Liz Magill

Liz Magill
Born	Mary Elizabeth Magill 1966
Birthplace	Fargo, North Dakota, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Legal scholar, academic administrator
Title	Incoming Dean of Georgetown University Law Center
Known for	9th President of the University of Pennsylvania; 13th Dean of Stanford Law School
Education	University of Virginia (JD) Yale University (BA)
Awards	Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member, American Law Institute

Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Magill (born 1966) is an American legal scholar and academic administrator whose career has spanned some of the most prominent institutions in American higher education. She served as the ninth president of the University of Pennsylvania from July 2022 until her resignation in December 2023, a departure prompted by intense bipartisan criticism following her testimony before a U.S. congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. Prior to her tenure at Penn, Magill served as executive vice president and provost of the University of Virginia from 2019 to 2022, and as the thirteenth dean of Stanford Law School from 2012 to 2019. A specialist in administrative law and the structure of government, Magill has held faculty appointments at the University of Virginia School of Law and the University of Michigan Law School over the course of her academic career. In February 2026, Georgetown University announced that Magill would become the executive vice president and dean of Georgetown University Law Center, effective August 1, 2026.

Early Life

Liz Magill was born Mary Elizabeth Magill in 1966 in Fargo, North Dakota. Her father, Frank J. Magill, was an academic. Details about her childhood and family life beyond these facts are limited in published sources. Magill grew up in a household connected to academic life, a background that would foreshadow her own extensive career in legal scholarship and university administration.

Education

Magill earned her undergraduate degree from Yale University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts. She subsequently attended the University of Virginia School of Law, graduating with a Juris Doctor degree in 1995. Her legal education at Virginia would prove formative; she later returned to the institution as a faculty member and administrator, eventually rising to the position of provost.

Career

Early Academic Career and University of Virginia

Following her legal education, Magill pursued an academic career focused on administrative law and the separation of powers. She joined the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law, where she taught and conducted research in areas including administrative law, the structure of government, and regulatory policy. During her time at Virginia, Magill also served as vice dean of the law school, gaining significant experience in academic administration. Her scholarship during this period contributed to discussions of executive power, congressional delegation, and the structure of administrative agencies. She also held a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan Law School at another point in her career.

Dean of Stanford Law School (2012–2019)

In 2012, Magill was appointed the thirteenth dean of Stanford Law School, succeeding Larry Kramer. Her appointment was announced after a national search, and she became one of the few women to lead a top-ranked American law school at the time. In an interview with The Stanford Daily upon her appointment, Magill discussed her goals for the law school, which included strengthening clinical and experiential education and furthering interdisciplinary collaboration within the broader Stanford University community.

During her seven-year tenure as dean, Magill oversaw a period of development at Stanford Law School. She led efforts to expand the school's curriculum, bolster its faculty, and deepen connections between legal education and other disciplines such as technology, business, and the sciences—areas of particular relevance given Stanford's location in Silicon Valley. Her deanship was also marked by attention to student services and the school's clinical programs, which provided law students with practical legal experience.

Magill served as dean until 2019, when she was succeeded by Jennifer Martínez. Her time at Stanford established her reputation as an experienced leader in legal education and academic administration.

Provost of the University of Virginia (2019–2022)

In 2019, Magill was appointed executive vice president and provost of the University of Virginia, the university's chief academic officer. The role gave her broad oversight of the institution's academic programs, research initiatives, and faculty affairs. The provostship at Virginia represented a significant expansion of Magill's administrative responsibilities beyond a single professional school to encompass an entire research university. Her tenure as provost coincided with a period of substantial challenges in higher education, including the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced universities across the country to rapidly adapt teaching methods, manage campus health protocols, and address financial pressures.

Magill's leadership during this period at Virginia contributed to her visibility as a candidate for university presidencies. In 2022, she was recruited by the University of Pennsylvania to serve as its next president.

President of the University of Pennsylvania (2022–2023)

Appointment

In January 2022, the University of Pennsylvania announced that Magill had been nominated to serve as the institution's ninth president, succeeding Amy Gutmann, who had led Penn for nearly two decades before being nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as the United States Ambassador to Germany. Magill officially assumed the presidency on July 1, 2022. Her selection was the culmination of a months-long search process conducted by the university's board of trustees.

Upon taking office, Magill outlined priorities that included strengthening Penn's research enterprise, enhancing the student experience, and building on the university's connections across its various schools and centers.

