Ep 031: BYU Law Dean Gordon Smith on Law School Innovation

<p><a href= "https://law.byu.edu/faculty/d-gordon-smith/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Gordon Smith</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, dean of the</span> <a href= "https://law.byu.edu/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">J. Reuben Clark Law School</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">at Brigham Young University,</span> <a href= "https://abovethelaw.com/2018/03/how-does-a-law-school-innovate-mulling-that-question-at-byu-law/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">once said</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">: “I want BYU to be known as, if not the most innovative law school in the country, then one of the most innovative law schools in the country.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Since becoming dean in 2016, Smith has worked tirelessly to make that happen, launching the nationally recognized</span> <a href= "https://www.lawsitesblog.com/tag/lawx"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">LawX</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">legal design lab, developing courses to teach non-traditional skills such as leadership, storytelling, and business ethics, launching clinical programs around unique skills such as entrepreneurship and conflict resolution; and spearheading development of the</span> <a href= "https://lcl.byu.edu/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Law and Corpus Linguistics</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">project.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On this episode of LawNext, Smith sits down in his Provo, Utah, office with host Bob Ambrogi for a conversation about what it means for a law school to innovate and why it matters to the students, the school and the community at large. Smith also talks about BYU Law’s initiatives to expand its influence on a global sphere.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Smith has taught at six law schools in the U.S., as well as law programs in Australia, China, England, Finland, France, Germany, and Hong Kong. Earlier in his career, he was associate director of the Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepren