Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports

New blog URLS, for Prawfs, Legal Theory Blog

October 1, 2025

The new Prawfs site is here, and at the link they collect new URLs for other law blogs which had to migrate from Typepad. Feel free to add other new URLs for law-related blogs in the comments.
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Thank God for judges, redux

October 1, 2025

A federal judge lambasts the authoritarian Trump for his violation of the First Amendment rights of non-citizens.
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LSAT scores aren’t what they used to be, and schools need not obsess about them

September 29, 2025

I missed this illuminating analysis by Derek Muller (Notre Dame) from several months ago, but it is worth reading!
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To follow this blog via RSS

September 27, 2025

Use https://leiterreports.com/leiterlawschoolreports/feed (Thanks to Michael Risch for the information.) UPDATE: A couple of readers report the link above goes to “comments” on this blog, not to the main posts. I’ve asked my web design person to look into this and will post what I learn.
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This is a more plausible “ranking” of law reviews…

September 3, 2025

…based on an aggregation of various metrics. I would disregard the ordinal order entirely, and think solely in terms of "clusters." This is certainly more sensible than the bizarre Washington & Lee ranking of law reviews (which is part of this aggregation, but whose weirdness is neutralized by some of the other metrics used here).
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Federal court dismisses Amy Wax’s discrimination claims…

August 29, 2025

…and declines to take up the state law breach of contract claims, which are certainly the strongest ones as I noted originally. I would assume she will file a breach of contract action against Penn in state court.
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Law school applicants increase

August 28, 2025

Blog Emperor Caron collects the details from LSAC, but as he notes the Trump changes to federal student loans may change this situation significantly. If students cannot get federal loans for the total cost of three years of legal education, they will have to turn to the private loan market, which will no doubt price…
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Chicago Alumni & Fellows on the law teaching market, 2025-26

August 25, 2025

MOVING TO FRONT, ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 6 This post is strictly for schools that expect to do hiring this year. In order to protect the privacy of our candidates, please e-mail me to get a copy of the narrative profiles of our candidates who are on the entry-level market this year and participating in the…
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ABA Council on Legal Education tables proposal on doubling experiential credit hours (for now)

August 22, 2025

That doesn't mean it's gone for good, but it's a hopeful development! My earlier post got rather a lot of traction on social media, including among practitioners, so one may hope the Council is rethinking its approach. And, of course, they must in light of the latest research.
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Experiential legal education: what does the evidence really show?

August 22, 2025

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

August 18, 2025

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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406 candidates in the first FAR distribution for 2025-26…

August 15, 2025

…which is the highest number since before the pandemic, and an increase of almost 15% since last year.
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“From a Realist Point of View” now delivered to the press and should be out in Spring 2026…

August 12, 2025

…in the "Oxford Legal Philosophy" series. Here's the official OUP blurb: From A Realist Point of View combines new essays with revised versions of the most important recent work of preeminent legal realist Brian Leiter. This collection offers a systematic and philosophically ambitious account of legal realism and links it, for the first time, to…
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18% decline in jobs in first AALS jobs bulletin compared to last year

August 8, 2025

These are individual postings for entry-level, tenure-track law teaching jobs: 143 to 118. I had expected a "tightening" last March due to the Trump war on the universities, but it looks like the countervailing force (strong applicant pools and law school enrollments) may have helped avert a total collapse. One unknown is how many, if…
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14 lateral moves during 2024-25 that made law professors take notice

August 4, 2025

Based on conversations with colleagues here and elsewhere, here are 14 lateral moves this past year that were thought to be particularly significant/notable: *Jonathan Adler (environmental law, administrative law) from Case Western Reserve University to the College of William & Mary. *Katharine Baker (family law, property) from Chicago-Kent College of Law/Illinois Institute of…
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Lateral hires in law with tenure or on tenure-track, 2024-25

July 30, 2025

These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2025 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.) Last year's list is here. This is the final iteration of the 2024-25 list; a 2025-26 list will begin in August. *Christine Abely (property, contracts, international business transactions) from New England Law…
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How to increase citations to your scholarship and improve article placement?

July 22, 2025

Join Twitter! As one suspected… Professors Nyarko and Pozen write: [T]he abnormally large Twitter bump that we detect in law [compared to other fields] deserves further inquiry. The discrepancy is not driven by differences in citation rates across disciplines, because we benchmark our results against typical citation rates within the field. Two hypotheses strike us…
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How new restrictions on student loans affect prospective law students

July 16, 2025

Here, from the ABA Journal.
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In Memoriam: Richard Fallon, Jr. (1952-2025)

July 15, 2025

A leading expert on constitutional law and federal courts, Professor Fallon spent his career at Harvard Law School. There is a news report from the Harvard Crimson here. (Thanks to Michael Naft for the pointer.) UPDATE: The HLS memorial notice.
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Another penetrating critique of the ABA proposal to double the number of experiential credit hours required

