Dean Zak Kramer answered questions for July coverage of his vision and goals for Elon University's downtown Greensboro law school.
Elon University School of Law Dean Zak Kramer was featured in a July Q&A published by the Triad Business Journal, a leading source of information on corporate, education, and philanthropic developments across the region.
In “Elon Law’s new dean Zachary Kramer on his goals for the ‘most innovative’ law school” (subscription required), journalist Lillian Johnson spoke with the law school’s new top administrator about his priorities for growing the student experience and deepening relationships within the legal and business communities.
A short excerpt from the July 10, 2023, online article:
TBJ: What do you mean when you say that Elon Law is the most innovative?
“Law school hasn’t changed. I think law schools said they were going to revamp their curriculum and, as far as I can tell, they just changed the names of the courses. But Elon Law prioritizes experiential learning. Students come here and they’re going to get as much as real-world learning as they can. They do it faster than any other law school – which is good because they can start their job search earlier and because it cuts the cost of education. This is a model for a new way of thinking about how we educate lawyers.
“There are huge changes coming in legal education, specifically with how we license lawyers. The bar exam is about to embark on a massive change to what’s called the NextGen bar exam, which will be more focused on what lawyers do rather than memorizing the law. I think Elon Law is uniquely positioned to thrive in this coming environment.”
Kramer joined the Elon Law administration this summer after serving as interim dean and the Jonathan & Wendy Rose Professor of Law at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.
He held several leadership roles over the past decade at Arizona State: twice as interim dean, and at various points as executive associate dean, associate dean of faculty, and associate dean for intellectual life.
At the same time, Kramer was a prolific scholar, regularly authoring articles on civil rights law in a number of leading law reviews and presenting on the same topics at conferences and symposia across the United States.