Legal Education

Texas Southern’s law school receives ABA public censure after sex discrimination allegations

Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law has been publicly censured by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar after gender discrimination allegations from a female associate dean.

Jul 20, 2017 2:14 PM CDT

Asian-Americans are apparently losing interest in law school; report shows outsize enrollment drop

Asian-American enrollment in law school has declined more steeply than that of other racial and ethnic groups, according to a report documenting a glass ceiling for this group in the law.

From 2009 to 2016, Asian-Americans’ first-year enrollment in law school dropped by 43 percent, compared to a 28 percent drop for all students, a 34 percent drop among whites and a 14 percent drop among African-Americans. Hispanic enrollment, meanwhile, increased by 29 percent.

Jul 20, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Dean who settled case with Cincinnati Law lands visiting prof spot at Penn State

Jennifer S. Bard, the former dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Law who settled her due process and First Amendment retaliation action with the school in May, is joining the law and medical faculties at Penn State University as a visiting professor for the 2017-18 academic year. Bard…

Jul 19, 2017 11:42 AM CDT

NIU gives former law dean $95K for off-campus research

In exchange for not getting sued, Northern Illinois University agreed to pay $95,000 to Eric Dannenmaier, its former law school dean, who recently resigned after a campus Title IX investigation that found it was more likely than not he sexually harassed employees.

Jul 17, 2017 1:26 PM CDT

Distance learning standards under consideration by ABA Legal Ed Section

Where and how accredited law schools offer courses and ways in which existing rules on those topics might be modified were discussed Saturday by the standards review committee of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

Jul 17, 2017 7:00 AM CDT

Law school introduces government procurement MSL program for JDs and non-JDs

A graduate program focusing on government contracting and purchasing will be offered by the University of Dayton School of Law starting this fall. The program is open to lawyers and nonlawyers, according to a press release. After completion of the nine-course program, either online or on campus, students will earn…

Jul 14, 2017 9:44 AM CDT

Why should law schools have to require LSAT or GRE? Law deans ask the question

The requirement that ABA-accredited law schools use some sort of entrance exam in the admissions process hampers innovation and does little to guide schools toward the admission of students capable of mastering legal education and passing a bar exam, according to a group of law school deans.

Jul 13, 2017 2:46 PM CDT

California Supreme Court asserts its authority to determine passing bar exam grade

The California Supreme Court, not a board of the State Bar of California, will determine what constitutes a passing score on the state’s bar exam.

Jul 12, 2017 2:10 PM CDT

ABA committee weighs adding gender identity, ethnicity to law school accreditation diversity rules

Proposed revisions (PDF) to add gender identity and ethnicity to existing rules regarding diversity, nondiscrimination and equal opportunity are being considered by the Standards Review Committee of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar at its July 15 meeting in Chicago. The proposed revisions state that…

Jul 11, 2017 2:35 PM CDT

Montana Supreme Court sets rules for breastfeeding accommodation during state bar exam

Mothers who breastfeed and are taking the Montana State Bar Exam later this month will be allowed to have 15-minute breaks every three hours during test taking, the Associated Press reports. In February, a test-taker there was denied an accommodation request to breastfeed her child because the request came in…

Jul 11, 2017 9:17 AM CDT

Law prof’s exam question on Brazilian wax is deemed harassment; is academic freedom threatened?

A Howard University law professor says academics everywhere should be concerned by his school’s response to a 2015 exam question about a Brazilian bikini wax. The school determined in May that the question by Professor Reginald Robinson constituted sexual harassment under school policy, report Law.com (sub. req.) and Inside Higher…

Jul 10, 2017 4:05 PM CDT

Law school turns to crowdfunding for bar stipends

J. Rich Leonard, the dean of North Carolina’s Campbell University Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, wants to help recent graduates prepare for the July 2017 bar exam, but he’s run out of discretionary funds for the endeavour. So he’s turned to the Internet and hopes that a crowdfunding campaign…

Jul 7, 2017 10:15 AM CDT

For-profit Florida Coastal tightens admissions standards and reduces class offerings

The for-profit Florida Coastal School of Law is not on probation by the American Bar Association, like the other two law schools in the InfiLaw System, but the Jacksonville law school says it has introduced stricter admission requirements.

Jul 5, 2017 9:35 AM CDT

Law profs find an ‘astonishing’ drop in win rates for federal plaintiffs

Success rates for plaintiffs in adjudicated federal cases declined from about 70 percent in 1985 to 33 percent in 2009, according to a draft study by two law professors.

University of Connecticut law professors Alexandra Lahav and Peter Siegelman say they can’t point to a single reason for the “astonishing” drop in success rates, Reuters reports. “A significant puzzle remains unsolved,” they write in the draft study, available here.

Jul 5, 2017 8:10 AM CDT

Yale appeals decision forbidding designation of more gender-neutral bathrooms in law building

Updated: Yale Law School wants to make its single-user restrooms gender-neutral. But to meet Connecticut building code, it must have a certain number of bathrooms designated and assigned by sex. The state’s deputy building inspector refused the law school’s request for a code modification in December, and the finding was…

Jun 27, 2017 5:21 PM CDT