Drexel bestowing first law degrees

A brash experiment in legal education aimed at providing more on-the-job training for young lawyers and less academic theory will cross a critical threshold Wednesday.

That is when the Drexel University School of Law will graduate its first class, about 160 strong (the school doesn't yet have an exact count because it is still checking grades, pro bono hours, and other requirements), in a ceremony at the Kimmel Center.

The question that hovered over the program from the very start - whether there is a need for yet another law school - has, if anything, become more pointed. Drexel students, like graduates of other law schools in Philadelphia and around the nation, face the toughest employment market for young lawyers in memory.

"Right now, because of the state of the economy, there are lots of students graduating from law school who in other times would have jobs," said Roger Dennis, dean of the law school.

Graduating from any law school is something of an achievement, but the Drexel ceremony is especially noteworthy because of the school's novel approach to training young lawyers and the extraordinary speed with which it became operational.

When Drexel announced in late 2005 that it would start a law school, it was little more than a concept. But by the fall of 2006, the school had enrolled its inaugural class, the group graduating Wednesday.

There was no main law school building, nor was there a law library on campus; students had to take a shuttle bus from the West Philadelphia campus to the Philadelphia Bar Association's law library in Center City. The school had a faculty of eight.

"It is really pretty interesting, building the airplane and flying it at the same time," Dennis said. "Our ambition is really our biggest challenge because we are a small faculty and we want to do it all."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says 22,000 lawyers and law-firm support staff have lost their jobs in the last year, on a percentage basis by far the biggest retrenchment in the profession since at least the early 1980s. Of Drexel's graduating class, about 45 percent have jobs and an additional 5 percent or so will continue their studies by seeking additional degrees. But the rest are still looking for work.

One big factor affecting this year's class: The unprecedented withdrawal of job offers by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and hiring freezes in other state and city government agencies, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

But Drexel faculty and students say they believe the school's intense focus on practical learning gives them something of an advantage in these economic times.

The school has built its curriculum around placement of students with law firms, public-interest legal organizations, judicial clerkships, and school-based legal clinics through which students represent clients in a variety of matters. Students who chose this option, and about half of them do, will spend about 20 weeks in the program, said Amy Montemarano, assistant dean of career and professional development.

The idea is to have students learning early on how to deal with clients - handling basic legal tasks such as taking depositions or filing motions - in addition to a healthy diet of academic instruction. With law firms under intense economic pressure, a key Drexel selling point has been that its graduates can do meaningful work for their firms from the day they walk in the door.

And clients can be billed for their work.

Other law schools have similar, on-the-job training for students. The difference is that Drexel, more than most, has made it a core feature of its program.

This approach has created a buzz in the legal world. Since its inception, on-campus recruiting has steadily grown.

"We have been enormously impressed with the students that we have interviewed," said Nancy Winkelman, the hiring partner at Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis L.L.P., a 200-lawyer firm based in Center City. "There is a great emphasis on efficiency by our clients and to have a first-year associate who has some real-world legal experience vs. one who has studied esoteric theories of law - that makes a connection between current economic conditions and a law school that takes an approach to training in a more practical hands-on way."

As an upstart law school, and one that had not yet received its accreditation, Drexel had to offer more than simply an innovative curriculum. It substantially discounted its $30,000 annual tuition, giving incoming students a 75 percent price break. The lower tuition, and the buzz that the school's nontraditional curriculum created, proved a powerful lure for some students. The school had more than 1,700 applicants for its first class; 180 were admitted.

The school received provisional accreditation from the ABA on schedule in early 2008.

Elizabeth Nicolas, a graduating senior from New York, said that from the beginning there had been a certain esprit de corps among the inaugural class that trumped the normal competition among students for grades, and ultimately job offers. The reason, she said, was that everyone wanted the school to succeed. Everyone, faculty and students, needed it to succeed. Nicolas, who had worked in an education program for homeless men in Germantown for a time after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, said she also was attracted by the school's close affiliation to public interest legal organizations.

"I knew that public-interest law was a strong focus," said Nicolas, 27, who has accepted an offer from Schnader Harrison.

Lindsey Hoban, 24, said she viewed Drexel like the stock of a promising start-up company.

"I was getting in at the right time and it would only go up in value," said Hoban, who will clerk for a judge with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington after she graduates.

While Raheem Watson, 28, said he was drawn to the school's local roots and the enthusiasm of its admissions officers for the nontraditional curriculum. Watson has accepted an offer from the Philadelphia firm of Conrad, O'Brien, Gellman & Rohn P.C.

"The biggest criticism from lawyers in law firms is that law students when they graduate don't really bring that much to the table," he said. "They spend three years theorizing about the law but really have no hands-on experience. What [Drexel] does is allow you to apply theory to the real world."