MORGANTOWN – The West Virginia University College of Law soon will have a new leader.
Gregory Bowman is leaving the college to take the same job at the Roger Williams University School of Law in Rhode Island. WVU made the announcement April 13.
John E. Taylor will become interim dean July 1. He is the Jackson Kelly Professor at the college and is a First Amendment expert with extensive administrative experience at WVU. Taylor likely will remain as interim dean for the next academic year.
Taylor
“While we are sad to see Greg Bowman leave the University after his long tenure here, we wish him well in his new endeavor,” WVU Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maryanne Reed said. “We are confident that that Professor Taylor, a well-respected faculty member and administrator, will bring a steady hand to his leadership role and help propel the law school the forward.”
Taylor joined the College of Law faculty in 2002 and served as the college’s associate dean for academic affairs from 2010 to 2013 and again from 2014 to 2015. He has taught courses in constitutional law, criminal procedure, criminal law, torts, education law, and a seminar on the law of church and state.
Taylor writes primarily about First Amendment issues in the public schools. He was named Professor of the Year for the College of Law in 2017 and received the College of Law’s Significant Faculty Scholarship Award in 2006 for his article, “Using Suppression Hearing Testimony to Prove Good Faith Under United States v. Leon.”
Before joining the legal academy, Taylor clerked for the Honorable M. Blane Michael on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He holds a J.D. with highest honors and an A.B. with distinction from the University of North Carolina, as well as M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Religious Studies from Stanford University.
Reed praised Bowman for his service to WVU.
Bowman was appointed the William J. Maier Jr. Dean of the WVU College of Law in 2015. Before being named Interim Dean in July 2014, he served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. A nationally recognized scholar in international trade law and remedies, he joined the faculty in 2009.
Bowman is a native of West Virginia and a graduate of WVU (B.A., International Studies & Economics, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa). He also studied in Denmark as a Rotary Exchange Student and received his master’s degree in Economics (with distinction) from the University of Exeter, England, before receiving his J.D. cum laude from the Northwestern University School of Law.
Bowman received the Award for Outstanding Teaching from the WVU Foundation in 2014, and he was named “Professor of the Year” in 2011 by WVU Law students. He is the founding director of the College of Law’s Geneva Study Abroad Program.
Prior to his teaching career, Bowman practiced law in Chicago and Washington, D.C. with the international law firm of Baker McKenzie.
Reed said WVU plans to conduct a national search for a new William J. Maier Jr. Dean beginning in the fall of 2020.