The Year of the Directory: A Message from Jon Madsen ('04), Alumni Board President

By Jon Madsen ('04), Alumni Board President

With last year’s launch of the BYU Law Alumni Directory, BYU Law Alumni are now better equipped to support and network with each other in a manner never before available.

While it’s rare for me to give someone directions these days, when I do, my kids think it’s funny.  I’m all about landmarks: ‘Turn at the blue barn’, ‘It’s two streets past the water tower’, etc.  Gone are the days of relying on paper maps, printed directions, or routes provided by locals.  Today, we are blessed with smart devices that provide real-time directions guided by GPS. 

In some ways, BYU Law Alumni have been successfully networking and engaging in a manner analogous to the tried-and-true methods of paper maps and physical landmarks.  Those methods work.  But technology can enhance our efforts and provide a better way.

The new Alumni Directory now helps alumni locate fellow alums in their nearby geographic area, engage with their classmates and work with current class leadership, reach out to alums with specialized knowledge and experience, negotiate mid-career moves, post jobs, seek jobs, interact with fellow alums with whom they share particular affinity, such as Women in the Law, other Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), additional LLM Masters of Law alums, or fellow retired alums, etc., donate to the law school, and gain easy access to mentorship opportunities, exclusive discounts and perks, educational resources, and financial support programs. The Alumni Directory will substantially change how most of us navigate our engagement with fellow alumni and the Law School.

However, for technology to work, it must operate properly.  GPS apps can’t work without access to the satellites.  Similarly, for the Directory to work, the alumni information in the database must be accurate.  Hence, we can take action to make sure the Directory is on target, by doing two simple things:

1) Log into the Directory (easily accessible from the Alumni Page of the law school’s website, here), and
2) Update your profile with correct information.

This will be an exciting and transformative year for BYU Law alumni!  As the Directory expands with engaged alumni, it will be a marvelous tool to help alumni network and bolster continued engagement with the law school. The Alumni Board has a goal of helping more than 2,000 BYU Law alums utilize active and up-to-date accounts in the Directory.  

Let’s all help make 2025 “The Year of the Directory.”