Anthony E. Varona to serve two-year term as a Public Member of the independent federal agency that studies and recommends improvements to administrative procedures
Anthony E. Varona, dean of Seattle University School of Law and a national leader in driving innovation in legal education, has been appointed by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) to serve a two-year term as a Public Member, one of six new members who were announced on Wednesday. In this role, Varona will contribute to efforts that help to improve the efficiency, adequacy, and fairness of the procedures used by federal agencies to conduct regulatory programs, administer grants and benefits, protect the public interest, and perform other vital functions.
Since 1968, ACUS, an independent federal agency within the Executive branch, has issued hundreds of recommendations related to rulemaking, adjudication, and other administrative processes, many of which have resulted in reforms by federal agencies.
Varona will serve as one of 40 Public Members, who are academics at top law and other professional schools, prominent members of the practicing bar, administrative law or government scholars, and other nationally-renowned private-sector experts. The chair of ACUS selects Public Members “in a manner which will provide broad representation of the views of private citizens and utilize diverse experience.” All members, including Public Members, have opportunities to develop new areas for potential ACUS study and contribute ideas for future ACUS events and projects.
In addition to Public Members, ACUS membership consists of the chair (who is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate), 10 presidential appointees who serve as Council Members with the chair, and 50 Government Members, adding up to 101 members in all. The members meeting in plenary session constitutes the Assembly, which has authority to adopt recommendations for improving administrative procedure and adopt bylaws and regulations to carry out ACUS functions. Plenary sessions ordinarily take place twice a year, in June and December.
Varona, who was named Seattle U Law dean in 2022, has been a national leader in legal education and a longtime scholar and teacher in administrative and public law. Earlier this year, he was recognized as one of the 20 most influential figures in legal education by The National Jurist.
“I am deeply honored to serve as an ACUS Public Member and am eager to work with my ACUS colleagues in formulating and promoting enhancements to the positive impacts, reach, efficiency, fairness, and effectiveness of the American administrative state,” Varona said.
During his tenure so far, Varona has overseen the recruitment of the most diverse entering JD class in Seattle U Law’s history, which also was the strongest class academically (highest GPA and LSAT) in 13 years. He also led the greatest-ever expansion of graduate program enrollment at Seattle U Law and launched a new SJD Program; a new Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) Program; and a new Sports Law Program. He has recruited nationally prominent faculty and senior staff. He devised interventions designed to improve student academic and bar success and the overall student experience, launched a Dean’s Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation Series featuring nationally-renowned speakers, and oversaw various communications and intellectual life initiatives that have attracted national acclaim. Varona is an American Bar Foundation Fellow, and serves as co-chair of the Washington Supreme Court Bar Licensure Task Force and the Hispanic National Bar Association Task Force on Hispanic Law Professors and Deans.