Courtney Q. Brooks has been appointed by Provost Jeannette E. Riley to serve as Interim Dean of UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law effective January 3, 2026.
Professor Brooks has been a member of the UNH Franklin Pierce community since 2010, serving in a range of leadership roles focused on client readiness and professional development. She has directed the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program (DWS) since 2020 and has served as Associate Dean for Faculty since July 2024. She will continue to lead the DWS Program while serving as Interim Dean.
The DWS Program is the nation’s first and only alternative bar licensing program. Launched in partnership with the New Hampshire Supreme Court and the New Hampshire Bar in 2005, the award-winning program has been widely recognized as a model for the future of legal education. DWS provides students with a rigorous combination of practical skills training and performance-based assessment over two years. Assigned bar examiners evaluate students’ work, and successful students are admitted to the New Hampshire Bar the day before graduation, without taking the traditional two-day bar exam—allowing graduates to launch their legal careers immediately.
Before joining UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law, Professor Brooks practiced complex commercial litigation at national and regional law firms, including Nixon Peabody LLP in Manchester, New Hampshire; Pierce Atwood LLP in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and Reed Smith LLP in Oakland, California. Her practice focused on representing businesses—including national banks and pharmaceutical and medical device companies—in product liability and complex business disputes, including matters involving contracts, partnerships, trademarks, trade secrets, patents, and consumer protection claims in both federal and state courts.
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