An Extraordinary Era: Dean Johnson to step down after three terms, 16 years and countless accomplishments

After three terms and 16 years of service, Kevin R. Johnson will step down as dean of UC Davis School of Law.

 The longest-serving dean in the law school’s history and the nation’s third most senior current law dean, Johnson has led UC Davis Law since 2008. During that time, the law school has drawn countless accolades for inclusive excellence as Johnson enhanced his reputation as a leading voice on immigration law and greater equality in legal education and the justice system.

 UC Davis is in the midst of a nationwide search for Johnson’s replacement, with a goal of introducing a new dean in 2024. The Mabie-Apallas Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies, Johnson will return to the law faculty. 

Johnson joined UC Davis Law in 1989 and received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1993. A magnum cum laude graduate of Harvard Law, Johnson earned a B.A. in economics at UC Berkeley. He has published extensively on immigration law and civil rights, and his 1999 book How Did You Get to Be Mexican? A White/Brown Man’s Search for Identity, was nominated for a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. 

“Dean Johnson’s legacy at UC Davis is one of exemplary leadership, a deep commitment to diversity and a colleague who is admired by students and faculty alike,” UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May said. “His leadership propelled UC Davis Law to new levels of excellence and inclusion, and I’m thrilled that we will continue to benefit from his work as a faculty member.” 

Johnson has “been a leader in the California legal community for decades,” UC Davis Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Mary Croughan said. “I am sincerely grateful for his service to this campus and his steadfast commitment to making legal education more accessible to students from all backgrounds.” 

“It has been my absolute honor to lead UC Davis Law for three terms as dean,” Johnson said. “I am grateful to Chancellor May and Provost Croughan for their confidence in my leadership.” 

“I have drawn inspiration from our brilliant law faculty, remarkable students, and larger King Hall community. I tried to follow the example of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by pursuing equal access to justice and offering equal access to a great legal education.” 

Reaffirming King Hall’s founding commitment to racial justice, Johnson created UC Davis Law’s ongoing Racial Justice Speaker Series in 2020. Begun in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, the series draws top scholars and practitioners to explore systemic racism’s impact on every area of law. In 2022, PreLaw Magazine ranked UC Davis No. 3 among “Top Schools for Racial Justice.” 

Widespread Impact 

Johnson’s mission to keep doors to education open to all led to markedly greater diversity among UC Davis Law students. But his efforts extended past King Hall, to college pipeline programs and key University of California initiatives, including the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center. 

Created in 2014 and housed in King Hall, the center serves immigration-related needs of undocumented and immigrant students and their immediate family members at nine UC campuses.

“I worked with Dean Johnson on several initiatives during the years I served as UC President,” said Janet Napolitano, who led the University of California from 2013-2020 after serving as Secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama. “I always found him knowledgeable, insightful, and persuasive. The UC Immigrant Legal Services Center was a direct product of his efforts.

“He’s done a terrific job as the law school dean at Davis and will leave quite a legacy in his wake.”

 Influential in the Sacramento and California legal communities, Johnson led the board of Legal Services of Northern California for two decades. He was a vital advocate for Sergio Garcia, who in 2014 became the first undocumented immigrant allowed to practice law in California. Then-Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye authored the 7-0 state Supreme Court decision in Garcia’s favor.

 “Dean Johnson has been a brilliant leader of King Hall, indeed across the state,” said Cantil-Sakauye, a UC Davis Law alumna from the Class of 1984.  “He is not only a respected legal scholar, he is well-known and admired for his wisdom and judgment on contentious and critical statewide issues affecting the rule of law and law-related policy. As a result, when he expresses himself in writing or remarks, the legal profession and the judiciary listen.” 

“I have relied on Dean Johnson’s wise counsel, both as an attorney in private practice and as Governor Newsom’s Judicial Appointments Secretary,” said Luis Céspedes, a veteran Sacramento civil rights attorney appointed as Newsom’s advisor in 2020. “Dean Johnson continues to advocate for the appointment of judges with diverse professional backgrounds whose values are rooted in humility, empathy, intellectual curiosity, courage, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to public service. …  Through his leadership, UC Davis Law has educated and trained a significant number of judges and justices.” 

Under Johnson’s direction, UC Davis Law also established itself as a forerunner in faculty diversity. Johnson served as associate dean to late Dean Rex Perschbacher from 1998-2008, when efforts began in earnest to build what would become King Hall’s now longstanding “majority-minority” faculty. 

“The real incredible change that took place is the diversification of the faculty to where it is today,” Johnson said of King Hall DEI efforts. In his widely read 2016 Chronicle of Higher Education article “How and Why We Built a Majority-Minority Faculty,” Johnson explained a progressive hiring approach that de-emphasized some traditional preferred qualifications, such as U.S. Supreme Court clerkships, that few people of color had been given opportunities to attain. 

