Dean Elizabeth Kronk Warner sits in her office at the College of Law, surrounded by shelves filled with books. She wears a beige blazer and a beaded employee badge lanyard, a nod to her Native heritage.
As the first woman and first Native American to serve as dean (she is a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), Kronk Warner is aware of her role as trailblazer and the expectations that come with that, especially now that five years have passed and she has been reappointed for another five years.
Navigating unprecedented challenges within the first five years
"When I started five years ago, I was very nervous to be the first female and racial minority as dean," she recalls. "But my experience has been very positive. Folks have been very warm and welcoming, and I feel like I've truly been integrated into the legal community. I enjoy spending time with lawyers here in Utah. It proved to be an unfounded worry."
Kronk Warner notes that she had about eight normal months when she started her tenure at Utah Law in 2019. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
"What was so challenging about COVID, this massive global pandemic, was that nobody had a playbook for it. Unlike these other more black-and-white or precedented problems where you can go to a mentor or ask for advice on how to handle the situation, there was nobody to go to," she says. "We were all kind of stumbling around in the dark. We worried that a student or staff or faculty member would die. It was very stressful."
Four years later, however, Kronk Warner notes that some positive changes have come from the turmoil she and the leadership team faced during that time.
"Prior to COVID, there was lots of hesitancy and concern about teaching law classes online and the ability to effectively instruct on ethics and character. COVID forced us to teach online, and we can do it successfully. It takes work and preparation, and we've done a great job of changing techniques to be really effective. Some faculty continue to teach remotely," she says. " We've definitely learned not to be scared of online education and that it's possible to provide good educational opportunities for students online."
The option of online instead of in-person work has benefitted College of Law staff as well.
"We are able to allow a lot of staff to work remotely. We use Zoom if we need to get in touch, and staff don't always have to be here. It's nice for folks to have a choice of where to work and what fits for them," she says. "The environmental aspects of having fewer people traveling are also a nice side benefit, from the Wallace Stegner Center's perspective. There have been silver linings."
Recognizing an exceptional faculty
In her experience at other law schools, Kronk Warner has found that faculty members tend to focus on either research or teaching and don't do both well. She says the opposite is true at Utah Law.
"I read the full-time faculty's teaching evaluations every year, and I continue to be impressed that they have exceptional evaluations and are really good teachers. That comes on top of being highly successful researchers," she says. "Being able to teach in the clinical space and skills space is really important, especially with the new generation of the bar exam. We want to continue to attract and hire faculty who are both excellent teachers and excellent researchers."
Achieving an all-time high law school ranking
One of Kronk Warner's biggest goals since becoming dean has been improving the S.J. Quinney College of Law's ranking on U.S. News and World Report's Best Law Schools list. In April 2024, Utah Law ranked no. 28 nationally and no. 11 among public law schools—the school's highest ranking ever. Utah Law also ranked third overall for first-time in-state bar exam passage and second overall for the lowest student-to-faculty ratio.
Kronk Warner says achieving the ranking was a coordinated team effort.
"Everyone at the College of Law had a role to play, from admissions helping students get here to development working to increase fundraising so we can increase scholarships and attract the best students, both in Utah and outside Utah. Our Career Development Office has done a fantastic job of getting folks jobs, and our bar passage team has worked hard to make sure that our students are passing the bar," she says. "Our faculty continue to do exceptional research so that our peer reputational score is high, and marketing and communications is doing a great job getting the word out so people know about the great things happening at the College of Law."
Supportive leadership has also made the high U.S. News ranking possible, Kronk Warner says.
"I credit University of Utah President Taylor Randall with an increase in College of Law funding. Last fiscal year, we raised $5.5 million, and the bulk was scholarship gifts," she explains. "Scholarships allow us to attract and retain talent. I'm thankful to the president and provost for their continued support of the College of Law."
