Evan Caminker Interview: Michigan Law, Legal Education, Careers, and Law School Rankings

^{Last Update: September 2026}

What makes a law school valuable beyond its ranking? How should students think about practical training, on-campus interviewing, BigLaw recruiting, public-interest careers, faculty strength, and the culture of the school they attend?

Top-Law-Schools.com discussed these questions with Evan Caminker, former dean of the University of Michigan Law School. The original interview took place in 2009, during a period of considerable disruption in the legal employment market. Although some specific programs, personnel, facilities, recruiting practices, and statistics discussed at the time have since changed, many of Caminker’s broader observations about legal education and career planning remain useful.

This updated version preserves those broader themes while placing historically specific comments in context. Prospective students should consult current University of Michigan Law School information and employment disclosures before making enrollment decisions.

For additional context on evaluating schools, see the Top-Law-Schools.com Law School Rankings guide and related resources on choosing a law school.

Evan Caminker on the Evolution of Michigan Law

TLS: Looking back at your tenure as dean, which developments at Michigan Law were you particularly proud of?

Evan Caminker: One of the areas I found particularly exciting was the continued development of the faculty and academic program.

During that period, Michigan Law was investing heavily in faculty recruitment while also expanding opportunities for students to develop the practical skills they would eventually need as attorneys.

A major priority was experiential learning. Michigan already had a strong reputation among employers for producing graduates who were prepared to contribute when they entered practice, but we wanted to reinforce the connection between doctrinal education and the skills lawyers actually use.

Clinical education was one important part of that effort. During my tenure, the school expanded the number of clinical opportunities available to students and developed programs addressing areas such as international transactions, wrongful convictions, human rights, and other forms of practical legal work.

The goal was not to replace traditional legal education. It was to complement it.

Students need to understand legal doctrine and theory, but they also benefit from opportunities to work through real legal problems, communicate with clients, exercise judgment, and understand how lawyers operate in professional environments.

That balance between intellectual rigor and practical preparation was something we viewed as central to Michigan Law’s educational mission.

Why Experiential Legal Education Matters

TLS: Why was practical or experiential education such an important part of the school’s development?

Caminker: Legal education has to prepare students for a profession that continues to change.

Law schools should certainly teach students how to analyze cases, identify legal principles, construct arguments, and understand the theoretical foundations of law. Those skills remain fundamental.

At the same time, students eventually have to work with clients, institutions, courts, businesses, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and other lawyers.

Clinical courses, externships, simulation courses, and other forms of experiential learning can expose students to those dimensions of the profession before graduation.

One of the questions a law school should continually ask is:

What will lawyers need to know how to do when they enter the profession?

That question should influence curriculum development alongside the traditional academic mission of the institution.

Students interested in understanding how practical training fits into a legal career can also explore LawCrossing resources for law students seeking legal jobs and developing career strategies.

Preparing Lawyers for a Changing Legal Profession

TLS: What long-term goals did you have for Michigan Law?

Caminker: One priority was continuing to expand opportunities for international engagement.

Michigan had faculty members with expertise involving different regions and legal systems, as well as programs that enabled students to gain experience outside the traditional classroom.

More broadly, I wanted the school to remain attentive to changes occurring in the legal profession.

Law firms, government agencies, public-interest organizations, corporations, and other legal employers evolve. Technology evolves. Client expectations evolve. The kinds of problems lawyers are asked to solve evolve.

Law schools therefore need relationships with practicing attorneys and employers so they can understand how those changes affect professional preparation.

That does not mean a law school curriculum should simply follow whatever the legal market happens to demand in a particular year. Universities have a broader educational responsibility.

But there should be communication between legal educators and the profession.

Students benefit when their education combines intellectual depth with an understanding of how legal work is actually performed.

Public Interest, Pro Bono Work, and Legal Careers Beyond BigLaw

TLS: How did public-interest and pro bono work fit into that vision?

Caminker: Public service was an important part of the mission.

Students sometimes enter law school with a very narrow conception of what a successful legal career looks like. They may assume that one particular type of law firm represents the default path simply because it is highly visible during recruiting.

But a legal education can lead to many different careers.

Large law firms
Smaller or regional firms
Government
Public-interest organizations
Public defender or prosecutor offices
Judicial clerkships
Business
Academia
International organizations
Policy positions
Other professional roles involving legal training

Law schools should help students understand that range of possibilities rather than assume that every student should make the same career decision.

Students interested in mission-oriented careers can also review LawCrossing for public-interest law careers, fellowships, and legal job-search resources.

What Makes Ann Arbor and Michigan Law Distinctive?

TLS: If you could change one thing about Michigan Law, would location be one of them?

Caminker: I would challenge the premise that Ann Arbor is a disadvantage.

One of Michigan Law’s strengths has historically been the community surrounding the law school.

