The successful lawyers of the future will be versatile professionals, highly skilled in the traditional domains of the law and well prepared to respond to the new intellectual and ethical demands of a global future. If present trends continue, the conventional distinction between international and domestic law will become a thing of the past.

New technologies will continue to be a source of profound change for our legal systems, globalizing industries and creating fundamental ethical issues that will quite literally require a re-examination of the meanings of life and death. The nature of law and its relationship to society will continue to change, demanding new explanation and a deeper understanding of legal institutions. These are just some of the challenges facing legal scholars, lawyers, and law students today.

Indiana University School of Law at Bloomington has effectively met the educational challenges of each new generation of lawyers since its founding in 1842. This law school's enduring commitment to the fundamental building blocks of lawyering—analytical reasoning, clear writing, and a deep understanding of the basic principles of a variety of substantive areas of the law—is reflected in the extraordinary achievements of our graduates over the years. Our faculty's ability to illuminate cutting-edge legal issues with new techniques and multidisciplinary approaches to law prepares our students for the continued intellectual growth necessary to pursue productive and exciting careers well into the twenty-first century. I am particularly pleased and proud to say that these exciting intellectual achievements occur in an atmosphere characterized by a profound sense of community. Our law school is, first and foremost, an intellectual and academic community devoted to the highest standards of legal education and learning. We are a community where students, faculty, and staff interact easily in a variety of academic and nonacademic contexts. We all learn from one another at this school—both inside and outside of the classroom. We also are a humane and diverse community, where we respect our differences and value our ability to learn, create, and grow together. This is a school where students can find the kind of supportive and stimulating environment necessary to make a legal education at Indiana University exciting, challenging, and fulfilling.

Alfred C. Aman Jr.
Dean and Professor of Law

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