Liz Magill named Georgetown Law dean nearly three years after historic resignation from Penn

This story is developing and will continue to be updated. 

Almost three years after her unprecedented resignation from Penn’s presidency, Liz Magill is set to be the next dean of Georgetown University’s law school.

Magill — who served as Penn’s president through a turbulent era of campus protest — resigned in December 2023 after facing criticism over her response to allegations of antisemitism at the University. Her tenure at Georgetown is set to begin this August, according to a Friday announcement. 

Georgetown also named Magill the executive vice president of its law school. As of publication, Magill is still listed as a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, a position she has held since 2022. 

In a press release, Magill said she was “honored to join Georgetown Law.”

“As an academic leader, I have great admiration for the Law Center’s faculty, students’ and staff’s capacity to excel and contribute across a large range of endeavors connected to law — scholarship, practice, policy, national and global reach, education and service. The scale and impact of these many contributions is both remarkable and exciting,” Magill added in the Feb. 13 announcement.

“I extend my warmest congratulations to Liz Magill as she steps into her new role as Dean of Georgetown Law, and wish her every success as she begins this new chapter,” Penn Carey Law Dean Sophia Lee wrote to The Daily Pennsylvanian. 

Of the several university presidents who resigned following campus unrest fall 2023 — including at Penn, Harvard University, and Northwestern University — Magill is the first to return to a position of leadership in higher education.

Magill’s resignation from Penn came after mounting criticism over her remarks during a December 2023 congressional hearing on antisemitism on college campuses, where she testified alongside other university leaders.

When asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violated Penn’s code of conduct, Magill responded that such speech would be “context-dependent.” Her answer sparked a national outcry from donors, lawmakers, and members of the public.

“My testimony in Congress left people distressed, and it particularly did that for Jewish students back on the Penn campus,” Magill told Politico on Friday. “I take very seriously the response that people had to my testimony, and I regret that I conveyed a lack of compassion and care and good sense to those people.”

Earlier that fall, Magill also faced backlash after allowing the Palestine Writes Literature Festival to proceed on campus, which critics said included speakers with antisemitic views. She ultimately resigned from her role alongside then-Penn Board of Trustees Chair Scott Bok on Dec. 9, 2023.

“This is great news for Liz but even better news for Georgetown and the entire legal profession,” Bok wrote in a statement to the DP. “So many constitutional rights that we took for granted are now in question. At Georgetown she can play an important role both in important legal scholarship and in training the next generation of lawyers.”

Magill’s career in higher education spans multiple institutions. In addition to her Penn presidency, she has served as dean of Stanford Law School and provost of the University of Virginia. Nine months after resigning from Penn, she joined both Harvard University and the London School of Economics for research. 

In March 2025, she was appointed as a volunteer fellow at Branford College, one of Yale University’s residential colleges.

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