Playbook for Institution Building

[posted by Bill Henderson]

With all the discussion we have been having on institution building (Henderson, Lipshaw I, Chen, Madison, Caron, Smith, Lipshaw II, and Ribstein), it should not go unnoticed that one of the truly great deans of our generation, Richard Matasar (New York Law School), has posted his entire playbook on SSRN, entitled “Defining our Responsibilities:  Becoming Academic Fiduciaries.” 

Two of Rick’s most recent accomplishments are selling his school’s “air rights” in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, which financed a new building and created a large NYLS endowment, and implementation of a data-driven curriculum over the last five years that resulted in a 2007 NY first-time bar passage rate of 90.2%, which is 1 point below Cornell and 1 point above Fordham. See this NYLJ story. 

Incidentally, Rick’s article is in the same volume of Law & Contemporary Issues as Clayton Gillette’s “Law School Faculty as Free Agents” essay.