Trading Places: it's no longer just a great eighties flick. It's what some NYU Law School students were trying to do, for cash -- until the administration got wind of it, and cracked down.

Several tipsters forwarded us this email:

To: All Students

From: Liam Murphy, Vice Dean [FN1]

Re: Buying and Selling Places in Classes

Date: July 22, 2008

I have received reports of students offering to buy or sell places in classes that closed during the recent registration lottery. (The seller and the buyer agree on a time when the class will be dropped by the seller and requested by the buyer.)

I write to remind you that trading class spots for money or goods, or offering to do so, is a violation of law school rules. Places in law school classes are not the property of the enrolled student. Sanctions will be imposed on any seller of a class place and any student who buys a place from another student will be withdrawn from the class.

This deplorable practice will, fortunately, become a thing of the past when the School of Law's new registration system comes online for the 2009-2010 academic year. In the meantime, I urge you to behave responsibly and respect the integrity of our efforts to allot classes to students in a fair and proper manner.

C'mon, Dean Murphy -- don't you teach contracts? Isn't this a learning experience? Why are you cracking down on a bunch of enterprising law students who are applying law-and-economics principles to their daily lives?

The reactions of some students:

"In the frenzy over registration here at NYU, some students are offering cash for classes. Apparently, the school only likes it when it's getting paid for the privilege."

"[T]hought it would be interesting post to see whether folks out there can make a cogent argument that places in law school classes are the property of the enrolled student. Not your typical post, but perhaps might be fun."

We agree -- it could be interesting. Have at it, in the comments. Thanks.

[FN1] Hubba-hubba! This Dean Murphy is pretty cute. And he's Australian, so he probably has one of those sexy Aussie accents. It's too bad he was not yet a dean at the time of ATL's Law School Dean Hotties Contest.

Last week we received an email from our law school alumni office with the subject heading "Yale Law School Job Opportunities for Alumni." It directed our attention to this web page, which currently lists four job openings: Deans' Fellow; Director of Recruitment; Director of Public Interest Programs; and Executive Director, Law and Media Program. Some of these posts sound quite interesting, and all list a law degree as a preferred or required credential.

Inspired by this email, we bring you our latest post about a career alternative for attorneys -- a job open to JDs who can't get, or don't want, to work as a law firm associate or contract attorney (the two most obvious options for law school graduates). Today's topic: working as a law school administrator.

A tipster who used to work in the financial aid office of a top law school writes:

[A] good topic for your career alternatives series would be careers in Law School Administration. This does not cover tenure-track academia, which is typically out of reach for 99% of law graduates, as you know.

Yes, that's right. If you want to be THE dean of a law school, you should first land a tenure-track job as a law professor (which is no easy feat). But landing a position as an assistant or associate dean with a specific portfolio may be more attainable. Our tipster continues:

With about 200 accredited law schools, there is not only a huge need for gullible students to fill all of those seats, but also administrators to care for them and listen to their complaints. Schools are frequently expanding their administrator ranks to deal with the younger generation of law students who have high expectations and need a great deal of hand holding about everything from stress to career options to how to deal with that C+ in Contracts. Recently it seems schools are giving more preference for a JD for many positions, and amazingly enough there are lots of lawyers eager to jump back into the school they complained about so much for 3 years.

In addition, the field of law school administration attracts a high number of hotties. See our Law School Dean Hotties contest: male contestants here, female contestants here, winners here.

For those of you interested in the field of law school administration, more information -- an overview of different subject areas, salary data, etc. -- appears after the jump.

As we reported earlier this week, the latest U.S. News & World Report law school rankings are out. And some schools are flipping out over their falling rankings. A tipster at the University of Iowa College of Law writes:

[B]elow is an email the Iowa law students received yesterday from Dean Jones about the new US News & World Report rankings. Apparently our dean is setting up small group meetings with the students. No faculty. No other administration. Methinks this may be somewhat of a divide and conquer strategy. These meetings may be in part a result of the newly formed Facebook group "Stop the Bleeding at Iowa Law."

My favorite part, though, is that the "faculty" have dubbed their concern about the rankings "Project Apollo." Well, if they're not going to do anything about it, at least they can come up with a secret, clever code name, so it looks in hindsight like they've been planning D-Day part 2. Bravo profs and administration, you've really impressed me this time.

