Gillian Lester was named as the 15th dean of Columbia Law School in New York City. She will take office on January 1, 2015. Currently she is the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law, the Mimi Wolfen Research Professor, and acting dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Professor Lester specializes in employment law and policy. She has been on the faculty at the Berkeley law school since 2006 and has served as the co-director of the Berkeley Center for Health, Economic, and Family Security. Before coming to Berkeley, she taught for 12 years at the School of Law of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Professor Lester is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and holds law degrees from Stanford University and the University of Toronto. She served as editor-in-chief of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review. She is the co-author of Jumping The Queue: An Inquiry Into The Legal Treatment Of Students With Disabilities (Harvard University Press, 1997) and the textbook Employment Law Cases and Materials (Lexis-Nexis, 5th edition, 2012).