Dean of the University of Chicago Law School: 2010-2015
Biography
Michael H. Schill was born on September 30, 1958 in Schenectady, New York. A first-generation college student, he earned his AB in public policy summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1980 and his JD from Yale Law School in 1984. At Yale, Schill served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Schill clerked for the Honorable Marvin Katz of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1984-1985 and practiced real estate law with the firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in New York from 1985-1987.
Schill joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Wharton School in 1987, serving as an assistant professor of law until 1992 and Professor of Law and Real Estate until 1995. He then became Professor of Law and Urban Planning at the New York University School of Law and Wagner School of Public Service, as well as the director of the Furman Center on Real Estate and Urban Policy. Schill established the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at NYU in 2004. The Furman Center has since become one of the top research centers on housing and the built environment in the country.
That same year, Schill was named the dean of the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and held that position until 2009. The following year, he assumed the deanship of the University of Chicago Law School, where he was also the Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law. Schill served as dean of the Law School until 2015, at which point he became the President of the University of Oregon. In August 2022, Schill was announced as the 17th president of Northwestern University, set to begin him term in the Fall of 2022.
Schill was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011. He has sat on the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and formerly advised the Chicago Innovation Exchange and the Housing Preservation Compact of Chicago. Schill currently sits on the Board of Trustees of ITHAKA (the nonprofit parent of JSTOR), chairs the PAC-12 CEO group, and serves on the National Collegiate Athletic Association Board of Governors.