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.