Dean Jones's email appears after the jump. Meanwhile, a source at University at Buffalo Law School reports:

For the return on investment -- a Biglaw job for $13k a year in tuition (for the top of the class) -- many students were OK with the shortcomings of this law school. [But] with T3 looking over our shoulder, some fellow students are contemplating jumping ship....

It's hard to justify leaving for debt-ridden T25 greener pastures when L. Rev. and a market-paying job in the City are likely. No one likes to be on the Titanic, though.

The message sent to the Buffalo student body by interim dean Makau Mutua, after the jump.

Update (10:50 AM): Add the University of Minnesota Law School to the list of institutions whose deans are sending out school-wide emails about their declining rankings:

Students at the University of Minnesota Law School received this email today from the two interim co-deans. It's pretty hilarious that they try to claim we are still a top 20 school even though we are now ranked #22. It's particularly amusing that they have decided to "address the particular factors that caused a decline this year."

The email from the school's two interim co-deans, after the jump.

Update (11:10 AM): From a source at UNC School of Law:

Since you're posting panicked USN&WR reactions, add this one to your list. You know it's bad when you have to respond in Latin.

Dean Boger's email, after the jump.

A tipster sends us troubling news from the University of Chicago Law School:

University of Chicago Students got an e-mail from Dean Levmore today announcing that the Law School will be turning off internet access in classrooms beginning next quarter.

We express our deepest sympathies for Chicago students who will have to check ATL for updates between classes. Perhaps we can arrange for some kind of carrier pigeon system for urgent news.

We're wondering how many of you currently have internet access in the classroom. Is cutting off access to the web a trend at law schools? A number of law professors have complained about laptops undermining learning.

We're obviously biased in favor of maximum internet access for all; perhaps you feel differently. So let us know your views via commentary, and take our poll on whether internet should be allowed:

Earlier: Laptops vs. Learning -- Once More, With Feeling

Under the leadership of the beloved Elena Kagan, Harvard Law School continues to raid other schools for law professor talent. Word on the street is that another big hire is in the works. This past weekend, Dean Kagan crowed about her coup before a group of admitted students, saying it would be announced later this week.

We checked for news and gossip over at Leiter's Law School Reports, the definitive source for information about senior-level appointments in legal academia, but didn't see anything. Any guesses as to who will be snatched by HLS next?

In addition to the Harvard name (and endowment), Dean Kagan has other weapons in her arsenal for doing battle in the recruitment wars. She wooed Feldsuk with a million-dollar mansion, and Cass Sunstein with a million-dollar bab[e]. What fabulous prizes will Kagan bestow upon her latest hire?

Feel free to speculate and opine in the comments, or by email. Thanks.

We greatly enjoyed our recent visit to the University of Chicago Law School. The U. Chicago students were very welcoming and made us feel right at home, even inviting us to their law school musical -- which, by the way, was delightful.

(We added many of them as friends on Facebook before we were mysteriously banned from the site, without notice or explanation. So if you no longer see us on FB, it's not because we "de-friended" you, but because our account was disabled.)

A few Chicago students, however, had a bone to pick with us. They objected to this ATL post, which cast the recently announced departure of Professor Cass Sunstein -- prominent scholar, beloved teacher, and possible Supreme Court nominee under President Obama -- as a hiring coup by Harvard Law School, a triumph by HLS over Chicago. They emphasized that Professor Sunstein's leaving the Windy City for Cambridge was prompted by personal rather than professional reasons.

Professor Sunstein said as much his farewell email (emphasis added; in fact, all emphases added throughout this post, unless otherwise indicated):

I'm writing to say that I've just accepted an appointment at Harvard Law School. It is an understatement to say that I don't take this step easily or lightly. As most of you know, I've been reflecting on this question for several years. I finally decided, for personal reasons, that I need a change.

Since he's a prominent Obama supporter -- as well an adviser to the campaign, but more on that later, since it ties into our tale -- it's not surprising that Professor Sunstein is All About Change.