Ann Arbor combines the resources and intellectual energy of a major research university with an environment in which students and faculty can remain closely connected to the campus.

That can affect the law-school experience in meaningful ways.

In a large metropolitan area, students and professors may have many competing professional and personal commitments spread throughout the city. At a university-centered institution, the school itself can become a stronger focal point of daily life.

During my time at Michigan, I believed that helped create a collaborative environment.

Students were able to interact not only in class but also around the Law Quadrangle, residence halls, university facilities, and the broader Ann Arbor community.

For applicants evaluating law schools today, location should therefore be considered in more than one way.

Where do I ultimately want to practice?
Where does the school place graduates?
What employers recruit there?
What kind of campus community do I want?
What professional network will I develop?
What will everyday student life look like?
What will the total cost of attending be?

A school’s location can influence both career opportunities and educational experience.

How Michigan Law Approached Faculty and Curriculum Development

TLS: Were there particular academic areas Michigan was trying to strengthen?

Caminker: There were fields in which the school was developing additional strength, as well as established areas where we wanted to continue building.

But faculty hiring should not always be approached as filling predetermined categories.

Sometimes the strongest long-term strategy is simply to identify exceptional scholars and teachers.

If outstanding candidates are available, hiring them can strengthen the institution even when the school already has substantial expertise in their field.

Curriculum development should also consider student interests.

Students are often among the first people to identify emerging areas in which they would like more academic or professional opportunities.

During my tenure, some new clinical and curricular initiatives developed partly because students expressed interest in particular forms of legal work.

That type of communication can help a law school adapt while maintaining academic quality.

Can Students Influence a Law School’s Curriculum?

TLS: How can student interest translate into new classes or programs?

Caminker: There can be several channels.

Students may communicate directly with faculty or administrators, participate through student representatives on committees, or raise ideas through organizations and other formal structures.

If a meaningful group of students identifies an area where additional instruction would be useful, the school can consider whether there is sufficient academic value, faculty expertise, demand, and institutional capacity to develop something new.

Sometimes schools can respond relatively quickly. Other curricular changes naturally require more planning.

The broader point is that students do not necessarily have to view the curriculum as completely fixed.

At a strong academic institution, there should be an ongoing conversation about how legal education can improve.

Michigan Law, BigLaw, and National Career Mobility

TLS: How did you view Michigan Law’s position in national law-firm recruiting?

Caminker: Michigan historically benefited from having graduates working in many major legal markets.

A national alumni network can matter because law firms recruit partly through long-standing institutional relationships.

When alumni become partners, hiring partners, practice leaders, government officials, judges, executives, and other influential professionals, they create connections between future graduates and employers.

But I also believed it was important not to measure a law school solely by how many graduates entered a small group of large firms in a handful of cities.

Students have different ambitions.

Some want New York BigLaw. Others want Washington, Chicago, California, Texas, or another market. Some pursue clerkships, government service, public-interest work, regional law firms, business, academia, or additional graduate study.

A school with national reach should give students the ability to consider several of those possibilities.

Prospective students evaluating BigLaw opportunities today should look at current ABA employment disclosures, firm recruiting activity, geographic placement, summer associate outcomes, alumni networks, and the percentage of graduates entering large firms rather than relying exclusively on reputation.

For additional guidance, review Top-Law-Schools.com resources on law school rankings and LawCrossing resources on BigLaw recruiting and legal job searches.

How Law Students Should Approach OCI

TLS: How should students think about on-campus interviewing and career services?

Caminker: Students should educate themselves before the recruiting process begins.

Career services can provide valuable information, counseling, employer connections, interview preparation, and recruiting opportunities.

But students also have responsibilities.

They need to think carefully about questions such as:

What kind of lawyer do I want to become?
What kind of work interests me?
What environments fit my personality and goals?
Where do I want to live?
How much does compensation matter compared with training, responsibility, lifestyle, location, or mission?
What opportunities exist outside the employers participating in OCI?

The more carefully students think about those questions before recruiting begins, the more strategic they can be when opportunities appear.

Current law students preparing for recruiting can supplement campus resources with LawCrossing’s legal job-search and recruiting resources.

Should Law Students Rely Exclusively on OCI?

TLS: Can students depend on OCI as their entire job-search strategy?

Caminker: I have always believed students should ask whether the opportunities available through OCI represent everything they might want to pursue.

OCI can be extremely useful, particularly for students interested in large law firms that recruit through structured summer-associate programs.

But it is only one part of the legal employment market.

A student may discover an interest in a practice area after taking a particular course. Another student may decide that government work, public defense, nonprofit advocacy, a clerkship, a smaller firm, or another opportunity is a better fit.

Students should be willing to explore beyond the most visible recruiting channel.

That lesson remains especially important because legal hiring continues to evolve.

