Law School Closures

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 04.25.17

* Chicago lawyer Thomas Demetrio seems to have discovered a new niche practice in "angry airline customer" law. Not only is he representing United Airlines dragging victim David Dao, but he's also reportedly been contacted by the American Airlines stroller mom. [Law and More] * In the wake of the surprise announcement of Whittier Law's closure, law professors want to know: "Are 5-25 law schools in a 'death spiral' leading to closure over the next five years?" [TaxProf Blog] * "I see no data to support the notion that Gen. Flynn complied with the law." Per the House Oversight Committee, former national security adviser Michael Flynn may have broken the law when it came to disclosing payments he received from Russia. [CNN] * Who better to comment on President Donald Trump's first 100 days than law professors? And what better way to do so than in 100 words or less? [NYU Law] * Professor Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law begs to differ with Howard Dean as to whether Ann Coulter may be barred from speaking at UC Berkeley. [Volokh Conspiracy]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.24.17

* In the wake of the surprise announcement that Whittier Law School will be closing, the administrations at other schools may feel as though they've finally been granted permission to do the same thing. According to Professor Paul Campos, we may see as many as ten more law school close within the next five years. But which ones? [Big Law Business] * "Their indifference to us as a student body is unacceptable." Angry Whittier Law students gathered last week to protest their school's impending closure, demanding answers from the board of trustees as to why the powers that be decided to throw in the towel on their education. We'll have more on this later today. [Whittier Daily News] * Two Harvard researchers have found a second parchment manuscript copy of the Declaration of Independence in a records office in England. The only other parchment copy is housed in the National Archives, in Washington, D.C. They speculate that the copy was originally commissioned by James Wilson, who helped draft the Constitution and served as one of the first Supreme Court justices. Awesome find! [Boston Globe] * The number of transfer students may have dropped from 1,979 to 1,749 between 2015 and 2016, but it's still a great market for first-year students who are interested in switching schools. After all, high-achieving 1Ls can "easily move to a higher-ranked school, or stay put and get bigger tuition discounts." So, which law schools accepted the greatest number of transfers? We'll delve into the details later today. [ABA Journal] * Charges were dropped against two Maryland teens who were accused of committing a hate crime after allegedly lighting a Trump campaign sign on fire "with discrimination or malice toward a particular group, or someone's belief." David Rocah of the Maryland ACLU said the charges were "beyond absurd" and reflected "a profound misunderstanding of what the Maryland hate-crime statute says." [Baltimore Sun]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.02.16

* Not only has the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Rhonda Crawford, the former law clerk who was fired from her position and later indicted after she allegedly impersonated a judge while running unopposed for an elected position as a judge, can't take office if she wins the election, but the court has also suspended her from practicing law until further notice. A date for her trial has not yet been set. [Associated Press] * Some law schools are still falling short when it comes to being truthful about their graduates' employment outcomes. During a recent audit of of 10 randomly selected law schools' jobs data, half of them missed compliance benchmarks for documentation that was supposed to be kept on file. On the bright side, none of the errors seemed to be instances of "gross misreporting" or "attempts to manipulate." [Inside Higher Ed] * "Will Brad Smith feel he can get a fair shake in front of the Washington Supreme Court? If the answer is no, then did he create the situation is a fair question." Not only have Microsoft's co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen contributed to political action committees to oust Washington Supreme Court Justice Charles Wiggins, but the company's chief legal officer has joined in the fun now, too. [Big Law Business] * Bill Cosby's lawyers are trying to prevent jurors from hearing incriminating deposition testimony the comedian gave in 2005 in a civil suit related to sexual assault allegations made by Andrea Constand. They claim that a former prosecutor promised never to bring their client to trial over those allegations: "This was a sitting district attorney saying, 'I'm not going to prosecute your client, ever.'" Do you think they'll be successful? [Reuters] * "We feel betrayed in a lot of ways, because we were promised. We were promised that the school would be open, we were promised we would have a place to learn, and that was all yanked away from us." Indiana Tech Law School students are speaking out in the wake of their dreams being crushed by the school's sudden closure, and they are not happy about it -- especially those of them with outstanding education loans. [WFYI]

By Staci Zaretsky