Zimmerman Appointed Assistant Dean - Career Office

UC Hastings College of the Law Chancellor and Dean Frank Wu is pleased to announce the appointment of Sari Zimmerman as Assistant Dean for the Office of Career & Professional Development, effective September 15, 2010. Zimmerman had served as the Career Office's director for the past ten years.

"The Career Office has transformed under Sari's leadership in order to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the shift in the legal market," Wu said. "Her appointment to assistant dean will put the office in an even stronger position to provide career development assistance to students and alumni and outreach to legal employers."

The Office of Career & Professional Development provides UC Hastings students and alumni with counseling and training, while also promoting them to the larger legal community. In the 2009-2010 academic year, the Career Office had more than 2,000 student appointments, 400 alumni appointments, and 400 drop-in appointments, while simultaneously offering more than 60 programs, including panels, mock interviews, brown bags, workshops, career fairs, on-campus interviewing, networking services and an online job board.

"Employer needs are changing and our office is changing with them," Zimmerman said. "The Career Office has an amazing team of dedicated professionals who are partnering with employers in dramatically expanded ways."

A major initiative of the office is integrating professionalism and practical training into the law school experience. The new series "Business of Law," developed by the office, demonstrates to students the business realities of the professional market, as well as practical skills law students can develop to help make them more marketable as attorneys.

Programs hosted by the Office of Career & Professional Development during the 2009-2010 academic year included:

• A series for alumni featuring timely topics on careers and professional development. The most recent program, co-hosted by the California Minority Counsel Program, spotlighted new developments in the use of social media for business branding and rainmaking. The law firm of Mintz Levin, a corporate sponsor, also took the opportunity to announce current job openings in its Bay Area office;
• A symposium titled "Hiring and Talent Management in the New Economy" that brought more than 80 firm leaders together to discuss the impact of current market drivers on recruiting; and
• A panel for students titled "Keeping It Real" that featured attorneys from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic groups speaking candidly about their lives in the legal profession. The panel, underwritten this year by Intel Corporation, supports diversity in the profession.

Zimmerman joined the UC Hastings staff nearly 15 years ago to launch the Alumni Mentor Program, which, last year alone, facilitated nearly 400 mentor/mentee relationships. During her tenure, she served as president of the Bay Area Legal Recruiting Association and currently serves on its board. She is a regular speaker at National Association of Legal Professionals conferences and is frequently quoted in the legal press on a range of professional development topics.

Prior to joining Hastings, Zimmerman was an attorney at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand (now DLA Piper) in Washington, D.C. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University.

For more information on resources for alumni and students, please visit the Career Office.