Professor and Emerita Chancellor and Dean Mary Kay Kane Honored as Recipient of the 2022 Robert J. Kutak Award
Mary Kay Kane
Emerita Chancellor & Dean and Distinguished Professor
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
San Francisco, CA
Professor Mary Kay Kane was born and raised in Detroit. She attended the University of Michigan where she received a B.A. degree in English and a J.D. in law in 1971. At the Law School, she was just one of nineteen women in a class of 425. Upon graduation, she became co-director of a national science foundation project on privacy and social science research data, spending one year at the University of Michigan and two years at Harvard Law School working on that project.
She began teaching in 1974 at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and came to the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1977. She served as Associate Academic Dean from 1980-82, as Acting Academic Dean during the 1987-88 academic year, as Academic Dean from 1990-93, as Dean from 1993-2006, and as Chancellor from 2000-2006. She was the first woman to serve as dean at the Law School. She also served as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, the University of Texas at Austin, and UC Berkeley School of Law.
Professor Kane's major area of interest was civil procedure. She wrote several articles and books in that field, including Civil Procedure in a Nutshell. She also co-authored a Hornbook on Civil Procedure, whose fifth edition was published in 2015, a Hornbook on the Law of Federal Courts, whose seventh edition was published in 2011, as well as the third and fourth editions of fourteen volumes of the national treatise, Federal Practice and Procedure. She also served as the Co-Reporter for the American Law Institute's Complex Litigation Project, developing proposals for handling multiparty, multiforum disputes in the federal and state courts.
In 2001, Professor Kane served as the President of the Association of American Law Schools. As one of the trail-blazing women in legal education, Mary Kay was honored in 2017 by being interviewed for the “Women in Legal Education Project,” sponsored by the American Association of Law Schools. She served as a member of the Council of the American Law Institute, member of the Standing Committee on Practice and Procedure of the United States Judicial Conference from 2000-2006, and as a member of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar from 2004-2010.
University of California, Hastings College of the Law Chancellor and Dean David L. Faigman shared the following remarks about Professor Kane: “Mary Kay was a rare combination of outstanding teacher, highly accomplished scholar, meticulous administrator, and inspirational leader. She was generous with her time for colleagues, for students, and for the profession. She dedicated her life to the legal profession and, more so, to the legal academy. In particular, she was dedicated to the success of UC Hastings as an institution and, moreover, to the individual success of every member of the UC Hastings community. She was truly the bedrock of what UC Hastings is and laid the foundation for all that we are destined to achieve.”
In nominating Professor Kane for the award, Section Chair Leo P. Martinez stated: “Mary Kay Kane left deep marks at Hastings, in the field of civil procedure, and in legal education – in each she was profoundly consequential. She embodied the spirit of the Kutak Award.”
Professor Kane, who passed away on June 3, 2021, due to complications from cancer, will be honored at an upcoming reception to be held in conjunction with the 2023 AALS Annual Meeting.
The Kutak Award is presented annually to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the collaboration of the legal academy, the bench, and the bar. The award was established in memory of Mr. Kutak, a respected Omaha lawyer, who was committed to legal reform and a strong advocate for legal education.