It was a $45 million capital campaign, and Dean Brad Toben was being pretty choosy as he went looking for a resource to tell the story that he needed to build a new law school building.

He hired the team led by Rob Wilson because of the number and intensity of the questions that were asked. Rather than selling Dean Toben on Rob’s company and its capabilities, the conversation was all about the needs of Baylor Law School.

The Dean had two major needs: one, to raise over $35 million to build a new law school building; and two, to attract the most talented applicants based on LSAT scores. (LSAT is the test college grads take to qualify to apply to law schools. Law schools compete ferociously to get the top 25% of test scores to apply to their respective institutions. Baylor wanted to attract the top 10%.)

Baylor practices a counter-culture approach to teaching law. While other law schools curriculums get progressively easier each year, Baylor’s approach is to get progressively more difficult. Third-year law students at other schools might be found out playing golf; third year Baylor Law School students were working harder than they ever thought possible.

The story that emerged positioned Baylor Law School as the “bootcamp” of the nation’s law schools. The competitive advantage for the Baylor grad is the ability to practice law upon graduation, while most other grads require several years of post-graduate apprenticeship before being allowed to practice law.

This “boot camp” story worked on two levels. First, it captured in emotional and concrete terms the experiences of the alumni. This became the focal point for the fundraising story, making extensive use of graduates sharing their successes in both video and print.

Second, it resonated with the caliber of students that the Dean wanted to attract. The story told in video, school magazines, press releases, brochures and even application materials was almost confrontational in nature. Only those who were up for the sacrifices and hard work that Baylor demanded would apply - and they just happened to be the highest-scoring students on the LSAT.

The results: the fundraising program blew past the $35 million target, exceeding $45 million. The extra funding allowed the establishment of an operating endowment fund.

Based on LSAT scores, Baylor’s applicant pool quality exceeded goals in less than 18 months.

Today, Baylor Law School enjoys a national reputation as “the nation’s boot camp law school” - known for challenging students with an extremely difficult curriculum and no-nonsense, demanding professors.