LAW SCHOOL DEAN, DAN KELLY
Dan Kelly , the newly appointed dean of the University of St. Thomas School of Law, recalls an early memory watching the Minnesota Twins defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1987 World Series. “My father and brother are both named ‘Tom Kelly,’” he says. “So, I thought it was cool that legendary Twins’ manager, Tom Kelly, had the same name.” Growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago, Kelly never imagined he’d one day live and work in the Twin Cities. However, he always knew a career as an educator was in his future.
the past three graduating classes. In 2023, the School of Law ranked in the top 100 of U.S. News and World Report’s national law school rankings for the first time. “The St. Thomas community is amazing and has a law school that has enormous potential for growth with a big and bold vision,” he says. “We need to think and dream big in terms of research, education and impact consistent with our mission.” Kelly is well situated to help the School of Law realize that vision. He has taught as a professor of law at Notre Dame Law School for the last 15 years, including three years as the Robert and Marion Short Scholar. He is a go-to expert on property law, law and economics and real estate. And his research, which has been published in top- ranked journals, covers a range of topics, from eminent domain and commercial real estate to trusts and fiduciary law. Kelly is also regarded for his visionary leadership as founding director of Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate. While leading the Fitzgerald Institute, he recruited esteemed faculty, launched new courses and an interdisciplinary minor, hosted academic conferences and industry events and helped to raise tens of millions of dollars in endowed funds. He engaged industry and nonprofit partners to elevate awareness of trends in real estate that are crucial to economic and social conditions across the globe.
importance of listening to and learning from those around him. That has become a large part of Kelly’s leadership style, and it’s one of the reasons he’s had a successful career trajectory.
“I come from a family of teachers and college professors,” he says.
His father was a history professor for 40 years at Governors State University in Illinois. His mother, an elementary school teacher before Kelly was born, later obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and became a professor of education. His brother, Tom, is a philosophy professor at Princeton. “Whether it was in my DNA since before I was born or a function of seeing the intellectual curiosity of my parents and brother, I think it was in the cards that I would become a professor,” says Kelly, whose appointment as dean begins July 1. Kelly arrives at St. Thomas during an exciting time, for the law school and the university. The law school remains a national leader in practical training, and its gold standard employment rate has been at or above 90 percent for
Dean Dan Kelly and his wife, Kate.
“While serving as the director of the Fitzgerald Institute, I had an opportunity to work with and learn from some of the top real estate people in the country—world-class investors, developers and lawyers,” Kelly says. “They have taken my interest in property law to a whole new level by introducing me to almost every facet of the real estate industry.” Ward Fitzgerald and his wife Kathy, who endowed the real estate program at Notre Dame, are among those who were most influential for Kelly. When they talked, he listened. And he learned.
In these roles, Kelly learned some valuable lessons about the
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