What's Going on at Emory Law School? Dean Partlett Explains

In response to yesterday’s post about recent events in Emory Law School’s career services office (which has generated an insane number of comments), we received an email from Dean David Partlett. We thank Dean Partlett for his message. Here it is:

Dear David,

I write regarding questions surrounding Laurie Hartman’s resignation from Emory School of Law a few weeks ago. Given the level of discussion surrounding this topic, I feel a little clarification is necessary.

Laurie Hartman served as Assistant Dean of Career Services at Emory for three years. During that time, the law school underwent an extensive external review of the office and received high marks for the strength of the services provided by the office. Dean Hartman, after serving for three years, decided to resign from her position to pursue other career opportunities. Her resignation was amicable. As you know, there is never a good time for a staff member in an office as important as Career Services to leave. Given the critical nature of services provided by this office, the administration of the law school moved quickly to address the vacancy.

Read the balance of Dean Partlett’s message, after the jump.


EMAIL MESSAGE FROM DEAN DAVID F. PARTLETT (EMORY LAW SCHOOL)
(continued from before the jump)
The following steps were taken:
* Within two days of the announcement that Dean Hartman was
leaving Emory, each of the students she was counseling was reassigned to
another career counselor and notified whom their new counselor would be.
* Emory placed the office under the direction of Senior Director
Michelle Stevens, who took on the role of assistant dean in an interim
capacity to lead day-to-day operations of the office.
* Emory immediately began the search for a replacement for Dean
Hartman and has hired Janet Hutchinson, who formerly worked at Emory as
senior director of career services, to return to Emory and lead the
office as assistant dean. In addition, we hired an additional full-time
staff member with career services experience from Tulane Law School to
work in the office to assist during the transition. All of the vacancies
within the office have been filled and we have added one full-time
employee to meet the needs of our students.
* An announcement was sent to students from Dean Hartman (at her
request) wishing our students the best of luck and providing them with
her email address should they wish to contact her directly.
We are extremely pleased that Janet Hutchinson has agreed to return to
Emory to lead this critical office for us. We are confident that her
experience in this area combined with having worked with our students
before will allow her to immediately provide strong leadership in this
area when she begins her position in early December.
Career Services continues to be one of my main priorities as Dean of
Emory Law, and we will continue to work hard to make improvements to
this office moving forward. We are saddened that the resignation of one
of our employees has become fodder for gossip and attacks on members of
our community via the Internet.
On a personal note, I would like to thank our alumni and students for
their concern and well wishes. Emory remains one of the top law schools
in the country because of the important work they do every day. I ask
that they continue to support Emory, so that the good work our students
and graduates are doing in the world will not be overshadowed.
Sincerely,
David F. Partlett
Dean and Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law
Earlier: What’s Going on at Emory Law School?

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