June 26, 2025

This one from Notre Dame lawprof Derek Muller, which is worth reading in its entirety. If the Council does not withdraw this ill-considered and inadequately justified proposal, then it really will be time to seek alternative accreditation agencies for law schools, ones that respect both law students and the academic freedom of law faculties to…
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Excellent letter by Marquette Law Dean Kearney in opposition to the terrible ABA proposal to double the required number of experiential hours

June 25, 2025

The full letter is here (earlier coverage). As Dean Kearney writes: [T]he Council’s proposal would mandate a startling redirection of resources. Given the integrated nature of a program of legal education, the proposal would constitute an unprecedented invasion into the upper-level curricula of law schools, diminish substantially the schools’ appropriate autonomy, and impair their ability…
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If this report is correct, then everyone should boycott the Harvard Law Review

June 20, 2025

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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Faculty hiring freezes?

June 18, 2025

At my philosophy blog, I'm collecting information, please contribute there.
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Congratulations to the University of Chicago Law School Class of 2025!

June 7, 2025

It was a pleasure and privilege to teach such talented young men and women. I join all my colleagues in wishing you much happiness and success in the years ahead!
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Summer quasi-hiatus from blogging has begun…

June 4, 2025

…as readers may have gathered. I'll continue to update the laterals list, and will try to post about important or time-sensitive matters, but don't expect much regular content until August. Good wishes to readers for a productive and enjoyable summer!
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Congratluations to the Chicago alumni who made or announced lateral moves this past year (24-25)

June 2, 2025

They are: *Katharine Baker '89 from Chicago-Kent College of Law/Illinois Institute of Technology to the University of Iowa. *Samuel Bray '05 from the University of Notre Dame to the University of Chicago. *Jason Czarnecki '03 from Pace University to Chicago-Kent College of Law/Illinois Institute of Technology (to become Dean) *James Macleod…
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What are the Title VI obligations of universities with regard to speech critical of Zionism?

May 28, 2025

Everyone knows that the Trump Administration has failed to follow Title VI procedures, but what about the substantive requirements of Title VI? Law professor Ben Eidelson (Harvard) and Deborah Hellman (Virginia) examine the issue.
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“Against the Metaphysical Turn in Recent American Jurisprudence”

May 14, 2025

A new paper that may be of interest to those who follow literature in jurisprudence; it will appear in my forthcoming book, From a Realist Point of View (Oxford University Press, 2026), which will include previously published papers (some revised a lot), plus new material (including this chapter), all related to realism in legal and…
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Law schools should oppose an ABA proposal to double the experiential learning credits from 6 to 12

May 14, 2025

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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Congratulations to the Chicago alumni and Fellows who accepted tenure-track jobs in law schools this year

May 13, 2025

They are: Tony B. Derron, who will join the faculty at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is currently a Bigelow Fellow at the Law School. He received his J.D. from Yale in 2018, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law & Policy Review, and Lead Editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation. …
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We have a new Dean: Adam Chilton

May 7, 2025

I'm delighted with this outcome. I should note we had three remarkable finalists, all outstanding, so we were very fortunate indeed. (A public "thank you" to my colleague Jonathan Masur who led the Dean Search Committee, and did a great job!) As Professor Chilton comments in the preceding news release: "I strongly believe that the…
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Federal district court in DC permanently enjoins Trump’s executive order against Perkins Coie

May 5, 2025

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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Psychologist and law professor Phoebe Ellsworth (emerita, Michigan) elected to the National Academy of Sciences

May 2, 2025

Here.
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775 law professors file amici brief in support of Susman Godfrey’s battle with federal tyranny

April 28, 2025

Here.
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Seven law professors elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

April 23, 2025

They are: Deborah Archer (NYU), Oona Hathaway (Yale), Kenneth Mack (Harvard), Liam Murphy (NYU), Daniel Rodriguez (Northwestern), Edward Rubin (Vanderbilt), and Kevin Washburn (Iowa).
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Corporate Practice Commentator’s “top 10” corporate & securities articles for 2024

April 15, 2025

The selected articles are: Contract Production in M&A Markets, 171 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1881-1924 (2023), Choi, Stephen J; Gulati, Mitu; Jennejohn, Mathew; Scott, Robert E. Corporate Racial Responsibility, 124 Colum. L. Rev. 361-430 (2024), Fletcher, Gina-Gail S; Lovelace, H. Timothy Jr. Gender and the Social Structure of Exclusion in U.S. Corporate Law, 90 U.…
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Advice to law firms in dealing with Trump: do not negotiate!

April 14, 2025

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

April 11, 2025

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…

April 8, 2025

…in the opinion of hundreds of former Skadden Fellows.
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“Independent Law Journal”

April 2, 2025

Here. I was astonished to find my name on a list of "supporters": I am neither a supporter nor an opponent. Paul Robinson had emailed me and many others about the idea, and I gave him some advice, and also made clear I had neither the time nor the interest in participating in the undertaking.…
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