I recently sent a letter to alumni about some notable achievements at Wayne Law.  It may sound like dean-speak, but it’s all true.  An edited version follows:

This year’s edition of Michigan Super Lawyers is now available, and Wayne State University Law School alumni top the list. Three hundred and forty-seven of this year’s Super Lawyers are graduates of Wayne State University Law School. That’s 24% of the total, three more than the University of Michigan and thirteen more than University of Detroit Mercy and Michigan State combined!

While rankings often paint an incomplete picture, I believe that this listing says a great deal about our law school. Year in, year out, Wayne Law graduates are leaders of the bar, in Michigan and elsewhere. And it is easy to see why. Our students are bright, mature, conscientious, and altruistic. (While numbers are not the only indication of quality, credentials are rising, with a 3-point increase in the median LSAT score for this year’s entering class.) They have little of the sense of entitlement that seems to afflict many of their peers; rather, they understand that anything they achieve will be the product of hard work. Our faculty are superb teachers, whose nationally and internationally recognized scholarship adds depth to our students’ understanding of legal theory, doctrine, and practice. Our students and faculty are engaged in the community and the profession, demonstrating that the worlds of academia and practice can be effectively linked. This mixture of motivation and expertise has produced several generations of superb lawyers.

The Super Lawyers is not the only periodical in which Wayne Law has recently received accolades. The September 2009 National Jurist contains three articles of special interest to Wayne lawyers. In one article (“Is Anyone Hiring Now?”), Wayne Law graduates David Galbenski and Patricia Nemeth are singled out as entrepreneurial lawyers who have demonstrated how attorneys can make the most of their unique talents. A second article places Wayne Law in the top fifty Best Value Law Schools. And a third National Jurist article (“The $60,000 Jackpot”) highlights Wayne Law’s Public Interest Law Fellowships, through which we funded ten students who spent the past summer performing public interest work in Detroit and elsewhere.

The Public Interest Law Fellowships underscore Wayne Law’s commitment to both public service and our students. We have significantly expanded our scholarship program in order to attract the best students and to provide relief from some of the debt that might otherwise encumber our students’ careers. We have doubled the size of our Career Services Office, in order to provide more opportunities for both students and alumni. And we are about to add a full time Alumni Director in order to create an effective alumni network, maintain better communication, and strengthen our sense of community at Wayne.

We continue to invest in faculty as well. This past month, we welcomed four new full-time faculty: Adele Morrison, an accomplished scholar and expert in family law and domestic violence; Christopher Lund, a highly regarded expert in law and religion; Aaron Perzanowski, a rising star in intellectual property law; and Rachel Settlage, an experienced clinician who will establish our new Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic. In addition, john powell of Ohio State has been installed as our first Damon J. Keith Visiting Professor, and Professor Sharon Keller, a consummate professional, has also joined us as a visitor. While other law schools are in a hiring freeze, we are conducting national searches for faculty to enhance our offerings in fields as diverse as corporate and securities law, environmental law, labor law, criminal law, civil procedure and trial advocacy. The University has granted us a charter for the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, and we have appointed its first faculty director, Professor Peter Hammer. Fundraising for the Keith Center continues, and we hope to break ground for the building that will house the Keith Center next spring. We are also capitalizing on our strengths in international and comparative law by establishing a Program for International Legal Studies, which will be headed up by Professor Gregory Fox. The Honorable Bruno Simma of the International Court of Justice will speak at the International Program’s inaugural event on October 14 at 4:30 p.m. in the Law School’s Spencer Partrich Auditorium.

Even in difficult times, the University recognizes the value of our law school and has assisted us with these strategic investments. At a time of economic challenge we regard Wayne Law as part of the solution, serving as a mechanism to advance the economy of Detroit and the region. We are not awash in funds, but we will continue to invest wisely in programs that will make Wayne Law graduates the Super Lawyers of tomorrow.