Michael F. Barry Brings Vision, Experience and a People-Centered Approach to AUWCL
Leadership guided by service, inspired by justice and focused on the future BY KEITH PIERCE
When Michael Barry talks about legal education, he does not begin with rankings, budgets or strategy — although he acknowledges each is important. He begins with justice. Long before he became a law school dean, corporate
executive, litigator, and educator, Barry was a law student accompanying his father, an attorney and judge with the U.S. Coast Guard, to conferences and legal events. Those early experiences introduced him to the legal profession and the idea that the law could serve a larger purpose. “I became enamored with the legal profession’s ability to foster justice,” Barry said.
That commitment to service, combined with a passion for debate and the intellectual challenge of advocacy, ultimately set him on a path that would lead him to American University Washington College of Law as its next dean. Barry officially joined AUWCL on July 1, bringing decades of experience across legal practice, business leadership and academia. Most recently, he served as president and dean of South Texas College of Law Houston, where the school saw significant gains in bar passage and employment outcomes and launched an ABA-approved online part-time JD program. Before entering academia, Barry built an extensive
legal and business career that included complex litigation practice, leadership roles at Capital One and USAA, and clerkships with federal judges in Washington, D.C., and the Eleventh Circuit. Barry sees those experiences not as distinct roles, but as a journey that has informed his philosophy about leadership and education.
“I have been blessed to have been entrusted with a wide variety of responsibilities,” he said. “Those disparate experiences were foundational to my commitment to provide our law students an exceptional educational experience.”
24 THE ADVOCATE FALL 2026
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