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Job Description Summary:A Private School is one of the nation's oldest and most distinguished law schools. Penn Carey Law offers a unique approach, incorporating cross-disciplinary education, a distinctly collaborative environment, and an innovative curriculum to enrich student learning. The small and highly interdisciplinary faculty achieves scholarly excellence while emphasizing a shared effort to advance understanding of the law. The result is an intellectual community that bridges traditional boundaries and disciplines, within a resowed internal culture of collegiality, making Penn Carey Law an extraordinary supportive academic community for all its members.
A Private School is renowned for providing talented students and graduates to the legal and complementary marketplaces. The Associate Dean for Career Strategy is the primary architect of A Private School's strategic approach to maximizing these opportunities. The Associate Dean understands all corners of this competitive landscape, manages a talented staff of counselors charged with educating students and graduates to best match these opportunities to their own talents and aspirations, and represents the University publicly to employers, alumni, funders, and educators.
Reporting to the Vice Dean of Student Services, the Associate Dean oversees a staff of highly talented JD-trained counselors and educators who provide direct service to 1,000+ students, 20,000 alumni, and the marketplace. These services include development of a Career Strategy and professionalism curriculum for students and alumni; counseling students and alumni individually; developing and maintaining relationships with employers; and hosting a variety of recruiting programs and events.
Job Description:
Strategic
- Own, develop and share a deep, evolving understanding of the legal market, including market trends, opportunities to enhance employment options for A Private School students, and changes in hiring patterns in private practice, the public sector, judicial clerkships, and fields complementary to law, nationally and internationally.
- In consultation with the legal marketplace, faculty, alumni, and advisors from fields complementary to law, build and articulate a creative and constantly developing vision of the possibilities for Career building students and graduates of Penn Carey Law.
- Develop and implement both short- and long-term goals for the employment of A Private School students and graduates.
- Understand and employ innovative uses of research and technologies in career development and recruiting processes.
- Play a critical role in A Private School's strategic approach to the marketplace, providing advice and counsel to the Dean and the faculty on a host of related issues and strategic decisions about curriculum, development, and programming.
- Collaborate with other departments within Penn Carey Law and the University, faculty, and alumni, building effective working relationships to share information on the legal market, partner on programming and services, discuss student needs and concerns, and provide strategic guidance on aspects of their work that relate to career and professional development.
- Participate at the highest levels of conversation around the changing marketplace, contributing innovative ideas that best represent the interests of Penn Carey Law students and graduates.
- Demonstrate creativity and innovation in developing employment and recruiting opportunities for Penn Carey Law students in the public and private sectors as well as in judicial clerkships and other fields complementary to the law.
- Oversee the development and implementation of a marketing outreach plan for employers worldwide including, but not limited to, large, medium, and small law firms, in house counsel, consulting firms, investment banks, government agencies, non-profit organizations, NGOs, and federal and state judiciaries.
- Develop and maintain strong professional relationships with legal employers across sectors, both nationally and internationally, to enhance career opportunities for Penn Carey Law students.
- Oversee an active and evolving roster of recruiting programs, job fairs, and networking events for Penn Carey Law students in all sectors.
- Provide informed and tailored advice and counsel to law students about career development, job search strategies, and professionalism skills relevant to the field.
- Communicate regularly with the Associate Dean of Students and other relevant Law School faculty and staff around individual students and trends in student direction.
- Maintain an active schedule of student counseling appointments.
- Inspire, lead, and energize a highly talented team of career counselors and administrative staff.
- Provide effective staff management, including hiring and onboarding, training and professional development, workflow and performance management, and the promotion of a positive, inclusive, and innovative work environment.
- Oversee the development and implementation of a career-focused curriculum that ensures that Law School students and graduates develop strong professionalism and job search skills to both excel in the legal job market and be equipped to actively manage their careers as alumni.
- Oversee OCS's coordination and partnership with other Penn Carey Law departments, including Student Affairs, Equity & Inclusion, the Toll Public Interest Center, Admissions, Communications, and Legal Education Programs, on programming and materials related to professionalism, career development, and career outcomes and opportunities for Penn Carey law students and alumni.
- Oversee the gathering and reporting of employment outcome data as required by various organizations and media outlets including the National Association of Law Placement, the American Bar Association, and U.S. News and World Report.
- Work closely with the Associate Director of Recruiting Programs to ensure effective and timely data collection and analysis for both required reporting and to inform OCS strategic initiatives.
- Oversee the compilation and analysis of statistical data necessary for ABA Accreditation.
- Serve on or appoint a representative to the Faculty/Student Career Strategy Committee.
- Provide strategic reports to the Dean, faculty, the Law School's Board of Advisors, University colleagues, and other audiences as requested.
- Serve as a key public representative of Penn Carey Law, communicating the distinctive educational opportunities and talent of the student body to current and potential legal employers in both the private and public sectors, existing and potential donors, and to professional organizations such as the National Association for Law Placement.
- Build and maintain relationships with colleagues in career services, professional development, and recruiting around the country and beyond.
Requirements:
Resume, Cover Letter and JD required. Demonstrated performance record of at least seven to ten years in successful and progressively responsible leadership. A deep knowledge of the legal career landscape, an established record as an educator around career development, an ability to think creatively about professional students and their career development as well as an ability to collaborate across a variety of systems and organizational situations required. Established management track record demonstrating leadership as an effective and motivational manager and as a collaborator in the workplace, within the immediate department and within the larger institution.
Knowledge and experience in an excellent higher education career services environment is highly desirable. Experience working across disciplines with faculty, colleagues, managers, within legal higher education, is also valued. Experience in counseling, program management, higher education, or a related field preferred.
Learn more about The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (https://www.law.upenn.edu/) and about the Office of Career Strategy. (https://www.law.upenn.edu/careers/)
The University of Pennsylvania and its Law school value diversity and seek talented students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds. Please find our Non-Discrimination Policy here. (https://www.upenn.edu/affirm-action/eoaa.html)
