Emily Buss, the Mark and Barbara Fried Professor of Law, has been appointed deputy dean of the Law School, effective July 1. Buss brings decades of scholarship, leadership, and advocacy work to her new role, joining Dean Adam Chilton in guiding the academic mission of the Law School.

Buss has been a member of the Law School faculty since 1996, where her scholarship has focused on the constitutional rights of children and parents and the intersection of the fields of child development and law. She served as an associate reporter for the American Law Institute’s first Restatement on Children and the Law and currently serves as the inaugural faculty director of the Law School’s Public Interest Leadership Program. Some of Buss’s recent work has focused on doctrinal tension between the constitutional rights of parents and children and emerging changes in policy addressing criminal offending by young adults in the United States and in Europe.

“Professor Buss is an exemplary teacher and amazing institutional citizen,” said Dean Chilton. “She understands what makes our community special, and she cares deeply about improving our law school. I am delighted that she will bring her expertise and dedication to the deputy dean role, where she will help shape and support our educational programs and intellectual life.”

As deputy dean, Buss will oversee curricular development and work closely with faculty, staff, and students to ensure the Law School’s continued excellence in legal education. She succeeds William Hubbard, the Clifton R. Musser Professor of Law and Economics, who has served as deputy dean since 2023 and will be returning to full-time teaching and scholarship.

“I am honored to take on this responsibility,” Buss said, “and I look forward to supporting my faculty and staff colleagues and our students in preserving and strengthening all that makes this law school such an exceptional place.”

Buss holds a BA and JD from Yale University. Before joining the Law School, she spent a decade advocating for children’s rights at Legal Aid in Baltimore and at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.