A Blue-Chip Change Agent
Printer Friendly VersionIt’s hard to imagine a better choice than Evan Chesler ’75 to head a special strategy committee of the Law School’s board of trustees that has been charged with ensuring that NYU Law graduates adapt to the changing legal environment and remain at the forefront of the legal profession. Presiding partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore for six years (he will become the firm’s chairman in January), Chesler maintains an active litigation practice and is intimately familiar with issues in corporate firms—the largest segment of the legal field. Also, he’s not afraid to defy convention: Chesler has been a proponent of moving away from hourly billing, asserting it often fails to align lawyer and client interests.
Since the spring of 2011, Chesler and other members of the strategy committee—all law firm leaders and general counsels of major corporations—have been examining how the NYU Law course of study might be repositioned to be the best legal education for the 21st century. This fall, Chesler and Dean Richard Revesz will announce a series of enhancements to the curriculum based on the committee’s recommendations.
“In recent years a variety of factors—technology, globalization, the economic crisis—have transformed legal practice,” says Chesler. “I believe the initiatives that we are working on will cement NYU School of Law’s reputation as innovative, enterprising, and a leader in legal education.”
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