’s then dean was appointed as the university’s provost, and he asked Tolson to become interim dean of the law school. Tolson, an election law scholar, understood the importance of institutional service and leadership, and decided to accept the interim appointment despite her initial misgivings. She worried that she might have to sacrifice teaching and scholarship to be an administrator, but quickly realized the value of the platform that the deanship offered.

Over the course of her year as interim dean, Tolson saw that being a dean meant having sway over the educational experience and the practice of law. The deanship was a new way to educate aspiring lawyers on the importance of being ethical, caring about democratic institutions, and helping others, particularly those in vulnerable communities. “That felt very important to me,” she said.

In 2024, Tolson was appointed Gould’s permanent dean and the Carl Mason Franklin Chair in Law. While Tolson loves being dean, she also retains her passion for teaching and scholarship. She often teaches undergraduates about law and politics and JDs about constitutional law, and she still writes frequently. She is one of the coauthors of the leading election law casebook, The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process. This year, Tolson has a book coming out, In Congress We Trust? Enforcing Voting Rights from the Founding to the Jim Crow Era, and is currently writing a comment on the Louisiana v. Phillip Callais case, which the Supreme Court heard arguments on in 2025.

At every turn, Tolson kept her mind open to new ideas and opportunities, which in turn helped her to balance the demands of being a professor and dean. It’s the best job in the world, she said, one where she can influence the next generation through her scholarship, teaching, and administrative work.

“You get to write and think about the things that you care about, you get to teach students about consequential topics, and you get to influence policy and law in important ways,” Tolson said, “It’s win-win.”

Tolson's Advice to Aspiring Academics:

"Write. You can write your way into your first job or write your way into a better job. Being a good writer is something learned, not innate. Even as an undergraduate, you can publish. Writing consistently helps you to find your voice and to identify your passions."

This story is part of a series about Law School alumni in academia. View the full series here.