Cathy Silak
After serving as founding dean from December, 2008 to June 2016, Cathy R. Silak was promoted to Vice President of Community Engagement and served in that role until June 30, 2017 when she returned to private practice at Hawley Troxell. Under her leadership, the law school opened its doors in the Fall 2012 to its 1L inaugural class. During her tenure, she implemented the Dean’s Advisory Council, helped in the law school site selection, assisted with the development of law school curriculum and was instrumental in faculty and student recruitment. Dean Silak also taught Civil Procedure II while at Concordia Law.
An attorney by profession, Dean Silak served as an Idaho Supreme Court Justice from 1993 until 2000, and was Vice-Chief Justice from 1997 to 2000. Prior to her appointment by the Governor to the Supreme Court, Vice President Silak was the first woman appointed to an appellate court in Idaho’s history, serving as a Judge on the Idaho Court of Appeals from 1990 to 1993.
In addition, Dean Silak was a partner at Hawley Troxell Ennis & Hawley in Boise, President and CEO of the Idaho Community Foundation, Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Idaho, and was an associate at Morrison & Foerster. She was a law clerk to U. S. District Judge William Schwarzer in San Francisco.
Dean Silak received a B.A. in Sociology and French Literature from New York University; a Masters of City Planning degree from Harvard University; a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall); and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Dean Silak has also taught Administrative Law as an adjunct faculty member in the Master of Public Administration Program at Boise State University. She has written articles on statutory interpretation and judicial selection. She is a member of the National Advisory Council of the American Judicature Society, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Boise Art Museum, and is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Dean Silak and her husband Nicholas G. Miller reside in Boise.