The Dean's Plan

Developing a strategy to fix MU's sudden drop in US News Rankings and address student concerns, the Dean discusses measures to strengthen the MU law school in a recent letter to the student body.

Dear Students,

Over the last week, all of us have had thoughtful, and candid, conversation concerning our most recent ranking, employment for our graduates, and other aspects of the Law School. Deans and faculty have met with students and groups of students, and after Thursday’s open meeting, I, personally, heard from many of you and met with elected student leaders, other student representatives, and the Faculty Policy Committee.

Much of this discussion has centered on student and graduate employment and how we can best focus and extend our efforts to ensure that every graduate obtains a good legal job. I therefore am extremely pleased that the University has provided funding for an additional full-time professional law school staff member for career services. You have raised good ideas concerning career services, and this wonderful support from the University will enable us to build upon these suggestions, and more fully extend our efforts, as we engage in career services planning this summer.

We have some very good news from the University on another front as well. While all campus hiring must be approved by MU, the University has authorized us to hire for all five open faculty positions at the Law School. Next fall we will seek three new entry-level faculty to join us in Fall 2011, while in Fall 2011 we will seek to hire an additional two entry-level faculty to join us the year after.

With respect to another rankings category in which we dropped this year, bar passage, we also received good news earlier this week–that MU graduates had the highest bar passage rate (95%) of any law school in Missouri on the February 2010 Missouri Bar Examination (including 100% success for first-time takers).

Thank you for your continuing suggestions and support of our law school as we work, together, to make this an even better law school in the years ahead.

R. Lawrence Dessem
Dean