LAW DEAN
Jay Mootz, McGeorge School of Law, University of the Pacific
What we will discuss:
Law Dean, Jay Mootz discusses his journey over the last 26 years of his career and becoming dean.
The high cost of administration overhead in academia.
How the silo effect can trap you in certain frame of reference and the need to break out of certain mind sets.
How the law school is adding classes for those who don’t want to practice law or are more entrepreneurial.
The student debt crisis and strategies that students can use with
higher costs at public schools v private tuition. Taking personal agency over how you manage your debt structure.
In addition, to the student debt we explore job prospects and resources provided to students.
Creating global international externship and jobs abroad and providing exposure to other legal systems.
Break out from silo focus.
Resources provided for students starting their own practice or obtaining professional employment.
Build a career as a professional and what it means to be a professional.
Professionals using social media and leveraging it in a professional way.
What we learned:
Its important to plan your career but an impossible task because some things are fortuitous.
The high cost of education is mostly administration overhead for title IV and keeping up with the accreditations.
Using joint degrees can broaden your experience which help students break out of the silo effect which tends to trap you into a set frame of reference.
The McGeorge Law School is adding public policy and public administration courses to expand on the traditional law decree which offers additional classes from those who don’t want to practice law and want to for example, focus on for example, HR that provides a different prospective.
The cost of law school is 2.5 times more in adjusted dollars today then the dean paid when he went to law school. For example, the cost to go to UC Davis which is a public school is actually more expense then there private school.
Most families don’t have the cash necessary to pay the full tuition so they need to borrow. However, you must control the amount of debt and take personal agency over accumulating other types of costs like living expenses and studying abroad. Sure there are excellent summer programs but his cautions students over the debt load and they may consider working over the summer.
There are three centers of excellent global international externships for job creation abroad which exposes the students to other legal systems. Besides international human rights there are transnational business issues transition national immigration legal
They have successful summer program in Guatamala and externships available in Africa.
Collaboration with other law schools in Russia and teaching new professionals by doing versus lecturing.
The Mexican criminal justice system is moving toward an adversarial system and the University of Pacific has had Mexican students come to the campus and vice versus. This helps widen the students prospective and by using a joint program you begin to break out of the silo focus.
Lawyers are professionals are not merely employees whether they are in a solo law practices or working for another law firm. Entrepreneurial programs created and programs developed in management to build a career as a professional.
Clinics on how to set up a practice and enables the dean to be entrepreneurial.
What it means to be a professional
create practical experience before they graduate partner them up with clients before they graduate
Clinics can be limited so the school requires 15 credits to make it possible for students to work for non profits, externships, develop alumni programs plaintiffs lawyers using social media leverage it in a professional way gets connected for someone looking for your expertise draw on alumni help us so our students know what the world out there looks like tools.
Going back to teaching because he wants to get more deeply involved with the students. He says that its hard to teach while being a dean and
his dream is being a professor on the front lines.
On success, Jay says, most of his successes are unknown, for example, out of the blue a student reaches out and tells him that they remember that contracts class and how much he helped.
Further he states, “I don’t want to be in a country that doesn’t have lawyers.”
The best business advice was when one of his first clients said, if i ask you a question don’t say its a business question I am only looking for your advice and want you to use all your skill sets to answer my question.
He uses tweeter to engage differently with students.
Links
jay.mootz@gmail.com
@jaymootz
Sponsors:
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