Original Jurisdiction
Original Jurisdiction
Confessions Of A Law School Dean: An Interview With Gordon Smith
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Confessions Of A Law School Dean: An Interview With Gordon Smith

The former dean of BYU Law, who oversaw its huge rise in the rankings, shares secrets of its success and its unique mission as a religiously affiliated school.
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Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking on the button below. Thanks!

As the new academic year gets underway, I’ve been having a law-school module of sorts here on the Original Jurisdiction podcast. After interviewing Professor Amy Chua of Yale and Professor Brian Fitzpatrick of Vanderbilt about current issues facing legal academia, I thought it might be useful to get a deanly—actually, the proper word is “decanal”—perspective on these topics.

My latest guest is Professor D. Gordon Smith, who recently completed his service as dean of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, aka BYU Law. I’ve admired his work for years, dating back to when we both started legal blogs in 2004—Underneath Their Robes for me, and The Conglomerate for him—and I was pleased to see him become dean of BYU Law in 2016. During his seven years as dean, he was an innovator in legal education—and this was reflected in BYU Law’s dramatic rise in the U.S. News rankings, from #46 when he took over to #22 today.

In our conversation, Professor Smith discussed BYU Law’s unique mission as a school “[f]ounded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” as well as changes he instituted that contributed to its climb in the rankings. But we also covered broader topics like the bar exam and lawyer licensure, professional development, and our nation’s access-to-justice crisis—so this episode will interest not just legal academics, but anyone who cares about law and the legal profession. I’m grateful to Professor Smith for his time and insight, as well as his contributions to both legal education and the profession more generally.

Show Notes:

Prefer reading to listening? For paid subscribers, a transcript of the entire episode appears below.

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Professor Gordon Smith (courtesy photo).

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Original Jurisdiction
Original Jurisdiction
Original Jurisdiction, a podcast about law and the legal profession, features host David Lat interviewing some of the most interesting, influential, and important people in the world of law. It's the companion podcast to Lat's Substack newsletter of the same name. You can follow David on Twitter (@DavidLat) or email him at davidlat@substack.com, and you can subscribe to his newsletter at davidlat.substack.com.