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Musical Chairs: UVA Law Picks Paul Mahoney As New Dean

Paul Mahoney Dean Paul G Mahoney UVA Above the Law blog.jpgWe bring you some news from the University of Virginia School of Law, which last year was voted America’s Coolest Law School by the readers of Above the Law. UVA has a new dean: Professor Paul Mahoney. Congratulations, Dean-To-Be Mahoney!

Professor Mahoney, who will replace John C. Jeffries Jr. as dean when Jeffries steps down in July, has a glittering resume: MIT, Yale Law, clerkships for Judge Winter (2d Cir.) and Justice Marshall, and four years at S&C. He joined the UVA law faculty in 1990. Word on the street is that Paul Mahoney was “the internal favorite” and that “students [are] pleased” by his selection, which didn’t come as a surprise:

[H]e was widely expected to be the guy. I’m sitting in his wife’s class right now (she’s a prof here too), and not even she [Professor Julia D. Mahoney] has said anything about it. Just prattling on about bailments…

Meanwhile, while we’re training the spotlight on Charlottesville:

Journal tryouts are ongoing at UVA and presumably other law schools. This is the official Feb Club blog’s take on journal tryouts

It’s an entertaining post, characterizing journal tryouts as “a Pyramid Scheme of misery”; check it out here. Elsewhere on the Feb Club blog, a group blog devoted to the monthlong cycle of parties at UVA Law, you can find delicious photos of shirtless studs and busty babes. Check out the main page by clicking here.

Update: In other UVA-related news, Professor Michael Klarman, who is beloved by students and faculty alike, is moving to Harvard Law School.

Paul G. Mahoney—Scholar, Teacher, and Corporate Law Expert—Named University of Virginia Law School Dean [University of Virginia School of Law]
Paul G. Mahoney bio [University of Virginia School of Law]
Journal Tryouts are the Biggest Scam in the Law School [Feb Club Is Why Daddy Left]
Michael Klarman to join HLS faculty [Harvard Law School]

Earliest: Congratulations to America’s Coolest Law School: UVA!

Comments

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1 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 2:58 PM

UVA Law Grads to 190k!

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2 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:07 PM

Then, you realized that UVa is full of Doucho Bagginses.

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3 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:08 PM

gotta love that alderman basement...........

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4 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:10 PM

3:07 - is that a clever "the hobbit" reference?

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5 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:14 PM

There's nothing wrong with a little extended due dilligence with the UGs down in the depths of Alderman's old stacks.

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6 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:19 PM

alderman the house, not alderman the library

though alderman the library has its musty charms, too

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7 Posted by Anon | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:20 PM

Great choice. Mahoney is awesome

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8 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:22 PM

3:10: Whatever it was, it was not clever.

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9 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:36 PM

Congrats to Professor P. Mahoney!

Even though he scared the absolute bejesus out of me the first day of law school, he is one of the best professors I've ever had.

My alumni donation will definitely be higher this year...

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10 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:41 PM

Checked out that Feb Club site. Are those dudes law students? Looks like fun (harkens back to my undergrad days), but I would never post that kind of stuff online.

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11 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 3:45 PM

there is an incredible, incredible irony about this post, totally unbeknownst to david lat.

the new dean, along with his neighbors, on the internet, together... together forever.

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12 Posted by uva law alum | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 4:01 PM

Mahoney is brilliant, although I'm not sure he has the same amount of charisma as Dean Jeffries does. So to the extent JCJjr's charisma was an important part of the job, Mahoney may be lacking there.

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13 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 4:03 PM

4:01 - Few people are as charismatic as John Jeffries.

Mahoney is a great choice.

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14 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 4:09 PM

I miss Feb Club. Seriously.

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15 Posted by Current Law-hoo | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 4:13 PM

Lahoowa! UVA Law and Feb Club...it's why people get nice things for Christmas! Dean Mahoney will be great.

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16 Posted by UVA alum | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 4:22 PM

Mahoney was the best professor I had in law school (which is saying quite a bit given how many great profs there are at Virginia). In addition, he is one of the nicest, most down to earth individuals you will come across. Congratulations to Prof. Mahoney and to UVA!

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17 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 4:48 PM

Mahoney rules. He deserves it. Following JCJjr is a tough thing to do, but he'll be up to it.

@ 3:19 - musty charms, yes, but alderman library basement has 99.9% fewer diseases than alderman house basement.

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18 Posted by lawhoo, too | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 5:02 PM

I had Prof. Mahoney for Quantitative Methods, which was one of my favorite classes in law school. (Yes, I'm in-house now. I guess I was always a businessperson at heart.) He told us one day about how everything in the universe falls in a parabola. To demonstrate, he threw an eraser in the air. When we all just stared blankly at him, he said, "Well, if you can't get excited about that, I guess you can't get excited about anything."

