A Message to Employers from the Dean of Fordham Law School

Each spring and fall, the CPC organizes an extensive On-Campus Recruiting Program, attracting hundreds of potential employers to Fordham Law. Even more legal organizations choose to recruit our students through our formal Resume Collect Programs and our online job bank. With a student body of 1,600 and an alumni population of more than 19,000 individuals of diverse talents and backgrounds, employers have universally found that Fordham Law students are uniquely qualified to enhance their organization.

Whether your organization already recruits at Fordham Law or is simply considering the option, I welcome the opportunity to inform you about some of the outstanding accomplishments that evidence the quality and caliber of our student body.

Fordham students enter law school focused on achievement, and the intensity of their academic preparations and aspirations does not abate. Challenged by a nationally recognized faculty, the Fordham Law student learns to be a lawyer’s lawyer: an excellent writer, researcher, problem solver, and advocate. Over the past decade, the quality of the students at Fordham, while always impressive, has become truly outstanding. Students who succeed at Fordham have succeeded in one of the most selective law schools in the nation, and I believe they will excel at your organization:

• Top quality students. Fordham Law is one of the top 20 most selective schools in the nation in terms of LSAT scores of our full-time class; our full-time students at the top quartile scored at the 94th percentile and the bottom quartile scored impressively at the 88th percentile. Moreover, almost half of Fordham's students enter law school with two or more years of work experience.
• Placement. Fordham Law is one of the top six law schools measured in terms of graduates working at the top 50 law firms in the country. In 2010, Fordham was one of only four law schools to receive more than one post-graduate fellowship from the prestigious Skadden Fellowship Foundation. The other three schools were Yale, Berkeley, and Stanford.
• An outstanding and complete legal education. Fordham focuses on providing a student with the full range of educational experiences necessary to become an outstanding lawyer. We have three specialty programs ranked among the country’s 15 best in their area. 
• In-depth training. Equally important, students at Fordham acquire the skills and background they need to flourish in specific practice areas. Future litigators can study in a clinical program that is ranked 13th in the nation, gain trial experience in an award-winning advocacy program, participate in an award-winning moot court program, take an innovative and challenging fundamental lawyering course, and learn evidence, federal courts, and complex litigation from some of the foremost authorities in the country, including former Supreme Court clerks and the Reporter to the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules. Future business lawyers have opportunities that are just as compelling. They can benefit from a dispute resolution program that is ranked 11th in the nation, enroll in our path-breaking community economic development clinic, join mediation and negotiation teams that have won national championships, work on a corporate law journal that is one of the most cited in the area, and study with leading practitioners.
• Research, writing, and publishing. The Fordham Law Review is the 6th most-cited student-edited law review in judicial opinions. The Fordham Urban Law Journal ranked 5th in the nation among student-edited specialty journals cited by law reviews. Nearly 35 percent of our students serve on these and other outstanding journals and have been superbly trained to research and write.
• Public service experience. In 2008, the American Bar Association awarded its coveted Pro Bono Publico Award to Fordham Law’s Public Interest Resource Center (PIRC). In the 24-year history of the award, only one other law school received this honor. Among the reasons we were recognized was the amount of time our students spent in public service. The Class of 2011, for instance, generated 158,416 pro bono hours while at Fordham. We know that effort makes a difference in people’s lives. We also believe it makes a difference as our alumni begin their careers. Through their service with PIRC and hands-on experience in our nationally ranked legal clinics, they learn how to get things done—quickly and correctly.

Fordham Law School offers employers a variety of recruitment options to introduce them to our student body. I encourage you to visit the link above to find the recruiting option that best suits your organization's hiring needs.

Sincerely,
Michael M. Martin
Dean & Fordham University Distinguished Professor of Law