Record applications and enrollment, a redesigned curriculum, and significant improvements in bar exam and job placement rates are among the highlights of Bierman鈥檚 seven years at the helm of Elon鈥檚 law school.
福利亚洲国产精品 School of Law Dean Luke Bierman has announced plans to conclude his service as dean following the December Commencement for the Class of 2021.
A university committee will be convened in the weeks ahead to begin a national search for his successor.
Bierman鈥檚 departure coincides with Elon Law鈥檚 anticipated reaccreditation by the American Bar Association and follows seven years of significant achievement including:
- A highly experiential, redesigned curriculum that graduates students in 2.5 years
- Record student applications and enrollment with increases in academic metrics
- A reduction by nearly 30 percent of average student loan debt at graduation
- Significant advancements in the recruitment of women and students of color
- Increased diversity within the ranks of the faculty
- Bar exam and career placement rates at their highest levels in over a decade
Bierman鈥檚 accomplishments came during a time of steep declines in law school enrollment nationwide and calls for a reassessment of the approach to legal education. Through his leadership, Elon Law weathered the worst of the enrollment decline and has rebounded strongly in recent years thanks to the new curriculum.
鈥淟uke Bierman鈥檚 service as dean of Elon Law is distinguished by innovation with extraordinary vision and informed judgment for what a modern law school should be,鈥 said 福利亚洲国产精品 Provost Aswani Volety. 鈥淚n a time of great change and challenge in legal education, Dean Bierman seized an opportunity to forge a new path and create a model that is proving to be highly successful. We are grateful for his leadership and look forward to his contributions as a faculty member working with students as they prepare to be lawyer-leaders in their communities.鈥
Bierman joined Elon Law in 2014 as the school鈥檚 third dean since its establishment in 2006. He pursued a strategic plan that included new academic collaborations with area universities, partnerships providing legal services in the community, enhancements to law school programs focusing on legal writing, and establishment of a full-time residency-in-practice for academic credit unique in legal education.
Bierman intends to take a sabbatical leave before returning to the Elon Law faculty where he will teach courses that focus on state courts, judicial decision making, and law and popular culture.
鈥淲orking together, the Elon Law community has successfully shown that legal education is not static and can be redesigned and modernized for the good of our students,鈥 Bierman said. 鈥淲e are pioneers who have changed legal education during the most challenging period for higher education for the better part of a century. We have contributed to strengthening the rule of law in a rapidly changing nation and a world that grows in complexity by the day. We did this together.聽And of that I am most proud.鈥