Wednesday February 04, 2009

This blog entry is about a really great piece of news here at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. Those who follow goings on at our law school may know about our stupendous moot court program. As in other law schools, first-year students compete in a compulsory internal competition. But what happens at UDM is that so many first years enjoy this experience that well over 100 each year then compete to become members of our upper-level external teams.

Those 2L and 3L teams then compete in national competitions against other law schools around the country. And our UDM teams don’t just compete, they triumph! Last year, we sent teams to about a dozen national competitions and we did so well that UDM was named one of the 16 best programs in the nation – which were then invited to compete last month in the first-ever national invitational moot court championship tournament.

The purpose of this invitational tournament, which was held in Houston, was to identify which school was the best of the best and the undisputed national champion. Well, readers of this blog won’t be surprised to read that UDM School of Law beat everyone and emerged as the national champions! That’s right. Our students Jennifer Dukarski and Dan Whittal, together with student coach/brief writer Shannon Snee, argued so successfully in front of judges from the Texas Court of Appeals and the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that they were awarded the national championship.

They brought home a wonderful two-foot high championship cup together with the satisfaction of knowing that they and our program have now been recognized as the best in the country. Professor Michelle Streicher deserves tremendous credit (together with Asst. Dean Cara Cunningham) for their great work in building up our moot court program. And, of course, there are numerous alumni and faculty who have served faithfully as coaches and external advisers over the past several years.

As for me as Dean, well, my wife and I are happy now to have to deliver on our promise that we would buy the victorious students a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. They have deserved it – and more.

Monday October 20, 2008

This past Friday, October 17, our University of Detroit Mercy School of Law Immigration Clinic teamed up with the federal government to host here at the School a naturalization ceremony for 29 new American citizens.

While the ceremony was not for clients of our clinics, it reminded me of the important work that our Immigration Clinic performs. The students in our Immigration Clinic, under the innovative leadership of Prof. David Koelsch, spend many hours representing refugees seeking asylum. The stories that these refugees tell are truly heart-rending: political persecution, religious persecution, jail, violence, torture – and much more. And the experience that our students receive in helping them is both great for our students and truly life-changing for the refugees.

The importance of that representation was driven home to me by this ceremony in which more than two dozen immigrants, each I am sure with a different story, embarked on a new stage in their lives. I must admit that I was very moved participating in this ceremony. As I welcomed the about-to-become Americans to our School, I told them about how looking in their faces, I felt like I was seeing the face of my mother when she became a citizen after having fled persecution in Nazi Germany.

It turns out that that was a common sentiment for all the officials. Mick Dedvukaj, the District Director at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, spoke to these immigrants about his own story, being born in Albania and coming to the United States as a small child. And the presiding judge, Hon. Mona Majzoub, United States Magistrate, Eastern District of Michigan, related the story of her own parents’ emigration from Lebanon to the United States.

Particularly moving was the moment when the oath of citizenship was administered, as these new citizens renounced their loyalty to any “foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty” and pledged their loyalty to the United States of America. Their pride, their commitment, their pleasure was truly inexpressible. And they reminded all of us in the room who were born as American citizens, just how lucky we were at the moment of our birth.

I certainly hope that we at UDM School of Law will host more of these ceremonies. And I look forward to the day when we can host a ceremony comprised entirely of immigrants helped by UDM students in our Immigration Clinic!

Tuesday September 23, 2008

Sometimes I am asked by prospective students whether I enjoy my job as Dean. The answer is always a resounding “Yes.” In fact, most recently I had a particularly enjoyable day.

On the day in question I was in Chicago with several of our law students who are working on Project SALUTE, our national tour to assist veterans with their federal disability benefits. And I have to admit that the day started pretty early. In fact, we all had to get up at 4 am to get into the Mobile Law Office by 4:45 so that we could make our way from our hotel to the WGN-TV studios in Chicago. Once we arrived at WGN-TV, we were greeted by a producer who took the students and me on a tour of their entire facility, including giving the students an opportunity to watch as the early morning news anchors did their job on the air.

By 6:45 am it was our turn to go on the air, as we were interviewed (standing in front of the Mobile Law Office) about what the students and faculty would be doing in Chicago over the next few days
(WGN –TV Morning News). As in most cities on the tour, the students (always under the supervision of our superb faculty) spend several days meeting with veterans, both in groups and one-on-one, to answer their questions and identify cases that our Veterans Clinic can handle. On the final day the faculty and students offer an all-day training session for local attorneys interested in handling veterans federal disability benefits cases pro bono. (We have now trained more than 300 attorneys around the nation, with more to come.)

After our TV appearance, we all went together to have breakfast at IHOP. I always enjoy these kinds of informal meals, because I get to talk with the students in a casual environment about what they’re doing, how they’re enjoying law school, their plans for the future, and other such items, in addition to talking about other things such as sports, current events, etc.

Later that morning we headed over to the Cook County Criminal Courthouse where we met with Richard Devine, the State’s Attorney for Cook County. We then did a press conference with State’s Attorney Devine and others about Project SALUTE and its activities in Chicago. Devine said all kinds of nice things about what UDM School of Law and its students are doing. We were also joined by a representative of Catholic Charities (which was serving as our host in Chicago), as well as someone from the office of Illinois Lieutenant Governor Quinn who presented us with a proclamation welcoming UDM School of Law and Project SALUTE to Illinois. At the press conference, a representative from the McCormick Foundation also announced that the Foundation was giving us $15,000 to help fund the Project.

