A Dazzling Triumph for the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law

The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law ranks in the fourth tier of American Law Schools, according to the 2007 U.S. News & World Report rankings. The fourth tier can be a very painful place for students. I regularly hear from fourth-tier students trying to escape from this "penalty box."

Yet in today's Wall Street Journal ("How Obscure Law School Places Grads at Top Firms", May 23, 2007, by Amir Efrati), we read that Detroit Mercy has actually placed a handful of students at summer jobs with elite national law firms, such as Paul, Hastings, and Mayer, Brown. Further, lawyers from Skadden Arps and Fried Frank now send a representative to Detroit Mercy to recruit on campus.

How has such a stunning development happened? How could a fourth-tier law school attract some of the most prestigious and demanding of legal employers? How could several Detroit Mercy law students end up in summer clerkships there, where their colleagues are usually from the law schools of Yale, Harvard, Stanford, NYU and Columbia?

An incredibly creative dean at Detroit Mercy, Mark C. Gordon, a Harvard Law graduate, created a lawyer network--an advisory board--to generate ideas for school improvement, while at the same time introducing some of his top students to lawyers and firms they would otherwise never get to see. Dean Gordon also persuaded in-house attorneys from major Detroit companies to speak to their outside counsel--often the elite firms--to invite some of their lawyers to join the advisory board, further expanding its strength and influence. Major lawyers and firms have now taken enough interest in advancing the development of Detroit Mercy that the Wall Street Journal found the story fit to publish. I think we'll see that Detroit Mercy is significantly lifted by this publicity.

Dean Gordon has insisted that Detroit Mercy better serve legal employers by developing, with the advisory board's ideas and contributions, a series of courses that simulate law-firm practice, thus better preparing Detroit Mercy grads for real-life practice. While pooh-poohed by some major law schools, such real-life simulations are the path that lower-tier law schools should take. Such schools should build and stress exceptional competence in developing students for real-life, law-related work, and bar passage rates that eventually exceed their higher-tier competitors.

Someone insightfully once criticized law school in baseball terms: "Law school is like studying the science of pitching and batting--for three years--without ever actually playing a game or hitting a ball." Yale can get away with this, but fourth-tier schools certainly cannot. Their graduates need to be able to work as lawyers from day one on the job.

This Detroit Mercy response, and its success--so noteworthy that the Wall Street Journal is now watching--is a powerful lesson for every law school, particularly those wanting to deliver a more effective education to their student customers. I hope Detroit Mercy's success starts a trend. I'll be watching this school more closely.

For more information about my services to law school applicants and transfer applicants, please see my website at www.PrelawAdvisor.com .

"Help Me Find the Right Law School...for Me!"

I am regularly asked this question. I can help you determine the right answer.

Let me begin by asking you a series of non-stressful questions, the answers to which will narrow down the vast range of law schools to some appropriate choices for our further consideration.

1. First, let's think about physical location. Do you envision going to law school in an urban, suburban or rural setting?

2. Do you want to remain in such a setting after law school is over for you?

3. Do you think you want a national, regional, or local law school? National law schools are the toughest in terms of admission challenge, but offer the greatest access to a wide job market. However, they are likely to be the most expensive. Regional law schools, often public, can be very respected in their region or state, and can be less expensive than private law schools, but they lack a national reach in terms of the job market. Local law schools are the easiest challenge in terms of admission, but typically have only limited interest from legal employers beyond the local market. And private local law schools can be very expensive.

4. Consider the reach of the school in the job market. Begin to get a sense of who recruits there by checking the NALP Directory.

5. Do you want a law school that is cooperative in its culture? Or competitive?

6. How harsh or friendly is the school's grading policy? Does the school provide class ranking data? Or does it refrain from doing so?

7. How diverse is the student body there? Are you going to feel comfortable there, and part of the community?

8. What about the political character of the professors and students? Does the law school have what you are looking for?

9. Does the law school have a religious affiliation that you might want?

10. What about the law school's cost? Do students really pay the stated tuition cost, or do many receive discounts through aid, grants and scholarships?

11. Does the area surrounding the law school offer you some of the things that you want for recreation, personal growth, fun, learning, meeting people, jobs, and institutions that matter to you?

12. As you visit a potential school's website--or better the actual physical setting of a potential law school--what is your reaction to their facilities? Are they new, or old? How comfortable are the students? Is there convenient internet access for everyone? Adequate library and study space? What about parking? Public transportation? And what about personal safety, in the school and neighborhood?

13. If you are physically there, stroll into a public bathroom for a quick look. This might sound odd to you, but it can reveal something important about the culture of the school. Is the bathroom dirty or clean? Supplied adquately, or missing important things? Is the bathroom covered with angry student graffiti, or are the walls and stalls clean?

14. Consider the average age and life experience of students at this law school. Are they mostly fresh from college, or do they have some work experience? Which do you want?

Also consider the information at PrelawAdvisor.com as you begin to make your law school plans. For more information on how I can assist you, or to answer your questions, please send an e-mail to BradDobeck@aol.com.