Controversies Related to Antisemitism

Magill's presidency became engulfed in controversy in the fall of 2023, following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent events on college campuses across the United States. In October 2023, CNN reported on growing concerns about antisemitism at the University of Pennsylvania, including incidents related to a Palestinian literature festival that had been held on campus prior to the October 7 attack. The controversy intensified as critics accused the university's leadership of failing to adequately address antisemitic incidents on campus.

The fallout extended to the university's donor base. Several prominent donors and board members publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the university's response. The Hill reported that a major donor resigned from the university's board, citing concerns about antisemitism on campus. CNBC reported that prominent Wall Street figures were among those fueling what was described as an "Ivy League donor revolt" over the handling of antisemitism at Penn and other elite universities. Ross Stevens, a financier and Penn donor, wrote a letter threatening to pull a substantial donation from the university over its handling of the situation.

Congressional Testimony and Resignation

On December 5, 2023, Magill testified before the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce, alongside the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a hearing focused on antisemitism on college campuses. During pointed questioning by Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, Magill and the other university presidents were asked whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their institutions' codes of conduct. Magill's response, in which she stated that such speech would be "context-dependent" and could constitute harassment depending on the circumstances, drew immediate and intense backlash from lawmakers of both parties, university stakeholders, and the broader public.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported extensively on the fallout from the testimony, noting the depth of anger among Penn's alumni, donors, students, and faculty. CNN reported that Penn's board held an emergency meeting in the days following the hearing to discuss the crisis.

On December 9, 2023, Magill released a video statement in which she acknowledged that her testimony had been inadequate and stated unequivocally that calls for genocide constituted harassment. However, the statement did not quell the criticism. On December 12, 2023, Magill resigned as president of the University of Pennsylvania, having served approximately seventeen months in the role. She was succeeded on an interim basis by J. Larry Jameson, who had been serving as the university's provost.

Magill's resignation was part of a broader crisis in American higher education involving the response to antisemitism on college campuses. Harvard President Claudine Gay also resigned in January 2024 in the aftermath of similar controversies. The congressional hearing and its consequences prompted a national debate about free speech, university governance, and institutional responses to hate speech on campuses.

Appointment as Dean of Georgetown Law (2026)

On February 13, 2026, Georgetown University announced that Magill had been named executive vice president and dean of Georgetown University Law Center, effective August 1, 2026. The appointment was reported by multiple news outlets, including Politico, Inside Higher Ed, The Stanford Daily, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Hoya, Georgetown's student newspaper.

The appointment was notable given the circumstances of Magill's departure from the University of Pennsylvania just over two years earlier. Politico characterized the appointment as a return to prominence for Magill, describing it under the headline "She Resigned as Penn President After a Controversial Hearing. Now She's Back." Inside Higher Ed noted that the move came two years after her resignation from Penn and represented a return to legal education, the area in which she had spent the majority of her career.

At Georgetown Law, Magill will succeed William Treanor, with Joshua C. Teitelbaum having served as interim dean. She will assume the position of the seventeenth dean of Georgetown Law, one of the largest and most prominent law schools in the United States.

Personal Life

Public information about Magill's personal life is limited. She was born in Fargo, North Dakota, and has maintained a career centered in academic and legal institutions throughout her adult life. Her father, Frank J. Magill, had connections to the academic world.

Recognition

Magill has received recognition for her contributions to legal scholarship and academic leadership. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest and most prestigious honorary societies in the United States, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the arts, sciences, and public life. She is also a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), an organization that produces scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.

Her appointment to three deanship or presidential positions at major American universities—Stanford Law School, the University of Virginia (as provost), and the University of Pennsylvania—reflected her standing within the legal academy and broader higher education community prior to the events of December 2023. Her subsequent appointment as dean of Georgetown Law in 2026 indicated a degree of continued professional standing within legal education circles.

Legacy

Magill's career is notable both for her accomplishments in legal education and academic administration and for the circumstances of her departure from the University of Pennsylvania. Her seven-year tenure as dean of Stanford Law School represented one of the longer deanships at a top American law school in recent decades, and her subsequent appointment as provost of the University of Virginia demonstrated her capacity for institutional leadership at a broad scale.

The events surrounding her congressional testimony in December 2023 became a significant episode in the broader national conversation about antisemitism on college campuses, free speech in university settings, and the responsibilities of university presidents in addressing hate speech. The hearing at which Magill testified, along with the resignations that followed, prompted discussions about the pressures facing university leaders from donors, politicians, students, and the public, and raised questions about the intersection of legal frameworks for speech and moral expectations for institutional leaders.

Her appointment to Georgetown Law in 2026, more than two years after her resignation from Penn, was seen by commentators as a notable development in higher education leadership, illustrating the complex trajectories that can follow public controversies in academic life.