PEPPERDINE LAW SCHOOL POST FILLED; INTERIM LEADER NAMED DEAN.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

Just one month after Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr declined the top job at Pepperdine University's School of Law, the position was filled Tuesday by an Agoura Hills man who has served as the program's interim leader for the past year.

Richardson R. Lynn, who has taught at the university on and off over the past 18 years, will take over as dean this week. He served as an associate dean for academics at the law school for five years before being named interim dean last May.

``Richard Lynn has done an extraordinary job of leading our law school this year as interim dean and was an obvious and outstanding choice for the permanent assignment,'' said Pepperdine President David Davenport. ``He has a clear vision of what it will take for our young law school to reach the next level of excellence.''

Lynn, who was out of town Tuesday, could not be reached for comment.

The appointment ends more than one year's wait for Starr to fill the position. In February 1997, the independent counsel said he would join the law school and the new public policy school after wrapping up his Whitewater investigation. But in August, he announced that his arrival at the university would be delayed, and April 3 he formally declined both deanships to continue his probe of the Clinton administration.

The School of Public Policy filled its top post with the appointment of its interim dean, James Wilburn, as inaugural dean April 28.

``We would have been thrilled to have Starr here, but we also knew that we couldn't go indefinitely without a dean. And we are thrilled to have Richard, who has done such a wonderful job this past year,'' said Richard Cupp, a law school professor for the past seven years.

As the law school's dean, Lynn will set the tone and oversee the more than two dozen professors and about 700 students in the program. Cupp said that among Lynn's greatest challenges will be bringing the vision to fruition.

``One of the reasons the faculty members here are so enthusiastic about Richard becoming the dean is that he really has a vision for the law school that we all share,'' he said. ``We're looking to really develop ourselves as a distinctive law school with the focus being on the students, on classroom teaching and on developing lawyers as members and good servants of a community and not just people with certain skills.''

Lynn, who has lived with his wife, Megan, and two children in Agoura Hills for the past several years, first started teaching at Pepperdine's Law School in 1980 as a professor of civil procedure, appellate advocacy and copyright law, said John Secia, spokesman for the law school.

After six years, Lynn served as a visiting professor at Campbell University's law school in Buies Creek, N.C., and at Belmont College's business school in Nashville, Tenn. He rejoined the Pepperdine faculty in 1990 and was named associate dean of academics at the law school in 1993.

Lynn received his bachelor's degree from Abilene Christian University and graduated from Vanderbilt University's School of Law in 1976. He practiced law in Nashville for four years before moving to California. He has authored five books on legal topics.