Posts Tagged ‘law schools’

NYT front-pager: law schools don’t teach how to be a lawyer

The story, by David Segal, is here, and yes, I did get there first earlier this year in chapter 3 of my book Schools for Misrule (which you can now take a closer look at through Amazon’s “Look Inside the Book” feature). Reaction from legal academia to Segal’s piece has been largely negative (Matt Bodie/Prawfs, Adler roundup), but Orin Kerr argues:

there’s an underlying point that I think is both important and correct: Law professors, at especially the “top” law schools, are becoming less connected to the legal profession. As a result, over time, they are less likely to know — and therefore less able to teach — the perspective an experienced lawyer would bring to legal problems.

And here is John Steele in the comments section at Prawfs:

Guys, lighten up. The article goes a little overboard here and there but for a general audience readership covers a lot of ground accurately. If “man bites dog” is what makes for news, the fact that students rack up $150,000 in debt and have no clue about mergers get done is news. It’s not news for those of us in practice or law schools or an in-house law departments, but it’s certainly news for the general audience.

Gideon Kanner sees an ideological angle.

P.S. So does Hans Bader. And John Steele amplifies his comments, while Rick Garnett weighs in on the anti-Segal side. Further: Erik Gerding.

Filed under: law schools, Schools for Misrule

Making Veteran’s Day friends

A staffer at Suffolk Law School in Boston solicited “much needed supplies to put in care packages to be sent to deployed troops” in Afghanistan, including a Suffolk student serving there. That didn’t sit well with Prof. Michael Avery, whose letter deploring the request, as well as the display of a large American flag at Suffolk, has been stirring discussion among Michael Graham listeners and Above the Law readers ever since.

Filed under: Boston, law schools, military

Law schools roundup

Blog feature at National Law Journal on future of law schools stirs discussion with contributions by William Henderson, Brian Tamanaha and more, James Moliterno, followups here and here, plus a profile of renegade lawprof Paul Campos;
Richard Fallon: when should scholars sign amicus “scholars’ briefs”? [via Kenneth Anderson]
“If law school isn’t miserable, you aren’t doing it right.” [@Popehat]
“Chicago’s View on the Future of Law and Economics” [Josh Wright] Vanderbilt Law Review publishes tributes to Prof. Richard Nagareda [ConcurOp]
White House awards ceremony for Legal Left broadcast to >100 law schools [BLT]
“U of Illinois Law School Admits To Six Years of False LSAT/GPA Data” [ABA Journal]
Life in legal academia: 10/22 Temple confab on “Aging in the US: The Next Civil Rights Movement?” [via Post, Volokh]
“All law is public law.” No, not really [Solum on 10/21 HLS conference]
Thanks to Northwestern’s Federalist Society for inviting me to speak on Schools for Misrule this week as part of my Chicago visit. And thanks to Declan McCullagh for saying “all prospective law school students should” listen to the related Cato podcast. Why not book me for the spring semester to speak at your institution?

Filed under: accolades, age discrimination, law schools

Lawprof: D.C.’s 1:12 lawyer-resident ratio “not nearly enough”

One in twelve residents of the District of Columbia is an attorney, but if you think that seems ample, there are those who disagree:

“It sounds like a lot of lawyers, but it’s not nearly enough,” said Matthew Fraidin, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia. “There are just an immense number of people who go unrepresented every year. The need for legal service attorneys has increased and the funding for them has decreased.”

I’m quoted in the piece too. [Brian Hughes, Washington Examiner]

Filed under: law schools, lawyers, Washington D.C.

“Nobody held a gun to their head and made them enroll at a school called CATHOLIC University”

Welcome Prof. Bainbridge readers: The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights is investigating Catholic U. for, among other alleged offenses, “not providing [some Muslim students] rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers.” Like a legal complaint against the same institution for reinstating single-sex dormitories, this one has been advanced by inveterate publicity hound and George Washington U. lawprof John Banzhaf, whose antics we have discussed often in the past (though not much recently, since he actually seems to like the attention); a few highlights here, here, and here.

Filed under: colleges and universities, law schools, religious discrimination

By reader acclaim: “PETA Sues SeaWorld for ‘Enslaving’ Killer Whales”

“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is accusing the SeaWorld parks of keeping five star-performer whales in conditions that violate the 13th Amendment ban on slavery. SeaWorld depicted the suit as baseless.” The action may further an “ongoing, intense debate at America’s law schools over expansion of animal rights.” [AP; related on that academic background, including the role of star lawprofs like Cass Sunstein and Larry Tribe, here, here, here, and here]

Filed under: animal rights, law schools, Schools for Misrule

Upcoming speeches: Washington & Lee, University of Virginia

I’ll be speaking this week at two law schools in Virginia, courtesy of the local Federalist Society chapters, about my new book Schools for Misrule. At noon Wednesday I’ll be talking to students at Washington & Lee in Lexington, Va., and then at noon Thursday I’ll speak at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, with Prof. J. Gordon Hylton slated to respond. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my past visits to both schools and expect that these will be a treat as well. If you’re in the area, consider dropping by.

Filed under: law schools, live in person, Virginia

Deregulating lawyers? Law schools?

Truth on the Market has a star-studded symposium on Clifford Winston’s and Robert Crandall’s proposals to deregulate access to the legal profession and legal training. I have decidedly mixed feelings about the former, while cheering the latter. Don’t miss the many other interesting contributions as well.

Filed under: law schools, lawyers

Law schools roundup

“A Dean’s Lament: I Wish I Had Never Gone to Law School” [Chen via Caron] Critiques of law schools go way (way, way) back [Dave Hoffman, ConcurOp]
“ProfScam” blogger with provocative critique of legal academia reveals self as Paul Campos of Colorado [Kerr, Horwitz, Conglomerate, Ribstein, Lat] Lawprof cage match, Campos vs. Leiter — go Campos! [Caron, Campos, Greenfield]
To deregulate legal services, start with law school accreditation [Winston/Crandall, WSJ] More views [Tim Lynch, Greenfield, Bader]
Law school placement data scandal: here come the class action lawyers [TaxProf] ABA’s Villanova censure a venture in “atmospherics of disclosure” [Dave Hoffman, ConcurOp]
“The no-frills law school” [Roger Dennis, Faculty Lounge] What drives law school tuition? [Orin Kerr]
Per one critic, Liberty lawprof’s book on Miller-Jenkins case “justifies parental kidnapping and flouting the American judicial system” [BTB]
NYSBA president on law schools: “Our research and our own experience show that graduates are less prepared to practice law” [WSJ] Evidence as a mere elective? What are law schools thinking? [Greenfield]
Take a stroll with the law dean on his walk to work — but sign a release form first [ABA Journal]
“Blame the lawyers and law schools” [Bob Ingle, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, thanks for mention of Schools for Misrule]

Filed under: bar associations, law schools, Miller-Jenkins case

“The Mess at Widener Law School”

Charlotte Allen and Orin Kerr with more on what began as a report of a complaint about a professor’s classroom hypotheticals and has spiraled into a major embarrassment for the Delaware institution. Earlier here, etc.

Filed under: law schools