Student Advice
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Some two dozen major law firms write to law schools about antisemitism on campus…
…and asking them to do what exactly? I'm not really sure. Many of the disturbing campus incidents (e.g., at Cornell) do not involve the law school; at others (e.g., Berkeley), the First Amendment protects most of this speech, so there is nothing for the law school to do. Harvard and NYU both had law students…
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Some very odd behavior by student editors at the Iowa Law Review
Lawprof Ramsi Woodcock (Kentucky) reports his experience. Short version: he was late turning in the final version of his article, so the Law Review insisted they would publish the earlier version, over his objections! There are other twists and turns in this saga, but the student editors did not handle the situation properly. They can…
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Professor Stith to Yale law students: “Grow up”
Story here. The "Alliance Defending Freedom" is awful, no dispute about that, but in an academic institution a lawyer for that organization gets to speak if invited; indeed, in this case, the lawyer was matched with a speaker opposing her views. The law students can protest, but they don't get to disrupt and derail the…
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I talk with Orin Kerr (Berkeley) on “The Legal Academy”…
…about law school hiring trends, rankings, the effect of COVID on the teaching market, and other topics. (Link now added!)
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What is your law school doing in response to the impending coronavirus pandemic?
This is an open thread for law faculty to post about what their schools are doing: e.g., cancelling classes, "remote" teaching or exams, cancelling conferences, prohibiting faculty work-related travel etc. Feel free to link to public resources/statements by your schools. Submit your comment only once, they are moderated, and may take awhile to appear.
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Technology and lawyer’s work
Article here, including interesting obserevations from Dean Jennifer Mnookin (UCLA).
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“Law School Transparency” is misleading its customers about the cost of law school and overcharging for data that are available for free (Michael Simkovic)
Brian Leiter recently noted problems with Elizabeth Olson’s uncritical coverage of “Law School Transparency” (LST) in an article published in Bloomberg. The most important substantive problems with Olson’s recent article about LST not already mentioned by Professor Leiter are that: (1) Olson doesn’t mention that LST’s business model is repackaging and selling to prospective law…
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Reducing student debt?
The law schools at the University of Georgia and Georgia State are doing well. Kudos to them!
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“Please reject me: an Open Letter to the Harvard Law Review”
Mark Lemley (Stanford) kindly shared this quite amusing open letter: Please Reject Me An Open Letter to the Harvard Law Review The Harvard Law Review has rejected my articles in the past. A lot. Indeed,…
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How to compare the GRE and the LSAT?
With more than three dozen law schools now accepting the GRE for admissions purposes, this question is no doubt on the agenda at many schools across the nation. Nearly four times as many students take the GRE each year as take the LSAT. Are these two pools of students comparable in terms of academic achievements…
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The latest plan to make federal student loans less appealing: cut repayment period from 25 years to 10, draft employers as debt collectors (Michael Simkovic)
Private student lenders have been trying for at least a decade to stifle competition from public student lending programs. Their advocates have come up with a myriad of reasons to raise the price of federal loan programs, reduce their availability, and make terms less generous, even though these public loan programs are profitable for the…
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A fascinating history of conservative activism on college campuses (Michael Simkovic)
A fascinating, albeit intemperate and sensationalist, perspective on the history of conservative activism on college campuses is available here. The essay discusses strategies such as top-down national campaigns funded by wealthy donors, programming crafted by national organizations staffed by well compensated and experienced political operatives with ties to the Republican party, and executed on particular…
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UVA Law’s Class of 1990: They’re Happy!
Good for them, and good for UVA! Of course, there may be some self-selection going on: happy types may choose UVA over other top law schools!
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SEALS decides to screw over academic job seekers…
…by creating a competitor hiring conference (the Blog Emperor reprints the self-serving announcement in its entirety, although at least Professor Weaver dropped some of his earlier false claims about its purpose). I'm not aware of any other academic field where there are competing hiring conferences. Their absence is easy to explain: it's costly enough–in time…
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McKinsey responds to New York Times hit piece (Michael Simkovic)
The consulting firm McKinsey is a leading employer of graduates of elite law schools, business schools, medical schools, and other professional programs. The New York Times recently ran a piece attempting to link McKinsey to regimes that abuse human rights. McKinsey's response appears below. Readers of this blog are probably familiar with how uneven in…
These are the sort of systems that are currently used for “teaching” LLMs math and coding, as I understand it.…