Haider Ala Hamoudi named dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Law

University of Cincinnati Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Valerio Ferme, PhD, has named Haider Ala Hamoudi as dean of the College of Law.  

Hamoudi will serve as the college’s 27th dean since its founding in 1833. The UC College of Law is the fourth oldest continuously operating law school in the country. 

“I am excited to welcome Dean Hamoudi to UC and our law college. His strategic thinking, passion for inclusive excellence and curricular innovation will position the College of Law for future growth and community impact,” says Ferme. 

“As a native Ohioan I have long admired Cincinnati Law’s mission to inspire leaders to pursue justice and advance the role of law in society. I hold in particularly high regard its commitment to student success, its dedication to recruiting and retaining scholars of the highest caliber and its understanding of itself as an institution that advances social mobility and justice throughout the region and beyond,” says Hamoudi. “I feel extraordinarily honored to have the opportunity to work with the faculty, staff, students, university community, legal community and other stakeholders of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to build upon these strengths to take Cincinnati Law to the next level."

Under Hamoudi’s decade of leadership, Pitt Law has rebalanced its curriculum to provide students with opportunities to consciously develop a broader set of competencies over their three years of law school, which include a suite of experiential skills as well as leadership and cross-cultural competency skills. Additionally, the school has created new online programs, including an online Master of Studies in Law (MSL) degree and increased the scholarly productivity of faculty through policies and programs. 

Hamoudi’s research primarily focuses on Middle Eastern and Islamic law. He has been notably honored for his teaching, twice receiving the Pitt Law School’s student nominated Robert W. Harper Excellence in Teaching Award (2014 and 2022). 

Hamoudi has published numerous books, law review articles and book chapters and since 2018 has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Arab Law Quarterly, the largest English language scholarly journal that focuses exclusively on the law of the Arab world. He earned a JSD and JD from Columbia Law School and bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.