Tuesday July 17, 2007

There are certainly some important changes underway in
legal education in US law schools. That's made crystal
clear by the recent article "Re-enginnering the JD Degree"
which appeared in the July issue of the ABA Journal, which
is the national publication of the American Bar Association
and is read by thousands of lawyers around the country.

In describing innovative curricular changes at key law
schools, the Journal article focused on seven law schools
around the country: Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, Penn,
Drexel, and the University of Detroit
Mercy.

Given all the attention that our distinct model of legal
education has been getting recently (from The Wall Street
Journal, the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, and the National
Law Journal, to the ABA Journal and USA Today, to name a
few), I am hearing from more and more attorneys around the
nation. Their comments have been very supportive as they
confirm that traditional legal education has not done a
particularly good job in preparing students to practice as
attorneys.

Students starting in the fall at University of Detroit
Mercy School of Law will enjoy the benefits of our now
nationally-recognized new model. The model includes our
new "Core Concepts" course in the first year, during which
students are introduced to a range of analytical techniques
and more hands-on problem solving. By discussing actual
fact patterns that cut across the different first-year
topics, students should be able to see better how the
concepts taught in each first-year class apply to real-life
problems.

Starting in their second year, students will benefit from
our extensive clinical program -- in fact, all of our
students will take either a clinic or an externship while
at the school. The list of clinics continues to expand,
including our Urban Law Clinic, Immigration Clinic,
Appellate Advocacy Clinic, Mediation Clinic, Criminal Law
Clinic, Environmental Clinic (starting next year), and our
new veterans clinical program as well.

Students will then be well-prepared for our third year "Law
Firm Program" in which they will work on simulated complex
corporate transactions of the types of national firms
generally handle. This is perhaps the part of our new
model which has gotten the most national attention, and I
keep hearing from partners in major firms across the
country about what a step forward it is. In fact, many of
those firms are now working with us to develop different
more specialized courses in the Law Firm Program.

Of course, it's always nice to get good press and to be
recognized as a national leader. But what brings me real
joy as Dean is seeing our students prepared in ways that
give them a real advantage in the marketplace for jobs.

Given all the changes underway in legal education, I think
prospective students trying to decide where to attend law
school need to ask themselves about how well the curriculum
under which they study today will help prepare them for the
jobs they will be seeking tomorrow.