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Professor Tom Mayo, a nationally recognized authority on medical ethics, award-winning law professor, and community servant, has been named interim dean of ÃÛÌÒ½´Dedman School of Law. He will serve in that capacity beginning May 16 while a University committee conducts a national search to replace current Dean Jennifer Collins, who is leaving ÃÛÌÒ½´to become president of Rhodes College in Memphis on July 1.

“With nearly forty years of distinguished service to the law school and the university, most recently as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor Mayo brings a wealth of experience to this position,” said Elizabeth Loboa, ÃÛÌÒ½´provost and vice president for academic affairs. “In my conversations with law school constituents this spring to inform our search for a permanent dean, Tom was a natural fit for the interim. We are fortunate and grateful for his willingness to serve.”

Mayo is senior associate dean for Academic Affairs, Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor, and professor of law at the Dedman School of Law. In addition to his ÃÛÌÒ½´positions, he is an adjunct professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical School and previously served as director of SMU’s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. Mayo is a co-founder of the , the state's first pro bono legal clinic for persons with HIV/AIDS and terminal illnesses.

“It is, first and foremost, an honor to be asked to lead the school that has nourished and supported me academically and professionally for 38 years,” Mayo said. “This is also a moment for humility. We have a fantastically accomplished faculty, the strongest and most diverse student body ever, tremendous alumni, and a phenomenal staff. They are collectively the heart and soul of this school, and I look forward to working with them all.”

Before coming to ÃÛÌÒ½´in 1984, Mayo started his career as an associate with the Rochester, New York firm of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle (now ) after which he served as a law clerk to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then practiced with the Washington, D.C., firm of in the areas of antitrust, securities fraud, election law, and communications.

Mayo was a member of the Council of the Health Law Section of the State Bar of Texas for 23 years and is a founding Fellow and past board member of the , a Fellow in the , and a recipient of the Dallas County Medical Society’s Millard J. and Robert L. Heath Award for his contributions to medicine and leadership in Dallas County. He was elected to membership in the in 2012 and was the poetry columnist for the Dallas Morning News from 1998 to 2008.

Professor Mayo has taught a broad range of subjects during his tenure at Dedman Law, ranging from business torts to election law. He currently teaches Law & Medicine: Bioethics; Law & Medicine: Health Care; Law, Literature & Medicine; Legislation & Regulation, Public Health Law & Ethics, and Torts.

Mayo has received the law school's outstanding teacher award three times, as well as the University's outstanding volunteer award for community service, President's Associate Award as the outstanding member of the tenured faculty, and the University's Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Award. He has given hundreds of public lectures on health-law-related subjects and is frequently quoted in news stories, particularly on issues related to medical ethics.