Overlawyered » law schools

Law schools roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 04:05:29 +0000

Law-school leftism is no longer a progressive force, argues Brian Tamanaha [Stanford Law and Policy Review, more] Paul Campos responds to critics of Tamanaha [UCLA Law Review via Caron]
Related: “Cleaning (one’s inbox) is its own reward: nice podcast re: law school reform that I took to gym (via @WalterOlson)” [@DavidLat]
Good news for law students? “Student Loans May Now Be Discharged More Easily In Bankruptcy in the 9th Circuit” [Karen Oakes, Bankruptcy Law Network] “Only if the law students don’t want to become lawyers.” [@moiracathleen]
No love lost: Mark Tushnet vs. Richard Epstein on Epstein’s new book Design for Liberty (PDFs)
“People’s Electric Law School”: George Conk recalls Rutgers-Newark’s salad days as a committed-Left law school at a state university [Fordham Urban Law Journal via Steele] Thoughts from Elizabeth Warren ’76 [Rutgers via @LegInsurrection]
“Assignment: defend the opponent’s viewpoint….” A dying art in the ideologized law school? [John Steele, Legal Ethics Forum]
John Murtagh hasn’t forgotten what Columbia prof/NYU “scholar in residence” Kathy Boudin did [NY Post]

Tags: law schools, New Jersey, Richard Epstein

Law schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Law Student Sues Law School For Implying He’s Litigious”

Walter Olson — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:15:15 +0000

“Watch what you say about lawyers” is an old theme around here, but in light of developments at Wake Forest it might need to be extended to law students as well. [Above the Law, more]

Tags: law schools, watch what you say about lawyers

“Law Student Sues Law School For Implying He’s Litigious” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Law schools roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 02:48:52 +0000

“If a law school held a conference on intellectual diversity and the panels really were intellectually diverse …You can bet your last nickel it was sponsored by the Federalist Society.” [Bainbridge, Nick Rosenkranz and more, Harvard Gazette; my 2011 book Schools for Misrule]
Washington Law Review takes one step to counter another problem addressed in Schools for Misrule, lawprofs’ conflicts of interest [Bainbridge]
BC dean: law schools should adopt residency model from medical education [Vincent Rougeau, ABA Legal Rebels via Paul Caron/TaxProf]
Missouri police union head, under fire for Facebook comments, is also constitutional law prof [Mike Riggs]
Some say drive for slave reparations is defunct, but U.Va. conference confirms many legal academics still haven’t given up on it [Alfred Brophy via Bainbridge]
“Academy’s Heavyweights Opine on Law Schools’ Problems” [WSJ via Legal Ethics Forum]
“Board of Regents to Investigate $5.5 Million in Forgivable Loans to University of Texas Law Profs” [Caron]

Tags: law schools, reparations, Schools for Misrule

Law schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Great moments in law school outreach

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:49:29 +0000

After 22 years in prison for political murder, Kathy Boudin is now NYU Law “scholar in residence” [NYPost; relevant section of Schools for Misrule recounting cases of Bernardine Dohrn, Angela Davis, Lynne Stewart, etc.]

From Twitter: “She is probably more conservative than the rest of the faculty.” [@MartelPlieiades] “Outrageous sexism: If a man had served 22 years in prison for political murder, he’d be NYU Law’s Dean.” [@Sam_Schulman]

Update: PowerLine has now reprinted the pertinent section of Schools for Misrule.

Tags: law schools

Great moments in law school outreach is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Great moments in litigation journalism

Walter Olson — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:57:16 +0000

In the Harrisburg Patriot-News, Ivey DeJesus trumpets the views of a “leading legal expert,” specifically “one of the country’s leading church and state scholars” who says, contrary to a state lawmaker’s assertions, that there’s no constitutional problem with reopening lapsed statutes of limitations so as to enable child-abuse lawsuits by now-grown-up complainants. Prof. Marci Hamilton is indeed a well-known church-state scholar, and there is indeed precedent for the (perhaps strange) idea that courts will not necessarily strike down retroactive legislation as unconstitutional so long as its impacts are civil rather than criminal. But it’s not until paragraph 18 that DeJesus, after introducing the expert at length by way of her academic affiliations, bothers to add a perhaps equally relevant element of her biography: she has “represented scores of victims in the Philadelphia Archdiocese clergy sex abuse case.” Why bring that up?

