USC law school faculty prefers law professor over longtime university board member

The search for a new dean for the University of South Carolina School of Law, a public institution that trains most of the state’s lawyers and future judges, has narrowed to two candidates.

The two finalists are longtime USC board of trustee member William Hubbard, a Columbia lawyer, and Joel Samuels, a current USC law school professor.

Of those two finalists, Samuels is the faculty’s first choice, according to minutes of a Monday meeting during which a vote was held. The written minutes were viewed by a State newspaper reporter. More than 45 faculty members attended the meeting, which was held by videoconference.

The margin of Samuels’ prevailing vote “was not large, but it was not small,” said one knowledgeable source.

Before designating Samuels as the first choice, the faculty took a vote on the then-remaining four candidates — Hubbard, Samuels, USC law school professor Susan Kuo and Michigan State University law professor David Thronson.

Hubbard and Samuels were the only two of the four candidates who garnered the necessary at least two-thirds majority votes to make the finalist category, according to four sources familiar with the faculty meeting.

At that meeting, the faculty also voted to award Hubbard tenure at the rank of full professor, should Hubbard be chosen as the law school’s next dean, the minutes said. It is tradition and an American Bar Association standard that a law school dean should be a member of the faculty with tenure.

Samuels, 48, who already has tenure, has won outstanding faculty awards for teaching excellence since joining the law school in 2007 and has numerous other academic and professional credentials, according to his resume. People who know him cite his energy and ability to handle numerous projects, which include a global initiative called the Rule of Law Collaborative, which he directs.

Hubbard, 68, has been in the USC Board of Trustees since 1986, and is considered by many to be an insider’s insider.

A former president of the American Bar Association, Hubbard in an interview with USC law school alumni last week stressed his connections as being an asset if he were chosen dean. His connections on the USC board of trustees, in the General Assembly and in the legal world can bring in a lot of money to the law school, which is suffering financially in multiple ways, Hubbard told the alumni.

Hubbard is a member of Nelson Mullins law firm. Among his clients is Santee Cooper, the state-owned electric utility targeted by lawsuits after abandoning, with its senior partner SCANA, a $10 billion nuclear construction project customers had been paying for in advance. From Jan. 1, 2017, through February of this year, Nelson Mullins made $11.2 million in fees from Santee Cooper, according to utility records.

The law school’s money woes include a $40 million debt on the institution’s $80 million new building, a small percentage of alumni who donate to the school and an annual tuition — approximately $24,000 — which many students have trouble paying. Increasing diversity among faculty and staff is another challenge that will face a new dean.

It is not known when a new dean will be picked. A USC spokesman said last week that the university’s provost will make the decision.

Also not known is the effect the law school’s faculty vote, choosing a preferred candidate, will have on the final dean decision. The law school faculty’s vote is advisory, knowledgeable sources said.

Last year, representatives of the USC Faculty Senate passed a vote of “no confidence” in then university presidential candidate Robert Caslen. But the Board of Trustees went on to pick Caslen, who was backed by Gov. Henry McMaster.

USC’s law school is a public institution. The State newspaper submitted a Freedom of Information request Wednesday to see the faculty meeting minutes. But so far, the university has not responded to the paper’s request. An informed source made the requested minutes available to The State.

This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 4:02 PM.