Dean’s Letter

Posted on September 28, 2023September 28, 2023 by Juan Soto in Dean’s Letter 2023

As you’ve probably heard by now, this will be my last year as dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law. This issue of Baltimore Law vividly illustrates why I am so proud of this wonderful school and why it will be hard for me to say goodbye.

When I came to Baltimore in 2012, the legal job market was over-saturated. Applications to law schools across the country were in a free-fall as many questioned the value of a law degree. Enrollment declines challenged the financial well-being of tuition-driven schools like ours. Some schools closed, but we made the tough choices needed to weather the storm.

Now, 11 years later, we enjoy stable enrollment, a healthy budget and impressive employment outcomes for our graduates. We emerged from the global pandemic stronger than ever, integrating cutting-edge technology into our classrooms and curriculum.

Through it all, our graduates have continued to use their law degrees to make a positive difference in Baltimore and beyond. In this magazine you will read about alumni doing just that. Whether it’s by logging hundreds of pro bono hours, like Michelle McGeogh, J.D. ’07, or hosting expungement clinics to help people move on from past mistakes, these alumni are passionate about using their law degrees to help others.

University of Baltimore students learn to deliver justice, and to take action when it is being denied, from our outstanding faculty. From foundational first-year classes to our nationally ranked clinical law program, our students acquire the skills and values they need to undertake impactful work in our community.

For example, our cover story focuses on four University of Baltimore-trained lawyers committed to righting the scales of justice by exposing police and correctional misconduct. They not only seek damages for their clients, they also advocate for statutory reforms that will eliminate obstacles to justice for others like them.

The stories in this magazine make me confident I will hand my successor the reins to a highly successful law school. After 11 years as dean (more than twice the national average!), I knew this was the right moment for me to pursue new challenges and allow the school to benefit from fresh leadership. Learn more about my decision, and the national search for my successor. (link to news story)

It will not be easy for me to leave my role in a community that has embraced me so warmly, and of which I am so fond. But I’m sure you will welcome your new dean next summer and help her or him continue the long tradition of excellence that makes this law school so special.

Ronald Weich
Dean

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Dean’s Letter – Fall 2022

Posted on November 11, 2022September 28, 2023 by Juan Soto in Dean's Letter 2022

The technology revolution is changing everything, including Baltimore Law. This magazine is now being published in an entirely online format, enabling the law school to produce two issues every year instead of one. This means we can share more news, more promptly. Also, readers can engage more deeply by linking to additional online content. We hope you enjoy our new and improved Baltimore Law magazine.

But don’t worry – this online magazine is being published by the same great in-person law school you once attended. After more than a year of COVID-compelled remote classes, we are again teaching the next generation of University of Baltimore students in the flesh in our state-of-the-art building on North Charles Street. The classrooms are full, the hallways are buzzing and both Bar Bowl and Barrister’s Ball are back on tap (literally). Professors are incorporating sophisticated online technology to enhance, not replace, their in-person classes.

COVID has taught us much about the promise — and the limits — of technology. As I wrote in a recent Maryland Bar Journal article, “The goal should be to accept the gift of technology without excessive reliance on it, to incorporate the lessons of the pandemic into post-pandemic law practice without losing the inherent advantages of in-person interaction.” I believe that to be true for the practice of law, and for legal education itself.

One thing that technology will not change is the deep involvement of UB Law alumni in the civic life of our community. For example, in this issue of Baltimore Law you’ll read about how Sen. Jill P. Carter, J.D. ’92, is leading efforts to promote racial equity in a newly legalized marijuana market. And you’ll enjoy a profile of Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess, J.D. ’88, who successfully prosecuted the man who murdered five employees of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis.

Technology helps us make sure that the education we provide to students is just as contemporary and exciting as the building in which that education takes place. And, as I said in the Maryland Bar Journal, UB Law students “are more than ready to put technology to use in service of tomorrow’s clients and to advance justice in a world that hungers for it.”

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Dean’s Letter – Fall 2021

Posted on September 13, 2021September 15, 2021 by Jason Keller in Dean's Letter

June 19, 2021 was a happy turning point for our law school. After more than a year of forced separation in the shadow of a deadly global pandemic, we emerged into the sunshine that day to celebrate The University of Baltimore School of Law Class of 2021 and — better late than never — the Class of 2020. A few months earlier, we were uncertain if it would be safe to host an in-person commencement. But lifesaving vaccines caused the virus to recede enough for us to honor our marvelous graduates in person.

