is also committed to being a leader in the
area of rural justice. We have successfully
expanded placements for students with
firms, courts, and government throughout
the state. Continuing this expansion to our
more rural communities requires both the
investment in developing online course
options, so students can maintain full-time
status while completing field placements,
and finding ways to help students cover the
costs of living near their field placements.
We spent the fall semester gathering
information on the necessary hardware,
software, and training we would need
to offer class online. This spring, we are
identifying classes we can move to an online
platform without sacrificing educational
quality. We fully expect to offer those classes
starting next fall.
On the faculty side, we lost three tenure-
track faculty last year, and Professor
Alleva will move on to her well-earned
retirement this year. We have successfully
supplemented our tenure-track faculty with
others. This year we restored some funding
for adjunct faculty members. It is not as
much as we would like, but it did enable us
to cover some curricular gaps and to make
trial advocacy available to more students.
The University allowed us to hire three
faculty on short-term contracts to cover
some critical courses in lawyering skills, trial
practice, and bar passage. Next year we will
add a new dean, and Kathryn Rand will
return to full-time teaching from her year of
developmental leave.
One of the areas in which we feel
particularly stretched right now is on
the staff side. The ABA recently added a
requirement that each student complete
six credits of experiential learning. Most
students satisfy this requirement through
field placements (the rest of the world calls
these externships). While we have had great
success at finding placements for students,
we currently only have one person to
administer as many as 70 field placements
during a semester. We expect to be able to
get that person some help next fall.
Notwithstanding these challenges, let me
assure that the UND School of Law is well
poised for another finding that we are in
full compliance with the ABA standards.
Despite our faculty losses, our core
doctrinal faculty remains. We have carefully
designed our recently revised curriculum
to take people from new students to
fledgling professionals. A true challenge
for North Dakota over the coming decade
will be justice in rural communities. We are
prepared to lead in that area.
With the great support we have received
from SBAND, the courts, and the
continuing commitment of the University
and the State Board of Higher Education,
the UND School of Law will be a part
of making sure this state has the legal
professionals it needs.
Wick Corwin
A uniquely qualified neutral:
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Former trial judge and civil litigator
40 years of experience
Persistent, empathetic and insightful
Extensive ADR training
Specializing in the mediation
and arbitration of civil disputes
“Superb job . . . a great service to the parties.”
Steve Rufer - Fergus Falls, MN
“Fine work.”
Tom Traynor - Devils Lake, ND
701-541-0965
[email protected]
WINTER 2019
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