Law Professors

Stanford Class for Laity: Think Like Lawyer

An all-star faculty lineup at Stanford Law School is offering an ambitious and perhaps unprecedented course for nonattorneys. In a single quarter, 12 professors will attempt to teach graduate students in other disciplines to think like a lawyer, reports the Stanford Daily. The whirlwind tour of the legal profession is…

Sep 18, 2007 5:24 PM CDT

Yale Profs Lose Military Recruiter Appeal

A federal appeals court has ruled that the federal government may deny funding to Yale Law School for barring military recruiters from campus. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cited a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the Solomon Amendment, which bars certain federal funding to schools that reject…

Sep 18, 2007 12:38 PM CDT

Chemerinsky to be Rehired as Irvine Dean

In a remarkable about-face, Erwin Chemerinsky is to be rehired as dean of the new law school being created at the University of California at Irvine. For the second time in less than a week, university Chancellor Michael Drake traveled to Durham, N.C., over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times…

Sep 17, 2007 6:14 PM CDT

Will Law School Reverse Chemerinsky Decision?

Updated: Speculation now centers on the possibility that the University of California at Irvine will reverse its decision and seek to rehire Erwin Chemerinsky to be its dean. The school’s chancellor, Michael Drake, told Chemerinsky last week that he was withdrawing the job offer because the Duke professor’s liberal views…

Sep 17, 2007 3:45 PM CDT

UC Irvine Official on Hot Seat in Dean Case

In a rapid-fire change of circumstances, the UC Irvine official who made a controversial decision to fire a renowned constitutional scholar who had just agreed to serve as dean of the institution’s as-yet-unopened new law school is now himself in hot water. Some faculty are now calling for Michael Drake,…

Sep 14, 2007 11:05 PM CDT

Chemerinsky Controversy Heats Up

Outrage over a decision by the University of California’s newest law school to hire as dean—and then fire, before he ever took office—a prominent academic it now reportedly deems too liberal is seemingly at white heat. However, easy to miss in this firestorm is a claim that this isn’t what…

Sep 14, 2007 12:24 AM CDT

Law Profs Back Embattled Ave Maria Faculty

Updated: A continuing faculty controversy at Ave Maria School of Law that has become focused, in part, on a planned campus move from Michigan to Florida is heating up. Faculty say they have been treated outrageously by the current administration, and Christian legal academics are rallying in their support. In…

Sep 13, 2007 7:05 PM CDT

ABA Accreditation Issue for Ave Maria

Updated: An effort to establish a new law school with a religious mission has been threatened by real estate issues and a faculty revolt. However, the dean of Ave Maria School of Law says faculty concerns are overblown, and he is confident that the Catholic institution will soon be doing…

Sep 12, 2007 11:57 PM CDT

Liberal UC Irvine Dean Hired, Then Fired

Updated: Erwin Chemerinsky, a renowned constitutional law scholar at Duke University, reportedly agreed to be dean of the new University of California law school slated to open at Irvine next year—but was then fired a week later due to his controversial political views. So says a University of Texas law…

Sep 12, 2007 6:57 PM CDT

Law Prof Succeeds Despite Schizophrenia

When Elyn Saks got married in 2001, she wondered if aliens might attend the wedding reception. At one point in her life, she thought about kidnapping her psychotherapist and keeping her in a closet, so the woman would always be available for therapy sessions. Yet while Saks, 51, still struggles…

Sep 11, 2007 5:50 PM CDT

Law Prof Resisted Rush to Judgment

A Washington Post column praises a law professor for his investigation in a lacrosse case that ended with disbarred former district attorney Mike Nifong going to jail today. Nifong arrived at a detention center this morning to serve a one-day sentence for lying to a judge in his prosecution of…

Sep 7, 2007 7:11 PM CDT

Paul Boland: Judge, Mentor, Law Prof

Paul Boland, a California appellate judge also known as a mentor to many and a pioneer of law school clinical education, has died. He was 65. An associate justice of the state Court of Appeal since 2001, Boland encouraged the judicial system to put its best foot forward and was…

Sep 7, 2007 4:45 PM CDT

Trial of Millennium: Osama Bin Laden

It’s not a real trial, of course. But some of the country’s best-known lawyers are talking about how they would defend the nation’s most-wanted terrorism suspect, if they were lucky—or unlucky—enough to draw the job of representing Osama bin Laden, were he to be captured. The case would probably start…

Sep 5, 2007 10:09 AM CDT

New Rankings: Yale #1; Harvard #4?

Move over, Harvard Law School. It comes in fourth, after Yale, Chicago and Stanford in the latest law school rankings by professor Brian Leiter based on the number of scholarly citations to legal academics’ work. The controversial—and influential—annual U.S. News & World Report law school rankings also give Yale Law…

Sep 4, 2007 5:59 PM CDT

Renowned Hands-On Legal Scholar Dies

Benjamin Aaron, a UCLA professor known both for his legal scholarship and his ability to settle a labor dispute, has died. He was 91. Appointed by five U.S. presidents to various national boards and commissions, Aaron played a pivotal role in resolving aircraft company labor disputes after World War II,…

Aug 31, 2007 7:17 PM CDT