preLaw Magazine - Fall 2008 - (Page 14) Maximizing student success Northwestern University Law School begins a two-year J.D. program in 2009 BY ROBERT GLUCK orthwestern University Law School is the first top-tier school to offer the two-year J.D. program, but the work involved in polishing it was extensive. “This enterprise started in 2006 and was the most systematic I've ever seen,” said Dean David Van Zandt. “No other law schools have done anything like it.” But two law schools are doing it. They just aren’t gaining as much attention. Southwestern Law School was actually the first to develop an accelerated program, and the University of Dayton School of Law graduated their first six-semester students in May. Dayton‘s program, Van Zandt said, is N more similar in structure to Northwestern’s in terms of time. “Dayton showed us that it can be done,” he said. “Their students do as well, or in many cases better than the traditional three year students did.” Northwestern’s accelerated program starts in 2009 and is part of a new plan to maximize its graduates’ success. The focus from the beginning was on basic foundational competencies, Van Zandt said. Research, formed commissions, empirical studies on graduates and focus groups were held in Chicago and in London. “We went to the marketplace to find out what we needed to do,” he said. Seven competencies — communication, teamwork, strategic understanding, basic quantitative skills, cross-cultural work, project management and leadership — were established to complement the traditional law school focus on case law analysis. Van Zandt said his school’s program will attract students who are motivated and understand opportunity cost. “Whether you're talking about comparing us to a top-tier school or other schools, we are the only school, and certainly the only top-tier school, that insists on large amounts of work experience,” he said. “This is market driven.” Van Zandt’s team of researchers found 14 preLaw http://www.law.uci.edu http://www.law.uci.edu
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