Develop a Specialty Now, Alum Urges Law Students
To help its graduates compete in a tough job market, Santa Clara University School of Law is offering courses on law practice management skills created with input from a new advisory board that includes a number of senior administrative law partners.
One recurring theme in the group’s discussions is the need to develop a specialty early, to stand among a crowd of eager-to-work young legal eagles, board member Dennis Brown tells the Recorder in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.). He is the managing partner of the Littler Mendelson office in San Jose, Calif.
“When I graduated from law school, hiring decisions were primarily based on GPA and getting a broad survey of general law courses so you could run, ride, rope and shoot—like a cowboy,” says Brown. “What we have seen, especially with a dwindling job market, is the firms no longer have the capacity or inclination to take the raw clay and to shape it completely into something they would like the associate to be.”
