Law School Paying Firms to Hire Graduates

Amazing story out of the WSJ law blog recently about the law school at Southern Methodist University — called the SMU Dedman School of Law — cranking up a program in which it will pay employers that either give SMU students summer internships or opportunities that might lead to full-time employment.

Over at ATL, Elie Mystal was less than impressed by SMU’s effort, calling “Test Drive,” the program that applies to recent graduates, a “shameless attempt to game the U.S. News rankings.” Mystal acknowledged, however, that if the program works — and more SMU grads find themselves among the ranks of the employed — “nobody will care why the school decided to go in this direction.”

The law school’s dean, John Attanasio had this to say:

"Well, throughout the financial crisis, we’ve tried to be very proactive. We knew that the recession was going to hit lawyers and law firms hard and so we worked hard to keep our employment numbers steady."