Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports

Blast from the past: Per capita expenditures is the tail that wags the US News ranking dog

March 23, 2022

Back in 2009, and it's still true.
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USNews.com makes more arbitrary changes to the ranking formula…

March 21, 2022

…and one can rest assured that U.S. legal education– which is run by a defunct news magazine with a website–will adjust accordingly. One change will be a boon for law libraries: 1% of the score (why 1%? no one knows, not even Bob Morse) now consists in the ratio of full-time law librarians to students…
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Professor Stith to Yale law students: “Grow up”

March 17, 2022

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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Top 15 Law Faculties in scholarly impact (2016-2020) based on their faculty under age 60, 2021

March 14, 2022

This is a complement to the original Sisk study of scholarly impact for the period 2016-2020. As many readers have noted, the scholarly impact of many schools depends on their older faculty. Using the Sisk data, we looked at the ten most-cited faculty under age 60 in 2021, calculating the weighted score the same way…
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Applications and applicants are down a bit this year

March 11, 2022

From the ABA Journal: As of March 7, 50,375 applicants had submitted 363,581 applications to law schools for the 2022 school year, Law.com reported. Last year at this point in time, 55,680 applicants submitted 395,870 applications to law schools. That’s a 9.5% decline in applicants since last year and an 8.2% decline in applications. The…
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LSAC acquires “Law School Transparency [LST]”

March 8, 2022

Here. At a time when the LSAT is at risk of being displaced by the GRE, this was not a smart move, given LST's dubious history: e.g., here, here, or here.
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“Web of Science” may record “impact” in some disciplines, but not necessarily *inter*disciplinary impact

March 7, 2022

Kevin Gerson, the Director of the law library at UCLA, writes: You’ve noted several issues with the Vanderbilt scholarly impact study. I’d like to add to the list another issue with interdisciplinary scholarly impact studies. A non-law article written by someone currently on a law faculty may not, by those facts alone, be widely regarded…
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It is now possible to advertise exclusively on this blog

March 4, 2022

The details are here. Dean searches, faculty searches, calls for papers, journals, conferences new books, and more–anything where you want to reach law faculty and administrators.
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The Vanderbilt study of “scholarly impact” based on the Web of Science database

March 3, 2022

One thing this study is not is a study of "interdisciplinary impact," for three reasons: (1) the Web of Science has better coverage of some disciplines than others; (2) citation practices vary dramatically across disciplines; and (3) the study only looked at articles published in Web of Science journals that were published and cited during…
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Penn student organizations calls for “immediate” firing of Professor Wax

March 3, 2022

Ironically, resolutions like this will be fodder for a lawsuit by Professor Wax if Penn does breach its contractual commitment to academic freedom (including freedom of extramural speech) by firing her. (See the earlier letter to Penn from the Academic Freedom Alliance.)
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Blast from the past: On “joint appointments” prior to tenure

March 1, 2022

From 2012, but still relevant.
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“Anglophone Analytic Legal Philosophy”

February 27, 2022

This paper might be of interest to some readers; the abstract: This essay examines Anglophone analytic legal philosophy in comparison to Professor Aldo Schiavello's account of Italian (and also, more broadly, non-Anglophone) analytic legal philosophy (in the same volume). The focus, in particular, is on legal positivism in H.L.A. Hart, Norberto Bobbio, and Alf Ross,…
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Law professors on academic freedom

February 24, 2022

Paul Butler and David Cole (both Georgetown) disagree about its application, while Anita Allen (Penn) rejects the AAUP understanding. My own views here: Download Why Academic Freedom PDF published version
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“Highest need” students to attend Yale Law tuition-free

February 22, 2022

The announcement doesn't specify what constitutes the eligible level of need, but indicates that 45-50 students (out of about 600 in the law school) will get the scholarships to cover all their tuition. So that's a significant investment! UPDATE: My colleague Ryan Doerfler calls my attention to this informative piece, with further details: The plan,…
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Chicago Tribune article on the case of UIC lawprof Jason Kilborn

February 18, 2022

Here, which correctly notes that the allegations against him were bogus. Professor Kilborn has also filed an amended complaint in his lawsuit: Download Kilborn Amended Complaint
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In Memoriam: Walter E. Dellinger III (1941-2022)

February 17, 2022

A longtime member of the Duke faculty, Professor Dellinger also had a distinguished career in government service and private practice. The NYT obituary is here and the Duke memorial notice is here.
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Citation counts vary by field, 2016-2020 edition

February 17, 2022

Here's an updated version of a post from last summer, now using the Sisk data for the period 2016-2020. An important fact about interpreting citation data is that citation rates vary quite a bit by field. One can see all the subject-specific citation lists for the latest Sisk study (2016-2020) here. Of the ten most-cited faculty…
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In Memoriam: Yale Kamisar (1929-2022)

February 16, 2022

MOVING TO FRONT FROM JANUARY 31-UPDATED Professor Kamisar, a leading figure in criminal procedure who spent most of his career at the University of Michigan Law School, was known as "the father of Miranda," as Justice Ginsburg noted in her tribute to Kamisar upon his retirement. I will add links to memorial notices when they…
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SSRN removes article after receiving “cease and desist” letter claiming the article defamed one of the people mentioned in it

February 15, 2022

Professor Ann Lipton (Tulane) explains: Previously, I announced that my paper, Capital Discrimination, would be forthcoming in the Houston Law Review, and had just been posted publicly to SSRN. As I explained in that post, the paper explores the problem of gender discrimination against women as business owners and capital providers, and proposes changes to both…
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“Justice Kennedy, free speech fabulist”

February 10, 2022

David Pozen (Columbia) comments.
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10 Most-Cited Legal Ethics/Legal Profession Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020