The law school's popular leader, Dean Saul Levmore, also stressed the personal component to Professor Sunstein's move. As he told the University of Chicago's student newspaper, the Maroon:

"I'm sort of embarrassed that [the story] said that the University of Chicago couldn't be reached for comment," Levmore said. "It looks like we didn't want to talk, but the truth is that this decision [to leave Chicago for Harvard] was based on personal reasons and I respect that privacy. The media will find out about them soon enough."

With a comment like this, Dean Levmore was basically begging us to go digging. So dig we did.

Let's see, Cass Sunstein's "personal reasons" for leaving U. Chicago... hold on a sec. Isn't Professor Sunstein part of legal academia's most fabulous power couple, together with that renowned philosopher queen, Professor Martha Nussbaum? And didn't Professor Nussbaum just turn down a Harvard offer?

That was then; this is now. What we learned in our investigation is consistent with this ATL comment, as well as this (subsequently removed) Wikipedia edit.

It appears that Professor Sunstein may be part of a new "power couple" -- in the most literal sense. Rumor has it that he's romantically involved with Professor Samantha Power -- a beautiful, brainy professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, who is roughly 15 years his junior. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner who has also been profiled in Men's Vogue (see glamorous photo, at the top of this post). What's not to like?

Update: More about Samantha Power here (from a college classmate who tried to hit on her, without success, and just ended arguing politics with her).

Now, please don't give us full credit (or blame) for bringing to light the Sunstein-Power relationship. When we attended the Chicago Law School musical last weekend, Samantha Power got a shout-out near the end of the show, when the Cass Sunstein character announced his departure for Harvard. So the rumor of her romance with Professor Sunstein is already widely known throughout the U. Chicago community (and beyond); it's no state secret. It is already known to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

We reached out to all three members of this Mensalicious love triangle, which seems to come straight out of a Saul Bellow novel. Find out what we learned -- two of them had no comment, but one of them did -- after the jump.

* Linda Greenhouse to $300K! [New York Observer via ABA Journal]

* Duties of a law school dean: attend parties, appear at conferences, talk to alums. And don't forget the herding of cats -- aka law professors. [TJ's Double Play]

* Even law review editors screw up sometimes. "Constructive acceptance"? [Concurring Opinions]

* Who'd have thunk it? Sometimes blogging can help people. And stuff. [Legal Blog Watch]

* Ethan Leib dresses up as a giant chicken to teach Contracts, thereby guaranteeing ABA accreditation. [PrawfsBlawg]

* Orin Kerr points out online interviews "with eight of the nine current Supreme Court Justices (all but Souter) about legal writing, advocacy, and the process of deciding cases and writing opinions." [Volokh Conspiracy]

* Ann Althouse on John McCain and being a "natural-born citizen." [Althouse]

* Hillary to Russert: You can't handle the truth! About my tax returns. [TaxProf Blog]

We 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!

We love internecine warfare at law schools and in other academic settings. As the old saying goes -- our cursory Googling doesn't immediately generate the exact wording or source, so we'll paraphrase -- fights in academia are especially vicious, because the stakes are especially small.

As Hillary and Barack do battle in Virginia today, so too do administrators at William and Mary. From a tipster at William & Mary School of Law (interesting factoid: it's one of the oldest law schools in the country):

Today the William and Mary Board of Visitors decided not to renew William and Mary President Gene Nichol's contract. Nichols sent out a pretty amazing email to all students about his resignation, and Michael Powell, former FCC Chairman and Rector of W&M, sent a response. Needless to say, people are talking of nothing else today.

To make the story even better, the law school dean, Taylor Reveley, is now serving as President of W&M. Nichols is joining the law school staff, where his wife is also a professor.

Check out the messages -- Gene Nichol's defiant departure email, claiming he was ousted due to ideological reasons, and Michael Powell's steadfast denial that the non-renewal was based on ideology -- after the jump.

Updates: First, a W&M tipster advises:

William & Mary School of Law is actually THE oldest law school in America (not one of the oldest). See Davison M. Douglas, The Jeffersonian Vision of Legal Education, 51 J. Legal Educ. 185, 197 (2002) ("[I]n January 1780 William and Mary became the first college in America to offer a formal course of study in law.").

