Legal News

Law School Dean Hits Road to Help Students Get Jobs

By Dan Slater

Given all the cynicism surrounding career prospects for law students at so-called third- and fourth-tier schools, we were happy when, last May, we came across Mark Gordon (pictured), the dean of University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. In a WSJ article, Law Blog colleague Amir Efrati detailed an initiative by Gordon, a Law Blog Moustache Society member, to help his students get jobs by assembling a team of big firm partners to advise the school on its third-year curriculum.

Now Gordon has turned his sights abroad, striking a deal with a Mexican law school to build a five-year joint-degree program. In 2008, Gordon will unveil a venture between his Detroit Mercy and Mexico’s El Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. The two schools will offer students a five-year program — three in the U.S., two in Mexico — that will qualify them to practice in the States and in Mexico.

“We think there’s a market for law firms wanting to hire students that have this kind of knowledge,” Gordon said of the program, which will require participants to take several classes in Spanish.

Curious as to whether such a program would help beef up a resume, we called up David Leinwand, the hiring partner at Cleary Gottlieb to ask what he thought.

“Clearly, it’s attractive,” said Leinwand. “Among the qualities we look for, given the foreign nature of our pratice, is language ability and experience outside the U.S. . . . It will certainly enhance a student’s candidacy.” That said, Leinwand wasn’t about to open Cleary’s doors to all of the program’s graduates. “The student still needs the other qualifications that we seek.”

So let’s turn it over to you, Law Blog readers, whaddya think? Will Dean Gordon’s new program up the status of Detroit Mercy grads in the eyes of firm hiring honchos?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 07, 2008 (boomark / email).