For me the highlight of the press conference was the comments by our students, who spoke about their experiences helping veterans, the types of cases they handle, and their reasons for being part of our Veterans Law Clinic. (Speaking at the press conference were students Stacey Pyszora and Derek Miller; also joining us at the press conference were students Holly Muir and Matthew Hammer.)

After the press conference, the students were given a tour of the Courthouse and met with a judge (while I was off meeting with attorneys in a national law firm’s Chicago office which is interested in interviewing our students for summer associate positions).

By the time I was finished with my meetings and the students had had a bite to eat, it was about 4 pm. That gave us enough time to take one of those wonderful architectural boat tours of the Chicago River. (I told the students that I really couldn’t have the school pay for their boat tour, but that since I had gotten them up at 4 in the morning, the tour would be my treat.)

After the boat tour, we wandered around some of downtown Chicago, went to Millenium Park, had dinner, and gradually made our way back to the hotel (stopping, of course, for the required Baskin Robbins interlude). I had them back to their hotel rooms by about 9:15 pm. The students then spent the next two days doing a great job meeting with 60 veterans in Chicago, and then assisting our faculty on the third day in training about fifty local Chicago attorneys willing to assist veterans pro bono.

I realize that this is not a typical experience either for a law school dean or for law school students. But when I see how much our students learn on these excursions – and when I hear the gratitude of the veterans being assisted – I think it’s well worth it for everyone.

Tuesday August 26, 2008

Here it is mid-August and it's difficult to believe that a new school year is starting, as our Orientation for first-year law students took place last week -- August 18.

This is always an exciting time of the year for me. First, I very much enjoy all the excitement, energy, and enthusiasm that the new first-year students bring to the School. Once again this year, we are welcoming a great group of students from states all around the country, various provinces in Canada, and beyond. The increasing geographic diversity and the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of our student body over the past several years have brought even greater vibrancy to the School.

Second, another fun part of this time of the year is hearing from the returning students about their experiences during the summer. They are, of course, engaged in a wide range of activities, including working as clerks, summer associates, fellows in public service, or students studying abroad during the summer, to name just a few. Invariably, they say great things both about their summer experiences and about how well trained they felt by UDM for their summer positions.

In fact, speaking of summer associate positions, I am pleased to report that our students working as summer associates in large national law firms in places like New York, California and places in between, have done an excellent job impressing the partners at their respective firms. I have heard from partners at several firms around the country about how impressed their firms were with the work our students did for them this summer. More than one has told me that UDM summer associates were considered among the best of the summer associates at the firm--and that includes firms which attract summer associates from the "most prestigious" law schools in the country.

Happily, it appears that the experiences of firms both here in Michigan and around the nation with our students are translating into a nice expansion in the number of firms participating in on-campus interviews this fall. Given the current economic challenges facing law firms large and small, that is good news indeed.

I'm very pleased with the expanding job opportunities becoming available to our students and I'm really proud that our students are taking such great advantage of these opportunities. That's a win-win both for the students and for the School.

Monday July 14, 2008

I think that most people assume that things slow down for law school deans during the summer. While I will be taking a few weeks off later this month with my wife and boys, otherwise, I’m pleased to report that I’ve been having a fun and active summer.

This past week provides a good illustration. On Monday and Tuesday, I was in New York City, visiting law firms as well as some of our UDM law students. My law firm visits continue our practice of working to market our students at the leading firms in the nation. I had the opportunity to meet with partners at different leading New York firms and to talk about what makes a University of Detroit Mercy School of Law education unique. I suppose the best measure of how well we do in terms of marketing can be seen in the number of national firms who choose to fly to Detroit to interview our students. And, in that respect, my trip to NYC truly was successful.

As you probably know, we already stand out for the appeal of our students to the large national firms, and I am pleased to confirm that we have added substantially to the national law firms who will be interviewing on campus this fall. We are now talking to literally dozens of law firms with national reach which have expressed interest in interviewing our students this fall.

While in NYC I continued my annual tradition of taking out for dinner our UDM students who are summer associates this summer at firms, governmental entities, etc. in New York. While not all of the students summering in New York were able to join me (as some did have last minute assignments at their firms that they needed to work on), I had lots of fun with those who could make it, as we shared some good Chinese food followed by ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s, and everyone compared notes on their experiences at different NY firms. (One of the students said at the dinner that instead of my taking them out, they should really be taking me out, in thanks for my having helped them get their jobs. But I made clear that they would have plenty of opportunities to express their gratitude to the law school by making big donations once they are alumni!) After dinner, I walked with the students up to my old “stomping ground” – at Columbia University, showing them the campus and, I must admit, pointing out the building where my wife and I met when we were Columbia undergrads.

Later in the week, back in Detroit, I had the opportunity to spend time with a group of the incoming first year students who will be joining us in August. We host a series of welcome days for incoming students throughout the summer, at which the students learn more about the school, get an introduction to legal analysis and writing, and also get subjected to my teaching a model Torts class. I always enjoy this opportunity to get to know our incoming students both on a personal level and through some fun discussion about key Torts issues (like the duty to assist, causation, the distinction between acts and omissions, etc.). We also provided special briefings for the family and friends of our incoming first-year students.

We’ll be having more of these sessions over the next two months. If you are an incoming student, be sure to contact the Admissions Office at 313-596-0264 or visit our Admitted Student web site (http://www.law.udmercy.edu/admitted/) for more information. I look forward to seeing you.