(credit: CBSDFW.COM)

DALLAS (AP) – U.S. District Judge Royal Furgeson Jr. has been named founding dean of the University of North Texas law school in Dallas.

Chancellor Lee Jackson made the announcement Wednesday, saying Furgeson will begin overseeing the UNT Dallas College of Law in April 2013, after he retires from the bench. The law school is slated to open in August 2014.

Furgeson says the prospect of pioneering a new law school was “too challenging and exciting to pass up.”

Furgusen is a 1967 University of Texas law school graduate. He was appointed a federal judge in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.

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