For the fifth year in a row, PreLaw Magazine ranked CWRU School of Law as having one of the top Business Law programs in the nation, with an “A” grade in its fall 2022 issue.
What are the top ten things that make CWRU’s Business Law program so distinctive?
First, CWRU offers a simulation-based required upper level writing course devoted to transactional business issues. All students must take either the LLEAP 3 Transactions course or the LLEAP 3 Litigation course in their second year.
Second, we have pioneered a Business Law Colloquium, taught by Professor Juliet P. Kostritsky (Director of our Business Law Center), that allows our students to interact with panels of experts in the corporate arena including law firm partners, general counsels, business leaders and law and business school professors. Students write a paper on a business topic such as corporate governance, executive compensation, business ethics, the role of the board of directors, corporate ethics, diversity and inclusion in law firm hiring, and corporate governance and the rise of environmental and social governance.
Third, in their second or third year, our students can participate in the Fusion program, an interdisciplinary certificate program that teams law students with business and engineering students across campus to simulate the commercialization of emerging technologies.
Fourth, CWRU has two clinics where third-year law students sit “first chair” in representing business clients. In the Community Development Clinic, students represent local business and nonprofit entities in the formation of their businesses, obtaining tax-exempt status and serving as general counsel. This past year they created a land trust for a major development in the Hough neighborhood, they obtained tax exemption for the Edna House for Women for its newly expanded campus in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, they drafted the foundational documents and led the organizing board meeting for the Cleveland Observer newspaper, and they prepared a template contract for Ingenuity Cleveland to use with the creators that share its space. In the IP Venture Clinic, students represent entrepreneurs to launch an early-stage venture and protect their intellectual property.
Fifth, students can earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Weatherhead School of Management and a Juris Doctorate (JD) degree from the law school simultaneously under our Dual Degree Program.
Sixth, CWRU offers Concurrent Degree Programs in international business law with partner schools in England, France and Spain, enabling students to earn both a JD and a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in international business law in just three years for the same price as the JD degree alone.
Seventh, CWRU has expanded its international business law offerings in recent years, with courses ranging from International Commercial Arbitration to International Business Transactions and International Tax—each taught by leading experts in these fields. The strength of the curriculum has a direct effect on our students. The law school’s Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court team recently advanced to the elimination rounds and won a best speaker award at the international competition.
Eighth, we offer a continuing series of lectures and symposia in the business area. Suzanne Hanselman of the Baker Hostetler law firm and Stephan Schlegelmilch of the Securities and Exchange Commission have recently lectured on “Raising Capital Through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) Risk, Reward and (Possible) Regulation.” Atossa Alavi, the General Counsel at AlphaMicron, Inc., addressed the “Myth and Reality of IP Protection.” Glenn Morrical and Ludgy LaRochelle of the Tucker Ellis law firm delivered a talk on Ohio’s important new LLC law. Dominic DiPuccio of the Taft law firm presented a lecture on real estate private equity and joint ventures. Most recently, on Nov. 4, 2022, the law school hosted the George A. Leet Symposium on “Corporate Law and Private Ordering: What are the Limits and What Framework Should Guide Decisions on Private Ordering?” Jill Fisch, the Saul A Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law, Co-Director of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania school of Law, was the keynote speaker, speaking on “Limits on Contractual Freedom in Corporate Law.”
Ninth, we have top-ranked business law faculty, anchored by Anat Alon-Beck, Charles Korsmo, Juliet Kostritsky and Robert Rapp, who are leading experts in the corporate area with wide experience as prior law firm attorneys who write on cutting edge topics and appear in major conferences on corporate and securities law.
Tenth, we have a history of placing our grads in high paying business law jobs in Cleveland and across the country. Business law remains one of the strongest areas of employment for our graduates and Cleveland is home to some of the largest business law firms in the nation, including Jones Day, the sixth largest firm in the U.S., and Squire Patton Boggs, the 16th largest. Case Western Reserve law graduates comprise a significant number of these firms attorneys: Jones Day (50 alumni), BakerHostetler (58 alumni), Tucker Ellis (44 alumni), Thompson Hine (41 alumni), Benesch Friedlander (35 alumni), Taft Stettinius (31 alumni), Squire Patton Boggs (28 alumni), Calfee Halter (26 alumni), McDonald Hopkins (24 alumni), and Hahn Loeser (22 alumni).
Article Date
November 23, 2022
