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DULUTH NATIVE TAKES HELM AT HAMLINE UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL
Duluth News-Tribune (MN) -
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Author: Steve Kuchera/News Tribune Staff Writer
A Duluth native has become dean of Hamline University's
School of Law.
Jon Garon , a 1981 graduate of East High School, became dean
at the St. Paul school July 1.
``I really welcome the opportunity to be back in Minnesota,'' Garon
, 39, said Tuesday. ``Hamline's a school that really is poised for national
recognition both in dispute resolution and in the training of lawyers.''
Hamline has about 550 law students. U.S. News & World Report earlier this
year ranked the school's dispute-resolution program fifth in the nation for
the sec- GARON ond year running.
Hamline selected Garon from about 40 candidates found in a
nationwide search for a new dean.
``We are confident his experience as a legal scholar and educator will
advance the law school's reputation and continue its tradition of preparing
highly qualified, ethical lawyers,'' Hamline University President Larry Osnes
said in a news release.
Garon 's first interest, however, wasn't the law. It was the
theater. While at East High School he was active in the theater department,
the Duluth Playhouse and the Spirit of the North Festival.
But as he neared the end of his undergraduate studies in theater and psychology
at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, he began looking at what he would
do after college.
``I decided I would rather have a profession than to go to New York as an
out-of-work actor waiting tables, so I decided to go to law school in New
York,'' he said. ``I just kind of kept going from there.''
Garon received his law degree from Columbia University
School of Law. He went on to become a professor and associate dean at Western
State University College of Law in Fullerton, Calif., where he was
responsible for the development and assessment of the school's academic
program, bar preparation and academic support.
Garon most recently taught for three years at Franklin
Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H.
``We're going to miss Jon -- he's been a linchpin of our intellectual
program,'' said Bill Hennessey, chairman of Franklin Pierce's intellectual
property graduate program.
Intellectual property law covers patents, trademarks and copyrights. U.S.
News & World Report has ranked Franklin Pierce's intellectual property
program among the top five in the nation.
Garon both taught and wrote in the area of copyright and
entertainment law while at Franklin Pierce.
``That's been an important part of our program,'' Hennessey said. ``We're
hoping we can stay up in the ranks of U.S. News & World Report without
him. He's very interested in getting things done. He's not the kind of a
person you have to ask to do something twice.''
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