Bich is not a lawyer and only has a business background. Yet he is opening an alternate route for law grads to hire in with corporations who themselves are taking this option to avoid the high fees of working with law practices. For instance, Bic itself just hired such an in-house layer straight out of law school.
“The legal job market has been impacted in a very significant way,” said the dean of Catholic University’s law school, Veryl Miles. “Many business enterprises have decreased their reliance on outside counsel for legal services and brought more of their legal needs in-house, resulting in more opportunities in this area of practice. Educating students for the unique aspects of this practice will give them a leg up in this job market.”
Dean Paul Schiff Berman of George Washing University Law School is setting up similar courses for the 2013 fall semester, and it may become a new Law School standard.
A couple of points do require clarification here.
Catholic University’s In House Counsel course is not “headed” by Bruno Bich. Mr. Bich was a guest lecturer for a single class last semester. The course is taught by two people, a faculty professor named Stephen Goldman, and Steve Burkhart, a CUA Law alumnus and the general counsel of the BIC Corporation.
The opening sentence regarding a threatened lawsuit is accurate; but to place it in its proper context it should be noted that Law School Transparency, the force behind these lawsuits, has repeatedly stated its intention to sue nearly every law school in America in the future.