Professional Development Program

Employers want graduates who are knowledgeable about the professional and business practicalities of practicing law. Recent law school graduates have likewise expressed the need for this type of training. Both groups have specifically suggested the need for more guidance in client relations, law firm economics and financial management, legal billing and time management, legal marketing and networking, professional organizations and leadership opportunities, navigation through common ethical issues, job search strategies, and professional writing. Our goal is to produce professionals who are truly “practice ready” and prepared to succeed.

Practicing attorneys are required to attend 15 seminar hours of continuing legal education each year. We built a Professional Development Program based on that model, with three significant differences:

Instead of requiring 15 seminar hours per year, we require 21 seminar hours spread over three years of law school.

• Instead of charging for these seminar hours, we provide these seminar hours to students without charge.
• Instead of structuring the program to cover every aspect of practice, we focus the program on the most important professional development skills needed by new attorneys.

Additional information about Baylor's Professional Development Program:

• In order to track your hours, you will scan a QR Code at the beginning of each PDP session.  Almost all PDP programs are held in-person.  However, if the program is offered online, the Professional Development Committee will track attendance via the PDP Canvas course for which you need to be registered in advance. Students must join any Professional Development Program presentation on time and stay for the duration of the program to receive credit.  Use of laptops, phones, or other electronic devices are prohibited during PDPs.
• You will be asked to turn in an evaluation form at the end of each seminar to help us evaluate the quality of each seminar speaker.
• Multiple seminars and workshops will be offered to allow students to meet their professional development requirement from a customized selection. Some program offerings are, however, judged to be crucially important, and attendance at those offerings will be required.
• We will periodically post a selection of offerings eligible for Professional Development credit, identified by the Practice-Ready logo. In addition to information about time, place, and subject, each offering will show how much credit it provides and whether it is mandatory.  Because the professional development requirement must be met as a condition for graduation, it is important to keep up with your hours.
• Keep these limitations in mind:
  • Although you are welcome to attend as many seminars and workshops as you choose, no more than five (5) hours of credit may be earned in one quarter, so it is important not to delay attendance. We believe information is best absorbed over the three-year course of law school.  Please note that in your first quarter, you will earn six (6) PDP credit hours through the mandatory Introduction to Law and the Legal Profession course and one (1) PDP credit hour for the mandatory Career Development Orientation.  In your first quarter, you may also earn up to two (2) additional hours of PDP credit outside of the mandatory PDPs, if you choose to participate in additional programs.
  • In planning the sequencing of attendance, plan to attend approximately three (3) seminar and workshop hours each quarter. There is no expectation for you to attend during the third quarter in the midst of moot court exercises or during your Practice Court quarters. This leaves six quarters to earn your professional development hours.
  • Although most offerings will not be mandatory, make sure to attend those which are noted as such in this policy.
  • There is also a category of Introductory-level offerings (essentially “Day-in-the-Life” seminars) for which a maximum of three (3) seminar hours may be credited, although students are free to attend as many of these offerings as desired.
  • Students may earn a maximum of one (1) hour of professional development credit for hours worked for the Estate Planning Clinic, Veterans Clinic, Immigration Clinic, and/or Trial Advocacy Clinic. One-half (.5) hour of professional development credit will be earned for each three hours of work performed for a clinic or team that is approved by the faculty supervisor. See Director of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs Josh Borderud for more information.
• All students must attend the following mandatory programs:
  • All programs scheduled within the Introduction to Law and the Legal Profession course in the first quarter, for which students will receive six (6) hours of credit.
  • Career Development Orientation in the first quarter.
  • Effective Business Communications in the second quarter or later.
• Most seminars will be scheduled either on Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. during afternoons, with occasional lunch and evening seminars.
• Students are responsible for monitoring the proper recording of professional development credits, and they will have until the first day of the next quarter to alert Assistant Dean Kristine Bridges if there has been a failure to credit them with attendance at a program. Students seeking credit for a program for which attendance was not credited will be required to provide a note from two other recorded attendees confirming their attendance at the program.

The R. Matt Dawson Endowed Lecture Series was established by Joseph D. Jamail and W. James Kronzer to honor the esteemed trial lawyer and legendary professor of law Matt "Mad Dog" Dawson, who rendered outstanding service to the legal profession and to Baylor Law.

Professor Dawson received his B.A. and L.L.B degrees from Baylor University in 1938. He interrupted a very successful law career in 1971 when he received a call from Baylor Law to replace the late Judge Frank Wilson in teaching the Practice Court class, the bedrock course of Baylor Law's nationally known advocacy program. He fulfilled this assignment with honor and distinction until his retirement from the faculty in 1983. His expertise as a trail lawyer and teacher earned Baylor Law countless accolades from the legal profession for the excellence of its advocacy program.