As chair of the Duke Law School's Dean Search Committee, Jim Cox thought he had a winning pitch to entice top candidates into the pool being considered to replace Dean Katharine Bartlett.

“I would tell them we had a terrific trajectory: 17 amazing hires over seven years, enormous strength in a number of different areas, and an incredibly vibrant intellectual life and energy that translates to a wonderful student culture that gets students involved,” says Cox, Brainerd Currie Professor of Law. His pitch got a “polite hearing” from Judge David Levi, Chief U.S. District Judge of the Eastern District of California. “He thanked me for the call and said, ‘I know [Professor] Sara Beale very well and think very highly of Duke. But I don’t have any interest in being dean of the Law School unless I am convinced that there is a commitment to excellence there. I want to see a commitment to making Duke one of the handful of schools at the very top level of legal education.’ The wooing really ensued at that point.”

It went on for several weeks before Levi formally joined the pool of what Cox calls “remarkably talented” candidates. In the meantime, the judge did his own “due diligence,” talking to law deans, colleagues on the bench who had Duke connections, and even with faculty. “I concluded that Duke Law School is in excellent shape – it has a distinguished faculty, effective leadership, a collegial atmosphere, an impressive student body that clearly loves the school, and loyal alumni who share that love. There is a palpable sense of excitement about the direction of the Law School.”

On Jan. 3, Duke University Provost Peter Lange announced that Levi would, indeed, become the next dean of Duke Law School, taking over from Dean Bartlett on July 1. Lange welcomed Levi as someone who can “enhance the distinctive identity of the Law School, developed so ably under Kate Bartlett’s leadership, as a place that recognizes the importance of aligning the very highest standards of legal scholarship with a real commitment to addressing challenges within the profession, and with making law school and law schools relevant to the changing world of legal practice.”

Reviewing Levi’s distinguished achievements in the law – president of the Stanford Law Review, Supreme Court clerk, U.S. attorney at age 35 and federal judge at age 39, and chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, to name just a few – Lange called Levi an intellectual “by background, commitment, and temperament.”

“Judge Levi is a person deeply committed to the development of legal scholarship and to the ways that research, developed in our universities, can better inform the legal process in the decisions made by both lawyers and judges. He is a person of forthrightness, perspective, and self confidence – and he has a great sense of humor, a quality we need in our leadership.”

Intelligence, humility, and humor are qualities mentioned repeatedly by colleagues and friends who have worked with Levi through the various stages of his career. “He has a wonderful sense of humor and a strong intellect,” says Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr., a colleague on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. “He is kindly to everyone who deals with him as a judge, in the clerk’s office, U.S. attorneys, members of the private bar. He carries himself with extraordinary humility in light of his intellectual gifts, which are remarkable. That combination of kindness, good humor, strong intellect – it’s a pretty great combination. Duke made a terrific choice, because he possesses the qualities you want in a dean to an extraordinary degree.”

Donald Ayer, a partner at Jones Day in Washington, D.C., and a former deputy U.S. attorney general and principal deputy U.S. solicitor general, has known Levi since 1981, when Ayer hired him as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of California, where Ayer was U.S. attorney. “David has a wonderful combination of intelligence and learning, coupled with an unpretentious manner,” says Ayer, who adds that Levi will be able to bridge academia and the practicing lawyer’s world in a way that will enhance both.

“For a number of reasons, David has a great interest in and feels a great affinity for the academic community. At the same time, he is well known and highly respected in the world of practice and among judges. His experience as a judge, including his work on the Rules and Standing Committees, means that he knows a lot of people. This combination, when joined with David’s manner and personality, is very promising for Duke. He will be looking for ways to find connections and maximize the opportunities for the Law School, for the students, and for the faculty, in a context where the public realm is far from irrelevant. I am excited for him and for Duke.”

For his part, Levi says the Law School’s “exceptional momentum” was a key factor in his decision to leave the bench. “It is a privilege to join a law school of the first rank that is imbued with a sense of optimism and purpose, within a university that places an emphasis on knowledge in the service of society,” he said on accepting the position. In a later interview, he reiterates the compelling qualities that he found at Duke: a commitment to excellence at all levels, an extraordinary sense of community, students who “really love” the institution, and loyal, engaged alumni. He freely admits, too, that after an extremely fulfilling career in public service, he has a sense of “coming home” with his move to Duke.

“I always expected and wanted to be associated with a great center of learning. I had spent the first nearly 30 years of my life in that setting – at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and Stanford – and the next 25 in a different kind of setting that I value very much. The opportunity to return to something that I love – to have been a part of the federal judiciary and also now to be part of a great law school – for me, it’s a dream come true.”