Melanie Leslie became dean of Cardozo Law School on July 1, 2015. She is the first Cardozo Law graduate and the first woman to hold the position. 

Dean Leslie is the driving force behind important social justice initiatives including the Perlmutter Center for Legal Justice, funded with a $15 million-dollar philanthropic gift, that represents incarcerated people with unjust sentences; and the Center for Rights and Justice, which supports lawyers engaged in pro bono representation. She has spearheaded a number of important initiatives at the intersection of law, technology, intellectual property, and business, including The FAME Center for fashion, art, media and entertainment law, which prepares students to work in the creative industries through its extensive curricular offerings, and the Cardozo Patent Diversity Project, which seeks to increase the number of women and minority innovators receiving patents.

Dean Leslie created Cardozo’s first Office of Diversity and Inclusion and expanded the Office for Academic Success to ensure that all students can find the support and sense of belonging that enable them to succeed. In 2019 she established the position of Associate Dean of Equity in Curriculum and Teaching to ensure that issues of race and equity are taught throughout the law school curriculum, and that all faculty and students receive training on issues of race, implicit bias and cultural competency.

A Cardozo professor since 1995, Dean Leslie is a leading scholar in trusts & estates, fiduciary obligations and nonprofit governance. Courses taught include Property, Trusts and Estates, Nonprofit Governance, and Evidence. She was given the “Best First-Year Professor” award by three graduating Cardozo classes. She served as Cardozo’s Vice Dean from 2014-15.

Dean Leslie is a prolific scholar whose work has been published by the NYU Law Review, Boston College Law Review, Florida Law Review, William & Mary Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, and Indiana Law Journal, among others. She is the coauthor of a leading casebook, Estates and Trusts, Cases and Materials, as well as Concepts and Insights: Trusts and Estates. Dean Leslie has been a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, and a Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. She has served on the NY State Bar and NYC Bar Joint Committee on the Uniform Trust Code, as a Legal Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC), and on the executive committees of the AALS Sections on Trusts & Estates and Nonprofits and Philanthropy.

Prior to joining the Cardozo Law faculty she clerked for Justice Gary S. Stein of the New Jersey Supreme Court and practiced commercial litigation for several years.  

A native of Las Vegas, Dean Leslie received her B.A. in Theater from the University of Oregon, with honors, before moving to New York City, where she spent several years working as a professional actor and vocalist. She then received her J.D. from Cardozo Law magna cum laude in 1991, where she was the Executive Editor of the Cardozo Law Review.