Dean Emerita Nance Elected Treasurer of College of Labor and Employment Lawyers

University Relations

Dean Emerita Cynthia Nance

Cynthia Nance, dean emerita and the Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law at the U of A School of Law, was elected treasurer of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. She is the first woman of color to serve as an officer of the college.

Officers of the college are elected from the membership of the Board of Governors to act in one of four capacities —president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer — serving one year in each of those capacities.

"Professor Nance continues to be a trailblazer," said School of Law interim Dean Alena Allen. "She is incredibly deserving of this honor, and her selection recognizes the tremendous breadth of her contributions to labor and employment field."

The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers is a non-profit professional association honoring the leading lawyers nationwide in the practice of labor and employment law. Nance was inducted as a Fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers in 2012. Election to the college is considered among the highest professional honors a labor and employment lawyer may achieve.

"The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers is a distinguished body of labor and employment law practitioners, academicians and neutrals," Nance said. "I am excited to be an officer of the college and feel especially honored to serve on the office alongside three outstanding women."

Nance joined the U of A School of Law faculty in 1994 as an assistant professor and served as the dean from 2006 to 2011. Her teaching and scholarship focus on labor and employment law, workplace legislation, poverty law and Lawyers as Leaders, and she was the law school's first director of pro bono and community engagement.

Nance's articles appear in journals including the Iowa Law Review, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Rutgers Law Review and Brandeis Law Review. She has given presentations on various legal and educational issues nationally as well as in Mexico, Brunei, Singapore and Ukraine. She served as keynote speaker for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas' inaugural Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration.

She is the former Eighth Circuit member of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary and represents the ABA Labor and Employment Law Section in the House of Delegates. She is also an elected member of the American Law Institute and the Labor Law Group and serves on the Arkansas Public Broadcasting Commission and the Arkansas Advisory Committee to the United States Civil Rights Commission.

Nance is chair of the American Bar Foundation Fellows and serves on the Arkansas Bar Foundation Trust Committee. 

She has received various awards for her outstanding service, including the Richard S. Arnold Award for Distinguished Service in the Western District of Arkansas by the Eighth Circuit Bar Association, American Bar Association Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, Arthur A. Fletcher Award of the American Association for Affirmative Action, the American Bar Association Spirit of Excellence Award, Arkansas Bar Association Outstanding Lawyer-Citizen Award, the University of Iowa Hancher-Finkbine Alumni Medallion 2021 and the University of Arkansas Faculty Distinguished Achievement Award in Public Service.

About the School of Law: The law school offers a competitive J.D. as well as an advanced LL.M. program, which are taught by nationally recognized faculty. The school offers unique opportunities for students to participate in pro bono work, externships, live client clinics, competitions, and food and agriculture initiatives. The school strives to identify, discuss, and challenge issues of race, color, ethnicity, and the impact(s) they have on students, faculty, and staff members in an effort to achieve a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community. From admitting the Six Pioneers who were the first African American students to attend law school in the South without a court order to graduating governors, judges, prosecutors, and faculty who went on to become President of the United States and Secretary of State, the law school has a rich history and culture. Follows us at @uarklaw.