Expanding learning opportunities and access for students
Since taking the helm at the College of Law, Kronk Warner has worked with staff and faculty to build clinical offerings, which now include the Environmental Justice Clinic, Environmental Policy Accelerator, International Law Clinic, Post-Conviction Clinic, and Refugee Law Clinic.
"When I started, we only had one clinic. This is a wonderful opportunity for members of our community in terms of current students having the chance to work with real clients and also being able to serve in the area," she says.
Kronk Warner also recognizes that law school can be a challenging time for many students and has made it a priority to ensure everyone feels they belong.
"We've done a lot of work in making sure we have a healthy environment where anyone can thrive. We expanded student affairs to make sure students are supported, and we also have an on-site mental health counselor," she says.
Because debt is a large source of concern for students, increasing law school scholarships has also been a priority.
"Last fall, 95 percent of the rising 2Ls received scholarships. That means that our students are able to pursue their legal education with less concern for financial debt. We have been able to substantially reduce that concern moving forward, decreasing students’ overall debt by over 15 percent," Kronk Warner says. "We want students to have financial help—not only to pursue their education but to assuage their mental burden. We hope our students can be mentally healthier and have the freedom, because of lower debt, to take the job they want to take. They don't have to pursue a career just to get a paycheck."
Looking forward to the next five years
Innovation is a top goal now that Kronk Warner has renewed her contract for another five years. The former head of non-JD programs, Anastasia Boyko, has moved into the brand-new chief innovation officer role and will be building an innovation center to facilitate increased access to justice and legal tech solutions.
"I think it's a position Anastasia is uniquely able to tackle because she has both JD and business experience. This is a new branching-out for the college," Kronk Warner says. "We're thinking about public and private partnerships that can lead towards legal tech innovation and access to justice solutions—and that allow us to think of new and creative ways to help the legal profession and the community. I'm very excited to see what she's going to accomplish in the future."
Expanding the one-year Master of Legal Studies program is also part of this goal, as is providing additional programmatic offerings, such as standalone credentialing courses in areas such as mediation.
"Utah is currently the only state that allows non-lawyers who meet certain requirements to take on certain types of legal work," Kronk Warner explains. "We have been working directly with community partners to see how the College of Law could fill this access-to-justice gap."
She is also excited about cross-campus collaboration, including work with the University of Utah's medical school.
"We have been able to do some really exciting things with other units across campus, especially through interdisciplinary work with the Center for Law and Biomedical Sciences (LABS) and Stegner Center," Kronk Warner says. "We have been looking at programs we can potentially partner with and have several colleges across campus as partners."
Another top goal is continuing to create an accessible law school and developing programming that will increase the likelihood that students of all backgrounds will attend.
"We have been doing more rural outreach and are interested in job development to help in areas where there are legal needs. Ultimately, we want to make sure that all of our students are thriving at the College of Law, and that legal education is accessible to all," Kronk Warner explains. "The dignity of students, faculty and staff is important, as is giving all Utahns access. We see ourselves providing valuable services to the community and helping where we are able to help."
Kronk Warner is also committed to improving the national reputation of the law school and seeing continued growth and excellence.
"I'll be sharing with the world what alumni and those of us who work here already know: This is an amazing law school, and the students and faculty are fantastic. I'll also be working on increasing fundraising to support faculty and students in the best way possible, and continuing to help faculty in their research and collaboration," she says. "President Randall’s goal is for us to become a top-10 public law school, so hopefully we will achieve that goal in the next five years."
Though her work remains challenging, Dean Kronk Warner says she has enjoyed leading the College of Law and, more broadly, being part of the university.
"I love the ambition of the University of Utah. I feel like we're scrappy. In a day and age where a lot of other universities are doom and gloom, it's a really exciting place to be," she says. "It's been a wonderful five years, and I still say that the College of Law is the best place to work. We have the best students, best staff, best faculty, and amazing alumni doing incredible things. There is so much to be proud of, and I feel blessed to be a part of it."