Second, another source notes that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is the Chancellor of the College of William & Mary. Perhaps the formidable SOC needs to descend on Williamsburg and restore some order down there.

In an earlier post about the Kumari Fulbright situation at the University of Arizona law school, we noted that the UA administration has been fairly taciturn about the whole matter. Perhaps in response to the community's desire for more openness, Dean Toni Massaro just sent out an email discussing the matter.

It was forwarded to us by a tipster, who commented:

Can you believe this BS? It is a "welcome back" email from Dean Massaro at the University of Arizona Law School in which she "addresses" the Kumari Fulbright situation. But the Dean doesn't really "address" anything. The school in effect says nothing at all....

With a [student] (Craig Cordes) who allegedly killed a cop in New York, a "beauty" queen gone bad, and other issues, the school needs to step up and make an affirmative statement that not only addresses these issues directly, but also defends from ridicule the few capable students at the school that have BigLaw jobs.

AZWildcat2L

AZ Wildcat 2L, why are you being so hard on Dean Massaro? Longtime ATL readers may recall that she was nominated as one of America's hottest law school deans. One of her nominators wrote:

Not only is Dean Massaro brilliant, attractive, and self-assured, she's also a cancer survivor AND a lesbian. It's easy to make Advanced Con Law sexy, but how many Deans could get 3rd year students out of bed every morning for an 8 am class and have a packed classroom? Moreover, students just LOVE her Civil Procedure classes. I'm not kidding.

Check out the email from Dean Massaro, one southwestern hottie opining on another, after the jump.

In a front-page Wall Street Journal article last year, Dean David Burcham of Loyola Law School expressed a desire to help Loyola 2L with his job search. And it seems that Dean Burcham, himself a Loyola alum, has no shortage of job opportunities. From a just-issued press release:

After eight years at Loyola Law School Los Angeles as the Fritz B. Burns dean and senior vice president, David W. Burcham was named today to the newly created position of executive vice president and provost of Loyola Marymount University. Victor J. Gold, a veteran law professor and a former associate dean, was named interim dean and senior vice president. A national search for a permanent dean will begin immediately.

Eager to entertain complaints from non-top-tier law school graduates about their grim job prospects? This job's for you. Remember, Loyola 2L hasn't graduated yet.

Meanwhile, in other non-elite law school dean news, the Orlando Sentinel has this report:

Florida A&M University's new law school dean was scheduled to start work at the school's Orlando campus next Monday.

But after a series of phone calls, LeRoy Pernell altered his plans and showed up Thursday to meet twice with students who are upset about grading policies, course offerings and accreditation. He plans a third meeting with night students next week.

"It's my intention as dean to really be available," said Pernell, speaking to the more than 100 students who gathered for Thursday's afternoon session.

How long will this last? In a few weeks, will Dean Pernell barricade himself in his office, with his secretary dumping a cauldron of hot water on the students below?

Update: It seems that our round-up of Tier 2 Law School Dean news is incomplete:

No one wants to hear about Florida A&M (didn't even knew it existed). How about some love for the Jesuits? Creighton just named a new dean. Press release here.

The press release refers to him as "Eric A. Chiappinelli, J.D." It helps for your law school dean to have a law degree.

Dean David W. Burcham Named Provost of Loyola Marymount University (press release) [EarthTimes.org]
FAMU dean reassures law students [Orlando Sentinel]
Creighton School of Law Names New Dean [Creighton University School of Law]

It appears that the situation we reported on earlier, concerning the plight of Mac users at American University's Washington College of Law, has been resolved. Several of you forwarded us an email from the WCL administration outlining the steps they're taking to address the situation, including "providing $12,000 towards the cost of laptop rental for all upper-level users of MACs that are incompatible with the exam software."

Some reactions from students:

"At times it has felt like a modern PCU, sans George Clinton of course: 'These, Tom, are the Causeheads. They find a world-threatening issue and stick with it for about a week.'"

"Although I am not a Mac user, and am fairly tired of hearing Mac users whining at school, it's good to see my school do the right thing."

"We just received this email from the Dean. Looks like your post helped us out. Thanks!"

You're welcome. We aim to please here at ATL.

Read the full email, after the jump.