He also graded on a perfect bell curve. It was hilarious.

He's a great guy, and deserves it.

Feb Club. Man. I'd completely forgotten.

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19 Posted by uva 07 | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:05 PM

Great choice by UVA. Mahoney is brilliant, an excellent teacher, and someone who has the interpersonal skills to get the job done. He's also one of the only profs who can come close to matching Jeffries in the wardrobe department (though he does show up in jeans on days he's not teaching - something that would be unimaginable for JCJjr, who I suspect probably sleeps with a pocket square in his PJs)

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20 Posted by uva 06 | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:08 PM

Not to detract from Professor Mahoney's ascendancy, but what is JCJjr doing in his sabbatical year, I wonder? He will be missed! I will never forget criminal law with him.

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21 Posted by uva 2007 | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:10 PM

Mahoney rocks. He'll be terrific. Only downside is that it will take him away from the classroom!

I miss cville!

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22 Posted by uva 10 | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:10 PM

he's going on vacay, then coming back to teach again.

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23 Posted by uva 09 | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:13 PM

Mahoney's a great, great choice. We were good either way though, because it was down to him and Verkerke who's phenomenal also. It sucks that we're losing Klarman, but we're in good hands going forward.

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24 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:13 PM

Three EZ Pieces = best Feb Club party ever. A few of those law school girls were wow.

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25 Posted by F. Reede | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:14 PM

Word on the street is that he will be visiting at Stanford for at least half the year, although this is unconfirmed.

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26 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:16 PM

Jefferies will be teaching at Columbia in the fall and USC in the spring.

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27 Posted by guest | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:16 PM

Nah, he's going to USC

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28 Posted by F. Reede | Permalink Monday, February 25, 2008 6:20 PM

*shrug*
Stanford, USC, whatever. Apparently "word on the street" doesn't differentiate between CA schools.

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29 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 8:55 AM

Mahoney will be awesome. I hope he takes seriously the mass exodus of good professors lately. It seems like the faculty is continually getting younger and less prestigious. Jeffries did a great job raising money (which is important), but we need to start focusing on the prestige of our faculty. That said, many of the young professors are great teachers and promising scholars.

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30 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:15 AM

what the eff is up with throwing "let's dress up like thugs" parties when you're in law school? that stuff is fun for first year frat pledges, not 25-26 year old law students. No law school has anything as remotely retarded and immature as having a law school website with pictures of douchies partying.

maybe that's why uva has been falling in the rankings for 5 years straight

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31 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:37 AM

Dbags out of UVA make my blood boil. "Look at meh be a drunken asshole! Check out dis chick with a tramp stamp that actually says "Tramp" (good thing she didn't show her face).

Someone should do a study on how many of the "party" crowd out of UVA still have their "we have a pulse and are from UVA" jobs after two years.

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32 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 12:56 PM

UVA looks fun.

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33 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:23 PM

11:15 and 11:37 sound bitter that they weren't invited

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34 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:29 PM

UVA "I deserve this job" grad = terminated for cause. In bulk.

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35 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 2:55 PM

2:29 - Why the assumption that UVa students think they are entitled to good jobs? Many worked very hard in undergrad to get into a good law school and work very hard in law school as well. You seem bitter. Sorry you got rejected buddy, but take your frustration out on people more deserving then some law students actually enjoying each others company.

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36 Posted by anonymous | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:06 PM

11:37:

What are you talking about? Don't you know that the party-ers will all of a sudden "turn it on" once they get to their firms?

It's really easy to go from partying for 3 years to working 60 hr weeks.

And recruiters don't care about grades from UVA anyway -- it's virtually like Yale, especially in a recession.

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37 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:07 PM

2:55 - Maybe because the Fed Club article that was linked to contains "We go to UVA Law. EVERYONE THAT HAS A PULSE AND WANTS A JOB WILL GET ONE. You know what else? The person at the “worst” firm out of the entire class will probably be paid just about the same as the editor in chief of law review. "

That certainly sounds like "why work" entitlement to me. 11:37 has a point - these people (and their ilk at other schools) almost surely constitute a disproportionate number of Biglaw washouts.

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38 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:44 PM

We spend some of our time dressing up stupid to go to parties with our friends.

You all spend some of your time posting critiques of us dressing stupid.

Now, who's the douche?

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39 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:56 PM

You, still. Your douchiness is still more. Sorry. Playing "dress up" is way douchier than typing a few words to point out the fact.

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40 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:30 PM

6:07 LOL at thinking that the fact these people party will have any effect on their ability to dominate exams. Tons of the people pictured are in the top quarter. Keep in mind that a lot of the "Biglaw washouts" you speak of chose not to stay in big law and left for other opportunities they found more attractive.

