Today has a special meaning to me (more on that below), and I write to outline our firm’s upcoming growth and diversification of services in 2024.
On January 2nd, our firm will organize into two distinct divisions. The first division will be our continued consulting for law school applicants. In this arena, we have grown from one consultant in 2012 to 38 to date, and have become the premier consulting firm for law school applicants. Demand for our firm has, for many years running now, far exceeded supply, and we project this to continue in 2024. Admissions consulting for law school applicants has served as the foundation of what we do, and we are committed to assisting as many thoughtful, driven, and ethical applicants who are in need of admissions assistance as we are able to—in our annual pro bono program, free podcasts, and hundreds of blog posts.
Accordingly, Anna Hicks-Jaco, who started as an intern at our firm exactly a decade ago today, will serve as President of our law school applicant consulting services effective January 2nd. I want to pause and speak in non-business terms to emphasize how cool that is. Anna Hicks-Jaco, 10 years ago today, joined our firm as an intern in her teens and will now be President of our firm, having worked up from intern to Research and Analytics consultant to Chief of Staff to Chief Operating Officer and now to President. The best part about what we do is in the small but daily role we play in helping others build a life—both for our clients and for our team at SCG.
Our second division will grow our portfolio of services substantially due to the incredible demand and interest from institutes of higher education, particularly colleges, universities, and law schools, but also from college-seeking applicants. Namely, we will now provide services for:
- Continued consulting for law schools in the following areas:
- Rankings Analysis
- Marketing/Messaging & Branding
- Admissions
- Career Services
- Continued executive search assistance and placement for department head and dean-level positions at law schools and universities — We suspect that there will be more turnover and a greater need for streamlining departments in the coming years, and we are uniquely qualified to help schools fill leadership positions much more quickly than existing search firms.
- Continued consulting for colleges and universities in rankings analysis, marketing, and branding
- Pre-L training for soon-to-be law students in reading and briefing cases, outlining, and exam-taking strategies
- Newly-introduced undergraduate admissions consulting (with limited spaces)
- Newly-introduced ACT/SAT test prep services (with limited spaces)
- Negotiation training for law students and new lawyers designed by high-level, long-standing “BigLaw” attorneys
I should note that we also have a third division of sorts, one that intentionally does not make our firm money, but rather costs us a small amount—one that we are very much committed to. This can be found in our My Rank website, where anyone can create their own law school rankings, in our robust pro bono program that we are able to offer to dozens of applicants each admissions cycle, in the motivational speaking I do for free at colleges/universities and high schools, and in the aforementioned thousands of hours of free podcasts, blogs, and now YouTube Shorts and TikTok admissions videos.
I will continue to oversee the entire firm as CEO, aided by my outstanding Chief of Staff, Jayme McKellop. However, my time will now be primarily spent on all things Division 2, as our law school admissions division will be in the incredibly capable hands of Anna Hicks-Jaco. Most importantly, the core of our work, helping applicants, will continue to be carried out by our group of exceptionally dedicated and experienced consultants.
We’re excited! We never expected to grow at all, let alone to a firm of this magnitude and scope. It’s humbling to think of how many people have helped us along the way, and how many now seek our help in the myriad of services we provide.
I look forward to many more years of doing what I love with a team of people of whom I think the world.
Sincerely,
Mike Spivey
CEO
The Spivey Consulting Group