Law Schools

No Tenure for DePaul’s Finkelstein; Harvard Law Prof’s Tempest a Factor?

Pleas by one of Harvard Law School’s most prominent professors, among others, to refuse tenure to an assistant political science professor at DePaul University, had no effect, according to DePaul’s president. But Norman Finkelstein, perhaps best known for his controversial views on Jews, the Holocaust and Palestine, was reportedly denied…

Jun 11, 2007 8:55 PM CDT

Back Off, Professor Kingsfield

A new study says the emotional distress of law students sometimes approaches that of psychiatric patients. The Wall Street Journal’s law blog unearthed the study, which say law schools have a “corrosive effect” on students’ well-being, values and motivation. Schools’ teaching methods “train students to ignore their own values and…

Jun 11, 2007 5:11 PM CDT

15-Year-Old Innocence Project Thriving

When Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld began the Innocence Project 15 years ago, their goals were relatively modest. Today their New York-based program has 38 employees, has exonerated 201 convicts and freed them from prison and is a model for similar efforts in 39 other states. The two one-time public…

Jun 8, 2007 7:50 PM CDT

Legal Writing Prof Has Writing Issues

An online paper about environmental dispute resolution posted by Victoria Dawson reportedly is clumsily written, ungrammatical and filled with spelling errors. The problem is, she’s a legal writing instructor at Florida A&M University’s law school. The paper prompted some students to complain that Dawson is unqualified to continue in her…

Jun 6, 2007 7:53 PM CDT

Law School Lite: Master’s in Health Law

A handful of universities are offering a master’s degree in health law. Such programs teach students how to perform regulatory and compliance work, risk management and contract negotiations, according to the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). “It’s a short version of law school,” Joshua Timari, a 2005 graduate of Seton…

Jun 5, 2007 3:26 PM CDT

The EZ J.D.

With the price of a law school education pushing into the six figures, aspiring lawyers may think twice before taking the plunge.

Jun 2, 2007 12:32 AM CDT

Dad & Daughter Among Law School’s First Grads

After Sydney Jones decided to go to law school, so did her father, Sidney. In fact, the two both wound up in the same class at Charleston Law School in South Carolina, and are to graduate together over the weekend, in the law school’s first graduating class. Although the two…

May 14, 2007 11:01 AM CDT

Couple Donates $51 Million to Law School

A couple who met while students at Marquette University are donating $51 million to build it a new law school. Shipping entrepreneur Ray Eckstein graduated from the law school in 1949, and he met his wife, Kathryn, while a student there, according to msn.com. A press release announcing the donation…

May 4, 2007 7:25 PM CDT

Law Firm Lesson Not Learned in Law School

To Anthony Ciolli, not censoring the AutoAdmit Web site he worked on was a First Amendment issue, even though he reportedly admitted that sexist, racist and just plain rude comments posted there could sometimes be offensive. But it has also recently become an employment issue for the 23-year-old third-year law…

May 4, 2007 12:19 AM CDT

PI Lawyer’s Widow Helps Law School Expand

Loyola University’s College of Law in New Orleans was able to meet ABA demands for more space with help from the widow of a famous personal injury lawyer. Anne Gauthier, the widow of Wendell Gauthier, contributed about $2.5 million toward a new wing, which will be dedicated on Saturday, the…

May 2, 2007 6:47 PM CDT

One L of a Read

Law schools are all about diversity these days, yet when it comes to reading about the law school experience, all the authors seem to be white guys from Harvard. Like Scott Turow, author of the classic One L, and Richard D. Kahlenberg, who wrote Broken Contract.

May 1, 2007 7:35 PM CDT

Suburban Miami Law School Moving Downtown?

The University of Miami School of Law is considering a campus move. Now located in upscale suburban Coral Gables, Florida, the the school is being urged by local developers to join other academic institutions in nearby downtown Miami. Dean Dennis Lynch says the law school, which has outgrown its current…

Apr 25, 2007 7:21 PM CDT

Deans: Va. Tech Threat ‘Copycat’ a Law Student

A law student at the University of California at Berkeley’s Boalt Hall is accused of having made a threatening Internet chat board post that prompted its sister law school, Hastings, in San Francisco, to close Wednesday. The post was characterized by Hastings dean Nell Jessup Newton as a “copycat-type threat”…

Apr 20, 2007 11:18 PM CDT

Copycat Va. Tech Threat Closes S.F. Law School

Shocked by Virginia Tech’s horrifying experience on Monday, other institutions of higher learning are now taking no chances about closing their campuses as soon as they hear of a possible security threat. The University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco closed abruptly Wednesday because of an…

Apr 19, 2007 5:55 PM CDT

Jar on Desk Reminds Law Dean of Migrant Roots

A piece of orange chalk sits in a jar on the desk of Carl Hernandez, reminding the assistant dean at Brigham Young University’s Reuben Clark Law School of his family’s experience as migrant farm workers. His grandfather gave him the chalk, along with some pay stubs, before he died, Hernandez…

Apr 18, 2007 9:13 PM CDT