Skip to main content

Patricia Bennett Selected Interim Dean at MC Law School


Professor Patricia Bennett

A Mississippi College School of Law professor for nearly three decades, Patricia Bennett will soon become the institution’s interim dean.

A Forest native and MC Law graduate, Bennett dedicated her career to the law and legal profession. She’s spent 27 years teaching at MC Law in downtown Jackson. Bennett succeeds Wendy Scott, who’s resigning as dean on December 1 to join the MC Law faculty in January.

“I’m excited to be asked to do this on an interim basis to help MC Law School meet the challenges it faces today,” Bennett said. “It is a big responsibility. I feel I can work with the administration at MC and the Board of Trustees to ensure the law school continues on a path of success.”

MC administrators say Bennett is a superb choice and believe the law school will continue to advance under her leadership.

“Professor Bennett is highly regarded, both in-state and around the nation in leading legal circles,” President Lee Royce said. “We believe this Mississippian and MC Law alumna will do an effective job leading the law school as its interim dean.”

Over the years, Bennett “built excellent working relationships with faculty, students, staff and alumni and the legal community,” Royce said. “We anticipate more accomplishments ahead under her guidance in the months to come.”

Vice President for Academic Affairs Ron Howard is elated with her selection.

“We’ve long admired and respected Professor Bennett. And that was pretty clear when colleagues named her the university’s Distinguished Professor of the Year in 2014. It is our highest teaching award, and it was well deserved.”

The MC family “enthusiastically welcomes Pat with open arms as MC Law’s interim dean. We know she will do a wonderful job,” Howard added.

Bennett will succeed Scott, who in August became the first African American dean in the history of MC Law founded in 1975. She worked to stabilize enrollment, including an uptick in first-year students this fall, and strengthened MC Law’s commitment to metro Jackson service projects.

Recently, Bennett was on a trip to Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro where she was recruiting prospective MC Law students. She’s been on similar recruiting missions many times before. “I enjoy working with students one on one and look forward to becoming more actively involved in recruiting.”

Professor Bennett’s areas of expertise are litigation, criminal law and procedure. Bennett serves as the director of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Center at MC Law. She teaches trial practice, mediation, advocacy and criminal procedure. The Tougaloo College graduate will give up her teaching duties while serving as interim dean at a school enrolling more than 400 students.

Before joining the MC Law faculty in 1989, Bennett worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice. Her government service also includes stints as Assistant District Attorney for Hinds and Yazoo counties and as a Special Assistant Attorney General with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office in Jackson. For eight years, Bennett served as a JAGC officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Mississippi National Guard.

Bennett’s numerous professional affiliations include being elected a Fellow of the American Bar Association Foundation in 2015. Created in 1955, the ABA group is an honorary organization of attorneys, judges and legal scholars. Bennett is a member of the Mississippi Bar Association, the Magnolia Bar Association and the Mississippi Women Lawyers Bar Association. She is the outgoing president of the Charles Clark Chapter of the American Inns of Court in Jackson. Bennett served as a visiting law professor at Harvard, Emory and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Patricia Bennett and her husband, Claude, a building contractor, are Clinton residents. She worships at Morning Star Baptist Church in Jackson.