Patricia Roberts

Biography

Patricia Roberts, J.D., became the tenth dean of St. Mary’s School of Law on June 1, 2020. A legal educator for more than two decades, the majority of her career has been spent in clinical teaching, supervising law students in providing assistance to underserved members of the community. She is in her sixth year as dean and is a Marianist Educational Associate. She received the St. Mary’s Marianist Heritage Award in 2025.

Under Roberts’ leadership, the School of Law faculty and staff created the first entirely online J.D. program accredited by the American Bar Association, increased applications and financial aid awarded to entering classes, improved LSAT and GPA medians, earned a No. 1 in the nation advocacy team ranking, boosted graduate employment, and, in partnership with law students, established the Lawtina Network Summit to increase the presence of, and support for, Latinas in the legal profession.

Fundraising records supported initiatives such as a First Generation Bootcamp for entering students, a high school pipeline and college pre-law program, a joint undergraduate degree with the Greehey School of Business, an intensive clerkship preparation program, and Mentor Circles, a partnership with the San Antonio Bar Association that creates small groups of law students with members of the bench and bar. A recent bequest established the Bock Center for Business and Transactional Law, and enrollment across the M.L.S. and LL.M. programs has risen considerably.

Roberts earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, with a double major in Biology and Psychology. She practiced law for eight years as a solo practitioner and later as a managing partner of a civil practice law firm after earning her law degree from William & Mary.

She returned to William & Mary in 2000 and held numerous administrative roles until her appointment to the clinical faculty in 2008 as Director of Clinical Programs. In 2017, after holding numerous administrative and academic positions, she was named Vice Dean, a position she left to become the Dean at St. Mary’s Law.

As Vice Dean, Roberts was William & Mary Law’s chief academic officer, responsible for academic programs and policies that are essential to an excellent legal education. She  simultaneously served as the Director of Clinical Programs, overseeing a center and nine legal clinics that provided pro bono representation to underserved clients in Virginia’s Hampton Roads area. The school’s first in-house clinics, including those specializing in veterans’ benefits, elder law, special education, appellate and Supreme Court litigation, and a center for coastal policy, were created during her tenure as director. She also helped create the Institute for Special Education Advocacy, an intensive one-week program to train attorneys and advocates to maximize their effectiveness. A similar program is now held annually at St. Mary’s, the Special Education Advocacy Summit.

Roberts was a nationwide leader in legal efforts to aid veterans. She was the inaugural President of the Board of Directors of the National Law School Veterans Clinic Consortium and creator of Military Mondays, a program that began at William & Mary Law School and served as a model for providing advice and counsel to veterans in numerous Starbucks locations across the country. She was a regular speaker on issues related to veterans’ law and access to justice nationwide.

Roberts is the host of the Aspen Leading Edge, and was the founding host of EdUp Legal, both podcasts about legal education and its future.

• Member, Deans’ Steering Committee, Association of American Law Schools (AALS) (2025-present)
• Co-Chair, Executive Committee, AALS Dean’s Section (2025-present)
• Chair, Audit Committee, Law School Admission Council (LSAC) (2025-present)
• Chair, Compliance and Risk Management Committee, LSAC (2025-present)
• Member, Board of Trustees, LSAC (2023-present)
• Fellow, San Antonio Bar Foundation (inducted 2023)
• Member, Executive Committee, AALS Dean’s Section (2022-2024)
• Fellow, American Bar Foundation (inducted 2017)
• Fellow, Virginia Law Foundation (inducted 2016)

Articles

• Volume 3, Antiracist Approaches to Admissions, “Building an Antiracist Law School, Legal Academy, and Legal Profession” book series (co-editor with Jay Austin, UC Press forthcoming 2026).
• Volume 9, Antiracist Financial Aid, “Building an Antiracist Law School, Legal Academy, and Legal Profession” book series  (co-editor with Jay Austin, UC Press forthcoming 2026).
• PTSD, TBI, and OTH Discharges: A Case Study of a Young Service Member, 45 Hofstra L. Rev. 35 (2016).
• An All-Volunteer Force: Law Students and Pro Bono Lawyers Helping Veterans, 68 S.C. L. Rev. 273 (2016).
• Vets Just Want Fair Benefits, Virginian Pilot Op-Ed (Nov. 7, 2015).
• The ABA Got It Right: Veterans Need Our Help, Clinical Legal Education Assoc. Newsletter (Apr. 2015). 
• Post-9/11 Veterans: Welcoming Them Home as Colleagues and Clients, 45 U. Memphis L. Rev. 45 (2015) (symposium). SSRN.
• Interprofessional Education (2015) (with Lisa Bliss, Sylvia Caley Robert Pettignano & Emily Suski), in Building on Best Practices: Transforming Legal Education in a Changing World (Deborah Maranville, Lisa Radtke Bliss, Carolyn Wilkes Kaas & Antoinette Sedillo Lopez eds., LexisNexis 2015).
• From the ‘War on Poverty’ to Pro Bono: Access to Justice Remains Elusive for Too Many, Including Our Veterans, 34 B.C. J.L. & Soc. Just. 341 (2014). SSRN.
• Empowering Special Education Clients Through Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: Lessons Learned for Current Clients and Future Professionals, 19 Am. U. J. Gender Soc. Pol’y & L (2011) (with Kelly J. Whalon).