Law Schools

Around the Blawgosphere: Law Prof Bloggers See Initial Anonymity of ‘LawProf’ as Strategic

The word got out last weekend that University of Colorado Law School professor Paul Campos is the author of the Inside the Law School Scam, a blog that offers his take on the cost of legal education and questions the quality of law professors’ teaching and the value of their…

Aug 26, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Most Useful Law School Elective Was Evidence, GW Alumni Survey Finds

Evidence is the most useful elective law school course, according to an email survey of George Washington University law school alumni. The school asked about 13,500 alumni to list their most useful elective courses and the courses they wish they had taken, report the Volokh Conspiracy and the Wall Street…

Aug 26, 2011 1:03 PM CDT

Billionaire Stanford Law Grad Set Up Program That Paid Teen $100K to Skip College

Peter Thiel graduated from Stanford Law School. But the 43-year-old founder of PayPal became prominent as an entrepreneur rather than an attorney, and he hopes to encourage others to do the same. Now a well-known name in Silicon Valley, Thiel operates the Clarium Capital hedge fund and is managing partner…

Aug 25, 2011 11:51 PM CDT

Report: Law Grad Charged in Classmate Murder May Have Fantasized About Avoiding Prison for Slayings

A classmate charged in the murder of fellow Mercer University law graduate Lauren Giddings may have written of violence and gore online under the moniker SoL (short for Son of Liberty, it appears) for at least a year or so prior to her slaying, according to the Macon Telegraph. The…

Aug 25, 2011 6:06 PM CDT

Longtime Law Prof Sues U of Pittsburgh for Age Discrimination

After 30 years at the University of Pittsburgh, longtime tenured tax law professor William Brown moved to Duquesne University in 2000, where he served as director of the business school’s graduate tax program. Then, in 2006, he was recruited back to Pittsburgh and won the law school’s Excellence in Teaching…

Aug 24, 2011 7:45 PM CDT

Classmate Charged with Killing Mercer Law Grad Now Faces Child Porn Charges

The Mercer University law graduate charged with killing his onetime classmate Lauren Giddings now faces new charges: seven counts of sexual exploitation of children. Police charged murder suspect Stephen McDaniel with the additional counts based on evidence found on a flash drive in his apartment, the Macon Telegraph reports. According…

Aug 24, 2011 12:36 PM CDT

Debevoise and Skadden 1st-Years to Spend First Month Learning B-School Skills Under New Program

Reading a balance sheet and learning to create databases and computer spreadsheets aren’t the focus of a law-school education. But such useful skills, routinely taught to business school students, will be the focus of an innovative monthlong training program for incoming first-year associates at least two major law firms, according…

Aug 23, 2011 12:20 AM CDT

Meet Michele Bachmann, Oral Roberts Law Grad and Former IRS Tax Attorney

Now that Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and portraying herself as a potential tax reformer, her background as an Oral Roberts University law graduate and tax attorney is news even though it dates back to the late 1980s. Bachmann also earned a master’s…

Aug 22, 2011 10:31 PM CDT

Almost All of Survey’s ‘Best Value’ Law Schools Are State Institutions

A 2011 survey of “best value” law schools, as determined by preLaw magazine, has changed significantly from last year: Almost all the schools on the list’s top 60 slots are state institutions, the National Jurist reports. “In 2004 and 2007, there were a decent number of private schools on the…

Aug 22, 2011 9:30 PM CDT

Law Prof Blogging on ‘Law School Scam’ Is No Longer Anonymous

The law professor who accused his colleagues throughout legal education of scamming law students has revealed his identity: He’s Paul Campos of the University of Colorado Law School. When Campos began blogging this month at Inside the Law School Scam, he identified himself as an anonymous tenured law professor “located…

Aug 22, 2011 1:06 PM CDT

How Law Schools Can Produce ‘Practice Ready’ Grads: Operate Their Own Law Firms

Two law professors are proposing a “radical” change to help prepare law students for practice: law firms operated by law schools. The nonprofit, self-funding law firms would hire experienced lawyers to manage different practice groups and help train fledgling lawyers, according to the professors, Bradley Borden of Brooklyn Law School…

Aug 18, 2011 1:11 PM CDT

Mass. Lawyer Gets Screen Credit for Bringing Barbarian to Hollywood, Attends Premiere

It isn’t every attorney who gets to attend a Hollywood movie premiere as a result of his legal work. But Frederick Fierst, 63, of Fierst Pucci & Kane in Northampton, Mass., also got credit as an executive producer for helping to bring a new Conan the Barbarian to the silver…

Aug 17, 2011 9:20 PM CDT

Northwestern Law Grad Was Part of Dartmouth Program to Educate Chicago Gang Members

A 1960s-era Dartmouth program to educate Chicago gang members with an aptitude for public speaking produced seven graduates, including one who went on to Northwestern Law School. A reporter writing for Chicago Magazine tracked down details of the program after learning about it from a legal aid lawyer who was…

Aug 16, 2011 10:30 AM CDT

ABA Raps Villanova re Inaccurate Admission Data, Says Law School Must Post Censure Online

Updated: The ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has sanctioned Villanova University for inaccurately reporting law school admission data. In a letter (PDF) on Friday to the university’s president and the dean of the Villanova University School of Law, the section’s council says the law school’s…

Aug 15, 2011 8:23 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: A Law Prof Scamblogger?; Trying Cases and Doing Triathlons

‘Inside the Law School Scam’ An anonymous tenured “LawProf” at a school “located within a good regional university with some nationally recognized departments” who asserts that he is tenured has gone into the confessional to author Inside the Law School Scam, which launched this week and is six posts strong…

Aug 12, 2011 2:57 PM CDT