Except that UC Irvine doesn't have 4 ranked schools within a few miles, so to me it seems a little different

I know someone with a law degree who is a VP of HR at very large international company. Didn't have to work through the ranks to get it like others would have, too.

CA is a saturated market though.

My parents' stock broker was an attorney. He doesn't practice now, but he went to a good law school. He's young too so it's not a pre-retirement gig, that's what he likes to do I guess...

Personally, I think that Dean Albertson-Ploucha's willingness to field a "hard" question speaks volumes about the pragmatic and practical attitude that Drexel seems to be cultivating. I definitely appreciated her direct response. I'm sure she's a realistic human being and expects that not all questions will be about sunshine and roses on a bulletin board forum.

Being asked a "hard" question is often a good opportunity to demonstrate what your strengths are.

No he is not



Ou yeas they are!




Ou yes they do



Yes they are happy with average house car and 40 h woerkweek. Problem is - They are not getting that. So, They are unhappy.

In general, that's probably true. There's just nothing else south of Los Angeles other than T3/T4s and USD. So in terms of its immediate vicinity, it's not competing with a T14 and some well-respected T2s the way Drexel is. I feel like Drexel has a tougher task just because there are other competing schools so close.

As far as message boards in general (and even this one in particular) go, I don't think reasonable man was particularly over the top/offensive. We piss and moan all the time on here about this topic, but rarely do we ever get to hear the answers to hard questions from academic insiders. There are risks associated with attending an unaccredited law school. There are risks associated with taking out 100k in student loans to get an education. There is data showing a lack of available law jobs. These are legitimate points that should be addressed and considered by anyone planning to get a J.D. And certainly some have not thought to ask about them.

It would be helpful if the dean lists the firms that last year's class were employed at.

I could be wrong, but I think Drexel is graduating its first class this year

I think we should keep this thread for Drexel related questions only and take the side-bars some place else.

Reasonable man is just trying to pull the wool from over your eyes. You are a bunch of sheep who believe anything these schools tell you. You should be thanking him for trying to keep these cash cow schools honest and actually asking real questions instead of these softballs you people are lobbing up to her.

If people want to discuss each other's conduct, please do so elsewhere. This is not the thread for it. Stick to questions please.

I would be very interested to here the answer to the "where did you attend law school and what was the path you took towards becoming an adcomm" question. I understand if you don't want to answer as it's somewhat personal and not really about drexel per se, but I am truly curious.

I have a question.

I noticed that Jennifer Rosato is the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Drexel. If memory serves me correctly, Professor Rosato used to be an Associate Dean and legal ethics professor at my alma mater, Brooklyn Law School. During Professor Rosato's tenure at Brooklyn Law School, an article came out in the Wall Street Journal criticizing the methodology used by the school to report post-graduate career statistics:


"A glossy admissions brochure for Brooklyn Law School, considered second-tier, reports a median salary for recent graduates at law firms of well above $100,000. But that figure doesn't reflect all incomes of graduates at firms; fewer than half of graduates at firms responded to the survey, the school reported to U.S. News. On its Web site, the school reports that 41% of last year's graduates work for firms of more than 100 lawyers, but it fails to mention that that percentage includes temporary attorneys, often working for hourly wages without benefits, Joan King, director of the school's career center, concedes."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119040786780835602.html

Now that Professor Rosato holds a leadership role at Drexel, will she be continuing on the flawed reporting methodology used by Joan King and Brooklyn Law School? I am sure she can claim that NALP and ABA guidelines don't mandate honest and forthright disclosure, but that merely seems like an unethical straw man excuse to me.

Everyone, let me announce who I am. My name is Steven Freedman and I am the associate director in the Drexel Law admissions office (Dean Albertson-Ploucha is my boss).

I've decided to jump into the discussion since the tempo and tone has changed a bit for the worse. Don't get me wrong, we welcome tough questions and as you could see by Dean Albertson-Ploucha's response, we are comfortable providing answers to fair questions about Drexel.

On the other hand, I really don't think this is the forum to delve into the complicated issues regarding how law schools report employment data. I encourage reasonable man and mariannababy (?) to play active roles in the ABA and the NALP to change the reporting methods for employment statistics and to require law schools to provide more useful information. From what I understand, the NALP has already changed the reporting standards to deal with some of the issues discussed here. Frankly, Drexel has not reported any employment statistics so I'm not sure how we have become the target for this discussion.

And I'm not sure where mariannababy is going with the Brooklyn Law reference. Dean Rosato is one of the most honest, honorable and hardworking people I have ever met. Her commitment to our students is absolutely inspiring. She was our interim dean for the first year and contributed more to our success than any other member of our community. We were all thrilled by her recent appointment to Dean of Northern Illinois Law School. Our loss is their gain.

Mariannababy is trying to set up some sort of guilt by association scenario; but I'm not sure what Brooklyn Law is exactly guilty of since hey acknowledged their law firm employment statistics include contract attorneys. To my knowledge, Dean Rosato's duties did not include Career Services. So again, although your arguments are well taken, I'm not sure why the Drexel Law admissions forum is the place for this discussion.

Which is why I think this forum needs to move on from this debate. Helen and I are eager to answer your Drexel Law questions - we are not interested in engaging in policy debates.

