Prof. Manoj Viswanathan will serve as interim provost & academic dean in 2027

As interim provost & academic dean, Professor Manoj Viswanathan will lead UC Law SF’s academic program, including its faculty, curriculum, centers, and support for a rich student experience.

• Professor Manoj Viswanathan will serve as UC Law SF’s interim provost & academic dean starting in January 2027.
• An award-winning teacher and scholar, he aims to build on the strong foundation established by outgoing Provost & Academic Dean Morris Ratner.
• He discusses the opportunities and challenges facing legal education, including the impact of artificial intelligence.

After more than a decade of teaching, scholarship, and service at UC Law San Francisco, Professor Manoj Viswanathan is preparing to take on one of the College’s most important roles.

Starting in January 2027, Viswanathan will serve as interim provost & academic dean, succeeding outgoing Provost & Academic Dean Morris Ratner. As the College’s chief academic officer, he will oversee the academic program, including faculty, centers, curriculum, student-facing departments, and the student experience from orientation through post-graduate bar preparation.

Since joining the faculty in 2015, Viswanathan has helped shape the College’s academic offerings by co-founding the Center on Tax Law, creating or co-creating experiential tax law courses such as the Business Tax Practicum and Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, and publishing influential scholarship on tax policy, inequality and economic mobility. An award-winning teacher who has been named the Joseph W. Cotchett ’64 Professor of Law, he now brings that experience to a leadership role focused on guiding the College’s academic mission.

Viswanathan shares his top priorities for the role and his vision for the future of academics at UC Law SF.

What excites you most about stepping into this role?

As a regular faculty member, it’s hard to stay on top of all the amazing things my colleagues are doing. As provost & academic dean, acquiring this institutional knowledge is part of the job. I’m very much looking forward to learning more about how the pieces of our institution fit together.

What are your top priorities?

Morris Ratner’s excellence as provost & academic dean cannot be overstated. During his tenure he did a stunning amount of behind-the-scenes work to lay a foundation that will benefit not only me, but future provosts for years to come. My first priority is to maintain the infrastructure that Dean Ratner built and ensure that things continue to run smoothly. My other main priority is to ensure that UC Law remains a place where faculty, students, and staff can thrive.

What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities ahead?

The future of legal education is always in flux, but artificial intelligence might pose the biggest challenge the field has ever experienced. It presents both an amazing opportunity for teaching and the practice of law, but also has the potential to negatively disrupt the field. That said, UC Law has spent a lot of time considering these issues and is well-positioned to navigate these challenges.

What is your vision for the future of academics at UC Law SF?

I want our students to not just pass the bar and get a job, but to also enjoy the time they spend at UC Law. We should strive to maintain a collegial, welcoming environment without compromising the academic rigor and formal legal training for which UC Law is known.