Two leading legal educators described the abundant opportunities in the legal field to University of Houston undergraduate students last week.
The featured speakers were University of Houston Law Center Dean Leonard M. Baynes and Drake University Law School Dean Roscoe Jones, Jr. The event was held at the C.T. Bauer College of Business. They discussed the wide range of job possibilities for those with a law degree including working as a lawyer, business leader, judge, elected official, professor, and even a law school dean.
Baynes has served as UH Law Center’s dean since 2014. He is the ninth dean in the Law Center’s history and the first of African descent. He drew upon, "the power of a legal education," a central message of his deanship.
“If you want to be successful in this profession, you will be successful,” Baynes said. “Whether you’re working at a top law firm, or representing people like you and me who don’t have anybody representing them, by preparing wills or closing business deals. All of that work is important, and a law degree gives you the capacity to take a number of paths.”
Before coming to the Law Center, Baynes was a Professor of Law and the inaugural director of the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John's University School of Law. Before becoming an academic, Baynes worked at a Wall St. law firm, clerked for a federal judge, and worked in house at a major telecommunications company.
Baynes discussed the powerful alumni network of more than 17,000 strong that would be available to those who attend UHLC.
"When you attend the Law Center, you enter into a huge network of graduates," Baynes said. "We have Law Center alumni everywhere, not just in Houston or Texas, but all across the nation and the world. But success is not defined by what law school you go to. Your ultimate success resides exclusively in your hands."
Jones, Jr., who was raised in Houston, became the 22nd dean of Drake Law School this year, and is the school’s first Black dean. He previously served as a partner in the public policy group at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLPs office in Washington D.C. He also had numerous roles in the federal government, including senior counsel to New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, legislative director for former California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and multiple stints at the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I grew up here in Houston, Texas,” Jones, Jr. said. “I never thought I would have the chance to do some of the things I had the chance to do. Law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer.
"Oftentimes you’re going to learn how to practice law when you get into the profession. We are teaching you how to do what lawyers do. As a generalist, you’re going to be prepared for whatever it is you’re going to be doing in the future.”
Original source can be found here.