Tuesday August 26, 2008

Here it is mid-August and it's difficult to believe that a new school year is starting, as our Orientation for first-year law students took place last week -- August 18.

This is always an exciting time of the year for me. First, I very much enjoy all the excitement, energy, and enthusiasm that the new first-year students bring to the School. Once again this year, we are welcoming a great group of students from states all around the country, various provinces in Canada, and beyond. The increasing geographic diversity and the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of our student body over the past several years have brought even greater vibrancy to the School.

Second, another fun part of this time of the year is hearing from the returning students about their experiences during the summer. They are, of course, engaged in a wide range of activities, including working as clerks, summer associates, fellows in public service, or students studying abroad during the summer, to name just a few. Invariably, they say great things both about their summer experiences and about how well trained they felt by UDM for their summer positions.

In fact, speaking of summer associate positions, I am pleased to report that our students working as summer associates in large national law firms in places like New York, California and places in between, have done an excellent job impressing the partners at their respective firms. I have heard from partners at several firms around the country about how impressed their firms were with the work our students did for them this summer. More than one has told me that UDM summer associates were considered among the best of the summer associates at the firm--and that includes firms which attract summer associates from the "most prestigious" law schools in the country.

Happily, it appears that the experiences of firms both here in Michigan and around the nation with our students are translating into a nice expansion in the number of firms participating in on-campus interviews this fall. Given the current economic challenges facing law firms large and small, that is good news indeed.

I'm very pleased with the expanding job opportunities becoming available to our students and I'm really proud that our students are taking such great advantage of these opportunities. That's a win-win both for the students and for the School.