CUA Cover Winter 2004 final (Page 2) - Columbus School of Law

FROM THE Dean’s DeskDear Alumni and Friends:This is the first letter I have been ableto write to you as dean of the lawschool. I hope to be able to write severalmore over the next few years.I was enormously flattered to be askedby Father David O’Connell, the presidentof Catholic University, to serve as dean.My appointment came as I began my 29thyear on this faculty. I have had severalopportunities to meet with individual graduatesand groups of alumni over the pastfew months. Each meeting confirms all thegreat and wonderful things our graduatesare doing, every day of the week, all overthe world. As I’ve spoken to many of you,I’ve been able to tell you about one of theenormous pleasures and satisfactions inteaching — watching what your formerstudents do when they get out into the realworld.In so many respects, the law school hasnever been better. We now enroll approximately950 students, roughly 300 of whichare in the evening division. The full-timefaculty now comprises more than 45 productive,hard working teachers and scholars.Our staff, one of the best in the world,numbers around 100.In the past two years, the entering credentialsof the first-year class have risenmeasurably. We have nearly tripled theamount of financial aid we offer to theincoming students. This year’s enteringfirst-year class comprises 243 full-time and87 part-time students. There are 180women and 154 men in the class who comefrom 165 different undergraduate schools,34 states and four foreign countries. One ofthem has five graduate degrees in biologyand management. Another owns and operatesseven Burger King franchises. Anotherfirst-year student is the chief of staff atGeorgetown University Hospital. One hasperformed as the percussionist of theHouston Sinfonietta. Another was, forthree years in a row, the leading scorer forthe Princeton University soccer team. Yetanother was a police officer in Memphis.Several others served in the JesuitVolunteer Corps, the Vincentian ServiceCorps, the Peace Corps and Americorps.Around 95 percent of our studentshave found law-related employment withinnine months of graduation. Unlike a numberof other law schools, our placement statisticsremain strong. While most of ourrecent graduates have gone into privatepractice, we continue to see significantnumbers entering government service. Weare highly competitive with regard to clerkships,including federal clerkships. In thepast two years, we have placed one graduateas a clerk on the Ninth Circuit andanother in a Fifth Circuit clerkship. Two oflast year’s graduates became foreign serviceofficers. Several others were PresidentialFellows. We are optimistic about the jobmarket for this year’s graduating class, but Iwill need your help in making sure that ourgraduates are recognized for their excellenceand achievement and placed in thebest possible entry-level positions.The faculty continues to teach excellentclasses and to crank out books and articlesat a significant rate of production.Recent additions to our faculty includeSarah Duggin, the former general counselof Amtrak, and Peter (“Bo”) Rutledge, aformer clerk for Supreme Court JusticeClarence Thomas. Under the guidance ofProfessor David Lipton, the facultyapproved a new certificate program insecurities law that is proving highly popularamong our student body. Our other specializedprogram are thriving: communicationslaw, for which I am serving as interimdirector, law and public policy underProfessor Lisa Lerman, comparative andinternational law with Professor RettLudwikowski, and law and religion administeredby Professor Robert Destro. Thefaculty remains active both internally andexternally. Professor Michael Noone hasmade multiple trips to Geneva,Switzerland, on projects involving militaryjustice and military tribunals. ProfessorWilliam Kaplin has been on a national lecturecircuit discussing the Supreme Court’srecent affirmative action decisions. Ourclinics play to strong reviews around thecountry.But I don’t want to overplay the U.S.News game of evaluating law schools merelyby raw statistics. A law school, particularlythis law school, is far more than a simplemeasure of student/faculty ratio, of placementfigures, of bar pass statistics. Weremain devoted to the mission of the universityand the mission of the Church. Iwant a faculty and a student body with thehighest aspirations of ethics and excellencein practice. I never want to lose sight of allthose graduates of ours who went into publicservice. These graduates litigate childabuse cases in D.C. Superior Court. Theyrepresent tenants in Prince George'sCounty. They work with the elderly aroundthe country. To assist our current studentswith these same aspirations, I will be talkingto all of you about scholarships and establishinga loan forgiveness program.Often, I am asked for my vision for thelaw school. On a number of occasions I’vementioned that two weeks after I arrivedhere as a first-year student in August 1970,I felt as if I had come home. I’ve never reallylost that feeling. But I don’t want us to betotally comfortable. I don’t want us to reston past laurels. Any law school of goodquality these days must continue to achieveand excel. Our high standard was set at thevery beginning by our first dean, WilliamCallyhan Robinson, who left Yale LawSchool with the goal of duplicating itsexcellence right here. Dean Robinson envisioneda Roman Catholic law school in thefinest traditions and with the deepestappreciation for the university and theChurch. It was, and is, a worthy goal. Let uscontinue to pursue it.William F. Fox, Jr.Dean and Professor of Law