Anthony Niedwiecki became Mitchell Hamline’s first openly LGBTQ+ president and dean in July 2020. Under his leadership during the pandemic, the St. Paul-based law school bolstered its national reputation for offering quality online legal education and achieved near-record enrollment. Niedwiecki has also been a leading voice in discussions about the future of the bar exam, which is being studied by the state’s bar examiners and the Supreme Court; he believes the bar shouldn’t be the only measurement of who gets to be a licensed attorney in Minnesota, and that alternate paths should be allowed. The law school remains dedicated to opening doors for people to pursue law, spearheading initiatives such as being the first law school to enroll currently incarcerated students and creating the first center at a law school to solely focus on the study of Black life and the law.