Susan Westerberg Prager

Arjay and Frances Fearing Miller Professor of Law Emerita
Dean Emerita

  • A.B. Stanford, 1964
  • M.A. History, Stanford, 1967
  • J.D. UCLA, 1971
  • UCLA Faculty Since 1972

Susan Westerberg Prager served as Dean of the School of Law from 1982 to 1998. She then became Provost of Dartmouth College, returning to UCLA Law in 2001 to focus her research and to teach Wills and Trusts and a seminar on California legal history.

Before law school, where she served as editor-in-chief of the UCLA Law Review, Professor Prager worked for three legislators in the U.S. Congress and the California Legislature. She practiced law at Powe, Porter & Alphin in Durham, N.C., and one year later returned to Los Angeles to join the UCLA Law faculty, where she focused on family law, community property, and historic preservation law. She was appointed Associate Dean in 1979, and became Dean three years later. She served also for fourteen years as a trustee of Stanford University.

Professor Prager served the longest tenure of any dean in UCLA Law history. She was one of the first female deans in the law school world, and was the first alum to become dean of the UCLA School of Law. She spearheaded the expansion of the UCLA Law Clinical Program, as well as two building projects: the Clinical Wing and the magnificent Hugh & Hazel Darling Law Library. As Dean, she fostered a collegial community, oversaw the appointment of a large number of the current faculty, and enhanced the curriculum in international, environmental, public interest, entertainment, and corporate law.

As President of the Association of American Law Schools in 1986, in her role as Dean, and in a multiplicity of other settings, Professor Prager is widely regarded as a leader in national legal education issues and as an advocate for intellectual and racial diversity.

Bibliography

  • Articles And Chapters
    • Law Libraries and the Scholarly Mission, 96 Law Library Journal 513-24 (2004).
    • Celebrating Julian, 45 UCLA Law Review 1523-35 (1998). Symposium: Voices of the People: Essays on Constitutional Democracy in Memory of Professor Julian N. Eule.
    • Shifting Perspectives on Marital Property Law, in Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions, 111-30 (edited by Barrie Thorne and Marilyn Yalom, Longman, 1982).
    • Use of Spousal Agreements in Estate Planning (with Edward A. Landry), in UCLA-CEB Estate Planning Third Annual Institute, (School of Law, Univ. of California, 1981).
    • Sharing Principles and the Future of Marital Property Law, 25 UCLA Law Review 1-22 (1977).
    • The Persistence of Separate Property Concepts in California's Community Property System, 1849-1975, 24 UCLA Law Review 1-82 (1976).
    • Section on "Family Law", in ABA High School Law Program: Attorney's Source Book, (Young Lawyers Section, American Bar Association, 1973).
    • Comment: The End of Innocence: Elimination of Fault in California Divorce Law, 17 UCLA Law Review 1306-32 (1970). (Under Susan Westerberg Reppy.)
  • Other
    • Opening Remarks, 23 Southwestern Journal Of international Law 1 (2017).
      Symposium, The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 1966-2016: International Context.
    • Book Review, The California Supreme Court Historical Society Newsletter 8-10 (Fall/Winter 2004). Reviewing Taming the Elephant: Politics, Government and Law in Pioneer California.
    • Preface: UCLA Tax Policy Conference, 41 UCLA Law Review vii-ix (1994).
    • Report, in The Law School and the University: The Present and the Future (American Bar Association, 1993).
    • Bridging the Gap: A Roundtable (with others), 76 American Bar Association Journal 44-50 (1990).
    • Scholars' Reply to Professor Fried (with Kenneth L. Karst, Gerald P. López, et al. ), 99 Yale Law Journal 163-68 (1989).
    • David Mellinkoff: An Affectionate Tribute, 33 UCLA Law Review 1247-49 (1986).
    • Foreword, Symposium on Gerrymandering and the Courts, 33 UCLA Law Review i-ii (1985).
    • Women Deans Look at Their Lives and Jobs (with Nina S. Appel and Elizabeth Defeis), 16 Syllabus 3 (1985).
    • Donald G. Hagman, Our Colleague and Friend, 29 UCLA Law Review 761-63 (1982).
    • Family Law: Proceedings of a Conference (edited by K. C. Woodsworth, Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia, 1979). Conference Held at the Bayshore Inn; Vancouver, British Columbia; May 15-17, 1978.