By Kent Kuran (2L)
Faculty Council’s February meeting was dominated by Dean Edward Iacobucci’s updates on his latest outreach efforts, as well as a debate over academic scheduling for next year.
Following his meetings with the Law Society of Upper Canada, Iacobucci has been consulting with the alumni association and a range of law firms, expressing his thanks for their contributions to the law school. During the first two months of his deanship, Iacobucci has continued his outreach efforts.
The Dean’s message includes “advocacy for the academic core of our education,” highlighting the school’s academic excellence as a differentiator in an exceedingly crowded market. “That message, I believe has been very well received.”
Iacobucci said that certain firms are “sheepish about the percentage of U of T Law students they hire.” However, for him, “It would be surprising if they hired less.”
While a few firms hire an outsized number of U of T Law graduates, when normalized for class size differences, many firms hire fewer students from U of T than other schools. Moreover, the class profile differences between U of T and its closest competitors are actually larger than the differential between the top and bottom of the so-called Top 14 (T14) schools in the US, which themselves exhibit significant placement variations. For 2014, U of T Law’s entering class was in league with Ivy League law schools and their peers (based on the LSAT interquartile range, generally the most robust statistic for comparing law schools).
As for the Faculty’s efforts to increase diversity on campus, law firms have been very responsive: “The emphasis on diversity at the law firms is quite striking. It is definitely something they think is the right thing,” stated Iacobucci. “This is increasingly a matter that their clients are invested in.”
Relatedly, Iacobucci restated his intention to prioritise financial aid in the next fundraising campaign. “In principle there is a recognition of why this is so important,” he said, referring to the school’s diversity initiatives. The faculty is currently working on a report “looking at various issues such as diversity” added Yasmin Dawood, co-chair of the Diversity Committee.
The law school also announced it was moving forward with plans to expand its offerings of pro bono unpaid student placements. Nikki Gershbain, National Director of Pro Bono Students Canada (PBSC) told Faculty Council that “the long term goal is to provide rigorously supervised high-quality placements for every student in Canada.”
The meeting concluded with a move to deem multiple Fridays as Mondays and Wednesdays during next year’s fall term, generating considerable debate and some laughter from Council members. Next year, Labor Day lands on the latest day possible, September 7, explained Professor Ian Lee (Associate Dean, JD Program). Members cited concerns that rescheduled Friday classes would result in irregular attendance given the general lack of classes on the last day of the work week at the law school. Alternatives, such as moving the start of class ahead of the Labor Day long weekend, were also presented, but were viewed as overly disruptive to students’ summer schedules.
