Gillian Lester

Gillian L. L. Lester (born October 30, 1964) is a Canadian legal scholar who is the 15th Dean of Columbia Law School. She joined Columbia Law School on January 1, 2015, as Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law. Previously, Lester was acting dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law where she had been a professor since 2006. Before that, she was a full professor at the School of Law of the University of California, Los Angeles. Lester announced she will step down as Dean of Columbia Law School at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year.

Lester is the second female dean of Columbia Law School. Soon after taking the job, Lester told The Chronicle of Higher Education she wanted to tweak the curriculum to turn more Columbia law students into "global actors" and "entrepreneurs" who could build careers in both the private and public sectors.