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Who do you think the new Dean will be? Is it safe to attend Northwestern with the Dean situation in limbo? Love the school, but wondering what to think of an offer of admission without knowing who will be at the helm. Thoughts?

Do you really care who the dean is? It's NU, if you wanna go, go.

They will be shutting down the law school after the current cycle is over. With the departure of the dean they felt that they could no longer continue as a law school in the same capacity and that any new students would be left attending a pale shadow of the law school. They could not justify doing this to future students and thus won't be accepting a new matriculating class next year.

Northwestern's a great school. Just wondering if the next Dean will have the same employment connections... employment being the main reason why we go to school and all.

SirWilliam1022 wrote:Northwestern's a great school. Just wondering if the next Dean will have the same employment connections... employment being the main reason why we go to school and all.

Why do you think Dean connections have a significant impact on employment?

Normally I wouldn't, but this has been mentioned repeatedly for Northwestern in particular. Seems Dean Van Zandt had done a lot of footwork in this regard

SirWilliam1022 wrote:Normally I wouldn't, but this has been mentioned repeatedly for Northwestern in particular. Seems Dean Van Zandt had done a lot of footwork in this regard

My apologies for the sarcastic comment, I'll give my thoughts on this considering you have a legitimate question (which I was blind to at first).

I'd speculate that it isn't going to change with his departure. I would think that he convinced the firms of the quality of NU students and built a reputation for the school as well as opening lanes to those firms. I think that now that those lanes are open they aren't going to close because of his departure (especially since he has also restructured the school itself and what he has built is still in place), barring of course other reasons for those lanes closing (e.g. the economy getting worse).

The fact that those lanes exist now will help perpetuate them in my mind, but this is merely me speculating.

Prof.Bienen ? Chicago's Leitner ?

I agree with the above posters who think that the next Northwestern Law School Dean should continue with a focus on connecting with employers; especially so in light of Dean Van Zandt's accomplishments & the law school emphasis on teamwork & MBA-like talents in lawyers that many employers apparently cherish.

Thanks everybody for your insights and humorous comments. =D

I've heard the same can be said for UC Irvine and Pepperdine, although obviously on a significantly smaller scale. I haven't gone back and done the research, but apparently Pepperdine was a joke before Starr got there and he was at least getting kids interviewed for jobs that never would have been open to them before. I guess despite the fact that he's mostly a joke to us, a lot of people in the legal world admire/respect him.

Never really considered Pepperdine so I haven't checked on a lot of it. Just talked to legal professionals in Los Angeles who've basically said as much.

I asked about this during my NU interview, and this is pretty much the answer i got verbatim:

bk187 wrote:I'd speculate that it isn't going to change with his departure. I would think that he convinced the firms of the quality of NU students and built a reputation for the school as well as opening lanes to those firms. I think that now that those lanes are open they aren't going to close because of his departure (especially since he has also restructured the school itself and what he has built is still in place), barring of course other reasons for those lanes closing (e.g. the economy getting worse).