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Strategic Plan

From Innovation to Opportunity

Our Mission

Albany Law School educates and empowers lawyers and leaders through a rigorous and innovative program of study providing students with the knowledge, values, critical thinking skills, and transformational competencies necessary to become ethical and effective professionals in a rapidly changing world. Our students will promote the rule of law, equity, and access to justice in their professional pursuits and advance their careers using a sophisticated understanding of the law to improve society.

Our Vision

Through an enduring and unwavering commitment to and focus on the success of our students in achieving their personal and professional goals, and to excellence in all we do, we will provide an engaging and flexible curriculum and enriching and immersive educational experiences that prepare graduates not only to be successful in their legal and professional careers, but also as individuals who will, with the highest degree of professionalism, fundamentally transform the practice of law and related professions to help create a more just, fair and equitable world.

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    Transformation

    Core Goal 1

    Transformational Competencies

    Our curriculum will prepare students for meaningful and impactful careers that help them meet their personal and professional goals by teaching them to develop and hone the critical competencies necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing world, including the following:

    • A commitment to the highest standards of ethics, integrity, and professionalism;
    • critical thinking and analysis;
    • effective oral and written communication and advocacy skills;
    • self-reflection and assessment;
    • complex problem-solving capacities;
    • an appreciation for interdisciplinary perspectives;
    • collaboration and teamwork;
    • cross-cultural understanding;
    • a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion;
    • the capacity for consensus building;
    • leadership;
    • project management;
    • self-directedness;
    • resilience and flexibility, and
    • the development of a mindset based on active learning that fosters the capacity for lifelong learning and sustained career excellence.

    To meet the goal of ensuring our students develop and demonstrate these transformational competencies, we will:

    • Infuse the curriculum with opportunities for students to learn and develop transformational competencies
    • Deepen, enrich, and broaden experiential learning opportunities
    • Develop curricula in disciplines and professional domains beyond law
    • Prepare students to satisfy professional licensing requirements
    • Adopt a holistic approach to studying content, purpose, history, and importance of law in society

     

    • Develop and use capstone experiences to assess student ability to demonstrate competencies
    • Enhance career counseling services for students considering non-traditional or geographically diverse career opportunities
    • Leverage alumni, centers, and affiliations to build diverse professional networks
    • Reinforce student self-assessment and self-directed learning
    • Recruit non-traditional employers outside of legal practice

    Core Goal 2

    Innovation Across The Curriculum

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    Innovation

    Building on our legacy of innovation, we will strengthen and expand our flexible programming geared towards the legal professions broadly defined, including expanding and further refining the creation of a graduate school for the study of law; preparing students for changes to the law and the practice of law; and strengthening the ability of our faculty and staff to innovate in the classroom, in our programming, in the production of engaged and creative scholarship, and in the provision of effective and impactful service to the school and the wider community. We will:

    • Expand access to legal education through online courses and flexible degree programs
    • Prepare graduates for technological, social, political, and environmental change impacting law, professional practice
    • Strengthen and expand strategic partnerships especially inter-disciplinary ones
    • Use The Justice Center as a laboratory for innovation and emerging legal technology
    • Support faculty and staff in developing innovative teaching methodologies including use of cutting-edge legal and teaching technology
    • Cultivate, prioritize, incentivize, and recognize innovative, engaged, and responsive teaching, scholarship, and service techniques
    • Develop impactful scholarship and promote it
    • Build communities among subject-matter peers
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    Student-Centered

    Core Goal 3

    Student-Centered Focus

    With an unwavering commitment to our students and their professional success, we will maintain our student-centered focus in all that we do and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout our community. We will:

    • Provide exemplary individualized academic and career advisement
    • Remain leaders in wellness programming and support
    • Promote a culture of respect that fosters professionalism, civility, and kindness
    • Develop community-wide capacity for self-reflection and self-critique
    • Cultivate engagement with Faculty-Trustee Communication Council, Student Bar Association, student groups, Centers, and Institutes
    • Prioritize and realize diversity, equity, and inclusion by:
      • Creating pipeline programs to recruit and develop teachers and scholars from diverse backgrounds
      • Providing career programming for historically underrepresented communities, including first-generation, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+
      • Promoting and providing support for culturally inclusive teaching practices
      • Training and equipping students, faculty, and staff to facilitate difficult conversations
      • Continuing to diversify the Board of Trustees
      • Adopting consistent, equitable, inclusive and transparent policies

    Our Commitment To Plan Success

    In order to achieve all of the goals, aspirations, and elements of the Strategic Plan, we will embrace a range of commitments and tactics to realize it. Our last strategic plan resulted in a capital campaign that not only met, but exceeded, our goals for it. To realize the goals of this new Strategic Plan, we will build on this recent success in varied ways by investing in the current Plan in real, effective, and meaningful ways. We will:

    • Steward our financial and other resources
    • Grow online masters and LLM programs
    • Provide opportunities for those seeking professional credentials in a range of professional settings
    • Develop administrative infrastructure, human capital, and professional expertise in the online graduate programs
    • Provide staff for technological infrastructure
    • Creating Innovation leadership position
    • Prioritize developing resources for a diverse student body

     

    • Adopt and implement an Institutional Diversity Strategic Plan
    • Expand and build partnerships with corporations, law firms, foundations, and other stakeholders
    • Implement a robust, effective, and comprehensive social media and communications plan
    • Invest in next-generation classrooms
    • Develop facility renewal and revitalization plan to enhance the student experience including a student center in the core of the 1928 building