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Longtime Akron University law professor and administrator retires
Elizabeth Reilly has devoted 30 years to helping improve The University of Akron School of Law, as both an educator and administrator. On June 30, Reilly, now interim dean at the law school, will bid the institution farewell. Reilly’s retirement party took place on May 13 at the law school. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Reilly).
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: June 27, 2014
She’s made her mark on The University of Akron School of Law as both an educator and administrator, but on June 30 Interim Dean Elizabeth Reilly will bid the institution farewell.
“I have been lucky enough to have a 30-year career at the university,” said Reilly, who also holds the title of C. Blake McDowell Jr. Professor of Law. “It is in my blood and hopefully I am a part of it, too.”
Born in South Bend, Indiana and raised in New Jersey, Reilly first set foot on the university’s campus as a law student in the fall of 1975. While she began her career in private practice at Whitaker & Reilly, she didn’t stay away long. Reilly returned to the school in 1980 as an adjunct professor of law. Four years later, she gave up her practice to become a full-time faculty member.
Over the years, she has worn many hats, including associate dean of academic affairs at the law school, vice provost for academic planning for The University of Akron Office of Academic Affairs and since 2012, interim dean at the law school.
She said one of her favorite roles was educator.
“I loved teaching torts,” she said. “Torts afforded me the opportunity to work with first-year students who were building a foundation for law.
“I was always able to make a connection with my students. In fact, I still stay in touch with many of them today.”
Among them, Judith Lancaster, who has a private practice in Canton where she serves as special counsel to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
Lancaster started law school in 1990 at age 50, and said she found Reilly to be very inspirational.
“She had such a great respect and love for her students and the law,” said Lancaster. “She was very demanding when it came to being prepared, but she was also very human, understanding and encouraging.
“She taught us by example that the law was a noble profession to be practiced honorably.”
Recent graduate Katherine Eppley took Reilly’s torts class in 2010.
“Having a strong female role model confirmed that I too could make an impact in the law, which is underrepresented by women,” said Eppley, an associate at Pearne & Gordon in Cleveland.
“Professor Reilly had one of the most incredible memories,” she said. “My class had about 50 students and she would always remember first names without having to look down at her notes. She really made her students feel like individuals and not just another number.”
Reilly said one of the perks of teaching was the opportunity it gave her to create her own curriculum. She crafted three courses, including feminist and race theory, sexual orientation and the law and lawyers as leaders.
“She was first and always a teacher,” said Scott Piepho, Reilly’s husband and a former political science adjunct professor at The University of Akron. “She made it a point to find ways to make complicated law understandable to her students.”
The two were introduced through a mutual friend, shortly after Piepho received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
“I didn’t know he had a law degree but we really clicked,” said Reilly.
“I learned a lot about teaching from her,” said Piepho, who writes the award-winning column “Cases and Controversies” for this newspaper. “I think the university got quite a gift from its former student who had the credentials to teach and then lead as an administrator.”
Reilly has received several teaching awards over the years. In 2004, the university named her Outstanding Teacher-Scholar and Ohio Magazine presented her with an Excellence in Education award.
At the time, she was also associate dean of academic affairs for the law school, a position she held from 1995 to 2009.
“I loved being associate dean because it allowed me to teach and help facilitate solutions to problems at the university and law school at the same time,” Reilly said.
“Liz and I became faculty members on the same day in 1984,” said C. Blake McDowell Jr., Professor of Law Wilson Huhn. “She was the only student in the history of the law school to have a 4.0 average before or since.
“She is a great scholar and has a steel trap mind and almost perfect memory. She writes about moral responsibility and having respect for the opinions of others, even if you don’t agree with them.”
One thing he said many people may not know about Reilly is that she has a “beautiful singing voice. I wrote programs and she sang 19th century music and spirituals about slavery.”
Huhn said Reilly used her talents as administrator to oversee the university during some difficult times.
“She was able to persuade the faculty that sacrifices had to be made, she was a real leader,” he said. “Her decisions have put the university on solid ground.”
As vice provost for academic planning at The University of Akron, Reilly worked to adopt and implement Vision 2020, which lays out major goals designed to make the institution a top choice for students. For example, the plan calls for an integrated student experience and increased investment in faculty, research, the campus and community by the year 2020, the 150th anniversary of the school.
After a year as vice provost, she threw her hat into the ring for interim law school dean, which she said she was “fortunate” to get.
During her tenure, Reilly played a key role at the university as a whole, serving as chair of the President's Commission on Equity and on numerous task forces for the president and provost, including the diversity committee, the RTP Task Force, the Academic Salary Affairs Task Force, the Program Review Task Force and the Institute for Teaching and Learning Advisory Committee.
While interim dean, she spearheaded the move to freeze law school tuition and eliminate the nonresident surcharge as well as revising the curriculum to include more experiential learning.
Over the years she has been a member of the Akron Bar Association’s board of trustees, the Ohio Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee and former chair of the Ohio Supreme Court Juvenile Rules Subcommittee. Reilly has served on the Ohio State Bar Association Council of Delegates, Juvenile Justice Section and Section on Women in the Profession Board of Governors.
She said she is very honored to have been among the first class of women to attend Princeton University, where she majored in English language and literature.
“It was a wonderful opportunity,” Reilly said. “Growing up in New Jersey I had always wanted to go there and I was lucky enough to be ready for college the year they decided to accept women.”
Looking back on her career, Reilly said some of her proudest accomplishments include having been instrumental in the creation and success of The Center for Intellectual Property Law and Technology and the Public Health Law & Science Center. Reilly also played a key role in the launch of the Innovation Practice Center, which begins next year, connecting multidisciplinary teams of students from the School of Law, College of Engineering, Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business Administration and College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.
“She dealt with a lot of fiscal constraints during her two years as interim dean,” said Piepho. “Her main goal was the long-term success of the school. She wanted to ensure the next dean’s success and I think she has definitely done that.”
“Dean Reilly truly is a remarkable individual,” said Luis M. Proenza, former president at The University of Akron. “She is a social pioneer, a legal scholar who has focused on juvenile justice and reproductive choice, an award-winning teacher, a skilled and versatile administrator and an active participant in professional and civic organizations at the local, state and national levels.
“She is exceptional, truly a wonder, and we are grateful that she has shared her time and talents with us for these many years.”
Reilly’s retirement party took place on May 13 at the law school. Although she may be leaving the institution, she has not decided what her next step will be.
She said she does plan to increase her volunteer work at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron, where she is district-wide youth leader for the Summer Institute Youth Panel. She will also focus on Leadership Akron N.E.X.T. (New Endeavors for Experienced Talent) and spend more time with her husband and daughters, Chloe and Naomi.
“Chloe will be a senior in high school, so not working will give me time to take her around to colleges, and my younger daughter will be in seventh grade, which is a good time to have extra involvement.”
Having more time for her children will also come in handy since Piepho has gone back to school, after being accepted into the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program.
“I am sure I will continue to contribute in the future,” said Reilly. “I plan to spend the next year exploring what opportunities might be a good fit.”