Earlier: American University MacGate
MacGate Update: An Explanation from the University of Kentucky

Some etiquette tips for law school deans:

1. If you send one of your students to another law school, for a year-long stint as a visiting student, don't "apologize" for it -- even if that student has a severe peanut allergy, requiring the receiving school to "peanut-proof" itself for the year.

2. If you really must issue an "apology," do so by phone or in person, not by email.

3. If you really must issue an "apology" by email, send it to the individual dean. Do not send it to a listserv consisting of the deans of ABA-accredited law schools.

Because it might get leaked to ATL:

ATL readers: Please take this opportunity to engage in a vicious comments clusterf**k spirited debate over whether schools, airlines, and other institutions go too far -- or not far enough -- in accommodating people with extreme food allergies. Thank you.

Finding a decent legal job is hard enough as it is. Having a career services office that's in complete disarray doesn't help. From a tipster:

Emory Law's Career Services Office has imploded. The latest departure was the Dean of Career Services, Dean Laurie Hartman, last month. She left under mysterious circumstances....

Students are asking lots of questions. They organized a facebook group, asking for an explanation, or an explanation for "if you can't tell us what is going on, can you tell us why you can't tell us what is going on?" Many law students went to their university paper, the Emory Wheel.

More after the jump.

It's time for a brief update on the possibly propositioning professor, D. Marvin Jones of the University of Miami School of Law. We first reported the news of his arrest for allegedly soliciting a prostitute last week.

Now it's in the Miami Herald. Most of the piece will be familiar to those of you who read our coverage. But the article does include some new material, including comment from the law school:

A law school spokeswoman declined to comment on the arrest Thursday, but the school's dean, Dennis Lynch, told The Miami Hurricane student newspaper he was aware of the charge against Jones.

''He is a respected member of our law school community, and the validity of the charges will be determined through the appropriate judicial proceedings,'' Lynch said, according to The Hurricane. ``I mean, he's only been charged.''

Jones pleaded not guilty to the solicitation charge last month and has requested a trial, court records show. If convicted of the second-degree misdemeanor, Jones would face up to 60 days in jail.

Dean Lynch, by the way, is stepping down (but related in no way to L'Affaire Jones). Considering the weird publicity the school has been experiencing lately -- see examples collected here -- we don't blame him. We've been hearing about a fair amount of infighting over there, which we may report on in the future.

P.S. Speaking of UM, we'd love to interview the law students featured here and here. If you know either or both students, please convey our invitation to them. Thanks.

UM prof accused of offering money for sex [Miami Herald]

Look on the bright side, Loyola 2L. Maybe you don't have a post-graduation job lined up yet. But law students at your crosstown competition have their own challenges to deal with.

UCLA is a Tier One law school, per U.S. News & World Report (even if not a so-called "T14" school, as they like to say on the internets). But is trouble brewing in paradise?

More after the jump.

It's only Tuesday morning, and we've already done several posts on the professional plight of non-elite law school graduates. So we're declaring this week Non-Top-Tier Law School Week at ATL. If you have a story idea that fits into this theme, please email us.

Here's our latest tale about the plight of "non-T14" law school grads. It suggests that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn't the only person making controversial appearances at New York area schools.

From a tipster at New York Law School (a Tier 3 school, not to be confused with fourth-ranked NYU; if you ever want to piss off an NYU grad, refer to their alma mater as "New York Law School"):

"New York Law School in Tribeca had David Boies speak at our graduation this past July. Yet his firm does not hire from New York Law School. The only NYLS alum there graduated in 1968."

Ouch. But for the record, our tipster later emailed us a correction: there's one more New York Law School grad at Boies Schiller. That makes for a grand total of two (2) NYLS alumni at the firm. But the point is still the same. As our source observes, "they still don't even do on campus at NYLS."

"Anyway, this is intended to be more damning of NYLS than it is of Boies Schiller, which has the right to follow any hiring practices they desire. However, NYLS should maybe be a little more selective in who they choose to speak to us third-tier graduates."

Do you agree with this tipster? Is NYLS degrading itself by, in the words of our tipster, "giving out honorary degrees to people who don't even hire its graduates"? Or would the tipster's approach unduly limit the universe of possible graduation speakers?

