Sam Panarella, currently a professor at the University of Montana Alexander Blewett III School of Law, will become the next dean of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School of Law.

When Panarella becomes dean on July 18, he will succeed Eric Mitnick, who will have served as dean of UMass Dartmouth Law for seven years on July 1, according to the school’s announcement and Rosenblatt’s Deans Database.