Commitment to Mentorship 

Johnson chaired the Association of American Law Schools’ Minority Groups Section and sits on the Hispanic National Bar Association task force addressing the dearth of Latinx law professors and deans. In 2023, Johnson received the AALS’ inaugural Michael A. Olivas Award for Outstanding Leadership in Diversity and Mentoring in the Legal Academy. 

Johnson’s effect on the academy is far-reaching, said Boston University School of Law Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig. The Olivas Award’s 2024 recipient, Onwuachi-Willig began her career in academia at UC Davis Law. 

“His impact extends to multiple generations and across many people,” Onwuachi-Willig said of Johnson. “To this day, much of the advice I share and give to my own mentees is advice Kevin once gave me. 

“I could not have had the career I have had without Kevin.  Kevin hired me. He taught me. He cited my work.  He read my work. He mentored and nurtured me. He sponsored me. And, he continues to do all of those things to this day.” 

The nation’s most-cited immigration law scholar, Johnson led the UC Davis Law faculty to several top-25 finishes in national “scholarly impact” rankings. King Hall’s intellectual centers also thrived under Johnson; he directs the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies with Professor Raquel Aldana, also his co-editor on a UC Press book series on critical race theory. Johnson helped create the Aoki Center, named for late UC Davis Law Professor Keith Aoki, Johnson’s colleague and friend. 

A longtime member of the American Law Institute, Johnson helped bolster the tally of current and emeriti King Hall faculty in the prestigious law reform organization to 26 -- among the highest percentages for any law school. 

Johnson champions faculty members, UC Davis Law Professor Irene Oritseweyinmi Joe said. 

“He makes every effort to go to everyone’s talks” at conferences, said Joe, the 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award recipient and a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow. “If he isn’t able to go, he will send an email saying he is thinking of you and follow up about how he heard you did great. I don’t know where he finds the time or the energy.” 

Joe recalled receiving unexpected pushback from an audience member while presenting at an Association of American Law Schools event. Post-talk, she ran into Johnson in the hallway as he made his usual rounds checking on UC Davis Law faculty. 

“I remember being so upset, and I told him everything,” Joe said. “And he just took me aside and said he understood why I was upset, and that it is something he had dealt with and something we all have to deal with at different points. Then he pulled in a friend of his who was also really well respected in the field to join and said, ‘You have had that experience, too, haven’t you?’ 

“It was really great, because here was another sort of giant saying, ‘Oh yes, I have been there! And it is going to be just fine.’” 

While it will be “sad to think about him not leading the law school in the formal way that he has for so long,” Joe said of Johnson, “I can’t imagine a world where who he is and his presence don’t in some way still guide this ship.” 

Outreach to Diverse Students 

Committed to pipeline programs for students from underrepresented communities, Johnson initiated the now 23-year-old King Hall Outreach Program, which has helped more than 600 college students prepare for the law school admissions process. More than 40% enrolled in law school, at UC Davis and elsewhere.  Johnson also sits on the advisory board of Cal LAW Pathways, a high school-and-up program that held its annual summit at King Hall in February. 

UC Davis Law’s current first-year class reflects Johnson’s diversity efforts: Students of color compose 61% of the class, women make up 63%, and 22% of students identify as LGBTQ+. In 2023, The Princeton Review deemed UC Davis Law No. 1 in the nation in “greatest resources for women.” 

California Assemblywoman and UC Davis Law alumna Esmeralda Soria ’11, whose farmworker parents immigrated from Mexico, said she chose to attend UC Davis Law in part because of Johnson, then newly appointed as dean.

“I knew what Dean Johnson had taught and the issues he was interested in,” Soria said. “I knew I wanted to be in an institution with the same values I have,” and where “I would not just be a number.”

She and other La Raza (now Latinx) Law Students Association members found an ally in Johnson, Soria said: “He always supported our every effort. That was very, very impactful in making us feel like we belonged at the university.”

In 2017, the law school formalized its mentorship commitment to first-generation students by creating First Generation Advocates, which pairs students with faculty mentors. Within the past four years, Johnson also formed a DEI committee of students, faculty, staff and alumni and added Director of Diversity and Student Life Alexis Elston’s position to the staff. 

Johnson has been one of First Generation Advocates’ most active mentors. 

“Dean Johnson presented me with opportunities and supported anything I wanted to do,” said Alan Gonzalez ’25, one of Johnson’s FGA mentees. “This made me feel very secure and confident even though I did not have many other resources.” 

Gonzalez also benefitted from Johnson’s King Hall-famous quick email and text response times: “If I have a question, he literally gets back to me in less than an hour.”

Robust support for scholarships also helped UC Davis Law attract more students from all backgrounds. Under Johnson, annual fundraising totals spiked from around $200,000 to $3 million. Johnson also oversaw the completion of King Hall’s $30 million renovation and expansion, a project that began under Perschbacher. 

“You hope to change -- or at least impact -- one life at a time,” Johnson said. “And many people’s lives have been changed by our outreach programs, or by attending King Hall. The hope is, of course, that it will eventually add up to even greater change.”