February 10, 2022

(An alert reader pointed out I had missed this category in my earlier postings of most-cited lists.) Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited law faculty working in legal ethics/legal profession/professional responsibility in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of…
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ABA may mandate bias training for law students

February 9, 2022

Story here. It is a shame there is no solid evidence such training is effective in reducing bias.
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Lawrence VanDyke, a judge on the 9th Circuit, is not bringing credit to the bench

February 8, 2022

Although he embarrassed himself as a law student nearly twenty years ago, one might have hoped he would do better as a judge. Alas. (Thanks to C.E. Pettit for the pointer.)
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Keith Whittington (Princeton) on academic freedom and the work of the Academic Freedom Alliance

February 3, 2022

An illuminating Twitter thread here, that deserves to be widely read; some excerpts: It is unfortunate that you are so willing to mislead your followers on the fundamental & longstanding precepts of academic freedom that protect professors across the country from being fired for, e.g., bad tweets. But perhaps some of your followers will want…
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In Memoriam: Lino Graglia (1930-2022)

February 2, 2022

Professor Graglia taught for fifty years at the University of Texas School of Law, where he was only recently emeritus. The Texas memorial notice is here. I was Lino's colleague for 13 years, and like many who disagreed with him about almost every political question, I found him to be a very congenial colleague, who…
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“Realism about Precedent”

January 31, 2022

This paper may interest some readers; the abstract: In jurisdictions with a doctrine of precedent, later courts are bound only by those earlier decisions which are “on point” or “the same in relevant respects” to the case currently before the court. Since cases are never identical in all particulars, this always requires figuring out which…
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Rostron & Levit’s guide to submitting to law reviews: a new edition

January 31, 2022

Professors Rostron and Levit write: Dear Colleagues, We just updated our charts about law journal submissions, expedites, and rankings from different sources for the Spring 2022 submission season covering the 196 main journals of each law school. We have created hyperlinks for each law review to take you directly to the law review’s…
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Prof. Jason Kilborn (UIC John Marshall Law) files suit against various UIC officials…

January 27, 2022

…over the ongoing violations of his constutional rights, which we have noted previously. The complaint is here: Download Kilborn Complaint as filed. The exhibits attached to the complaint are here: Download Kilborn Exhibits as filed
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Blast from the past: the lawprof debate about giving Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree at Wash U/St. Louis

January 27, 2022

Back in 2008.
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Allegations of misconduct by Amy Wax in the classroom and towards students

January 26, 2022

The kind of conduct described here enjoys no protection from AAUP academic freedom principles, unlike offensive extramural speech. If these allegations are confirmed, Professor Wax may be in real trouble this time.
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Fear of “divisive” ideas

January 19, 2022

From the Emory Law Journal to Critical Race Theory: historian Jonathan Zimmerman (Penn) comments. (Thanks to Nadine Strossen for the pointer.)
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Penn Law to move forward with faculty process for sanction of a tenured faculty member in Amy Wax case

January 18, 2022

Ted Ruger, the Penn Dean, sent out this letter today (and several readers shared it with me): From: Dean's Office <deansoffice@law.upenn.edu>Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2022 12:10 PMSubject: A Message from Dean Ruger Dear Law School students, faculty, and staff, Since at least 2017, and most recently again two weeks ago, Professor Amy Wax has repeatedly…
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“Remembering Dr. King”

January 17, 2022

Professor William Hollingsworth (Tulsa) was there for the March on Washington.
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Chemerinsky on the Amy Wax case

January 16, 2022

A propos L'Affaire Wax, Dean Chemerinsky (Berkeley) is quoted in this article: I loathe what Amy Wax has said….But academic freedom protects her right to say it and a revocation of her tenure would violate principles of academic freedom…A core aspect of academic freedom is that both faculty members and students can engage in intellectual…
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Political pressure is mounting on Penn to fire Amy Wax… (UPDATED)

January 14, 2022

FOR THOSE COMING HERE BY WAY OF RICHARD PAINTER, PLEASE SEE THIS AND THIS. …despite the fact that she can't legally be fired for her offensive speech, as we noted previously: Under the AAUP definition of academic freedom, "extramural" speech by faculty is protected speech that cannot be sanctioned by a university employer. Yet even…
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Koppelman on Emory Law Journal’s rejection of an invited symposium piece as “hurtful” and “divisive”

January 13, 2022

Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern) writes about the incident at CHE: The law journal had invited papers for a symposium honoring Michael Perry, one of the most important living constitutional theorists. An invitation of this sort normally includes a commitment to publish if basic scholarly standards are met. One invitee was the University of San Diego professor…
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Halfway through the 2021-22 admissions seasons, applications are now down about 5%

January 12, 2022

Blog Emperor Caron has the details.
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“The Epistemology of the Internet and the Regulation of Speech in America”

January 10, 2022

The final version of the paper (which will appear in a symposium issue of the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy) is now on SSRN. I've been gratified by the interest this paper has already attracted, and how useful many legal scholars, especially, have found the notion of epistemic authority. Here is the abstract:…
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In Memoriam: Lani Guinier (1950-2022)

January 7, 2022

A leading contributor to scholarship on civil rights, voting rights, and Critical Race Theory, Professor Guinier was emerita at Harvard Law School, where she had taught since 1998. I will add links to memorial notices as they appear. UPDATE: An obituary from the Boston Globe, and a memorial notice from HLS. ANOTHER: The NYT obituary.
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Advertise on Leiter’s Law School Reports

January 6, 2022

Leiter’s Law School Reports is one of the leading legal education blogs with over 200,000 page views per month. Its audience is mainly law professors and law school deans, making Leiter’s Law School Reports the ideal site to advertise legal books, journals, calls for papers, and conferences, as well as dean and faculty searches. Available…
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