Partners in Education MSU-DCL establishes program with Lithuanian university

BY EILEEN FORD, JD Through the graduate-level certificate program, MSU-DCL will educate European law students on topics relevant to doing business, practicing law and governing in an emerging market economy. The affiliation between Michigan State University-Detroit College of Law and Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) in Kaunas, Lithuania, took a historic turn on June 20, 2001. On that date MSU-DCL signed an agreement to offer a certificate in transnational law to VMU students who complete a prescribed course of study. The agreement is a formal step in an ongoing academic collaboration between the two schools. Prior to the agreement, MSU-DCL had already sent three members of its faculty to teach at VMU, and two more faculty are expected to go in the 2001-2002 academic year. VMU prides itself on its ties with numerous universities in North America and Europe and the certificate program will further enhance its ability to offer courses of study not otherwise available to European students. Vytautas Magnus University, first established in 1922, was closed for decades after the country was annexed by the Soviet Union. The school reopened in 1989, shortly before Lithuania declared its independence from Soviet rule. Dean Terence Blackburn views MSU-DCL’s endeavors on behalf of VMU as part of the law college’s own mission of service to the community—“not only the community in which it resides, but also to the global community.” Blackburn expressed his hope that, through the certificate program, MSU-DCL will “assist VMU in the training of a cadre of highly expert attorneys who understand the rule of law generally, understand the law of commerce among nations and are truly able to represent clients on a global basis.” MSU-DCL alumna Patricia Streeter MSU-DCL alumna Patricia Streeter, ’79, is president of the Lithuanian-American Bar Association (LABAS), a national association of attorneys and law students with Lithuanian heritage. Streeter points out that Lithuanian Americans were involved in the reopening of VMU and that many LABAS members have been involved with the school since then. Streeter, a VMU adjunct faculty member who has made several visits to Kaunas, acknowledges that there are limits to what a volunteer organization such as LABAS can accomplish. She welcomes the certificate program as a means to provide structure and permanence in the relationship between the two countries’ legal communities. Streeter’s experiences at VMU have convinced her that students there are highly motivated and well prepared for law studies. Indeed, VMU is uniquely qualified among Central and Eastern European universities to join MSU-DCL in an academic President Emeritus Richard F. Suhrheinrich signs the certificate agreement on behalf of MSU-DCL. partnership. At most European universities, a legal education is the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in the United States. The VMU School of Law is rare in following the U.S. model of a graduate professional school: entering students must have earned a bachelor’s degree before being admitted. VMU encourages and trains its faculty to teach by use of the Socratic method, a method widely used in the U.S. Finally, students at VMU are proficient in English, and the school recognizes that a command of legal English is important in doing business in the global marketplace. While there is a focus on the value of bringing Western legal education to VMU, it should be emphasized that the affiliation between the two schools is beneficial to both. Associate Dean and Professor Michael Lawrence points out that MSU-DCL’s participation in the certificate program enhances the law college’s international profile. For participating faculty, the experience of teaching at VMU is one that Blackburn describes as “transformational.” Lawrence agrees with that description. “It was fascinating to me to teach a comparative constitutional law course to a group of 50 students who had been raised under the Soviet system and have only recently become part of a constitutional democracy,” Lawrence says. “My understanding of the U.S. Constitution was enhanced significantly through the intensive process of comparing and contrasting it to another nation’s constitution.” Video technology made it possible for participants from both institutions to take part in the signing ceremony, and Dean Blackburn directly addressed his colleagues in Lithuania: “We look forward to the time when we can host visiting faculty members from VMU. We look forward to hosting students from VMU and we look forward someday to sending some of our students to you.” There is also the possibility that VMU, in collaboration with MSU-DCL, will expand its programs throughout broader regions of Europe. If that occurs, says Associate Dean Lawrence, “this program could have a profound impact on legal education for the next generation of lawyers and ultimately the legal systems themselves in Europe.” Michigan Lt. Governor Dick Posthumus offers remarks during the signing ceremony. At the signing ceremony, guest speaker Lt. Governor Dick Posthumus noted that when DCL moved to the MSU campus six years ago, the affiliation between a private law school and a public university was the first of its kind in the nation. Posthumus praised the certificate program as being similarly innovative. “MSU, DCL, and VMU are ideal partners for this transnational, transatlantic partnership,” he said. “If there’s any place in America that’s ready to open up the transatlantic door, I believe it’s right here in Michigan.”