UDM Events

UDM News

Message from the Dean

Dear Students:

As the articles in this issue of the Docket make clear, our curricular reforms are starting to hit their stride.  Thanks to input from many of you over the past several years, and to the incredible dedication and openness to innovation of our faculty, we are in the midst of instituting some rather far-reaching changes.  And those changes are indeed starting to pay dividends.  If you did not already see it, please take a look at the May 23, 2007 article on page B1 of the Wall Street Journal which emphasized how our new curriculum is causing elite national firms to start hiring our students.  (You can access the article as well as other recent articles about our new veterans clinical program through our website at www.law.udmercy.edu.)

Our new Law Firm Program (in which students work on a simulated complex corporate transaction), which was the subject of a National Law Journal article in February, is certainly the most prominent of our curricular reforms.  (Special thanks to Prof. Lloyd Semple and Prof. Carol Clark for the incredible amount of time and effort they have put into this past semester's pilot course for this program.)  In the fall, we will be offering the first set of "modules," i.e., the specialized courses that highlight different areas of the transaction.

However, the curricular reforms go much further.  This summer we are sending our first group of students overseas as part of our new International Opportunities Program.  Our new requirement that all students take either a clinic or an externship is leading to a veritable explosion in new clinical offerings at the School, in areas such as criminal law and environmental law in addition to our existing clinics.  You may also have read the Detroit Free Press and USA Today articles about our new clinical effort dedicated to assisting veterans in pursuing disability claims.  It is now our turn to respond to the call to help those who have already answered the call to serve our country.

Two particular sources of pride from this semester.  First, despite the weakening local and regional economy, job opportunities for our students continue to outshine the competition.  In fact, the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings indicated that, among all the law schools in Michigan, only two had employment rates above 90% for its students nine months after graduation.  Those two schools were the University of Michigan and University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

Second, we enjoyed a spectacular year in our Moot Court competitions.  As you know, we send teams to competitions around the country.  This year, out of nine separate competitions in which UDM teams competed, our teams won one championship (the Niagara International Law Moot Court Competition); won Best Brief in another (the National Immigration Law Competition); and UDM students were named Best Oralists in two more.  In fact, in all but two of the competitions our teams progressed beyond the preliminary rounds and often much further.  Both Professors Michelle Streicher and Cara Cunningham share (together with our fantastic Moot Court Board, the faculty advisors for each team, and all the students competing) the credit for this tremendous accomplishment.

There is much more to report, but I'll let you enjoy reviewing the pages that follow.  I do, however, want to thank all of the alumni who have helped us in so many ways in moving the School forward this past year.

And I want to suggest some other ways that you can help even more.  Of course, as you know, I am not reticent about asking for financial support.  We face economic challenges and moving the School and its curriculum forward take real resources.  Your help in this regard is, as always, appreciated.

But while we certainly want your financial assistance, we could also use your help in many other ways.  As part of an upcoming expansion in our legal writing programs, we are looking for practicing attorneys who will be able to read and provide feedback on student-written papers.  In this regard, we want our students to get feedback both from our superb group of legal writing faculty and also from currently practicing attorneys.  It is not too early to start preparing for next year's Moot Court competitions, for which we will need alumni to assist in doing practice rounds for our teams before they go to the competitions.  And we hope that you might be able to find the time to assist on a pro-bono basis with either our new veterans clinical program or other elements of our clinics.  If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please contact Asst. Dean Denise Hickey at hickeydp@udmercy.edu.

We believe strongly that our students deserve the best.  We hope you will agree to keep helping us with both your financial resources and donations of time and expertise as well.

I hope you are having a wonderful summer.


Mark C. Gordon

Dean, UDM School of Law