Prudenti: New year brings new vision for Hofstra Law School

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When I took over as the 10^th dean of the Hofstra Law School, I vowed to never fall into the trap of viewing our institution as an island and to never lose sight of the fact that outside the bounds of our campus is a vibrant and cross-polinating community. That means keeping abreast of what is going in our neighboring towns and counties, and keeping our neighbors informed about what we are doing.

I look upon my deanship not in terms of “me,” but in terms of “we,” and firmly believe that the law school, as well as all of Long Island, must concern itself not just with tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow.

With that in mind and with looking forward to the 2017-18 academic year, there are several initiatives underway I want to mention ranging from a vision for a new Institute of Trial Advocacy and Technology, enhanced by a new “courtroom of the future”and Legal Technical Scholars, to a medical legal partnership with Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine at Hofstra University, to expanding our veterans, immigration and other clinical programs.

We are exploring and creating joint disciplinary programs such as our J.D./Nurse Practitioner; M.A./J.D. program in linguistics; and J.D./M.D., adding to our J.D./M.B.A. and online offerings.  We are rejuvenating our existing centers, such as the Center for Children, Families and the Law, the Gitenstein Institute for Health Law and Policy, the Monroe H. Freedman Institute for the Study of Legal Ethics and the Center for Intellectual Property Law.

In conjunction with the Gitenstein Institute, we recently launched a new Veterans Law Clinic to help local veterans successfully navigate the bureaucracy necessary to obtaining the health care and disability benefits to which they are entitled. Through the Center for Children, Families and the Law, we are partnering with the Nassau County AHRC Foundation in a joint effort to help families obtain the requisite legal guardian when a developmentally disabled child reaches the age of 18.

We are developing new areas of expertise, and promoting our vision and success with a targeted public relations effort highlighting our scholarship and detailing the good deeds of our faculty and students in the community.

Our admissions applications have increased dramatically—a reflection, I believe of the fact that our graduates are finding good jobs; the Class of 2016 was the fifth consecutive class to improve placement statistics—and I am not talking about just any job, but full-time, long-term positions for which bar passage is required. In contrast, nationally the percentage of law school graduates obtaining those type of jobs decreased 4 percent in 2016.

So, that’s a glimpse of where we are now. As for where we hope to go, my immediate priorities are the core basics, centered on my belief that the law school’s mission is to provide the resources necessary to send our graduates out into the workplace with practice-ready skills and a sense of social responsibility. I believe practicing law is a privilege, not a right, and lawyers have an obligation to give back, to pay it forward. Hofstra has a reputation for training attorneys who serve the public good while meeting their professional goals, and I intend to not only meet, but build upon, that reputation.

Our students invest a lot in Hofstra, in both time and dollars, and they have a right to expect that we will invest every bit as much in them, from the moment they are admitted to the moment they graduate, and beyond. They also invest a lot in the community, spending between $8,500 (if they are local) and $25,000 (if they are living on campus or in the community) on living expenses, and supporting local businesses.

And of course our community contributes mightily to the law school, with services ranging from road maintenance to public protection.

In my time as dean, I hope to leverage and build upon those relationships, which I believe make our community as well as our law school stronger and more vibrant.

Judge Prudenti is the Dean of the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.