Dean Jenkins Appointed to Uniform Law Commission

Dean Garry W. Jenkins, who is also William S. Pattee Professor of Law at the Law School, has been appointed to the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), representing the state of Minnesota. Jenkins received his appointment from Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, which was made in consultation with Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea.

Established more than 125 years ago, the ULC seeks to provide well-researched and drafted legislation to bring clarity and stability to critical areas of statutory law across jurisdictions. The ULC is composed of about 350 commissioners appointed by each state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. All of its members are lawyers, who may also serve as legislators, judges, or legal scholars. Each is appointed to the Commission by the government of their respective state or territory. Commissioners donate their time as a pro bono public service.

Since its inception in 1892, the group has promulgated more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, the Uniform Partnership Act, and the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, former U.S. Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis, Wiley B. Rutledge, and David Souter, and former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, all served as uniform law commissioners. In being selected as a commissioner, Jenkins (the Law School’s 11th dean) becomes the fourth Minnesota Law dean to serve on the commission. Deans William S. Pattee (the Law School’s first dean from 1888-1911), Maynard E. Pirsig ’25 (the fourth dean from 1948-1955), and Bob Stein ’61 (the seventh dean from 1979-1994) served as ULC commissioners. Stein also served as president of the ULC’s national conference from 2009-2011.

Dean Jenkins’s academic research has been published in leading law reviews and interdisciplinary journals, including the North Carolina Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, among others. His scholarship has been honored for excellence in three different subfields: nonprofit law, global justice, and corporate law. He earned a B.A. from Haverford College, a M.P.P. from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

“I am delighted that Dean Jenkins has been appointed by the governor, attorney general and chief Justice as a Minnesota Commissioner on Uniform Laws,” said Stein, Everett Fraser Professor of Law at the Law School and a commissioner of ULC. “He will do an excellent job in working with Uniform Law Commissioners from all of the states to develop reforms in the law to meet the needs of a changing society.”