Dean's Message

Excitement is in the air as we approach the end of another academic year. Our third- and fourth-year evening students are eagerly anticipating graduation and this year’s commencement speaker is Governor Ted Strickland. Alumni are looking forward to the many great events coming up for Alumni Weekend April 26-28. I want to congratulate our alumni honorees: Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer L. Brunner, L’83; J. Miles Gibson, L’78; Tom Bonasera, L’75; and Jessica Mager, L’01. Don’t forget to register for the Alumni Lunch at The Westin on April 27 and all the other activities planned.

Our faculty and administration are pleased with the ABA site inspection that the Law School went through in February. Every seven years, ABA-accredited law schools are inspected by an ABA site evaluation team that makes findings of fact and reports to the ABA Section on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar.  The team spent two and a half days at the Law School, making classroom visits and speaking with faculty, administrators, staff, students and alumni.  The team was very complimentary about our students, faculty and the alumni they met and of the self-study that the school had prepared; the team viewed our strategic plan as a model for other schools to follow. The team is in the process of preparing its written report and the Law School will have an opportunity to respond to it. I look forward to sharing with you the positive comments and recommendations from the team.

This has been an exciting and active year. The Law School recently obtained a $500,000 grant from the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence, funded by Franklin County and the City of Columbus, to significantly enhance our Family Advocacy Clinic – providing expanded representation to a very deserving group of clients and allowing us to train more students. The Legal Writing and Legal Drafting programs, our first-year and final-year legal writing courses are gaining national respect with a faculty presentation at a national legal writing conference last summer. Our Advance Bar Studies course is a huge success with greater enrollment than anyone expected. This course is cutting-edge and I receive inquiries almost weekly from other law schools seeking to replicate it. Finally, Professors Gilles and Upchurch have had their Civil Procedure classes engaged in a semester-long litigation project whereby the two classes are representing a simulated plaintiff and defendant and have been preparing all phases of the law suite from complaints and answers to interrogatories, motions and depositions. This project has garnered great support and enthusiasm from their students. What better way to learn Civil Procedure than to do it.

I hope to see all of you on Alumni Weekend.

Sincerely,

Jack A. Guttenberg
Dean and Professor of Law