Law School Deans
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.06.17
Is this Supreme Court nominee a plagiarist?
* SCOTUS nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch has been accused of
plagiarizingborrowing language and sentence style from other authors and incorporating it into a book and a law journal article without proper citation. On the bright side, at least one of the authors whose language he copied doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. [POLITICO]* As it turns out, Chadbourne & Parke isn’t too keen on having a partner who filed a $100 million gender discrimination suit against the firm still working there. A spokesperson for Chadbourne says that the partners will convene to vote Kerrie Campbell out of the partnership. We’ll likely have more on this later today. [Am Law Daily]
* According to Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group, the leaders of some of America’s largest law firms had the wrong idea about how 2016 would turn out. Legal demand went down, not up as hoped for; realization rates did not improve, as expected; and revenue at many firms dropped, instead of increasing. Ouch. [Big Law Business]
* Professor Verna Williams will serve as the special assistant to the provost (i.e., interim dean) of the University of Cincinnati College of Law while Dean Jennifer Bard is on administrative leave. Williams was one of the UC professors who opposed Bard’s leadership, once referring to the situation as “untenable.” [Cincinnati Enquirer]
* Speaking of Dean Bard, she has obtained legal representation and claims that her removal from her position was improper. Per her attorney, “[t]he interim provost placed Dean Bard on administrative leave without the slightest factual basis for doing so,” and the law faculty were unwilling to put students’ needs ahead of their own. [Law.com]
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Law Professors, Law Schools
First Monday Musings By Dean Vik Amar: Broadening Our Teaching Horizons
How can law schools be less insular with regard to teaching? Here are three ideas from Dean Amar. - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.23.17
* “You have been very much able to avoid any specificity like no one I have seen before. And maybe that’s a virtue, I don’t know. But for us on this side, knowing where you stand on major questions of the day is really important to a vote.” Despite hours of questioning, Senate Democrats were unable to get Judge Neil Gorsuch to commit to any response beyond researched generalities. At this point, his confirmation seems inevitable. [New York Times]
* Sure, Biglaw associates want their firms to be more progressive when it comes to flexible working arrangements, but that doesn’t mean they feel comfortable taking advantage of the programs being offered. Per a survey conducted by the Diversity and Flexibility Alliance, only 8.8 percent of lawyers at firms with reduced hours policies actually work reduced hours. We’ll have more on this later today. [Big Law Business]
* Is this the end of the Swiss verein? While the legal structure has been adopted in almost every major cross-border law firm merger in recent memory, both of the last two transatlantic Biglaw tie-ups opted to use an entity called the company limited by guarantee (CLG). Apparently this legal structure is being favored for new law firm combinations because there are still questions about vereins’ proper use. [Am Law Daily]
* Dean Alex Acosta of Florida International University School of Law, a man who is better known these days as Trump’s nominee to be the Secretary of Labor, not only says the fiduciary rule requiring retirement investment advisers to put their clients’ interest first goes too far, but indicated that he may decline to defend a rule doubling the salary ceiling under which employees would be eligible for overtime pay. Ouch. [Reuters]
* Now that Harvard Law has decided to accept applicants’ GRE scores in lieu of their LSAT scores for admissions purposes, other law schools have decided to try the alternative exam on for size. Suffolk Law, for example, launched a study last week and offered students $100 to take the GRE. Suffolk’s dean says that “the mad dash for the GRE is not being driven by declines in applications.” Bless your heart. [Boston Globe]
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Justice, Law School Deans, Law Schools, SCOTUS, Women's Issues
Colorado Law School Says It Didn't Inform Neil Gorsuch Of A Complaint From A Women Student
These complaints are a problem for Colorado, much more so than Gorsuch. -
Law School Deans, Law Schools
The Next Dean Of Yale Law School (And Other Law Dean News)
Congratulations to a great scholar and teacher! -
Books, Law Professors, Law Schools
'Legal Asylum': An Interview With Stanford Law Professor And Novelist Paul Goldstein
How have Professor Goldstein's colleagues reacted to his occasionally harsh satire? -
Law Schools
Are Law School Applications Bottoming Out? One School Sees A Remarkable Rise
How did this law school manage to almost double its number of applications? -
Books, Law Schools
Standard Of Review: 'Legal Asylum' Lampoons Law School Rankings
Legal academia is ripe for satire, as this Stanford law professor's latest novel makes clear. - Sponsored
How Generative AI Will Improve Legal Service Delivery
Learn how emerging tools will likely change and enhance the work of lawyers for years to come in this new report. -
Law Schools
Charlotte Administration Pens Lame Response To Alumni Demands
This may surprise you, but the administration thinks it's everyone's fault but theirs. -
