Washington University (St. Louis) Law School Is Focused

The career services office at Washington University (St. Louis) Law School is earning its keep. The Dean, Kent D. Syverud, sent out a message to his students. The first point, predictably, was that his students are totally screwed:

I write to address a foremost priority of this law school– your future legal careers and the role we play as a law school in preparing and placing you in the legal community.
I write during a sea change in the legal employment world. Employers are rethinking what was formerly an entrenched and immutable hiring model. In many cases legal employers have already amended their current hiring practices and there is a growing consensus that these changes will be systemic and inexorable.

Damn. “Systemic and inexorable” change sounds like something that happens to people who get an STD.
But Dean Syverud is on the case, after the jump.


Things might be bad, but WLS is doing the best they can:

We are on top of this change. Over the past year I have met extensively with our school’s leadership, law firm hiring partners, and deans of other similarly positioned law schools. Deans Bolin and Spivey have regularly and recently met with the managing partners of law firms and senior level management of legal employment….
Over the past year we have remained nimble and flexible to the changes in legal hiring. Indeed, I believe we are ahead of the curve. My commitment to you is that we will continue to meet with employers throughout the world to understand their needs and changing hiring practices and will tirelessly strive to remain at the forefront of adapting to these changes.

So, Washington University Law School is a flexible partner that likes to be on top of things? There are worse things.
Good luck, WLS students. For the rest of you, how are your law schools dealing with the legal market based on this summer’s results?

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