Roadmap for Employment

The 2015 winner of the E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award from the American Bar Association, Professor Neil Hamilton has developed and published a groundbreaking template for law students to use throughout all three years of law school in order to be fully prepared to find meaningful employment upon graduation. "Every student desires meaningful employment to serve others well upon graduation," Hamilton writes. The most effective way for a law students to gain meaningful employment, he notes, is to first understand the student's own strengths; second, to understand the competencies desired by employers; and third, to discern how the student's strengths met those desired competencies.

The Roadmap, therefore, has established the core competencies desired by law firms, corporate legal departments, and governmental law departments, to demonstrate what competencies each students should be developing in his/her formative law school years. Through a combination of one-on-one coaching and student-driven growth plans, each students identifies specific competencies and career goals, and then demonstrates progress over their remaining semesters of law school.

How is it used in law schools?

The Roadmap method established by Professor Hamilton is already in use at several law schools, with spectacular results -- both increased employment rates and elevated student understanding of the student's role and path in obtaining employment. The method employed first guides the student through a template in which the student explores an assessment of herself, including strengths and interests. The student then assesses the legal market to discover promising options given her own self-assessment. Finally, the student creates a writen professional development plan, to which she adheres and revises throughout law school, and which places her on a path toward developing more fully her required competencies.