Dean Haider Hamoudi's Progress Report to the Community

As we reach the end of my first semester as your Dean, I thought it was important to share with you some of the important progress we have made over the course of the semester, and to highlight where we as an institution hope to progress from here.

First, following a series of meetings, conversations, and discussions, which began in early August with a well-attended faculty and staff retreat featuring a SWOT session, we have identified five strategic priorities that build on some of our core strengths. These are (i) student success, (ii) experiential learning, (iii) committing to our centers of excellence, (iv) international and global legal education, and (v) development of online learning for non-JD students.  We believe that by focusing on these priorities and leveraging these strengths, we will be well-positioned to establish our position and reputation as one of the elite public law schools within the state, the region, and ultimately, the nation.

Second, we have already undertaken some initiatives to advance these priorities.

In the area of student success, we have undertaken a series of initiatives in furtherance of our belief that success in law school is a holistic commitment that requires attention throughout the law school journey.  We have initiated a data-driven process to adjust our admissions process to focus on indicia for success, and in so doing to reduce emphasis on performance on a single standardized test like the LSAT.  We are currently developing a pre-orientation program to support select groups of students for whom law school might present greater challenges, about which more details will come shortly.  More broadly, we have undertaken important initiatives to create a stronger sense of belonging among our students, and to promote student wellness.  These include faculty-led meditation and awareness sessions, the creation of a wellness center, the appointment of an Assistant Dean to work exclusively in the area of inclusive excellence and belonging, and the deployment of a plan to embed a counselor at our College twice a week, with the support of the Provost’s Office and the University’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center.  Our work also includes programming on engaging in civil discourse over topics of sensitivity and controversy.  Part of this will be a day-long conference on this vitally important subject cohosted by us and UC’s Portman Center for Policy Solutions.  Through this broad and systemic approach to promoting student success, we hope to build upon an already remarkable improvement in the primary indicia for student success in law school—our bar passage rate and our 10-month after graduation employment figures, where we are already near the top for all Ohio law schools, public and private.

As concerns experiential education, we at UC Law are able to boast a very notable statistic—nearly 95% of our graduating students last year completed either an externship or a clinic.  This number, which has been rising over time, is substantially higher than at our peer or aspirational institutions by our best reckoning, and it is a reason that many of our students have chosen our College.  As the bar examination moves to its Next Generation iteration, with more extensive skills-based testing, and as the trends towards integrating doctrinal theory with practical application continue, this places our College in an enviable position moving forward. 

I will note two important initiatives we have begun to further differentiate us in this space. First, we have established an ad hoc faculty led committee that is reviewing our curriculum and will be recommending potential changes to it, to allow us to remain in step with cutting-edge trends in legal education as well as the changes to bar testing.  Second, we are working collaboratively with the Warren Bennis Leadership Institute at the Lindner College of Business on leadership development in our students, so that we are able to provide them with the complete suite of skills they need in order to succeed in the legal profession.  In connection therewith, another faculty-led committee is focusing on building professional identity among our law students.   

Third, we have notable centers of excellence, which include the Ohio Innocence Project, the Urban Morgan Institute, and the Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice.  These centers were doing incredible work before I arrived, and they continue to do incredible work.  It is a pleasure and an honor to be able to support them however I can, given their national, and indeed international, renown, and given how many students choose to attend UC Law precisely because of these centers and institutes.  Recently, we have undertaken steps to advance the mission and work of two other prominent institutes.  The first is the Corporate Law Center, which has been a long-time staple of UC Law.  It serves as an academic center for the production of knowledge in the area of corporate and commercial law, and it provides invaluable experience and opportunities to students interested in these fields.  Unlike the other major centers of excellence, the Corporate Law Center does not enjoy full-time support to advance its mission.  We are working to correct that, and in so doing, to provide to interested students the same types of opportunities they might enjoy in our other centers of excellence.  With a full-time director and with the robust support of the practicing community, the Corporate Law Center has the potential to be a leading institute of its sort across the nation.  We are very excited by the possibilities.

The other center in which we are investing is the Cincinnati Center for the Global Practice of Law (CCGPL). This relates to our fourth major priority, which is a renewed focus on international legal opportunities.  UC Law is well situated in this space as well, with a university dedicated to building a global presence through UC International and a city that is home to some of the world’s largest multinational corporations.  CCGPL has spearheaded efforts within our College to develop our international and global education capacities, in some cases spearheading and in others building off of international partnerships that UC has with universities around the globe.  We look forward to continuing these and other efforts. I will note here one important initiative in which I have been deeply engaged, which is building our presence in areas of the world where we have been less represented. In particular, we believe that the Arab Gulf is a significant area of potential growth for us that we hope to exploit in the months and years to come. 

One final area of strength, where we have grown substantially over the past two years and have the potential to grow even further, lies in the development of our online, non-JD programming.  From an initial class of 6 students to a projected incoming class this spring of 22, there has been no shortage of working professionals in law-adjacent fields interested in obtaining a form of legal education that is considerably less time consuming and less expensive than a JD.  Currently, we offer a single online degree, an MLS, for these students.  Our current initiatives lie in developing areas of concentration and potential standalone certificates, in general in conjunction with other Colleges who already offer online opportunities. This creates significant synergy between us and other parts of the University, which we hope to exploit to further mutual advantage in the years to come.

The agenda is ambitious and the initiatives manifold.  We have an incredibly dedicated and incredibly talented faculty and staff who are driven by a deep sense of mission that is driving us forward.  I am truly blessed to be working with them, and with a student body that is equally passionate and committed to success through its various constituent organizations, including the Student Bar Association, the Student Legal Education Committee, our very active affinity groups, and our student run journals and moot court board.  When I combine that with the kinds of support that I see in the legal community here in Cincinnati, and indeed in Bearcat Nation across the globe, I am certain that we will be able to achieve our goals and advance our mission to educate and inspire students to pursue justice and advance the role of law in society.

I look forward to continuing to work with you all to do just that over the coming several years.

Sincerely,

Haider Ala Hamoudi

Dean and Nippert Professor of Law

Featured photo of Dean Haider Ala Hamoudi. Photo by Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand.