Portrait of Joel Seligman (circa 1995-1999).
Arizona Law Deans Portrait Collection. Digitized by: Daniel F. Cracchiolo Law Library, James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona, Special Collections.
DEAN JOEL SELIGMAN: 1995-1999
Before Arizona Law
Joel Seligman is the son of Muriel and Selig J. Seligman, a Harvard Law graduate and a former executive in the film industry.[1] Seligman grew up with four siblings in a house that loved music, often listening to opera at high decibels.[2]
Seligman initially attended the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to finish his undergraduate degree after his father’s untimely passing in 1969.[3] In 1971, he completed his bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude at UCLA and was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa Society.[4]He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School with his juris doctor in 1974.[5]
Seligman started his collegiate schooling with the thoughts of joining the film industry and even co-produced a professional play, Feiffer’s People.[6] Instead, upon graduation from Harvard Law, Seligman chose to work for the political activist Ralph Nader.[7] During his time with Nader, Seligman focused on federal corporation law and was interested in writing about the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).[8] During this period, Seligman wrote two books: Constitutionalizing the Corporation: The Case for the Federal Chartering of Giant Corporations, [9] and The High Citadel: The Influence of Harvard Law School.[10]
After Seligman’s three years with Nader, he was hired by Northeastern Law School as a visiting professor to teach securities and corporation regulations.[11] Seligman’s one year position at Northeastern Law turned into a tenure-track professorship, and he taught for five years while authoring two more books about the SEC.[12] Seligman went on to teach at George Washington University and University of Michigan law schools from 1983-1995.[13] He also served as a consultant to several agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Transportation, and the Office of Technology Assessment.[14]
Tenure as Dean
Joel Seligman photographed with the Arizona Supreme Court at the University of Arizona College of Law (November 1998).
20 (1) Univ. of Ariz. L. Record 16 (Fall 1998).
Seligman was appointed as dean of Arizona Law in 1995.[15] Seligman was involved in various organizations while at Arizona Law, such as such as Arizona State Bar Board of Governors, the University of Arizona Foundation Board of Directors, and the North American Securities Administrators Association.[16]
Seligman recalled learning how to fundraise and ended up connecting with Jim Rogers, Arizona Law’s namesake, who donated $115 million to the College of Law and $15 million to the University of Arizona during Seligman’s deanship.[17] Roger’s donation was one of the largest gifts any US law school had received in the 1990s.[18] Seligman also learned the importance of building strategic plans and engaging team members to achieve common goals.[19] Under his leadership, the College of Law was refurbished and expanded in 1996, adding faculty offices and seminar rooms, and updating classrooms.[20] Seligman served as dean until 1999 and was named the Samuel M. Fegtly Professor of Law.[21]
Retirement and Beyond
Joel Seligman at Washington University in St. Louis (circa 2005).
Joe Angeles, Washington University in St. Louis.
Seligman went on to have an accomplished career in academia, but not without challenges. After Arizona Law, Seligman was appointed dean of the Washington School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri, and remained there for about five years.[22] In 2005, he was chosen as the president and chief executive officer of the University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York.[23] He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2007 and received treatment.[24] From 2011 to 2016, the University of Rochester campaigned and raised over $1.37 billion under Seligman’s lead.[25] During this time he faced cancer again, which had to be removed from his right lung.[26] He stepped down in 2018 after serving the university for thirteen years.[27]
Seligman has been affiliated with many professional organizations and committees, including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Advisory Committee for the American Law Institute Corporate Governance Project, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Upstate New York Regional Advisory Board.[28]
He has authored and co-authored over 11 books and 50 articles.[29] Seligman is currently a professor of law at Washington University-St. Louis Law, where he has been teaching since 2020.[30] He is married to Mary Schwab Seligman, a psychiatrist and visiting professor at Washington University.[31] Seligman shares two children, Yaari and Peter, with his former spouse, Friederike.[32]
-- Tanya Furlong (’26)
[1] Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at x-xvi.
[2] Id. at xi.
[3] Id. at xv.
[4] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s Curriculum Vitae (CV) (December 2020), at 1.
[5] Univ. of Rochester, Office of the President, About Joel Seligman; See also Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years, (2021), at xvi.
[6] Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at xvi.
[7] Id. at xi.
[8] Id. at xvii.
[9] Joel Seligman, Ralph Nader and Mark Green, Constitutionalizing the Corporation: The Case for the Federal Chartering of Giant Corporations (Corporate Accountability Research Group, 1976).
[10] Joel Seligman, The High Citadel: The Influence of Harvard Law School (Houghton Mifflin, 1978). See also, Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s CV (December 2020), at 3.
[11] Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at xvii - xviii.
[12] Id.
[13] Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at xix. See also, Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s CV (December 2020), at 2.
[14] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s CV (December 2020), at 2.
[15] Id. at 1.
[16] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Faculty and Staff, Joel Seligman, Professor of Law.
[17] Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at xix.
[18] Univ. of Ariz., Letter of the Law, June 18, 2014.
[19] Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at xix.
[20] Univ. of Ariz., Construction and Refurbishment Update, Univ. of Ariz. L. Record 18(1) 12-14 (Fall 1996).
[21] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s CV (December 2020), at 1.
[22]Id. See also, Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at xx.
[23] Univ. of Rochester, Office of the President, About Joel Seligman.
[24] James Goodman, Seligman leading UR's evolution, Democrat & Chron., 2015.
[25] Id.
[26] Id.
[27] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s CV (December 2020), at 1. See also, Joel Seligman, 12 Great Years (2021), at 308.
[28] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Faculty and Staff, Joel Seligman, Professor of Law.
[29] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s CV (December 2020), at 3-5. See also, Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Univ. Libraries, Open Scholarship, Joel Seligman.
[30] Washington Univ. in St. Louis, Joel Seligman’s CV (December 2020), at 1.
[31] Justin Murphy, Memoir recounts ‘magic' of Joel Seligman years at UR, and the scandal
that ended it, Democrat & Chron., 2022.
[32] Betsy Rogers, Noted Legal Scholar Joel Seligman Brings His Talents as An Academic
Administrator To Rochester as The University’s 10th President, Rochester Rev., 2005. See also, Northwestern Univ., Prog. of African Studies News and Events, Community News (2020), at 10.