Law Dean Emeritus Elected to College of Labor and Employment Lawyers

Photo Submitted

Cynthia Nance, dean emeritus and the Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas law professor Cynthia Nance will be inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers on Saturday, Nov. 3, in Atlanta, Ga. Election to the college is considered among the highest professional honors a labor and employment lawyer may achieve.

“Dean Nance is respected, and beloved, by the Arkansas and national legal communities,” said G. David Gearhart, chancellor of the University of Arkansas. “Her election by her peers to the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers reflects her standing in the bar and the academy. The university was fortunate to count on her leadership as dean from 2006 to 2011, and we are grateful for her continued commitment to excellence as a member of the law school faculty.”

Nance, dean emeritus of the U of A School of Law and the Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law, will be one of only nine lawyers in the state of Arkansas to serve as Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, a group that also includes Robert Moberly, law professor and dean emeritus. The college is represented by 1,200 members in 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and six provinces from Canada. Membership in the college is by nomination only and is limited to labor and employment lawyers with sustained, outstanding performance in the profession.

Election to the college is the latest of many national honors Nance has garnered this year, including the American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award for promoting a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession. A former chair of the American Association of Law Schools Labor and Employment Law and Employment Discrimination sections, Nance is a council member of the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section and represents the LEL Section in the ABA House of Delegates. She was recently appointed to the ABA Center on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, and is a member of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. Nance serves on the board of the National Association of Law Placement Foundation, is a member of the American Law Institute and serves on the Deans' Development Committee of the American Inns of Court and as a consultant to the Kettering Foundation Legal Education and Democracy Project. She is a member of the Law School Admission Council Board and serves as chair of its Finance and Legal Affairs Committee.

“Cyndi Nance’s tireless work on behalf of the ABA and so many others advances the national reputation and aspirations of the School of Law,” said Stacy L. Leeds, dean of the law school. “This honor recognizes what we already knew in the law school – that she is a national leader and expert in labor and employment law.”