preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008 - (Page 13)

DREXEL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW staff and students, including, from left, student Jerome Aquino, Dean Roger Dennis, Professor Susan Brooks and student Michelle Payne are celebrating their law school’s recent provisional accreditation from the ABA — granted less than 18 months after opening. school in 18 months,” he said. “Everyone didn’t think it would happen.” Oxholm, who’s been at the forefront of the planning stages for the law school, said it’s all proof that when there is an idea that makes sense, Drexel University is really ready to put its mind, talents and energy into it. An innovative approach Drexel University had just acquired a medical school in 2002, when administrators saw that the only missing piece was a law school. “We were looking at how medicine and engineering go together, and then how are they protected,” Oxholm said. “All that stuff had to do with law.” University administrators soon formed photo by jared castaldi a committee, meeting for three months to debate, argue and project what the new law school would envision. Basing their curricula off of the famed MacCrate Report, administrators wanted to build a bridge between the practice and the academy. The report, published in 1992 by the ABA Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession, focused on the preparation of law students for the practice of law. Soon enough, the law school attracted 1,700 student applicants and more than 600 applications for teaching positions. “When the accreditors came, they found a law school that was staffed with faculty that was excited about the mission,” Oxholm said. Dean Roger Dennis can’t imagine any law school getting better support. “We just really had what we needed to do to build a law school,” he said. “We’ve been able to hire excellent people and were very mindful of our obligations to our students from day one.” Susan Brooks, professor and associate dean of experimental learning, said the school’s co-op approach makes students, on some level, better lawyers. “I think that legal clinics and clinical programs in law school have been for a long time a place in which there has been an appreciation of how one can teach a new practice,” she said. Through cooperative education, students supplement classroom study with professional experience. Approximately 100 employers have joined Drexel Law as co-op partners, including law firms, the courts, government and public-interest agencies. “For me it was a very unique and appeal- What is law school? A place where convention is reinforced? Or more than that? A place to learn a broad repertoire of skills. A rigorous curriculum in a supportive environment. An intersection of theory and practice. Explore the full potential of the law in a school devoted to the big picture. www.CaliforniaWestern.edu Spring 2008 13 http://www.CaliforniaWestern.edu http://www.CaliforniaWestern.edu

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008

preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008 Contents From the Editor For the Record Large Gender Gap Remains Among Political Hopefuls Man Charged in LSAT Scam Barry Dean Recognized New Report Examines Legal Ed Drexel Receives Accredidation New Mexico No. 1 for Hispanics A Film Journey in Law A Law Student at Last Debt Salvation Great Law Schools for Minorities Grad Opts Out of Big Firm Job Specialties Helpful Advice

preLaw Magazine - Spring 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.