WILMINGTON — With more law school applications rolling in at Wilmington University Law School, its new dean Jan Jurden is now tasked with shaping the institution’s future as it comes to all areas of law.
Jurden served as a judge for 23 years, handling cases related to mental health, veterans issues and more. She also holds extensive experience as an attorney, where in 13 years she worked on commercial and corporate matters, discrimination and medical malpractice issues. Her entire career was spent in Delaware.
Now, she’s hoping to take that experience and connections with the Delaware State Bar and the court system and put it to work for the next generation of attorneys.
“Imagine what a benefit it is to have some judge or lawyer while you’re in school help guide you to what practice you’d like to be in. When I started down this road, I didn’t have a mentor, but I gained one along the way,” Jurden said. “I have great insight into trajectories, into the law firms, into the different courts. I definitely see where my experience can help in that aspect.”
Jurden was named the second dean of WilmU’s rising law school in March and started on April 1. She succeeds Phil Closius who helped launch the program after it was considered for years by WilmU leaders and legal professionals. Closisus, who is also the former dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law and The University of Toledo College of Law, stepped down to reportedly spend time with his family.
After serving for years as the first woman appointed president judge of the Delaware Superior Court, Jurden had just retired in February 2025. During her time on the bench, she oversaw the Complex Commercial Litigation Division, launched and presided over the Superior Court Mental Health Court, oversaw the Conflict Attorney Program and presided over the Veterans’ Treatment Court.
Her career included practicing law at Young Conaway Stargatt and Taylor and later served as the criminal administrative judge. Jurden had also taught at WilmU while she was in private practice.
“I remember going there late, and I remember my classes had students that were older than I was, that had kids and full-time jobs and they were coming to get their education. They were some of the best students I had because they cared,” she remembered.
In the weeks after her retirement, Jurden told the Delaware Business Times she was considering private practice, teaching or entering arbitration practice. But when the opportunity came to become the next dean of the rising law school, she jumped at the chance to become part of something incredible.
“When I read more about it and the mission, I was all in,” she said.
The dean pointed to WilmU’s commitment to affordability in the face of skyrocketing law school tuition as well as its flexibility in programs to work with full-time and part-time students.
WilmU has moved to cater to working adults in recent years, especially through its popular MBA and DBA programs. The average age for its 19,000 in-person and online students is 33 and 90% of them work full-time or part-time, according to WilmU officials.
As a Delawarean, she herself went to Dickinson School of Law but came back to practice law in her home state.
“What I want is to make the Delaware legal community more accessible to people. It’s a really thriving, wonderful place to practice law. We have sophisticated cases here, but it’s sometimes hard to keep people here,” Jurden said.
She acknowledged that she had many law clerks from Weidner Law School, but that she was also long removed from the talent pipeline to get a sense of the current state of law employment in Delaware.
“I’d like to see us generate some homegrown attorneys, as well as attracting people from wherever they are, to make it affordable. That way they can get a legal education if they’re driven and aspire to be a lawyer – and we can make sure they have that opportunity here,” she added.
WilmU Law School is preparing to finish construction on a new building at its Brandywine campus off U.S. Route 202 near the Pennsylvania line, and its first class will graduate in 2026.
Applications are reportedly rising, as Jurden told the Delaware Business Times that in March, the institution received 67 applications in March alone. That’s impressive for a university that had just secured provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association, she said.
“I want to see all the great progress Phil was able to make to continue. We’re building on a solid foundation, and word is getting around about what we’re doing,” Jurden said. “My role is to make sure we’re still on this trajectory and grow. The mission is simple: get the accreditation, put on classes so our students are ready to go into the legal world.”
