After a nationwide search, West Virginia University has identified six candidates for the dean of the College of Law. Each will visit the campus during February to meet with various constituency groups as the search enters the next phase.

The candidates are: Marion G. Crain of the University of North Carolina School of Law; Mary J. Davis of the University of Kentucky College of Law; H. Marshall Jarrett of the U.S. Department of Justice; Joyce E. McConnell of the WVU College of Law; Alfred Dennis Mathewson of the University of New Mexico School of Law; and Thomas B. Metzloff of the Duke University Law School.

The level of national interest in the position and ensuing caliber of applicants has resulted in an impressive selection of candidates,said Alex Macia, chair of the search committee and WVU vice president of legal affairs.We look forward to presenting each of these candidates to the faculty, staff, students and the legal community in the coming weeks.

WVU began the search for a new dean in September after John W. Fisher II announced his intention to step down from the post at the end of the 2007-08 academic year. The 17-member search committee is comprised of WVU faculty, administrators and a law student in addition to several members of the state bar.

Brief bios of the finalists are below:

Marion G. Crain was appointed the Paul Eaton Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1995. She is the director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, and she has also served as deputy director and associate dean for faculty research and development at the university.

Crain has been a visiting professor of law at several institutions. She was a member of the WVU law faculty from 1986-91 and was named the WVU College of Law Professor of the Year in 1988.

She earned a bachelors in social work from Cornell University in 1980 and juris doctor degree from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law in 1983.

Mary J. Davis has taught at the University of Kentucky College of Law since 1991, becoming the Stites and Harbison Professor of Law in 1999. She was awarded the colleges Robert M. and Joanne K. Duncan Outstanding Teacher Award in 1998.

Davis is a visiting professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law. She has also been a visiting professor of law at Boston College, Wake Forest University and the College of William and Mary.

Davis earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Virginia in 1979 and juris doctor degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 1985.

H. Marshall Jarrett has served in the U.S. Justice Department as counsel for professional responsibility since 1998 and associate deputy attorney general for one year prior to that. From 1988-97 he was assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the Criminal Division in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. He also served in the Justice Department from 1980-88 as a trial attorney, assistant chief and deputy chief in the Public Integrity Section.

Jarrett has been honored as a career member of the Senior Executive Service. In addition, he received the Edmund J. Randolph Award for outstanding service to the Department of Justice and the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Service.

Jarrett received his bachelors degree in finance from WVU in 1966 and juris doctor degree from the WVU College of Law in 1969. In 1979, he graduated from the Federal Executive Institute in Charlotte, Va.

Joyce E. McConnell is associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law in the WVU College of Law. She joined the law school in 1995 and has been a visiting professor at the University of Maryland and City University of New York.

She has twice received the West Virginia Law Review Outstanding Faculty Contribution Award and has also been awarded WVU s Mary Catherine Buswell Award and the WVU Womens Law Caucus Award.

McConnell received her bachelors degree from Evergreen State College in 1979, a juris doctor degree from the Antioch School of Law in 1982 and Master of Law from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1990.

Alfred Dennis Mathewson has taught at the University of New Mexico School of Law since 1983. He is the Dickason Professor and has also served as the schools associate dean for academic affairs.

Mathewson has been a visiting professor of law at St. Johns University and the University of Colorado. He was also in private practice for several years.

Mathewson received a bachelors degree from Howard University in 1975 and a juris doctor degree from Yale University in 1978.

Thomas B. Metzloff has taught at the Duke University School of Law since 1985. He has also served as senior associate dean for academic affairs and was a recipient of the schools Distinguished Teacher award in 1990.

He has been a visiting professor of law at the University of Alabama. While in private practice, he was an adjunct faculty member at the Emory University School of Law.

In addition, Metzloff was a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White and Judge Robert Ainsworth Jr., 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Metzloff received a bachelors degree from Yale College in 1976 and a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1979.