Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports

More controversy at Berkeley Law

September 19, 2024

Students are protesting a class on "anti-semitism and law" by leading corporate law expert Steven Davidoff Solomon, primarily because of an op-ed he wrote encouraging employers not to hire his "anti-semitic" students. Let me comment on this purely from the standpoint of the academic freedom rights of faculty: (1) Davidoff's op-ed was inappropriate: as we…
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15 most cited Law & Social Science faculty in the U.S., 2019-2023

September 17, 2024

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the fifteen most-cited law faculty in "law & social science" (excluding economics; including "law & society," "empirical legal studies," sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology) in the U.S. for the period 2019-2023 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2024, and that the…
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Michigan Law wins summary judgment in discrimination lawsuit brought by faculty member

September 16, 2024

We noted the case two years ago, and it has now been resolved in favor of the University of Michigan Law School and its former Dean Mark West. The court describes emails from Dean West to Professor Beny "as immature, awkward, and unprofessional, but likely not harassing," but also held that, "The undisputed facts in…
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Interesting initiative to increase legal services in rural areas…

September 12, 2024

…from the University of Georgia. Other flagships in states with under-served rural communities may want to take a look at this.
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Citation lists going forward (IMPORTANT UPDATE)

September 9, 2024

Going forward, I won't produce any "most cited" ordinal lists in specialty areas when the citation total for the five-year period is below 300. Partly this is for reasons of time, but partly it is that I'm skeptical that as the citation numbers get smaller, ordinal differences are very meaningful. That means for some of…
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Curricular areas of interest to hiring committees, 24-25

September 9, 2024

Northwestern's Professor Lawsky has collected some very interesting information. It's too bad we don't have data for earlier years, so I can only report my anecdotal sense. This is a good year for "business law," but every year is a good year for the business law subjects. It seems like a comparatively good year for…
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20 most cited Administrative and/or Environmental Law faculty in the U.S., 2019-2023 (CORRECTED)

September 7, 2024

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the twenty most-cited law faculty in administrative and/or environmental law in the U.S. for the period 2019-2023 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2024, and that the pre-2024 database did expand a bit since then). Numbers are rounded to the nearest…
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Books

September 4, 2024

Forgive the navel-gazing here, but perhaps some readers will be interested in some of the three books of mine that have appeared this year. (1) Marx, co-authored with Jaime Edwards, has just appeared. Here's what the political philosopher Allen Buchanan (emeritus, Duke University; Laureate Professor, University of Arizona; author of Marx and Justice: The Radical…
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In Memoriam: Frederick Schauer (1946-2024)

September 2, 2024

I was shocked to learn from David Law on Facebook that Professor Schauer has died (yesterday according to his Virginia colleague Larry Solum). He started his academic career at West Virginia University, moved to the College of William & Mary, then to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (where I was fortunate to have him),…
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Chicago Alumni & Fellows on the law teaching market, 2024-25

August 29, 2024

MOVING TO FRONT, ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 12 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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10 most cited Law & Technology faculty in the U.S., 2019-2023 (CORRECTED)

August 28, 2024

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited law faculty in law & technology (including Internet law, informational privacy, cybersecurity, AI/robotocs) in the U.S. for the period 2019-2023 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2024, and that the pre-2024 database did expand a bit since then). …
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20 most cited Constitutional Law faculty in the U.S., 2019-2023

August 26, 2024

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the twenty most-cited law faculty in constitutional law in the U.S. for the period 2019-2023 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2024, and that the pre-2024 database did expand a bit since then). Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten. Faculty…
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First FAR distribution for 24-25

August 22, 2024

Professor Lawksy reports there are 352 candidates, roughly the same as last year.
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Fellowships for Aspiring Law Teachers, 24-25 edition

August 22, 2024

The Blog Emperor has updated his invaluable list.
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Ten most cited law faculty in the U.S., 2019-2023

August 21, 2024

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited active law professors in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2024, and that the pre-2024 database did expand a bit since then). Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten. (Law professors not…
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Top 50 U.S. law faculties in scholarly impact, 2024

August 19, 2024

Professor Greg Sisk & colleagues at the University of St. Thomas have updated their scholarly impact rankings (last edition), looking at mean and median citations to tenured faculty scholarship for the years 2019-2023 inclusive, using fall 2024 faculty rosters as the benchmark (so, e.g., faculty on indefinite leave in government service are not counted). (Sisk…
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St. Thomas University (Miami) summarily fires tenured professor, with no notice or process

August 16, 2024

Unbelievable misconduct by the administration there.
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None of the law schools targetted with class actions a dozen years ago for consumer fraud were found liable

August 15, 2024

A useful reminder from lawprof Derek Muller.
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Professor Lawsky’s new “Law School Hiring Information” website

August 13, 2024

Here. Useful for both hiring schools and job seekers.
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12 lateral moves that made faculty “take notice” during 2023-24

August 7, 2024

Based on my in-box and conversations with others, these were 12 moves that transpired this past year that were thought to be the biggest hiring coups (I used to list only ten, but this was another big year for lateral moves): *Robin Craig (environmental law, water law) from the University of Southern California to…
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Lateral hires with tenure or on tenure-track, 2023-24

August 1, 2024

These are non-clinical appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2024 (except where noted); (recent additions will be in bold.) Last year's list is here. *Daniel Abebe (international law, foreign relations law) from the University of Chicago (where he is Vice-Provost) to Columbia University (to become Dean). *Rabiat Akanda (law &…
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“How to Cabin the Realist Indeterminacy Thesis: On Green, Positivism, and the Sources of Law”

