IRVINE – UC Irvine named a new dean to its School of Law, who the university’s president called a “brilliant scholar” and has served in the role since the departure of the law school’s founding dean, Erwin Chemerinsky.

L. Song Richardson will assume her new post Jan. 1, becoming the only woman of color to serve as dean among U.S. News & World Report’s top-ranked 30 law schools in the nation, UCI officials said on Thursday. She is of African American and Korean descent.

“Song Richardson is a brilliant scholar and inspirational leader, and we are excited that she will become the second dean of UCI Law,” Chancellor Howard Gillman said in a statement.

Richardson joined UCI’s law school in 2014 and later became senior associate dean for academic affairs. Last July, when Chemerinsky announced he was leaving to head UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Richardson was appointed as interim dean.

“What we’re doing at UCI Law is redefining, reinventing and re-imagining the future of legal education and that will continue to be the law school’s focus into the future,” Richardson said. “We want to lead the country.”

Richardson said she plans to continue the school’s focus on public service: UCI law students perform legal work in the community as a graduation requirement.

The new dean is an expert in criminal law and criminal procedure, with a focus on implicit racial and gender bias.

Richardson holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard University and a law degree from Yale University. She has worked as a partner in a criminal law firm, as a state and federal public defender in Seattle, and as an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She arrived at UCI from the University of Iowa and previously held law professorships at DePaul University and American University.

UCI’s law school opened in 2009. In 2015, the first year it was eligible to be ranked by U.S. News & World Report, it came in as 30th best in the country, the highest debut ranking ever for a law school. It’s currently tied for 28th place.