Brad Butwin ’85, Chair of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, met with Fordham Law faculty on March 30 for an in-depth discussion about the changing legal marketplace and the role of the law school in preparing students for the challenges that lie ahead. The event was part of the “Theory Meets Practice: From the Classroom to the Changing Marketplace” speaker series.
Butwin is regularly ranked among the top commercial litigators in New York City and a member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Financial Reporting and its Task Force on New Lawyers in a Changing Profession. Benchmark Litigation has consistently listed him as one of the top securities litigators in the country. He is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the American Society of Legal Writers.
“I think it is important for law firms to have an ongoing dialogue with the law schools from which they recruit, especially given the dynamic changes in our profession,” said Butwin. “Fordham Law School has always been innovative and has a great tradition of tapping into its strong alumni network to improve its curriculum.”
“Fordham Law professors are keenly interested in how changes in the profession affect classroom instruction,” said Professor Joseph Landau, chair of the faculty’s Career Planning Committee, which helped organize the event in partnership with the School’s Career Planning Center and Public Interest Resource Center. “The discussion with Mr. Butwin was enormously useful in helping professors think about how we prepare our students to become both legal professionals and thought leaders.”
“It is critical for Fordham Law professors to connect with employers in order to assist our students and graduates with career planning,” said Suzanne Endrizzi, Assistant Dean of the Career Planning Center. “We are so pleased that the faculty, the Career Planning Committee, and the CPC were able to collaborate to bring this important series to fruition.”
The speaker series is part of a broader range of initiatives aimed at bolstering career assistance and development for Fordham Law students. Among these efforts are a course called Quantitative Methods for Lawyers, which introduces students to basic financial concepts and general quantitative reasoning; the Corporate Compliance Institute, a one-week intensive training program that focuses on the fundamentals of the rapidly emerging field of compliance; and the Fordham Law Alumni Association section advisors program, which includes 20 alumni working with 1L sections throughout the academic year.
“Fordham Law is fortunate to have many programs, and many talented alumni like Brad Butwin, that can help our students with their career objectives,” said Michael M. Martin, Dean of Fordham Law. “Our professors are not only exceptional scholars but also caring teachers, and this event will help them enhance the skills they have to assist our students in new and important ways.”