Drafting my latest welcome note for Coastal Law Magazine’s summer 2012 issue, I reflect on what we have recently learned from the 2012 Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE). As those of us in legal academia know, the LSSSE focuses squarely on many promising teaching and learning practices, as well as other law school attributes that are thought to be linked to high levels of student performance.

More than 140,000 law students so far have completed the survey, making it one of the largest contemporary databases on legal education.

This year Coastal Law met or exceeded the national average for all law schools in virtually every category, even outclassing benchmarks measuring student satisfaction with the development of practical legal skills, career development support, student interaction and collaboration with faculty and other students, and the emphasis of ethics and personal values inside and outside of the classroom. I am particularly pleased to learn Coastal Law student satisfaction and engagement ethics has risen 16 percent since 2007.

In addition to participating in the LSSSE survey, since 2008 Coastal Law has administered an anonymous survey to members of the Florida Bar, in all circuits and practice areas, to learn which law school attributes are most important to them.

Our LSSSE results confirm our students model the most desirable attributes.

When asked to assess the importance of the various attributes of legal education in 2011, the lawyers surveyed said it was important for law schools to produce graduates who have high ethical standards and engage in professional practices and behaviors that reflect these standards. Ninety-four percent of the approximately 800 attorneys reported this attribute was very important or extremely important. This has remained the case since 2009, regardless of region of practice, employing organization, or size of private law firm.

The legal community survey also revealed the second most important attribute: law school graduate students who are prepared to work collaboratively. Once again, Coastal Law surpassed the national benchmark. The school scored well when reviewing responses to questions in the LSSSE that ask to what extent schools encourage contact among students from different economic, social, sexual orientation, and racial or ethnic backgrounds, and measure the quality of relationships with other students, faculty members and with administrative staff and offices.

At Coastal Law, we remain ever committed to our focus on student outcome. Learning our students appreciate and respond to this commitment confirms we are on the right track. To us, their satisfaction and engagement are more important than any other ranking out there.

Whether you are a former student, a law school contemporary, or a current or prospective student, thank you for your continued support of Coastal Law. I hope you enjoy the latest issue of Coastal Law Magazine.

C. Peter Goplerud III

When we survey experienced lawyers they consistently indicate practical legal experience is among the most marketable attributes a law school graduate can possess. They make it clear that those skills can immediately add value to the firm or legal organization where the young lawyer will work after graduation. Coastal Law strongly believes in the importance of legal work experience and I am pleased to report the school is continuing to work to increase the already numerous opportunities we make available to our students.

Currently Coastal Law students earn academic credit while acquiring practical skills through our legal clinics – Family Law, Consumer Law, Immigrant Rights, Housing Rights, Disabilities and Benefits and, in 2012, Criminal Defense. Students may also choose to participate in the Caribbean Law Clinic where they will work to assess legal problems confronting individual Caribbean countries or states.

Another way our students obtain practical experience is through our Skills Labs, which I am proud to say are unique to Coastal Law. In the Labs, students work in small groups under direct faculty supervision to resolve pro bono cases in Northeast Florida. These courses also permit students the chance to experience one or more practice areas and to assess their interest in practicing in that area upon graduation.

Students also earn course credit while obtaining legal work experience through our externship programs. As you will read elsewhere in this issue, we have recently taken the program to a national level so Coastal Law students may both acquire legal work experience and make connections in the communities in which they hope to eventually start careers.

Many other students obtain practical skills by working on pro bono cases identified through our Pro Bono Program. Last year, Coastal Law students contributed more than 22,000 hours of legal pro bono hours!

Finally, later this fall we will launch the Florida Coastal School of Law Public Interest Research Bureau, which will provide free legal research services to lawyers working for public interest law organizations. The service will also be provided at no cost to participating legal services programs.

We are very committed to providing Coastal Law students with vast opportunities to obtain meaningful legal work experience. We do this, not just because it is consistent with our mission to be a leader in legal education, but because we are certain the skills they acquire and connections they make will benefit them long into their successful careers wherever they choose to practice.

Thank you again for your continued support of Coastal Law. Whether one of our law school contemporaries, a prospective student, a member of the legal community or one of our more than 4,000 alumni, I hope you enjoy our latest issue of Coastal Law Magazine.

C. Peter Goplerud III

Dean’s Message:

We welcome the beginning of 2011 with a sense of enthusiasm for the coming year, as well as satisfaction with the many successes of our students and alumni from 2010. In particular, I am pleased to report the school continues in its efforts to emphasize ethics and professionalism in our curriculum and the everyday lives of our students, faculty and staff.

In 2008, we determined we were doing a fine job teaching students the theory and skills required to pass the bar and begin legal careers under the guidance of more seasoned attorneys. However, we believed we could do a better job of infusing professionalism in our already sound program of legal education. To that end we formed a standing committee of professionalism, which includes faculty, staff, students, and alumni. The goal of the committee is to improve the exposure of our students to opportunities to learn about professionalism. One result of the committee’s work is the requirement for all students to complete six hours of continuing professionalism programs during their educational career.

As another part of those efforts, Coastal Law launched an innovative program designed to impart the principles of ethics and professionalism from the perspective of practicing attorneys and judges. We call it The Shadow Program. Through it, we are able to provide students with opportunities to observe state and federal judges, private practice attorneys, public interest lawyers, and governmental law departments at trial and pretrial proceedings, mediations, settlements and other practice related activities. Consistent

with our encouragement of students to gain practical legal experience while in school,

the program bridges classroom instruction with exposure to daily practice activities and the tenets of professionalism.

Over the summer, the program was one of only two programs recognized with the ABA E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award, which recognizes projects contributing to the understanding of professionalism among lawyers. Presented annually by the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism, the award was established in 1991 and is named for E. Smythe Gambrell, ABA and American Bar Foundation president from

1955 to 1956.

On a related note, I am pleased to report that the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) has announced plans to award $250 to the students earning the top grades in each Professional Responsibility section offered annually ñ eight in total. ABOTA stated these book awards are intended to recognize Coastal Lawís commitment to increasing professionalism in legal education and in the legal profession.

I wish you a wonderful 2011, and thank you for your continued support of Coastal Law.

C. Peter Goplerud III