Dean's Message

When I was being recruited in 2004 as a potential dean for Capital University Law School, the search committee and the alumni I met with made it very clear that the Law School must address two key challenges.

The 1st Challenge - Balancing the goal of preparing students for the practice of law with the goal of improving the Ohio bar passage. The Law School’s strategic plan calls for “achieving above the state-wide average for first-time test takers and annual improvement in the passing percentage of all test takers.”

Capital graduates have met and exceeded the goals of our strategic plan:

With a dramatic 30 percentage point improvement in our first-time passing rate and a 31 percentage point increase in the overall passing rate, we can confidently say that together our students, faculty and staff have very successfully met the first challenge!

The 2nd Challenge – Building Our Culture of Philanthropy, which includes increasing the percentage of Juris Doctor alumni who annually provide charitable support to the Law School.

J.D. Alumni Giving Participation

We are truly grateful that our alumni have increased their giving participation at a time when the average percentage for the other Ohio law schools has declined. However, just like the bar results, we must strive to exceed the state (11.8%) and eventually the national (14.6%) alumni giving participation rates. Our goal for this academic year is to exceed 12 percent. This second challenge will be met only if 237 more J.D. alumni make a gift before June 30, 2008.

Can Capital University Law School count on you? Every donor and every gift truly makes a difference!

Thank you for your support,

Jack A. Guttenberg
Dean and Professor of Law