Irene Dorzback, associate dean for career services, to retire after 38 years at NYU Law

Irene Dorzback, associate dean for career services, announced on May 26 that she plans to retire at the end of the Fall 2021 semester. “Irene has rendered 38 years of outstanding service to NYU Law and has personally coached and counseled thousands of our students, many of whom are now leaders of the legal profession and beyond,” Dean Trevor Morrison said in an email sharing the news with the Law School community.

Irene Dorzback
Irene Dorzback

“My hope for each student, graduate, and employee is to have the same sense of purpose, professional pride, and longstanding relationships that I have had at New York University School of Law,” Dorzback says. In her decades at NYU Law, she says, her greatest joy has been to get to know generations of students and alumni, to build connections, and to help those she counsels find success.

In 1983, after five years in career services and cooperative education at NYU Tandon, Dorzback joined the Law School as associate director (and later, director) of the LLM Division. During her 12 years working with LLM students, she created the International Student Interview Program, which revolutionized recruiting opportunities for those students. The program gained international acclaim and now, in its 35th year, has expanded dramatically in the number of participating schools, students, and employers.

Over Irene’s 25 years as assistant and associate dean at the Office of Career Services (OCS), OCS has innovated extensive career programming, including Strike-a-Match, law firm statistical analysis for Early Interview Week; the Speed-Networking Luncheon for 1L students and employers; the AnBryce Summer Associate Program for 1L summer employment; the Diversity Forum and Career Fair, focused on 1L/2L summer employment; Effective Recruiting Meetings for law firms; the Tax Interview Program; Alternative Career Fair for alumni and students; and Walk for Work Counseling, one-on-one walks with students in Washington Square Park.

“During Irene’s tenure at OCS, NYU Law has earned our reputation for outstanding private sector employment outcomes. In that time, she steered responsive career programming and employer outreach through four recessions, and developed a deep bench of longstanding talent on the OCS team,” Morrison said. “We will be undertaking a national search to identify the best possible candidate to continue our leadership in the private sector employment space.”

Dorzback emphasizes that she doesn’t intend to slow down when she leaves her NYU Law position in December. “After joining my three siblings in retirement and spending time with my 100-year-old mother, I plan to launch a business that I’ve envisioned for many years,” she says. “Stay tuned!”

Posted May 26, 2021