Legal Profession
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Experiential legal education: what does the evidence really show?
This new empirical study by my colleague (and Dean) Adam Chilton, Peter Joy (Wash U/St. Louis), and Kyle Rozema (Northwestern) could not be more timely. And if the ABA Council is actually responsive to evidence (that's a big "if") this would get them to change course. The paper uses data from ABA disclosures to study…
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ABA Council on Legal Education ignores critics, offers no substantive responses, and says “full speed ahead” with disrupting legal education at most of the nation’s law schools
I take it that's the upshot of this. The contempt for law schools and legal educators in this memo is palpable, given the devastating (and still unanswered) criticisms of the proposal to double experiential credit hours required for graduation. The two small concessions are: (1) the Council now recommends that 3 of the 12 required…
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How new restrictions on student loans affect prospective law students
Here, from the ABA Journal.
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If this report is correct, then everyone should boycott the Harvard Law Review
Is this for real? [Harvard Law Review] Editors complained that a piece had cited "A LOT of old white men," attempted to guess whether a scholar was "Latina," complained that an author was "not from an underrepresented background," and praised an article for citing "predominantly Black singers, rappers, and members of Twitter." Another article was…
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Law schools should oppose an ABA proposal to double the experiential learning credits from 6 to 12
The ABA is up to mischief again, which needs to be opposed for the sake of law students. Here's what I wrote the last time this awful idea was being floated: Law schools differ, in their student bodies, in their employment outcomes. Law students differ, in their personal and professional goals, and in their…
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Federal district court in DC permanently enjoins Trump’s executive order against Perkins Coie
Here. I assume this will survive on appeal, if they even bother to appeal. This makes the capitulation of Paul Weiss, Kirkland, Skadden Arps et al. even more embarassing.
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Advice to law firms in dealing with Trump: do not negotiate!
Sensible advice from Sheila Heen, a professor of practice and negotiation expert at Harvard Law School: Download Negotiation Strategy Notes for Law Firms Heen April 12 2025. Good advice for universities too! (Thanks to Richard Bales for the pointer.)
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Susman Godfrey responds the way all honorable law firms should to Trump’s unlawful threats
Here: Anyone who knows Susman Godfrey knows we believe in the rule of law, and we take seriously our duty to uphold it. This principle guides us now. There is no question that we will fight this unconstitutional order.
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It looks like the “Skadden Fellow” brand is now tarnished after the firm’s capitulation to Trump…
…in the opinion of hundreds of former Skadden Fellows.
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Letter from Harvard Law faculty about the “rule of law”
Here. Some unsurprising names are absent from the letter (e.g., Adrian Vermeule).
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Here’s a federal judge who might be an actual candidate for impeachment…
…and he was, of course, nominated by Trump.
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Paul Weiss capitulates…
…to "the mob boss," while Williams & Connolly defends Perkins Coie. Paul Weiss has disgraced itself, and Williams & Connolly, along with Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling, are the clear destinations of choice for the best law students who believe in the rule of law.
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Covington & Perkins Coie should now be the top choices for the best law students…
…in light of Trump's abuse of executive power to target those firms.
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AI and legal practice
From the abstract: While AI models like GPT-4 improve the efficiency with which legal work can be completed, they can at times make up cases and “hallucinate” facts, thereby undermining legal judgment, particularly in complex tasks handled by skilled lawyers. This article examines two emerging AI innovations that may mitigate these lingering issues: Retrieval Augmented…
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Decline in Black and Hispanic students at elite law schools in the wake of SCOTUS decision
Some details here. Corporate America's commitment to "diversity" still seems to be strong, which leads me to think that insofar as clients demand "diverse" teams of attorneys from law firms, law firms will recruit more aggressively at schools outside the top ranks to find suitable candidates. (I was amused the reporter used the even more…
Giovanni Molteni Tagliabue (Italy) Rationalized and Extended Democracy – The REDemo Project. Foreword by Gilberto Corbellini. Firenze University Press 2023.…