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Dean's Column

Dean's Letter, Fall 2022

December 14, 2022 | Martin Pritikin, JD

Effective November 8, 2023, Concord Law School was renamed Purdue Global Law School.

Dear Concord Law School Students and Alumni:

The calendar year may be winding down, but there is never a dull moment at Concord. I am happy to share the following updates with you:

Bar Pass Rates. Results from the July 2022 California Bar Exam are in, and although historically the first-time pass rate for Concord was 34%, over the past two years it has averaged near 50%. To put that into perspective, the overall first-time pass rate for the state was 62%, and the first-time pass rate for California-accredited schools (our category) was 30%. We hope and expect that our pass rates will continue to increase in the years to come.

Indiana Bar Licensure Proposal. Concord has filed a petition with the Indiana Supreme Court asking that they amend their bar admission rules so as to allow Concord Juris Doctor (JD) graduates to sit for their bar exam immediately upon graduation. The review process is ongoing, but we are hopeful that we will get a positive outcome within the next 12 months. Stay tuned for updates!

25th Anniversary Alumni Celebration. Concord invites all alumni to join in celebrating its 25th anniversary. The celebration will take place from Friday, February 24, through Sunday, February 26, 2023, at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Anaheim, California—mere blocks from Disneyland. We have built our celebration around the Purdue Global/Concord commencement ceremony that will take place on Saturday, February 25 (just a few days after the February 2023 California Bar Exam). The festivities will include a special awards dinner that Saturday night. For those coming in from out of town, we will have a block of discounted rooms at the Sheraton Park Hotel. You can register for the event through January 18, 2023, but the early bird special ends December 31, 2022. We hope you can make it!

Please Contribute to Your Alma Mater. For a quarter of a century, Concord has offered an accessible top-notch legal education at a fraction of the cost of traditional law schools. In connection with its 25th anniversary, Concord is launching its first-ever development campaign. We are seeking to raise at least $250,000 toward our initiatives for bar support, scholarships, licensure beyond California, and the planned creation of cutting-edge virtual reality simulations. As we approach the end of the tax year, please show your support for Concord by making a tax-deductible donation.

Concord Expands Pilot with Purdue West Lafayette. In August 2022, Concord began a pilot program in which students enrolled in Purdue’s PhD in Higher Education program could take Concord electives and have them count toward their degree program. With the upcoming January 2023 term, we are expanding the pilot so that all Purdue West Lafayette graduate students can (with program coordinator approval) count Concord electives toward their degree programs at no extra cost to them. We are proud that Concord is able to play a leading role in providing such opportunities within the Purdue University system. 

New Hire. Because Concord’s enrollments are growing, our staffing needs are growing as well. To that end, we have just hired a second senior student operations manager, Maria Sarmiento, EdD. Maria brings a wealth of experience in online higher education administration, and she will help us with our retention efforts, data analysis, alumni outreach, and other initiatives. She will be starting in her new role at the beginning of January.

Reminder Regarding Regional Alumni Groups. By now, all alumni should have heard from your regional alumni coordinator. If you haven’t, or if you need to change groups because of a move, please contact us at PGLawCommunication@purdueglobal.edu. Make sure to add that email address to your list of trusted contacts if it isn’t already, and check your spam filter in case it caught the emails from your regional coordinator. We want to help you get connected with each other, and the regional alumni groups are a great way to do that. 

Thanks and all the best,

Martin Pritikin

About The Author

Martin Pritikin, JD

Martin Pritikin serves as Dean and Vice President at Purdue Global Law School (formerly Concord Law School). The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the view of Purdue Global Law School.

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