Law Reviews, Law Schools

The Most Valuable Lesson Of The Florida Dean Controversy

Even the lower-tier schools have their moments.

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library w bookThere’s a lot to say about the situation at the University of Florida School of Law. The recent controversy offers an opportunity to begin a valuable discourse on the nature of sexism. It also gives us a rare look at the inside of running a law school and working to get the best out of multiple interest groups. And it’s a case study in why publicly chastising students in a law review article is probably a bad idea.

But all of these miss the most important lesson of this whole affair. This goes out to all of you bright, hardworking students who may not be going to one of the T14 schools: no matter how poorly ranked your school is in the U.S. News rankings, people really do read your law review.

As Dean Rosenbury put it in the Gainesville Sun:

“I wasn’t expecting the essay to get as much attention as it has,” she said. “It’s a 4,000-word piece in New England Law Review.”

Indeed. Just when you thought that law reviews, even those at the top tier of American legal education, were really just providing a “credibility mill” for legal academics by publishing scholarship both utterly divorced from practical value and without the benefit of actual peer review, it turns out that even the lowliest of the “Rank Not Published” schools have law reviews that matter. This story is the Rudy of publications from underwhelming law schools.

And it should be. Those students are still doing good work, and they’re still editing and publishing good scholarly content. Many future hotshot professors are shopping articles at these law reviews. You editors may not get a lot of attention from the public at large, but you’ve got an audience out there that depends on you.

So get out there and Bluebook like a champion today!

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UF law school dean defends critique of gender bias [Gainesville Sun]

Earlier: Law School Dean Publicly Criticizes Student In Law Review Article Over A Sexist Remark
There’s A Lot More To This ‘Dean Calling Out A Student For Sexism’ Story

Joe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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