More discussion, including some email correspondence between an NYLS student and the school's dean, after the jump.

Earlier today, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a controversial appearance at Columbia University. The decision to invite Ahmadinejad was defended by President Lee Bollinger, who criticized Ahmadinejad and his views while introducing him, but condemned by Columbia Law School Dean David Schizer.

Dean Schizer's statement provides us with enough of a "law" hook to write about the controversy. Here's what he had to say:

This event raises deep and complicated issues about how best to express our commitment to intellectual freedom, and to our free way of life. Although we believe in free and open debate at Columbia and should never suppress points of view, we are also committed to academic standards. A high-quality academic discussion depends on intellectual honesty but, unfortunately, Mr. Ahmadinejad has proven himself, time and again, to be uninterested in whether his words are true. Therefore, my personal opinion is that he should not be invited to speak. Mr. Ahmadinejad is a reprehensible and dangerous figure who presides over a repressive regime, is responsible for the death of American soldiers, denies the Holocaust, and calls for the destruction of Israel. It would be deeply regrettable if some misread this invitation as lending prestige or legitimacy to his views.

Our university is a pluralistic place, and I recognize that others within our community take a different view in good faith, and that they have the right to extend invitations that I personally would not extend. I know that we will learn from each other in discussing the difficult questions prompted by this invitation.

Do you agree with President Bollinger or Dean Schizer? Take our poll:

Statement By David M. Schizer Re: SIPA Invitation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [Columbia Law School]
Tough US Welcome for Iran's Ahmadinejad [Associated Press]
Columbia law dean slams Ahmadinejad invite [JTA]
QuickSpec- Judgement Day edition [The Bwog]

On the front page of today's Wall Street Journal, there's an excellent article, by Amir Efrati, about the not-so-hot job prospects for non-top-tier law school graduates. Here's the lede, which nicely summarizes the situation:

A law degree isn't necessarily a license to print money these days.

For graduates of elite law schools, prospects have never been better. Big law firms this year boosted their starting salaries to as high as $160,000. But the majority of law-school graduates are suffering from a supply-and-demand imbalance that's suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don't score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law-school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking temporary contract work, reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour, without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market.

It's a most worthwhile piece (although somewhat reminiscent of this article, by Leigh Jones for the National Law Journal). Here's our favorite part:

Some un- or underemployed grads are seeking consolation online, where blogs and discussion boards have created venues for shared commiseration that didn't exist before. An anonymous writer called Loyola 2L, purportedly a student at Loyola Law School, who claims the school wasn't straight about employment prospects, has been beating a drum of discontent around the Web in the past year that's sparked thousands of responses, and a fan base. ("2L" stands for second-year law student.) Some thank "L2L" for articulating their plight; others claim L2L should complain less and work more.

Loyola's Dean Burcham says he wishes he knew who the student was so he could help the person. "It's expensive to go to law school, and there are times when you second-guess yourself as a student," he says.

One tipster quips: "Loyola Dean David Burcham wants to find and help Loyola 2L. How? By refunding his tuition?"

So, will the real Loyola 2L please stand up -- and email us? We'd love to discuss potential opportunities with you. Thanks.

Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers [Wall Street Journal]
The Dark Side of the Legal Job Market [WSJ Law Blog]

Earlier: It's Hard Out Here for Non-Top-Tier Law School Graduates

This email message, from Professor Erwin Chemerinsky to Duke law school faculty and students, went out ten minutes ago.

Also, here's some coverage from the Los Angeles Times.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Erwin Chemerinsky"
To: [redacted]
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:07:53 -0400
Subject: news

It is with excitement and sadness that I am writing to tell you that I have accepted the position to be the founding dean of the Donald Bren School of Law at the University of California, Irvine. After meeting with Chancellor Michael Drake at length this weekend, I accepted his renewed offer. He provided me the greatest possible assurance of academic freedom for the dean and all faculty.

It has been one of the strangest and most difficult weeks of my life. I cannot possibly express my thanks for all of the support that I received from the law school's faculty, administrators, and students. I am sad to be leaving this wonderful supportive community, though excited about the new challenges ahead.

Chemerinsky to return as UC Irvine law dean [Los Angeles Times]