The 15-month shutdown was tough on everyone, and it presented unique challenges to law students. Legal education is meant to be an intense, face-to-face undertaking. Some of the best learning takes place in hallway conversations, late-night study groups, or over pizza and beers at Turp’s. Still, we must be grateful for Zoom and other internet platforms that enabled our law school to continue functioning, albeit remotely. We never wavered from our mission to educate the next generation of UB lawyer-leaders.

Technology alone would have been insufficient without other ingredients. Students brought to bear the skills for which our law school has long been known: grit, perseverance, focus and hard work. Faculty and staff members also rose to the occasion, mastering unfamiliar technology almost overnight so they could connect with students, and connect students with each other.

This fall, we’ll be back in the John and Frances Angelos Law Center, our light-filled, state-of-the-art building at the corner of Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue. It will be a joyful reunion, but it will not be business as usual. We will take advantage of the lessons of the pandemic, incorporating online elements into the curriculum to maximize valuable classroom time.

Nor will the subject matter of a post-pandemic UB Law education be business as usual. Just as our platinum status LEED-certified building is designed to respond to the peril of climate change, so the scholarship and learning within the building must take account of this existential threat. In this issue of Baltimore Law, you’ll read how climate change is affecting migration patterns, and therefore immigration law. You’ll be impressed by the UB Law professors and graduates who play a leading role in analyzing and addressing this worldwide phenomenon.

The post-pandemic world must also grapple with questions of “digital justice.” In this magazine, Professor Michele Gilman sounds the alarm about hidden algorithms that may reinforce bias, and you’ll learn how Professor Colin Starger and colleagues prepare law students to be masters, not servants, of big data.

Meanwhile, both before and after the pandemic, UB alumni have distinguished themselves in the legal community. In this magazine, we shine a well-deserved spotlight on one successful Baltimore practitioner, Steve Silverman. We’re proud of Steve and other alumni who are putting their Baltimore Law degrees to such good use.

Finally, you’ll enjoy reading warm tributes to retiring professors Steve Grossman, Don Stone, Ken Lasson and Barbara Babb from their faculty colleagues. And you’ll learn about the dynamic new faculty members who will carry on the UB Law traditions of classroom excellence and student-focused mentorship.

Those traditions did not disappear during this strange period of mandatory distancing. Our online classrooms were still excellent, and students continued to benefit from the caring mentorship of faculty and staff. But these special features of our law school will be heightened as we repopulate the building and savor the exhilarating immediacy of face-to-face human interaction.

Welcome back to the three-dimensional world!

Ronald Weich
Dean

Dean’s Letter – Fall 2020

Posted on September 29, 2020September 14, 2021 by Jason Keller in Dean's Letter

We are living through an extraordinary moment in American history. Six months into a global pandemic with no available vaccine or cure, on the eve of a highly consequential election, our nation is suddenly undertaking the most searching examination of racial inequality since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. In both bad ways and good ways, it’s enough to make your head explode.

University of Baltimore law students are grappling with these issues, bringing their varied experiences and passionate perspectives to the table. That table is a virtual one for now, since our law school is operating remotely this semester in light of public health imperatives. The John and Frances Angelos Law Center, usually a beehive of activity, is silent as classes and student services have migrated to Zoom, TWEN and other internet platforms.

But even remotely, UB Law students are readying themselves to address the issues of the day. I have reminded them that they chose to become lawyers in order to take on just the kinds of challenges our society confronts. Lawyers are problem solvers, policymakers and often leaders. We have a unique responsibility to rise above the maelstrom and work to make things better.

In this issue of Baltimore Law, you’ll read about some of the ways our law school makes a positive impact on the world around us. You will read about the 30-year history of our nationally renowned clinical law program and its mission to bring justice to those on the margins of society. You will learn about alumni who are working to define the legal impact of technology, in particular artificial intelligence, which offers many benefits but which may threaten privacy.

And you will meet young alumni volunteering with the National Lawyers Guild, monitoring law enforcement activity at public protests and advising protestors of their rights.

In this issue, we also say farewell to three beloved faculty members who have retired: Garrett Epps, Elizabeth Samuels and Jane Murphy all contributed much to UB Law. We are grateful for their service, and we wish them much happiness as they embark on new chapters.

I hope this issue of Baltimore Law reminds you that UB is more than a law school; it is a vibrant, accomplished and passionate community. Never content to sit on the sidelines, our students, faculty and alumni are rolling up their sleeves to make a difference. Now more than ever, we welcome their labors.

Ronald Weich
Dean