Jamaica-born Troy McKenzie has been selected as the new dean of the New York Law School, becoming the school’s first Black dean and the first Jamaican to be appointed to the post.
McKenzie, who has been a professor of law at the school since 2007, officially took up the position on June 1. He succeeded Trevor Morrison, who stepped down from the deanship on May 31 after nine years.
In announcing McKenzie’s appointment, NYU President, Andrew Hamilton said, “[Troy] is widely admired for his good judgment, his equanimity, his respectful treatment of colleagues, his wide-ranging scholarly interests and support of colleagues, his readiness to mentor and support students, his dedication and work ethic, and his manifest love of the school.”
Hamilton said McKenzie is “highly respected” and considered a great asset.
“He has compiled a great record of achievement and exceptional service within the field, the profession, and the University. He is, in short, an outstanding choice to lead NYU’s School of Law, one of the finest law schools in the world,” he added.
McKenzie said NYU Law became his home when he was admitted as a student 25 years ago, and he is “profoundly honored to serve in this role.”
“The law school has been in excellent hands during Dean Morrison’s nine years at the helm. Thanks to his tremendous work, the law school is on a very positive trajectory, and I am excited to build on that. I look forward to engaging with the entire community to realize the extraordinary potential of the law school,” he said of his appointment.
McKenzie was born in Jamaica and moved to the United States at age five with his family. He grew up in Irvington, New Jersey.
In 1993, he entered Princeton University, where he received a degree in chemical engineering. According to McKenzie, a campus lecture by US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia sparked an unexpected interest in law.
“I liked the give-and-take style of argument,” McKenzie noted in a 2007 NYU Law News profile.
Upon graduation, he turned down an engineering job to enter NYU Law, where he was active in the Black Allied Law Students Association and received an award for most outstanding Law Review Note, a paper about sovereign immunity in bankruptcy.
“I got a first-rate education,” Troy McKenzie said in the 2007 article, “and fell in love with the place.”
Before becoming Dean, McKenzie taught courses that include Bankruptcy, Complex Litigation, Procedure, and the Supreme Court seminar.
In 2020, he was one of six NYU faculty members to receive the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
Troy McKenzie’s former students have praised him for a vibrant teaching style and accessibility to students.
“He is just somebody who was always willing to help and mentor,” Subash Iyer ’13, chief counsel of the Federal Transit Administration, said of McKenzie in a 2018 NYU Law News article.
Prior to his arrival at NYU Law as a professor, he clerked for Judge Pierre N. Leval of the US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit and Justice John Paul Stevens of the US Supreme Court, and worked for the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton as a litigation associate.
In 2015, he took a public service leave from NYU Law to join the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel as a deputy assistant attorney general, then returned to the Law School in 2017.
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