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1/25/05 Dean Van Zandt Named President-elect of Law Deans Association

David E. Van Zandt, dean of Northwestern University School of Law, has been named president-elect of the American Law Deans Association (ALDA).

With a membership of about 110 deans of American Bar Association-accredited law schools from throughout the United States, ALDA advocates on behalf of law school deans on issues of accreditation, academics, admissions, and other issues affecting legal education.

Van Zandt took over Northwestern Law's deanship in 1995 with a plan to implement a model of legal education that would reflect the realities of the changing worlds of law and business. Shortly afterward, he brought faculty, staff, students, and alumni into a two-year planning process that resulted in a bold strategic plan the Law School has been implementing ever since.

“The practice of law is no longer the secure, gentlemanly profession of yesteryear,” Van Zandt said. “All major law schools need to recognize and address that reality. Our graduates will face fierce competition, most in multi-job careers, and they will be valued not only for their legal analyses but for their abilities to do whatever it takes to work well in teams and communicate effectively across organizations. Running in place is no longer an option -- for law schools or for their graduates. We are all competing for the most desirable students and faculty.”

“Through educational programs that focus on skills in teamwork, interpersonal communication, transactional practice and business, our students develop the ability to work effectively in groups with lawyers and non-lawyers alike,” he said.

Key components of the Law School's strategic plan include an enhanced relationship with the Kellogg School of Management, including expanded degree and executive programs both domestically and globally, and an unparalleled admissions program.

The admissions program, unlike those at peer institutions, relies heavily on personal interviews to find mature students whose interpersonal skills more than match their LSAT scores and stresses significant work experience, which now is almost mandatory.

In the process of implementing the strategic plan, the quality of both students and faculty has improved. Student LSAT scores are among the highest ever, and new faculty hires include a number of scholars with doctorates, experts not only in law but in political science, sociology, philosophy, and economics.

Van Zandt also leads the Law School's recent efforts to raise $78 million in a capital campaign to support the strategic plan.

Prior to joining the Northwestern Law faculty, Van Zandt was an associate with Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. He graduated from Yale Law School and earned his doctorate in sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

He is a member of the planning committees for the Northwestern University Corporate Counsel Institute and the Northwestern University Corporate Counsel Center and is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the Kellogg School of Management. He is also the treasurer and a director and member of the Executive Committee and the Research Committee of the American Bar Foundation and a director of several private companies.

Van Zandt will succeed Saul Levmore as president of the American Law Deans Association in 2007. Levmore was named ALDA president in January 2005.

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