Suellyn Scarnecchia

American legal scholar
Suellyn Scarnecchia is a clinical law professor at the University of Michigan. She previously served as the general counsel and vice president at the University of Michigan from 2008 to 2012. From 2003 to 2008 she was the dean of the University of New Mexico School of Law, the first woman to fill that position.

Scarnecchia received her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and her J. D. degree from the University of Michigan Law School. After graduation, Scarnecchia spent six years focusing on employment law at the Battle Creek, Michigan law firm of McCroskey, Feldman, Cochrane & Brock.

After private practice and prior to coming to UNM, Scarnecchia returned to the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a member of the faculty and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and taught in the Child Advocacy Law Clinic. environmentalists, those interested in Indian Law, natural resources advocates, and those interested in business law, particularly with respect to small businesses. Recent graduates include Jason Marks, the head of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, and many law school classes include mayors and other public officials, doctors, and other second career students. The school has some of the smallest law school classes in the country, including first year sections of 36 students, and mandatory clinic classes with 8 students or less.

One of Scarnecchia's stated goals for her deanship is promoting respectful but rigorous and vigorous debate among students, faculty, and members of the law school community on divisive issues in the law. To that end, she created and taught a course called "Difficult Dialogues" or "Legal Dialogues." The dialogues were organized by law student organizations to "create a discussion about significant legal, social and political issues." Among other things, each "dialogue" was intended to provoke students into thinking about how political and legal debates "can best be conducted in a public/professional setting." The overall goal of the course was to "further public dialogue and problem solving skills, as well as to take advantage of the diverse backgrounds and views in our community to enrich the life of the law school." The challenges faced and progress made by Scarnecchia in achieving this objective of promoting rigorous but respectful political debate at the UNM School of Law were highlighted by Christina Hoff Sommers in an October 2006 editorial in the Albuquerque Journal. Sommers, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute criticized Scarnecchia and the UNM School of Law for "liberal bias" after being invited to speak at UNM and hosted by Scarnecchia. The editorial reported that the students at the University of New Mexico law school were politically diverse, but cited a previous survey by the UNM College Republicans that alleged that there were no registered Republicans at the time on the law faculty. Furthermore, the editorial alleged, students who did not share the law faculty's political complexion frequently found themselves isolated and marginalized. Sommers cited one example of a student group that explicitly discouraged students from joining the Federalist Society, a prominent national organization that brings conservative and libertarian students, scholars and lawyers together to discuss and debate legal issues. The editorial also criticized a decision to discontinue the "DA Law Clinic", which allowed students to work with the District Attorney's Office. According to the editorial, "professors were uncomfortable with a program that prosecuted— – rather than defended—accused criminals". The criticisms and allegations in the Sommers editorial closely resembled previous editorials she authored criticizing other higher educational institutions. Scarnecchia wrote a later editorial responding to Sommers and challenging some of the assertions in Sommers' letter. She chaired all Judicial Selection Commissions in New Mexico, a role that the dean of the law school is given by the New Mexico Constitution. Dean Scarnecchia served on the New Mexico Supreme Court Task Forces on Professionalism and Access to Justice. She was a member of the ABA New Deans Workshop Committee, the Association of American Law Schools' Resource Corps and Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Faculty, and the Law School Admissions Council's Minority Affairs Committee.

In 2019 Scarnecchia was awarded the John W. Reed Michigan Lawyer Legacy Award by the State Bar of Michigan. The award goes to "an educator whose influence on lawyers has elevated the quality of legal practice in our state."