Florida A&M law school dean is dismissed after 16 months on job

Florida A&M University’s law school dean is out after 16 months on the job.

FAMU announced Angela Felecia Epps’ dismissal as leader of the downtown Orlando school this week.

She is the fourth dean to be removed in two days at the Tallahassee-based university that’s undergone major leadership changes.

The deans of the education, pharmacy and journalism schools also were dismissed, according to a school statement this week.

Epps and the other deans will return to the ranks of tenured faculty members while their interim replacements have already been chosen, interim provost Rodner Wright said in a statement that did not elaborate on why they were removed.

LeRoy Pernell, who led the Orlando law school from 2008 to 2015, was named as the temporary law school dean.

Epps, a former law professor at the University of Arkansas, took over as FAMU law school dean on Jan. 4, 2016, at a starting annual salary of $252,000.

Epps was hired at a particularly turbulent time at the school, as FAMU trustees feuded with President Elmira Mangum, who eventually stepped down in September 2016.

Currently, the school is led by interim President Larry Robinson.

Last month, the latest bar passage results were released that showed FAMU’s law school dipped by 11 percentage points from a year earlier.

Epps said in an email to faculty the students’ scores were within 10 percentage points of the state average, which meant FAMU was in compliance with the American Bar Association standards.

Epps and a FAMU spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

In 2002, FAMU’s downtown Orlando law school opened west of Interstate 4 at 201 Beggs Ave. The law school originally was housed at the main Tallahassee campus until the state voted to close it in 1965. A law school then opened at Florida State University.