Law Schools

Law School Rejects Student Resumes For Preferring Historic, Prestigious Name Over Donor-Driven Rebrand

The law school will keep trying and failing to make this happen.

By  
on

rejected stamp RFThe University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League school with the number 4 law school according to U.S. News. Law students pay a lot for the express purpose of boasting those two facts for the rest of their professional lives. But a private donor paid a whole lot more to get the law school to slap a new name on the program.

It’s not really working out.

Students are pissed. Alumni are pissed. The University of Maryland should be pissed since they already changed their name to Carey before Carey started making itself the Starbucks of legal academics. While the Yales and Harvards of the world might hand out naming rights to a library wing or new dormitory, Penn opted to change its name to off-brand Maryland and managed to irritate everyone in the process. The school already had to delay adopting the name once to appease students who entered before the deal so they could graduate without mucking up their diplomas. (UPDATE: Astoundingly, I’ve since learned that the school ultimately reneged on this promise and shoved “Carey” onto these graduates’ diplomas after pledging not to. Wow.)

For most students, the simple solution has been to ignore the situation. Employers still call it Penn, so why get involved in letterhead politics? But the school has apparently decided to put a stop to the scourge of students using a name that employers might recognize. According to a tipster, the law school has a pre-program for on-campus interviewing requiring students to funnel their materials through the school first.

Students who called the law school “University of Pennsylvania Law School” on their resumes got a bounceback that they needed to amend their resumes to call it “University of Pennsylvania CAREY Law School” in light of the controversial donation to the law school.

While Penn grads at the big law firms discuss donation moratoriums over the name, the school is going to force students to play ball in the latest bid to get the botched rebrand off the ground? Good luck with all that.

tenor-108209417

Sponsored

Earlier: Despite Historic Gift, T14 Law School Will Get To Keep Its Name — For Now
Disgruntled T14 Students Take To Twitter To Protest Law School’s Name Change
Students And Alumni Are Pretty Pissed About T14 Law School’s Name Change
T14 Law School Receives Historic Donation, Changes Its Name

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Sponsored

Topics

,