July 1, 2024

The penulimate version on SSRN, for a volume that OUP will publish on the legal philosophy of Leslie Green. The abstract: Leslie Green raised an important challenge to my reconstruction of the American Legal Realist (ALR) arguments for the indeterminacy of law and legal reasoning: how can those arguments be limited, as I claim, to…
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Hiring committees for 2024-25…

June 12, 2024

…can announce themselves and their hiring priorities here.
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Cornell Law rebuffs $25 million from Leonard Leo with ideological strings attached…

June 5, 2024

…but Texas A&M takes it. Cornell lawprof Michael Dorf comments.
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Congratulations to the University of Chicago Law School Class of 2024

June 1, 2024

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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The zombie SEALS hiring conference is back, unbelievably

May 22, 2024

It emerged just before the pandemic, and it was a terrible idea then, and it's still a terrible idea. Fortunately, it got almost no uptake, and I'm sure that will continue. All job seekers should ignore it, and focus their energy on the real hiring process through the AALS.
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Entering summer blogging schedule

May 14, 2024

It's grading crunch time here at the University of Chicago (we're on a quarter system), and as in prior years, I'll be posting less going forward, until August, when some more regular posting will resume. I'll still update the laterals list, post memorials of well-known figures in the legal academy as they arise, and perhaps…
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In Memoriam: Christopher F. Edley, Jr. (1953-2024)

May 11, 2024

An expert in administrative law and civil rights, Professor Edley spent the first two decades of his career at Harvard Law School, before becoming Dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley in 2004, a role he held until 2013, when he returned to the faculty. I will add links to memorial…
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Federal judges (most in Texas) now threaten to boycott Columbia University graduates

May 9, 2024

This routine is getting tiresome. UPDATE: Professor Stephen Burbank (Penn) writes (with permission to quote from Professor Geyh's forthcoming piece): It is not only tiresome but may violate the Code of Conduct for United States Judges. In a forthcoming article in Law and Contemporary Problems, in response to an earlier, smaller, boycott of clerkship applicants…
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The “Executive Unbound”: University President edition

May 7, 2024

Lawprof David Pozen (Columbia) uses recent events at Columbia to look at university governance, drawing some striking analogies with problems familiar from public law.
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Congratulations to the Chicago alumni who made (or announced) lateral moves this year

May 6, 2024

They are: *Vincent Buccola '08 (bankruptcy, corporate) from the University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School) to the University of Chicago (Law School). *Sarah Burstein '07 (intellectual property, design law) from Suffolk University to Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago-Kent College of Law. Pedro Gerson '14 (immigration law, criminal law) from the Pozen Center for Human…
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Elite law firms are now recruiting 1Ls in spring, bypassing the traditional on-campus recuirtment process

May 1, 2024

On FB, Mark Lemley and Kate Litvak brought to my attention this Bloomberg story; an excerpt: Top law firms are rushing to target new recruits, often before students have finished their first year. On-campus interviews, long the chief recruiting method for major firms and controlled by law schools and the National Association for Law Placement,…
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Law review publication contracts with unreasonable terms

April 30, 2024

Another reason not to publish in student-edited law reviews, I guess.
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Seven law professors elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

April 25, 2024

They are: Anne Alstott (Yale), Ann Carlson (UCLA), G. Mitu Gulati (Virginia), Daniel Ho (Stanford), Pauline Kim (Wash U/St. Louis), Eric Talley (Columbia), and (in the Religious Studies category) John Witte, Jr. (Emory).
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Letter from many Columbia Law faculty to the University President about the handling of protests on campus

April 23, 2024

Here. Signatories include Vince Blasi, Kimberle Crenshaw, Jane Ginsburg, Michael Graetz, Ronald Mann, David Pozen, Carol Sanger, Robert and Elizabeth Scott, and others.
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Some student-edited law reviews are calling to be compensated for their work

April 22, 2024

This is surprising; if it gets traction, it will probably lead to law schools closing down most of their student-edited reviews. Maybe U.S. law schools would do what other common-law law faculties do, and have the faculty take charge of editing the school journal. I doubt it will get to that, however, given the importance…
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Law faculty contributions to political candidates

April 17, 2024

Notre Dame lawprof Derek Muller compiled data for the period 2017 to early 2023 (so during the Trump era), and I was surprised by how many contributed to Republicans, given the condition of that party, although this fits with the general perception of the American legal academy as conservative by global standards. Most Republican supporters…
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Congratulations to the Chicago alumni and Fellows on the law teaching market…

April 15, 2024

…who accepted tenure-track jobs. They are: Charles F. Capps ’20, who will join the faculty at Arizona State University. He graduated with Honors from the Law School, where he was Articles Editor of the Law Review. He also earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago. He clerked in his native…
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“Law is a Moral Practice”

April 11, 2024

I review a recent book of legal philosophy. My review itself has been favorably reviewed by UCLA lawprof Steve Bainbridge on Twitter: "The opening line of @BrianLeiter's review is worth the price of admission. If more law professors wrote with his flair, legal scholarship would be a lot more entertaining. His range from rapier to…
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Some Berkeley law students have lost their minds

April 11, 2024

A measured statement from Dean Chemerinsky describing recent bad behavior at his law school. It's pretty clear what's going on: students who feel impotent in the face of the horrors in Gaza are taking it out on a symbolic representative, i.e., their Jewish Dean. There's a word for that, and it's not one that reflects…
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