Fall 1983 – Issue 30 - Stanford Lawyer - Stanford University

Student Exposure to Career'Alternatives' - Dean Ely's MemoDean Ely discussed issues concerning careerchoices in the following memorandum to StanfordLaw students, distributed on January 25. The memorefuted suggestions by some students that theSchool channels them into corporate law, and describedcontinuing and new resources available tothose wishing to explore career alternatives. At thesame time, the Dean challenged the assumption thata career in corporate law necessarily precludespublic service activities. Because of the considerableinterest in these issues expressed bygraduates and friends of the School, the editorreprints the Dean's memo in full below.The world of our professionis large. Its practitionersand its roles areremarkably diverse, asare the rewards it offersnotsimply in financialterms but also in excitement,intellectual fascination,and the satisfactionthat can flow from publicservice or the helping ofothers. A number of youhave suggested to me,however, that the Schoolis doing too little to acquaintits students with this range of rewards, thatinstead our curriculum and financial aid policies aregeared so as to channel you all into large corporatelaw firms.To be honest, I think there is a good deal ofrationalization involved in these charges, that thewidespread choice of corporate law practice on thepart of our students is simply reflective of a combinationof interest in the sort of problems that oneencounters in such a practice, and concern forfinancial security for oneself and one's family whichis particularly understandable in these uncertaineconomic times. I don't think rationalization is all thatis involved, however, and it is because I do not thatI am taking the modest steps outlined in this memorandum.The administration of this School has no desire tosteer Stanford students in any particular career direction,and in particular no desire to steer themaway from practice in large corporate law firms.Such practices can offer a high excitement that maybe unavailable elsewhere, and, like every other formof legal endeavor, a corporate practice can providean attorney with opportunities to help 'make theworld a more habitable place for us all. (Like everyother kind of legal job, it can be performed eithermorally or immorally, depending on who is performingit.) Nor need a career in a corporate law firm entailan entirely uniform practice: Our profession isfilled with examples of men and women whose basicallylarge firm practices have involved significantactivity, intermittent or continuing, devoted quite explicitlyto serving the profession and the public.What we seek, instead, is increased exposure forour students, or rather increased opportunities forexposure, to various lawyers' activities occurring outsidethe standard large corporate practice. Somefew of you, thus exposed, may end up deciding thata "different" sort of career is what you wish at leastinitially to pursue. A greater number will probablyuse the breadth of experience thus gained to enrichand enliven what willnonetheless remain primarilya large firm practice.Beyond that, exposure to something of therange of lives and activitiesour profession offerswill simply make you abetter educated law studentand lawyer, providingyou with tools to enrichour various discussionshere at the School and thecontributions you will beable to make later in life asa practitioner, of whatever kind, and as a citizenlawyerconcerned (in the voting booth or elsewhere)with the enlightened formulation of public policy.1. One thing I and other members of the administrationhave done so far is to meet with students todiscuss this subject. Many of you have expressedsurprise at the number of students who came tothese meetings. What we said there may have beenof some help, but more important, I think, was thesymbolism, the fact that students contemplatingcareers other than entirely in large corporate lawfirms, or at least wishing the School provided moreexposure to such "alternatives," actually saw (a) theDean of the School indicating that their aspirationsand curiosities were not in his opinion evidence ofmental illness, and, perhaps more importantly (b) aroom full of fellow students who seemed to beentertaining the same "deviant" curiosities that theywere. I am told that those meetings may in somesmall way have helped set the student body talking,talking in particular in a way that recognizes that unlikemost people on this earth, you really do havemany choices about how you will spend the rest ofyour lives.(continued)Fall 1983 Stanford Lawyer53