Following a 15-month search, University President Judith Rodin named Michael A Fitts, Robert G. Fuller Jr. Professor of Law, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School March 6.

Fitts, a member of the Penn faculty for almost 15 years, will succeed Colin S. Diver, who resigned Aug. 15, 1999.

“We are absolutely delighted he has accepted this new assignment,” Rodin said in a statement about the appointment.

Fitts, a West Philadelphia native, has written about political institutions, separation of powers, the Presidency and Congress. He has been a board member of the Law and Political Process Study Group of the American Political Science Association.

Before coming to Penn, Fitts served as attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he received a Special Commendation Award from the U.S. Attorney General for his work. He served as law clerk to the late Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.