News Archive

IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law Professor Eric Dannenmaier has accepted an offer to become the dean of the Northern Illinois University College of Law.

The founding director of the Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Law Program at IU McKinney, Professor Dannenmaier also serves as director of the J.D. graduate certificate programs and teaches law classes in property, natural resources, water law and the Constitution.

Lisa Freeman, executive vice president and provost at NIU, is excited to welcome Dannenmaier to NIU. “Eric Dannenmaier is well-positioned to work with students, faculty and staff to enhance the reach and reputation of NIU’s law school,” Freeman said. “His reputation as a collaborative, interdisciplinary scholar has led to a number of prestigious non-academic leadership roles, including an appointment by President Obama to the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation.”

“I’m very happy for Eric, and the NIU Law community should know that they are getting a talented and energetic leader,” said IU McKinney School of Law Dean Andy Klein.  “We’ll surely miss him here, and we are grateful for all that he’s done to serve our students and our school.”

“I am looking forward to this new professional challenge,” Dannenmaier said, “but I leave IU McKinney with a sense that I am somehow leaving home. It has been my privilege to be part of an exceptional group of professors and professionals who inspire and prepare the next generation of lawyers and leaders.” Dannenmaier added that “the students I have worked with, most now alums of the law school, are incomparable. I am proud to have been a part of their education and intellectual growth, and I am assured that the future will be more secure, more positive, and more just, anywhere that they choose to serve.”

Beyond his career in higher education, Dannenmaier’s professional experience includes private practice as an environmental attorney and a litigator in the Boston office of Chicago-based law firm McDermott, Will & Emery and in the Washington, D.C. office of St. Louis-based law firm Bryan Cave.