Maryland Lawyer Blog
I’ve been a student or a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law for 15 of the last 18 years. Most of the time, UB has talked of taking a leap, moving the ball forward and rising up in the food chain of law schools. Frankly, is has been mostly two steps forward, two steps back.
Since new Dean Philip J. Closius has come aboard at UB, the school’s arrow seems to be pointed consistently north. (I say “new.” Dean Closius has been there for three years.) But the University of Baltimore’s rise has coincided with a near collapse in the market for lawyers generally and newly minted lawyers in particular.
The Maryland Daily Record has a really good interview with Dean Closius in yesterday’s edition. I call it really good because it is a real interview instead of the canned stuff you usually get from law school deans.
Going back to the title of this blog, Dean Closius gives an honest assessment in the interview of where salaries are for UB graduates: “The bulk of UB Law’s Class of 2010 started out making $60,000 a year, he says, with a small group making between $80,000 and $90,000 and four graduates making six figures.”
A student once asked me what the best path would be to “make about $200,000 and not have to work real hard.” This student was asking this question because she really had no clue. I think a part of being a better law school in 2010 is transparency. Let law students know what they can expect when they graduate and what they can expect if they do well after they graduate.
If you had told me just a few years ago that UB could be a top 50 law school in ten years, I would have thought you were insane. But it does not seem like such a crazy notion anymore.