This article accompanies the cover story “The New JD.”

The fall 2006 Stanford Lawyer cover story had what many might have called an audacious title: “Transforming Legal Education.” If the title of that magazine story was audacious, the plan it described was perhaps more so. How do you transform an already successful legal curriculum—and why take on that challenge when both the economy and the legal job market are good? If you’re Larry Kramer, the question is why not? Kramer came to Palo Alto in 2004 to assume the deanship of Stanford Law School with his eyes and ears open. And he clocked thousands of miles traveling near and far early in his tenure to hear from faculty, alumni, and experts in an array of industries. He discussed the curriculum and what could be done to improve it, he discussed the legal profession and how it was changing, he discussed business, the global economy—and how his law school could better prepare its graduates to be the next generation of leaders, ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

As the vision for a new legal curriculum began to take shape, Stanford Law School joined the university’s five-year campaign, The Stanford Challenge, launched in 2006 to raise the funding necessary to realize it. Despite the economic downturn and subsequent drop in the law school’s endowment, which resulted in cutbacks in the law school’s operating budget and a big increase in student financial assistance and scholarship need, the campaign closed with great success on December 31, 2011. And along the way, some 7,600 law school alumni and friends contributed, helping to make the transformation possible—an audacious idea and an incredible finish. This issue’s cover article offers just a few personal insights into why Stanford Law School undertook these transformative changes and how they are playing out on campus. But getting to this result required an enormous group effort, with thousands of participants.

Read more about the campaign and the many other individuals who helped make it such a success.