School of Law dean to leave after five years of service

OCU School of Law Dean Jim Roth has announced his eventual departure from his position, beginning a nationwide search for the next dean.

“When I agreed to serve as dean in 2018, it was a five-year contract,” Jim Roth said. “My contract ends at the end of June in 2023, and I will be returning to the practice of law full-time.”

Roth stated his passion for law and public service began in his childhood.

“Yeah, so, where I think I first found my passion in public service came from conversations I had with my dad as a child,” Roth said. “I was just always curious in the news and really enjoyed nightly conversations about what was happening. I probably had an older soul than a kid would typically have.”

Roth recalled watching the Camp David Accords, the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, on his television in the late 70’s.

“To see history being made with such different perspectives of people who had been fighting for decades, if not centuries, come together and sign an agreement and shake hands, it captured my attention,” Roth said. “It was the law and policy in action but from a human perspective.”

Therefore, after graduating from OCU’s law school in 1994, Roth served as an attorney in Oklahoma county for eight years and then was elected as Oklahoma County Commissioner for two consecutive four-year terms, followed by an appointment from Governor Brad Henry to serve as the Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner.

“[Working as the Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner] sparked a new passion for me about energy law, so after I left public service after about 15 years, I began to practice in energy law,” Roth said. “What I love about that is that OCU gave me the tools to evolve my life and practice as the world changed.”

The impact of OCU on Roth’s life eventually brought him back to his alma mater in 2018 when he applied to serve as dean for the School of Law, he said.

“I felt inspired to come back and serve as dean because I genuinely recognize that OCU law changed the trajectory of my life for the better,” Roth said. “Allowing me an opportunity to chase a life in the law completely changed my options in life because OCU believed in me. It was a very easy thought to give back, and the opportunity to serve as dean was my expression of gratitude to OCU’s School of Law.”

As well as serving as dean, Roth is also a professor, teaching courses such as Animal Law and Renewable Energy Law.

“OCU [law] has had a long tradition of attracting practitioners in the law or judges and justices to come and serve as adjuncts in addition to our faculty,” Roth said. “I think that benefits our students because they get to hear real-world stories about how the law was applied from a practitioner’s perspective while also getting that hugely important doctrinal teaching from our full professors of law.”

As dean, Roth worked to create a student-centric environment within the law school.

“[It] is very important to me that students know we’re here because of them,” Roth said. “There’s really no purpose to call yourself a school if you’re not focused on the students. It was about fairness, equity, and encouragement. Making sure that who we admit that we also graduate, and we help get the license they want and then they get to chase the life they envision for themselves.”

Roth stated he pushed to work with students on the individual level, catering to their needs individually to create a community of connections.

“For me, my number one priority was to be a law school that cares about the individual student and made sure the school was focused on their needs,” Roth said. “I feel good about all that we have accomplished in the last 4.5 years because I do think we are walking that walk.”

In creating a safe environment for growth, the School of Law has doubled its counseling, done wellness programming, provided emergency financial relief funding from alumni for current students, and done a lot more in career placement, Roth said.

“One of the challenges for a law school is [making] sure that students who struggle know that they have a supportive community around them,” Roth said. “We’ve really tried to know the worry that a student has, and what we are doing to deploy resources around them so that they get more opportunities [and] sleep better at night. It really is wanting to identify the challenges for the student and make sure they’re not suffering in silence when they’re feeling stressed.”

The journey in creating a student-centric school has not been easy, Roth stated.

“The idea of being student-centric is something you have to recommit yourself to every day,” Roth said. “It feels palpable to me that this is a community. It feels like a stronger community than when I began. The faculty care, our staff care, and our students are engaged. [It] really feels harmonious.”

Along with creating a student-centric community, Roth has worked to stabilize the financial operations within the school.

“Even though it’s a school, it’s also a business,” Roth said. “The fact that we have business pro forma that is positive, meaning we’re not deficit spending we are only living within our means and paying as we go. That was important from a management standpoint.”

In addition to these accomplishments, Roth navigated the COVID-19 pandemic as dean.

“When you are honestly worried each day whether your community that you’re responsible for survives, it’s like a game changer,” Roth said. “My worry was whether they’re getting the full education they deserve and bringing people back throughout the pandemic [was obviously an] enormous challenge to do right.”

The faculty took this challenge head-on, though, dividing their classes and teaching their courses twice a day to split students into smaller groups, Roth stated.

“That I’m particularly proud of just because it was the community leaning in for each other and getting through the weirdest of circumstances,” Roth said. “That meant a lot to me. As the dean, I felt incredibly responsible for people’s survivability, and I wasn’t expecting that type of a requirement. It speaks to your soul.”

Roth remarked that this deeply interconnected, strong community is his favorite feature of OCU that he will miss the most.

“The way that the students, staff, and faculty all care for each other is very special here,” Roth said. “We all don’t think alike. We all don’t look alike. We all don’t love alike. But we are in this experience together at a level of common respect and mutuality that I am very proud to be a part of. It’s a beautiful thing.”

OCU will be in search of a new School of Law dean who will begin duties in July 2023.