Levin College of Law

Academic Strategic Plan

Photo of law school in sun.

The University of Florida Levin College of Law intensified its academic strategic planning process during 2014-15 with the goal of preparing students for success in rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive legal careers. Faculty approved an extensive and detailed Strategic Plan for Experiential Learning March 9, 2015, and an International Programs Strategic Plan was approved March 11, 2015. Details on both can be found in the links above.

Guiding Principles

  • The college should maintain curricular uniformity in the 1L year across the entire student cohort
  • Research, writing and legal analysis remain the foundational skills that inform legal education
  • As enrollment in individual courses declines, opportunities to introduce skills training and other interactive teaching methods in the classroom increases, as should the expectation that these will be utilized
  • Academic advising and career counseling go hand in hand and should begin early and occur often
  • All students should be provided a robust suite of experiential learning opportunities that prepare students for a wide array of career options
  • Employment demographics for UF Law graduates are unlikely to return to the pre-“great recession” distribution where “Big Law” represented UF Law’s strongest employment category
  • Employer expectations concerning the skill set expected of new graduates have changed to reflect a greater interest in graduates who are “practice-ready”
  • In the absence of exceptional circumstances, future faculty hiring should be driven by priorities identified by the faculty through the strategic planning process
  • Strategic planning is an ongoing, iterative and adaptive process