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| University of St. Thomas School of Law (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Dear James,
I write to you from the University of St. Thomas School of Law where I am the Interim Dean and the founding director of the Thomas Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions.
My colleagues, Cari Haaland, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Jerry Organ, Professor of Law, and Kate Snowdon, Assistant Director of Admissions, attended and participated in the PLANC Conference in Washington, D.C., in June. During the conference my colleagues heard from several advisors asking: “What are law schools doing in response to the current crisis?”
At the University of St. Thomas School of Law, we set out over ten years ago to build a law school that was different. As a new law school, we did not face the challenge of discarding an old mindset in order to think creatively about how best to provide the legal education our students need to meet the challenges facing the legal profession.
Instead, we blazed a new trail with our award winning mentor externship program, with our interdisciplinary clinical offerings, with our public service requirement and with our curriculum and culture focused around the formation of an ethical professional identity in our students and graduates. More recently, we have opened new clinics and expanded our upper-level curriculum to offer training responsive to what we are learning from legal employers about what they are looking for in successful lawyers –with an emphasis on self-directed learning, teamwork and relationship skills.
We just released an updated Dean's Message on our web site written for prospective students. In this message, I describe how our approach to legal education is different and how empirical research demonstrates that what we are doing is working. I also provide a chart of values and skills that define successful lawyers – these are the values and skills clients are looking for and upon which legal employers are insisting in this new reality. We want our students and graduates to be as well prepared for success in the legal profession as possible. What legal education has historically offered is not enough and we have the data, resources, and skills to make sure our students are prepared – to help our students develop toward employability in this new normal market. Please read my message to learn more about our value proposition and the evidence we have that our approach is working.
We have been blessed to attract a great group of scholar-teachers who are not only gifted in educating our students but also are engaging the legal profession with their meaningful research, having garnered a ranking in the top-30 among law schools for scholarly impact. As the Interim Dean of this law school, I am struck on a daily basis by the overwhelmingly affirming energy my faculty and administration show. As a community our heads are not buried in the sand. (Every member of my senior staff has Failing Law Schools by Professor Tamanaha on his or her desk.) Not only are we aware of the troubles in the legal profession, we talk about the concerns at national conferences and publish on these topics. What makes us different is that we are continually reflecting and searching for solutions in the context of our mission and vision, in which we emphasize the search for truth through a focus on morality and social justice.
We are gratified to have a strong entering class this fall. Over 90% of these new first-year law students received scholarships with our generous renewal condition in which students simply need to remain in good academic standing to retain their scholarships.
Please let me know how I, or any of my colleagues, can serve as resources as you continue to advise students during these tumultuous times. We thank you for your efforts to guide your students and graduates considering law school and look forward to our continued friendship as we all work to guide students in the direction of their true vocational calling.
Warm regards,
Neil Hamilton
Neil HamiltonInterim Dean
Professor of Law
Director, Thomas Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions
651-962-486
www.stthomas.edu/law
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