"I didn't go to a Top 14 law school."
"Here I'm stuck in central Pennsylvania, not Inside the Beltway."
"I'm not one of those members of The Lucky Sperm Club."
Those are the classic excuses lawyers and law students use to explain their lack of progress in branding themselves in ways that attract jobs in law or ease the way in transitioning to other lines of work. Well, a small Catholic university in rural Pennsylvania has just deep-sixed that kind of excuse-making. The university is my alma mater Seton Hill. It is dominating the news, starting yesterday, through a good idea, well-executed and brilliantly timed.
Seton Hill University will equip each incoming freshman with an iPad and Mac. Among other benefits, students can then download textbooks from their iPad. In addition, reports Jill Laster in THE CHRONICLE, the institution will implement "a completely wireless campus, quadrupled bandwith, and faculty training in advanced technologies." This is all part of its mission to create digital literary. The Seton Hill University brand is now golden.
Any lawyer or law student could mirror this strategy of positioning and packaging themselves in ways that create unique value for their career paths, be they in or outside law. To do that, of course, they have to break out of the conventional mindset that success is a result of the right school, the right location and/or the right pedigree with its well-placed contacts. Seton Hill, as well mavericks such as media star Sarah Palin, Washington insider Ana Marie Cox, and Jones Day partner Mickey Polh, prove out that success is more likely the result of what we put together and put in plenty of sweat equity to sustain and grow. Stars are not born. They're self-made.
Note: Pohl had been Chairman of the Board of Seton Hill when it made its transition from a women's college to a coed university.
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