The University of Pennsylvania is an Ivy League school with the number 4 law school according to US News. Law students pay dearly for the purpose of bragging about those two facts for the rest of their professional lives. But a private donor paid far more to get the law school to give the program a new name.
This doesn’t really work.
Angry student. Angry alumni. The University of Maryland should be outraged that they changed their name to Carey before Carey started establishing herself as a Starbucks of legal academics. While the Yales and Harvard of the world might share naming rights for a new library wing or dormitory, Penn chose to change his name to unbranded Maryland and managed to annoy everyone in the process. The school already had to hold off on adopting the name once to appease students who entered before the deal so they could graduate without damaging their diplomas. (RENEW: To my surprise, I learned that the school ended up reneging on this promise and putting “Carey” on this graduate’s diploma after promising not to. Wow.)
For most students, the simple solution is to ignore the situation. Employers still call him Penn, so why get involved in letterhead politics? But the school has apparently decided to put a stop to the scourge of students by using names that employers might recognize. According to a tipster, the law school has an on-campus pre-interview program that requires students to funnel their material through the school first.
Students who call the law school “University of Pennsylvania Law School” on their resumes are met with objections that they need to amend their resume to call it “University of Pennsylvania CAREY Law School” in light of controversial donations to the law school.
While Penn grads at major law firms discuss a moratorium on donations in the name of, will schools force students to play ball in the latest attempt to change its failed image? good luck with all that.
Earlier: Despite Historic Prizes, T14 Law School Will Keep Its Name — For Now
Disgruntled T14 Students Take To Twitter To Protest Law School Name Change
Students And Alumni Are Very Upset About The Law School’s Name Change T14
T14 Law School Accepts Historic Contribution, Changes Its Name
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions or comments. Follow him Twitter if you are interested in law, politics and healthy campus sports news. Joe also serves as Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
