Patricia D. White
Dean and Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law
Trish White is the University of Miami School of Law’s eleventh dean. In her work in tax law, Trish has brought to bear a unique combination of practical experience and philosophical acuity. Her work in bioethics has schooled her in the complexities of contemporary medical institutions and practices and deepened her sense of the skills needed to do legal work in complex interdisciplinary settings. Her decade’s service as law school dean at Arizona State University has made her a nationally-recognized leader in legal education.
Trish was educated at the University of Michigan where she received degrees in philosophy and law (B.A. 1971, J.D. 1974, M.A. 1974). While attending law school, she was also a graduate student in philosophy, and an associate editor of the law review. In 1975 she began practice with Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, DC, and then moved to Caplin & Drysdale. Trish joined the Georgetown University Law Faculty in 1979, and in 1988 joined the University of Michigan. While at Michigan she was of counsel to several area law firms. During this period she also served for a year as Tax Advisor to the Economic Study Committee of Major League Baseball. In 1994 she joined the law faculty at the University of Utah, and was of counsel to Parsons, Behle & Latimer. Across her career, Trish has worked in the areas of tax law, the legal profession, torts, bioethics, philosophy of law, and trusts and estates, and has published in prominent law and bioethics journals.
In January 1999 she became Dean of the College of Law at Arizona State University. She was the first woman to serve as a law dean in Arizona, and served until July 2008 – the longest serving dean in the history of the College. Her leadership marked a transformative and innovative period for the ASU Law School. She is a member of the District of Columbia, Michigan, and Utah bars and is an elected Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel. Trish has won many awards, including the Judge Learned Hand Award for distinguished public service by the Arizona chapter of the American Jewish Committee.
