CUNY Law School Dean Sudha Setty Named President, CEO of Law School Admission Council

The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) has named Sudha Setty as its president and chief executive officer, effective July 1.  The Indian American currently serves as dean of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law. She will conclude her service in June, the university announced. 

LSAC is a nonprofit organization that helps law schools and applicants with the law school admission process, and is best known for administering the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). 

In a statement, Setty said she is “honored” to have been selected as LSAC’s president and CEO. “Law schools and higher education in general face enormous challenges and opportunities, from the role of the academy in society, to how to preserve the rule of law, to how to advance diversity, access, and excellence in legal education,” she said. “These profound issues require all of us to work together towards building a well-equipped, diverse, and engaged legal profession. LSAC plays a vital role in expanding outreach and access to legal education, and its work is more important than ever.” 

Before joining CUNY, Setty was dean of the Western New England University School of Law since 2018, when she became the first woman of South Asian descent in the U.S. to serve as dean of an American Bar Association-accredited law school. She previously served as the school’s associate dean for faculty development and intellectual life. A member of the school’s faculty since 2006, she was named Professor of the Year in 2009, 2016 and 2018.

In both of her deanships, Setty has “focused on building structures to support social justice and public interest lawyering, and to increasing access to legal education,” according to a LSAC press release.  While at CUNY Law, she “spearheaded a significant expansion of Pipeline to Justice, the law school’s signature access program, and led the founding of the First Impressions Youth Legal Collaborative, a multifaceted program to engage middle school, high school, and college students in engaging with questions of civics, law, and justice,” the release said. 

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A nationally recognized scholar in national security and comparative civil rights law, Setty is an elected member of the American Law Institute. She eceived her JD from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and began her legal career at the firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. She recently served on the editorial board of the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, and on the New York State Bar Association Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.  

Setty will be replacing former president and CEO Kellye Testy, who left LSAC in July to become executive director and CEO of the Association of American Law Schools. Susan Krinsky will continue to serve as LSAC’s interim president and CEO until July 1.