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Show Summary

Katherine Scannell, Vice Dean for Institutional Success at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, discusses the distinctive elements of WashU’s JD program. She highlights the individualized focus on students’ career goals and the broad areas of expertise that students can specialize in. Dean Scannell emphasizes the importance of early career services and guidance for students before they start law school. She also talks about WashU’s response to the growth of AI in the legal world. Listeners will learn about the interview process at WashU and hear Dean Scanell’s advice. Dean Scannell shares her thoughts on the importance of networking and building relationships with lawyers and professionals in the field and offers her tips on how to do this thoughtfully. 

Show Notes

Thanks for joining me for this, the 579th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Are you applying to law school this cycle? Are you planning ahead to apply to law school next year or later? Are you competitive at your target programs? Accepted’s law school admissions quiz can give you a quick reality check. Just go to accepted.com/law-quiz, complete the quiz, and you’ll not only get an assessment, but tips on how to improve your chances of acceptance. Plus, it’s all free. 

Now for today’s interview. I’m delighted to have on Admissions Straight Talk for the first time Dean Katherine Scannell, Vice Dean for Institutional Success at Washington University in St. Louis. Dean Scannell earned her bachelor’s degree from Wash U and her JD from the University of Missouri. She practiced law for several years and then joined Washington University in St. Louis Law School, becoming first Assistant Dean of Career Services and then Associate Dean of Admissions and today she is the Vice Dean for Institutional Success at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Since 2009, she has also been a Lecturer in Law at Wash U.

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Dean Scannell, thank you for joining me for Admissions Straight Talk. [2:05 ]

Thank you for having me. I’m so happy to be here.

Can you give us an overview of the more distinctive elements of WashU’s JD program? [2:14 ]

Yes. So WashU’s program is interesting, because we have so many broad areas of expertise that you can kind of focus on, and we really focus individually with each student to think about their career goals. We start that even before students start law school. So this summer, we’re working with the class that’ll be coming in in the fall to help educate them on the possibilities, what they can do with their law degree, and just let them hit the ground running.

So I think that’s unique, how we start early, and then we have a lot of very individualized opportunities at WashULaw in the educational experience and to support their long-term career goals, because most students are coming to law school to practice law, right?

So we want to help them understand what all the paths are, and that can help shape the classes, the courses they take here. We do a lot of interdisciplinary work that is interesting, like our Cordell Institute in law and medicine. And so, we collaborate with our highly ranked medical school here to think about policy, privacy, and data issues. So things like that we’ve really dug in that provide interesting experiences for our students and educational opportunities.

Wonderful. I’m actually very impressed that you started out with the idea of career services before they even start. I don’t think I’ve gotten that answer from any law school admissions dean. I’m a big believer in graduate school, in general, being a means to an end. That implies you have to have some idea of what “end” you want, and law is an incredibly broad field. I think it’s fantastic that you provide that guidance, even before somebody steps foot on campus. [3:58 ]

That has been a very unique and very important part of our mission in the Career Center. And I should say in the admissions office, even when we’re talking with students about why law school, they may not know exactly why law school at that point. Some of them know more than others, and we kind of get the full spectrum, but we start to talk with them about the things that can open doors in their careers. And we do recruit a large contingent of first-generation students, and those students… I was a first-generation college student. And so, from a personal standpoint, I know that it’s really hard when you don’t know what you don’t know. 

Our Career Center has helped educate our admissions office on some questions to ask and things to talk about even early in that admissions cycle, and even with students who may not end up at WashU, but hopefully, we’re helping educate them in the whole process.

You mentioned the breadth of offerings at WashU, and that was something that struck me when I was preparing for our call. I also noticed that you have three certificate programs, one in public interest law, one in business and corporate law, and one in international and comparative law. Can you discuss those programs for a second? [5:48 ]

Sure. We try to bring in students with a wide range of interests. Like I said, they often change their minds once they’re here, and that’s totally fine. But we do like to bring in students with varying backgrounds and varying goals, and we think that adds to the educational experience, really elevates the educational experience, those different perspectives.

So we give the opportunity for students. As you mentioned, JD is very broad. You can do so many things with the JD. And so, we do give the opportunity for students who know they want to get some extra coursework and specialize in those areas to do that during their JD programs. So they’ll have a number of classes that they have to take that are designated in those different bucket areas to obtain those certificates. We also have LLM programs that our students can obtain, and some of them you can obtain in the three years. You can get a joint JD/LLM.

Tax is one of those. You can get a joint JD/Tax LLM. We have an LLM with a concentration in negotiation and dispute resolution. And that one you can also do in that three years.

I’m in Los Angeles, so I’m on the other coast. How does WashU’s location in St. Louis affect the learning experience and job opportuniti