AB INITIO - THE BIRTH OF A LAW SCHOOL

Nothing is more important to the success of a new law school than its faculty. Hire a strong faculty, and the school will almost surely succeed, no matter what challenges it confronts. Hire a weak faculty, and the school will almost surely fail, no matter how fortunate it is in other respects.

In trying to hire excellent faculty, a new law school faces significant hurdles, but the University of St. Thomas approached the challenge with confidence. The Executive Vice President, working with the Dean, appointed a strong committee. Sr. Sally Furay, the former provost of the University of San Diego, agreed to serve as Acting Associate Dean of the law school and, in that capacity, chaired the faculty search committee. Also agreeing to serve on this important advisory committee were several highly regarded members of the faculty of the University of St. Thomas — including two lawyers who serve on the faculty of the Graduate School of Business, a representative of University Committee on Diversity, and the Dean of the Graduate School of Social Work.

Since I had committed to spending part of my first year on an assignment in South Africa, and because my main responsibility for St. Thomas was to develop what a famous politician refers to as “the vision thing”, one of the first orders of business was to hire a permanent associate dean who could provide additional leadership in the effort to hire the foundation faculty.

We had many strong applicants for the Associate Dean position, but we found the perfect candidate in Patrick J. Schiltz. Dean Schiltz is a native Minnesotan who, after graduating near the top of his class at Harvard Law School, spent two years clerking for United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Following his clerkship, he returned to Minnesota and eventually became a partner at the law firm of Faegre & Benson. In 1995, he joined the Notre Dame Law School faculty. Soon thereafter, he was elected “Teacher of the Year.” The quality of his scholarship was first recognized when he was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist to the prestigious position of Reporter to the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure.

The next order of business was to hire a Director of Law Library and Information Resources. This is a very important person in establishing a new law school, since the library and cutting-edge technology are the centers of intellectual life at a law school, and the quality of the library is critically important to the school’s reputation. With the help of Roger Jacobs, the former library director of the United States Supreme Court, we were fortunate to hire Edmund P. Edmonds, one of the nation’s most experienced and respected law librarians. Prof. Edmonds directed the library at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of the College of William and Mary for six years and the library at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law for twelve years.

With Dean Schiltz and Prof. Edmonds on board, we were able to turn to the hiring of the rest of the faculty. Any faculty will have a mixture of skills, expertise and experiences. However, we decided that, if possible, every member of the founding faculty at St. Thomas should share the following seven traits: (1) experience as a practicing lawyer; (2) experience teaching at an established law school; (3) strong teaching evaluations; (4) an excellent scholarly record (or, in the case of newer faculty, a well-developed scholarly agenda); (5) a reputation as a caring and accessible mentor; (6) a record of service to the community; and (7) a strong commitment to faith-based legal education.

We received almost 700 applications for faculty positions. Many applicants met some of our criteria, but only a limited number met all seven. Thus, I am thrilled to announce that we have been able to fill every one of our first-year slots with faculty who have all of the characteristics we were seeking.

Thomas C. Berg will teach Constitutional Law. Prof. Berg, the author of numerous articles and books, is one of the half dozen most prominent law and religion scholars in the United States. A Rhodes Scholar, Prof. Berg has degrees from Northwestern University, Oxford University, the University of Chicago Law School, and the University of Chicago Divinity School. He clerked for Judge Alvin Rubin on the Fifth Circuit, practiced at Mayer, Brown & Platt in Chicago, and has taught since 1992 at Cumberland.

Jerome M. Organ will teach Property. After graduating from Vanderbilt University School of Law and clerking on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Prof. Organ practiced with Foley & Lardner in Milwaukee, before joining the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1991. Prof. Organ is known as a gifted and popular teacher, in part because of his efforts to integrate “real world” lawyer skills and alternative dispute resolution techniques into all of his courses. His scholarship focuses primarily on environmental law.

Michael P. O’Connor will teach Criminal Law. A graduate of Pennsylvania State University and Yale Law School, Prof. O’Connor began his career as a criminal defense attorney. He began devoting most of his practice to representing prisoners under sentence of death, and soon became one of the most respected capital defenders in America. After representing defendants and prisoners in hundreds of trials, appeals, and post-conviction proceedings, Prof. O’Connor lectured for a year at the National University of Ireland — Galway. He taught at Arizona State University College of Law before joining the St. Thomas faculty.

Elizabeth R. Schiltz will teach Contracts. Prof. Schiltz graduated from Yale University and Columbia Law School, where she served on the Columbia Law Review. After law school, she spent nine years practicing banking and corporate law with large firms in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. She joined the faculty of Notre Dame Law School in 1996, and has served on the boards of directors of numerous public interest organizations, including many devoted to advocating for the disabled.

The Rev. D. Reginald Whitt, O.P., will teach Torts. Father Whitt earned his J.D. from Duke University Law School. He studied at both the Yale Divinity School and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome before getting his J.C.L. and J.C.D. from the Catholic University of America. After practicing law with the Philadelphia firm of Duane, Morris & Heckscher, Father Whitt began his law school teaching career, which has included positions at Villanova University School of Law, the University of Kentucky College of Law, Duke Law School, and, most recently, Notre Dame Law School. This Dominican priest is both a civil and canon lawyer, with scholarship in the areas of marriage and church property.

This is just the beginning. As we continue to search for our second and third-year faculty, we are confident that quality will follow quality. Hiring outstanding faculty will only get easier.

Several weeks ago, I wrote in this space, “The formula for developing a great law school is simple: Mix great teaching faculty with great students in an environment that demands a lot of both of them.” The first of those two ingredients is firmly in place: St. Thomas has hired a great faculty. And with strong applications arriving every day, and funding sufficient to award up to 40 full-tuition scholarships, I am confident that we will soon enroll a great first year class of students.

David T. Link
Dean
University of St. Thomas School of Law

posted January 29, 2001

For more information please contact:

University of St. Thomas School of Law
MPL 440
1000 LaSalle Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403

E-mail: Lawschool@stthomas.edu
Web: http://www.stthomas.edu/lawschool

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