So, let's bring it back to Drexel Law. Someone asked where our students have found permanent positions. Following is a partial list of permanent attorney positions at law firms and corporations (no contract attorneys - I promise):

Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC
Conrad O'Brien Gellman & Rohn, PC
Deloitte LLP
Dilworth Paxson LLP
Duane Morris LLP
Eastburn & Gray PC
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC
Fisher & Zucker LLC
LWB Refractories
Lyondell Chemical Co.
Nixon Peabody LLP (Wash. D.C.)
Pepper Hamilton LLP
Ratner Prestia
Saul Ewing LLP
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP
Seidel Weitz Garfinkle & Datz LLC

Thank you for your response.

I never intended to engage in a broad discussion regarding NALP reporting guidelines. I was merely trying to pinpoint where Drexel stood with regards to its own reporting. I guess you answered my question in that when Drexel does report its own numbers it will merely follow NALP protocols, as flawed as the Wall Street Journal and Professor Henderson of Indiana University makes such protocols out to be.

I never intended to impugn the integrity of Dean Rosato. I apologize if I in anyway gave that impression. When I attended Brooklyn Law School, Professor Rosato was an immensely popular professor. I was merely making an observation that while at Brooklyn Law School, Professor Rosato served in the law school administration as an assistant dean. I was just curious as to whether or not Professor Rosato carried over any Brooklyn Law School policies into her new role as assistant dean of Drexel. I guess it was foolish of me to assume that an assistant dean (or any dean, for that matter) would in anyway be involved in career statistics reporting policy, as important as such numbers are to US News rankings. I guess the Director of Career Services is the only person who would know anything about that.

Marianna, please take your BLS obsession back to JDU.

Drexel is a little further along a path that UC Irvine is going to start up on. I think there are actually a lot of similarities considering the similar stature of the overall universities that are housing the law schools.

My question specifically (this is a Drexel question I promise) is what kind of challenges (good and bad) do you think an incoming Drexel student will encounter BECAUSE the school is so new? In particular, I'm curious if there are any challenges that current students have encountered that were unexpected to them or the law school. (beyond the economy which threw everyone for a loop)

Props for Nixon Peabody!

The lack of professionalism and decorum on this thread speaks volumes as to why some people are not attending the other law school adjacent to Drexel in Philadelphia.

The Drexel people graciously came on here to answer questions and you mom's-basement heroes decided to have a field day.

Congrats.

(Steven Freedman)

Awesome Possum,

Being a new law school does put our students in a somewhat unique position - both for better and for worse. On occasion our students have encountered sceptism or doubt from attorneys. And I can't tell you with a straight face that this has never affected a hiring decision. On the other hand, our students report that on many occasions interviewers are really interested to hear about Drexel and what it's like to be a student at Drexel. I can report that even with this dreadful economy, our students have enjoyed a fair amount of success in the job market and in finding judicial clerkships.

Several factors have really aided our students. First, Drexel is a well-established university with a reputation for producing well qualified doctors, engineers, business executives, etc. Not that we're big fans of rankings, but the Drexel community was pretty happy when we cracked the USNWR top 100 this year. This reputation has been enhanced by the quality of faculty and administrators that we have hired (you can learn more about our faculty at http://www.drexel.edu/law/law-school-faculty.asp). And although Drexel Law does not have any graduates yet, Drexel University has over 1,000 Drexel University alums who are attorneys, including judges, corporate general counselors, law partners and one admissions office associate director (me!). It might not be the same as the alumni network at more longstanding institutions, but it's a strong and enthusiastic network nevertheless.

But the most important factor contributing to our students' acceptance into the legal community has been our students ability to work in the community, primarily through our co-op program. At this point we have placed nearly two hundred students in co-op positions throughout the Philadelphia legal community (our over 100 co-op partners are all based in the Philadelphia area). This is in addition to the placements our students have found through internships and clerkships both in Philadelphia and literally throughout the world (Taiwan and Serbia). Through the co-op program and internships, the legal community has seen our students first-hand. Our students have worked in the offices of some of the largest law firms in the country, in D.A.'s and defender's offices, in public interest organizations, corporate general counsel's offices, judicial chambers, etc. In addition to providing our students an invaluable academic benefit, the co-op program has very effectively promoted the Drexel Law program.

Does that mean it is easy sailing for our students? Of course not. And with the economy this year and next, it is going to be tough going for a lot of law school graduates, including Drexel law graduates. We will have students graduate without jobs in hand, or heaven forbid, take their first jobs as contract attorneys. But at least our students will hit the job market with an average nine months of practice experience (5 1/2 months of co-op + 2 1/2 months internship + 1/2 months pro bono service). And by the time Drexel students entering next fall graduate in 2012, they will benefit from the three graduating classes and three co-op classes paving the way before them (and I hope a recovered economy).

+1

Thank you, Mr. Freedman and Dean Albertson-Ploucha, for reaching out to us on TLS. We genuinely appreciate your time and forthright responses, and remind you that the opinions of few outspoken posters do not represent the majority.

Looking forward to learning more about the advantages that Drexel Law students can benefit from.

JustDude, where the freak have you been?

As you pointed out the co-op program is working well to create opportunities for Drexel students in the Philly area. What are you doing to help students looking to break into the tough DC/NYC markets or even niche positions such as public international law (UN, World Bank etc.)