Law School Deans, Law Schools
Charlotte Alumni Demand Resignations Of Law School Leadership
A harsh rebuke from the school's alumni. -
Bar Exams, Law Schools
First Monday Musings By Dean Vik Amar: Tightening Bar Pass Standards And The 'California Problem'
Dean Amar comments on the big news out of the ABA Midyear Meeting today. -
Justice, Law School Deans, Law Schools
Now Would Be A Good Time For Harvard Law To Appoint Its First Dean Of Color
If they were to ask me (and I'll note, they're not), I'd go with Kenneth Mack for HLS Dean. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.04.17
* “Judge Garland is respected on both sides of the aisle. That he did not even get so much as a hearing will be a stain on the legacy of the Republican Senate.” After languishing for a total of 293 days, D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court officially expired yesterday at noon with the formal adjournment of the 114th Congress. [Wall Street Journal]
* Following eight years at the helm of one of the most prestigious schools in the county, Dean Martha Minow of Harvard Law will be stepping down from her position at the end of the academic year. Minow plans to return to teaching a full course load this summer, and according to inside sources at the school, a search for her successor will begin “soon.” We’ll have more on this news development later today. [Harvard Crimson]
* Judge William Pryor (11th Cir.) was named acting chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Pryor, who is under consideration to be President-elect Trump’s SCOTUS nominee, says he looks forward to “developing federal sentencing policies that further the goals of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.” [U.S. Sentencing Commission]
* President-elect Trump has chosen Skadden Arps partner Robert Lighthizer as U.S. trade representative. Lighthizer served as deputy U.S. trade representative in the Reagan administration, and Trump believes he “will do an amazing job helping turn around the failed trade policies which have robbed so many Americans of prosperity.” [USA Today]
* As days go by without word of a resolution as to the school’s federal loan issues, lawsuits continue to pile up against the Charlotte Law. Students now claim the school has sentenced them “to years of indentured servitude” by saddling them “with crushing, non-dischargeable debt that will take literally decades to pay off.” [Charlotte Observer]
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Law Schools, Student Loans
Law School Faculty Rebels Against For-Profit Infilaw, Stands By Students In Time Of Need
They're ready to go to war for their students. -
Law Schools, Student Loans
For-Profit Law School Wants To 'Protect' Students Now That They Can't Get Loans
Better late than never? -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 12.19.16
* Uh-oh! What’s going on at Kirkland & Ellis? Sources say that the firm recently changed its framework for allocating equity partner profits, making deep cuts to some partners’ shares. Litigation partners were reportedly hit so hard by these changes that multiple sources called the situation a “bloodbath.” We’ll have more on this later. [Am Law Daily]
* Talk about a money shot: Attorneys Paul Hansmeier and John Steele, formerly of Prenda Law, have been charged in a “massive extortion scheme” after allegedly uploading porn videos they produced themselves to file-sharing websites so they could then sue those who downloaded the films for copyright violations. [NBC News]
* Kerrie Campbell, the Chadbourne & Parke partner who sued her firm for $100 million over allegations of gender discrimination, has asked a court to dismiss C & P’s counterclaim, referring to the claims therein as “in terrorem tactic” to silence other women at the firm and elsewhere who have similar bias claims. [Big Law Business]
* Here’s a question that far too many law school deans were faced with this fall: “What’s the best way to share a school’s bad bar exam results?” Some chose to be blunt and others chose to be empathetic, but at the end of the day, the news is devastating to recent graduates, so there’s only so much one can really do to soften the blow. [ABA Journal]
* Charleston church gunman Dylann Roof was convicted on federal hate crime charges and is now awaiting the punishment phase of his trial. In case you didn’t know, he’s also waiting to stand trial on state murder charges, which means he’s the first person in the modern era to face the possibility of federal and state death penalty sentences. [Reuters]
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Bar Exams, Law Schools
First Monday Musings By Dean Vik Amar: Thoughts On The ABA's Proposed Tightening Of Bar Pass Standards
A legal education is a major investment; some modest level of paternalism ought not to be rejected out of hand. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 12.01.16
* Wisconsin judge deals a setback to Jill Stein’s recount efforts. [Huffington Post]
* Anthony Weiner got hit with $64,956 in fines for campaign finance irregularities. [New York Post]
* The undisclosed sponsored content on Instagram is a real problem. [The Fashion Law]
* Good news for billionaires everywhere: Donald Trump is getting (up to) a $32 million tax subsidy. [Buzzfeed]
* The tragedy of law school deans. [Law and More]
* What will Donald Trump do? The world may never know. [BronxNet]
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Bar Exams, Law School Deans, Law Schools
Dean Resigns After Abysmal Bar Passage Numbers
You can't keep putting up these numbers... -