SMU ousts law school dean

[PonyKai]

Yeah this isn't a conspiracy. Makes all of the whining alumni & associated publicity just sad.

[Digetydog]

If SMU really wants to have a great Law School dean, they need to get some of the money guys to help the the Law School adopt the Larry Brown plan: Mark Yudoff.

Mark Yudoff was a great dean at UT Law. Given the financial problem the California state schools are having, they could probably bring him to the Hilltop with some money and some backing.

[smudubs]

I'm torn on this subject. Personally, I like the Dean. I graduated from SMU Law in 2003 and all things considered had a relatively decent experience at the law school. I will provide an example of one of the things the Dean did that no one notices. While at SMU, I was the president of the Black Law Students' association for two years--which is easy to do when you are the only African-American student in your class. In this position, I was the school's representative at the BLSA Regional and National conventions. At the regional convention, the region voted to have the 2002 convention in Dallas. Although the Dean was not involved in the decision to hold the convention in Dallas, he made sure that the convention was a success. The school funded the majority of the convention and provided most of the judges for the moot court competition. Everyone who was involved in the convention was very impressed with the Dean's efforts. He even hosted a dinner with the delegates from other schools and spoke at a couple of the seminars.

I will also say that the dean did a lot to increase diversity on campus. I can't recall how many law fairs I attended as a representative of the school. The school, and the Dean, did right by me and when I graduated I was able to choose from some of the top law firms in the nation for work. That being said, I was in the extreme minority regarding job placement.

Now the bad. I became close with a number of professors while I was on campus and was able to discuss some of the Dean's short comings. Apparently, he is extremely difficult to work with and professors felt he was more concerned with law school rankings than actual legal education. During his tenure, we lost two very good african-american professors in Tim Davis, who went to Wake Forest, and Darren Hutchinson who, soon after becoming tenured, left for American. I have no idea of where the school will go from here. I believe the big firm salaries in Texas is seriously hurting the legal profession in general. If you are going to pay a first-year lawyer $160,000 per year, those firms are going to first opt for ivy league grads and then turn their attention to only the very top of classes from schools like SMU.

[Pony^]

Another indictment of Attasanio recently was the subpar bar passage rates- we were something like third from the bottom last year behind Texas Southern and Texas Wesleyan. Someone can double check those stats for me- I'm sure I'm wrong; but they were really f'ing bad. Coupled with a drop in the rankings and the emergence of Baylor and UH Law, it was time for a change. Also, he's apparently a complete c-sucker

http://www.ble.state.tx.us/Stats/stats_0712.htm

http://www.ble.state.tx.us/Stats/stats_0212.htm

[couch 'em]

With pass rates so high for all schools, why is the relative ranking a big deal? 88% vs 90% is both essentially everyone who put in any effort to pass isn't it?

[Digetydog]

With pass rates so high for all schools, why is the relative ranking a big deal? 88% vs 90% is both essentially everyone who put in any effort to pass isn't it?

1) Although very good, Baylor is often called a "three year bar prep" program. With a curiculum heavily focused on Texas law, they have a very high bar pass rate every year.
2) With the exception of TSU, the bar passage rate for most Texas law schools falls within a very tight range.
3) While TSU almost always has the lowest bar passage rate, they give opportunities to people that wouldn't otherwise get to attend law school. A very large percentage of their incoming class is "risky." Focusing on the number of people who do pass, I view that program as a huge success.

[Junior]

was the former dean in a fraternity while in undergrad?