The University of Illinois College of Law has named Vikram Amar as the new dean. 

The appointment of the former Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the University of California at Davis School of Law was announced in a University press release Monday. 

Pending the approval of the U of I Board of Trustees, which will be meeting in Chicago on July 23, Amar will be the 13th dean. He will be replacing Bruce Smith, who was the Dean from 2009 to 2014 until he stepped down to join the faculty.

Amar’s studies in the past were focused on constitutional law, criminal and civil procedures, and remedies. He graduated from Yale with a law degree in 1988, and has some impressive accomplishments since.

He published a book in 2009 titled “Freedom of Speech: The First Amendment, Its Constitutional History and Contemporary Debate” and is also a co-author of “Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials.” Amar also practiced law from 1990 to 1993 at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, with a focus on federal white-collar criminal defense and civil litigation.