Baylor University Elects Interim President
Baylor University's Board of Regents unanimously elected an interim president after months of searching
Baylor University (BU)'s Board of Regents unanimously elected law professor William D. Underwood as its interim president on April 29 after a months-long search that began in early March.
Underwood, The Leon Jaworski Chair in Practice and Procedure at Baylor Law School, will be installed June 1, when Baylor's incumbent president Robert B. Sloan Jr. will assumes the role of chancellor.
A graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Illinois College of Law, Underwood practiced civil trial law in Dallas until he joined the Baylor faculty in 1990.
Underwood acted as a former general counsel for the university between 1997-98. Last year, he was spokesman for a committee that spearheaded investigations on reported acts of misconduct surrounding the death of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy.
Designated a Master Teacher by Baylor, Underwood directs the Law School's Practice Court program, which was recently featured by the Princeton Review as the "best training ground in the nation for practical lawyering."
Underwood is an elected member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation, and has served as Reporter to the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Group to the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.
He and his wife, Lesli, are the parents of two children, Jessica, 16, and William, 11. They are currently members of Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, Texas.