Ex-Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke selected dean of Howard University Law School

Jet, Nov 4, 2002

Kurt Schmoke, the Harvard-trained lawyer elected the first Black mayor of Baltimore, recent]y was named dean of the Howard University School of Law.

Howard President H. Patrick Swygert announced the appointment of Schmoke, 52, who served three terms as mayor of Baltimore and will take over as head of the nation's best-known historically Black law school Jan. 1.

"It's very exciting. For me the biggest attraction was to become involved in work that helps to nurture the next generation of leaders," said Schmoke, who added that he will continue to live in Baltimore, where his wife is an eye doctor, and commute to Washington.

Schmoke graduated from Yale before going on to Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and Harvard University Law School, where he graduated in 1976. He joined the Baltimore law firm of Piper & Marbury.

He was chosen from "a large and highly competitive pool of applicants," according to Taylor, who said Schmoke's experience in public office was only one of his qualifications, pointing to his law practice and record as a board member at Yale University, Tuskegee University and other institutions of higher learning.

Since he left office in December 1999, Schmoke has practiced law at the firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Baltimore.

Schmoke replaces Alice Gresham Bullock, who is returning to teaching after five years as dean.