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41 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:56 PM

6:56, we do it because we don't take ourselves too seriously. If that's something you can't understand, I don't think that's our fault.

You'll probably make a great "Of Counsel" one day.

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42 Posted by OOvaHoovaLoo | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:26 PM

There are a lot of bitter losers on this board. Some of the people pictured on that Feb Club blog are downright brilliant with the uber-prestigious creds to back it up. And clearly, unlike some of the bitter losers on this board, they know how to have a good time. Have a nice time thinking that wasting your life at some meatgrinder of a law firm after three years of misery at some funeral dirge of a law school makes you better than anyone from UVa.

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43 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:52 PM

there's a difference between kicking back and having fun and posting it on an internet messageboard to show "cool" you are. nobody else does that, UVA, and that doesn't mean that they aren't partying. It just means they have some sense, especially considering its a known fact that law firms Google law students they are looking to hire.

Also, the fact that UVA students still get tickled by "thug" parties shows that they're 5 years behind the general college-age population.

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44 Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:54 PM

UVA students are a sorry, out of touch bunch. Nobody where else in America is it appropriate to have "thug" parties (it's considered racist) and not all girls with back tattoos are "tramps." It's also no longer cool to brag about your drinking when you're in law school. Whenever conservative ol' Virginia wants to enter the 20th century (must less the 21st) they might understand these things.

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45 Posted by A Fly Moses | Permalink Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:48 AM

Hey, yeah, great point, 11:52. Fun fact: every person in every picture there decided to post that very picture themselves. That blog is run by 1000 different people at the same time. What a logical, sensible point.

Also, glad we have multiple people talking about the "thug" parties we throw, when in fact (as you might note from the titles/descriptions of the posts, if you, you know, wanted to be accurate) not a single party had a "thug" theme, or anything like it. The closest you could find would be Jersey Shore, which, if anything, would be white people making fun of white people. Extraordinarily racist, that.

By the way, how exactly are law firms going to Google pictures that don't include captions containing the names of the people they are looking to hire? That's not really how Google works. I mean, they could definitely look at the blog and see if they recognize anyone, but they've been able to do that for years, and it's not exactly resulting in a jobless UVA Law workforce.

The point here is: If you don't want to go to a law school where people throw parties everyday of February, and where people don't mind pictures being posted of them on the internet having fun in goofy costumes, then fine. UVA wouldn't have been right for you. Not a problem. Everyone wins. But there's no real reason for you to then go online and opine about how much better than the rest of us you are; obviously, no one from UVA is going to believe you. There's a reason we came here.

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46 Posted by OOvaHoovaLoo | Permalink Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8:59 AM

11:52 and 11:54, get your facts straight. There wasn't and has never been a "thug" party (at least while I've been here) or whatever you want to call it. So please, keep your hair-trigger indignation and total ignorance to yourselves. It'll serve you well when you run accross a UVa grad who's smarter and cooler (as if that would be hard) than you are.

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47 Posted by guest | Permalink Wednesday, February 27, 2008 10:43 AM

A few comments on the Feb Club Jersey Shore party, which I took part in planning.

1. This party, and all other Feb Club parties, are for UVA Law students. Not for the ATL community or anyone else. We're not trying to impress you. Themes like Jersey Shore are meant as a joke and we are mocking ourselves in addition to the stereotype. Further, the "official" Feb Club blog is run by two UVA Law students and expresses their opinions only.

2. Over 400 people attended the Jersey Shore Party (I know because we had wrist bands). It was not limited to just the "cool" kids, whoever they are. It was extremely inclusive and everyone who wanted to come was let in (including several individuals who graded on to Law Review). Some people dressed up (as over-the-top NJ club goers, not "thugs." if you don't understand the difference you should spend some time on Google), many did not.

3. Call us douchebags, that's fine. You are entitled to your own opinion. But we didn't throw this party for you or ATL and we don't care what you think.

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48 Posted by guest | Permalink Wednesday, February 27, 2008 9:45 PM

To 2/26, 11:57
As the girl with the "Tramp" stamp across my lower back, I would be happy to show my face. Do you want to know why? First, because it is witty to have a fake tattoo that says "tramp" in the exact spot that tramp stamps are placed. Secondly, because this was a THEME party. THEME party means you dress up in a funny costume that reflects the theme. I'm not even a law student and I was able to figure that out. So actually, I think it is unfortunate that the picture doesn't show my face, because I am proud to represent Feb Club and its INCLUSIVITY (even I was "allowed" in as a sober, uncool, non-law student, so stop whining about exclusivity). Find the crime in taking a break from studying one night out of the week, making my own tramp stamp, and then being the designated driver for my fun friends at UVA law. Surely that is less pathetic than spending time criticizing a Feb Club blog.

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