Networking, direct applications, alumni relationships, internships, professors, professional associations, job boards, previous employers, and targeted outreach can all supplement formal campus recruiting.

What Was the Philosophy Behind Michigan’s OCI Bidding System?

TLS: Students sometimes debated Michigan’s approach to interview bidding. What was your view of the system?

Caminker: At the time, I believed strongly in giving students meaningful control over the employers with whom they wanted to interview.

There is a balance involved.

Students should have the ability to pursue opportunities that interest them, while career counselors should provide realistic information about employer expectations and recruiting patterns.

That helps students make informed decisions about where to invest their interview opportunities.

The larger lesson extends beyond any particular bidding system.

Students need both access and information.

Access without guidance can lead to poorly targeted applications. Guidance without sufficient student choice can unnecessarily narrow opportunities.

An effective career-services system should try to provide both.

Editor’s Note: Recruiting and bidding procedures can change over time. Applicants and current students should consult Michigan Law directly for its current OCI and recruiting policies.

Evan Caminker on Law School Rankings

TLS: What effect do law school rankings have on legal education?

Caminker: Rankings attempt to produce comparable information, and having accessible information can certainly be useful.

The difficulty is that anything reduced to a single numerical ranking necessarily depends on which variables are measured and how those variables are weighted.

Not every measurable factor necessarily corresponds to the quality of a student’s educational experience.

Similarly, some things students may care deeply about can be difficult to quantify.

Quality of teaching
Faculty accessibility
Student culture
Mentorship
Professional development
Strength in a particular field
Alumni engagement
Practical training
Geographic mobility
Employer relationships
Career flexibility
Overall institutional fit

A ranking may capture some of these factors indirectly, but no single number can fully describe a law school.

The danger arises when applicants treat the ranking itself as the objective rather than treating it as one source of information.

How Much Should Applicants Rely on Rankings?

TLS: So what role should rankings play when choosing a law school?

Caminker: Rankings can be one part of the decision.

The problem is allowing them to become the decision.

Applicants should investigate institutions individually.

Employment outcomes
Cost and expected debt
Scholarships
Geographic placement
Large-firm placement
Clerkship opportunities
Public-interest support
Academic programs
Clinical opportunities
Faculty
Student culture
Alumni networks
Career services
Bar passage
Quality of life
The markets in which they hope to practice

Two students looking at exactly the same schools can reasonably make different choices because their professional and financial goals are different.

That is why applicants should treat law school rankings as a research tool rather than a substitute for individualized investigation.

Is Michigan Law Really as Collegial as Its Reputation Suggests?

TLS: Many law schools describe themselves as collaborative. What made Michigan different in your view?

Caminker: Schools frequently use similar language to describe their communities, so prospective students should investigate those claims themselves.

During my time at Michigan, however, I believed there was a genuine sense of community among the students.

Several characteristics contributed to that.

The physical design of the Law Quadrangle helped create a shared environment. Many students lived near the school. Students interacted regularly outside class, and the broader university community gave them opportunities to participate in activities beyond the law school.

Michigan students also pursued careers across many different practice areas and geographic markets.

That can reduce the feeling that everyone in a study group is competing for precisely the same handful of positions.

The result was a culture in which students often helped one another.

Applicants considering Michigan—or any law school—should speak with current students and graduates, visit the campus when possible, and examine student experiences rather than relying solely on institutional descriptions.

Key Takeaways from Evan Caminker’s Michigan Law Interview

Practical experience should complement doctrinal education. Clinics, externships, simulations, and other experiential opportunities can help students understand how legal concepts operate in professional settings.
Legal education must continue evolving. Law schools should monitor changes in the profession while preserving their broader academic mission.
OCI is important, but it is not the entire legal job market. Students can benefit from exploring employers and career paths beyond traditional campus recruiting.
Career strategy should begin with self-assessment. Students should understand their professional priorities before choosing employers simply because those employers are prestigious or highly visible.
BigLaw is one possible outcome, not the definition of legal success. Government, public interest, clerkships, regional firms, business, academia, and other paths can all provide meaningful careers.
Alumni networks and geographic reach matter. Students evaluating nationally recognized law schools should consider where graduates actually work and how broadly employer relationships extend.
Rankings should inform rather than control law-school decisions. Applicants should compare employment results, cost, scholarships, academic programs, location, professional networks, culture, and their personal career objectives.
Law-school culture can affect the educational experience. The relationships students form with classmates and faculty can influence their development well beyond graduation.

Related Top-Law-Schools.com Resources

Related LawCrossing Career Resources

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Editor’s Note: This interview originally appeared in 2009. References to specific faculty hires, clinical programs, buildings, staffing levels, recruiting procedures, employment conditions, and other institutional details describe Michigan Law during that period and should not be interpreted as statements of current policy or current statistics. Readers should verify present-day information directly with the University of Michigan Law School and current ABA disclosures.