We are thrilled to have Dean Anthony Varona from Seattle University School of Law presenting the keynote address at this year’s Breakfast for Justice!
Read Dean Varona’s bio:
Anthony E. Varona has served as dean of Seattle University School of Law since July 2022. During his tenure he has overseen the recruitment of the most diverse entering class in the law school’s history, which also is the academically strongest class in nearly 15 years. He led the greatest expansion ever of graduate program enrollment, recruited top faculty and staff leaders, conceived a new Hybrid Hubs initiative to serve legal deserts in the Pacific Northwest, launched new international and SJD programs, and new programs in sports law and technology, innovation law, and ethics.
He served as the co-chair of the Washington Supreme Court Bar Licensure Task Force, whose recommendations in favor of alternative pathways to licensure were adopted by the Supreme Court in early 2024. Varona was named one of the 20 most influential leaders in legal education by National Jurist in 2024, and Seattle U Law was named one of the most innovative law schools in the nation in 2023. Dean Varona is the first Hispanic/Latinx dean of any law school in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He serves on the Association of American Law Schools Membership Review Committee, as Co-Chair of the National Hispanic Bar Association’s Task Force on Law Professors and Deans, and has served on various national boards of directors, including those associated with the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and the Stonewall National Museum and Archives.
Dean Varona is an award-winning scholar and teacher, and before entering the legal academy served as the first national General Counsel and Legal Director for the Human Rights Campaign, and as an associate at Skadden Arps and Mintz Levin. He holds an AB and JD from Boston College and an LLM from Georgetown.