Tags: churches, law schools, media bias, Pennsylvania, statutes of limitations

Great moments in litigation journalism is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Law schools roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 04:05:10 +0000

Harold Lasswell and Myres McDougal’s influential article on legal education figures prominently in Schools for Misrule; Henry Manne says their scheme of actual classroom pedagogy did less well [Bainbridge]
Deanship of local plaintiff’s attorney at St. Louis U. is short, colorful [NLJ]
GW lawprof trips, falls at Denver Law event, now in court [Above the Law]
Law reviews requiring authors to sign indemnity clauses. Reason for alarm? [Dan Markel, Prawfs]
Out-of-touch law academy, vol. 18: Duke prof dismisses floodgates arguments on principle [Ted Frank]
“Should Law Reviews Consider Race When Selecting Articles?” (and do they?) [Josh Blackman]
Insurance is an undercovered topic in the law school curriculum, so Randy Maniloff decides to do an intervention [Coverage Opinions, PDF, lead article]

Tags: insurance, law schools, slip and fall

Law schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

67 leading law profs: time to reform legal education

Walter Olson — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:26:57 +0000

A letter to the ABA signed by 67 big names in legal education [Caron/TaxProf] comes to conclusions about the economic organization of law schools very similar to those I reached two years ago in the relevant section of Schools for Misrule (not claiming any particular prescience on my part, others had made a similar case before and the signs were clear enough to anyone who would look). Their recommendations:

Legal education cannot continue on the current trajectory. As members of a profession committed to serving the public good, we must find ways to alter the economics of legal education. Possible changes include reducing the undergraduate education required for admission to three years; awarding the basic professional degree after two years, while leaving the third year as a elective or an internship; providing some training through apprenticeship; reducing expensive accreditation requirements to allow greater diversity among law schools; building on the burgeoning promises of internet-distance education; changing the economic relationship between law schools and universities; altering the influence of current ranking formulas; and modifying the federal student loan program. As legal educators, it is our responsibility to grapple with these issues before our institutions are reshaped in ways beyond our control.

Tags: law schools, Schools for Misrule

67 leading law profs: time to reform legal education is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Judge dismisses ideological bias case against Iowa Law

Walter Olson — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 04:17:33 +0000

Teresa Wagner had sued the University of Iowa’s law school alleging bias against her as an ideological conservative, but a jury ruled against her on most counts, and now the judge in the case has denied her retrial motion and granted the university’s motion to dismiss the remaining count. [AP via Adler; court opinion; comments by lawprofs Herbert Hovenkamp of U of I and David Bernstein of George Mason; earlier on this case, on which I was quoted in the press a number of times.]

Tags: Iowa, law schools

Judge dismisses ideological bias case against Iowa Law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:05:04 +0000

California Supreme Court: fee shift in disabled-rights claim can go to winning defendant, not just plaintiff [Jankey v. Song Koo Lee, Bagenstos/Disability Law]
That’s Olsen with an “e”: “Lawmaker wants to protect cities from frivolous lawsuits over A.D.A.” [California Assemblywoman Kristen Olsen; L.A. Times] “Gas stations confront disabled-access lawsuits” [Orange County Register] Serial ADA filer hits New Orleans [Louisiana Record] ADA drive-by suits in Colorado and elsewhere [Kevin Funnell]
And this lawyer follows a see-no-evil policy regarding ADA filing mills: “I refuse to pass judgment on other attorneys here.” [Julia Campins]
Child care center could not turn away applicant with nut allergy because Iowa disabled-rights law said to have expanded its coverage of categories when the U.S. Congress expanded ADA, though Iowa lawmakers enacted no such expansion [Disability Law]
Feds join in LSAT accommodation suit [Recorder]
Official in San Francisco’s mayoral Office on Disability files disability-bias claim [KGO]
“Testing employees for legally prescribed medications must be done carefully” [Jon Hyman]

Tags: ADA filing mills, California, Colorado, Iowa, law schools, loser pays, Louisiana, San Francisco

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Assigning students to lobby: John Banzhaf’s latest

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:02:59 +0000

A press release from George Washington University Prof. John Banzhaf describes his latest stunt as follows: “Undergrads Required To Lobby For Obama Policy.” In this case, it’s more for a policy identified with Michael Bloomberg — limits on the size of sweetened drinks — which students were asked to promote in letters to their own lawmakers. I’ve got a write-up at Cato at Liberty, where I list some of the other occasions on which Overlawyered readers have met the gadfly professor. (& Katherine Mangu-Ward, Center for Consumer Freedom) Update: many reactions, including another press release from Prof. Banzhaf.

Tags: colleges and universities, law schools, nanny state, obesity, soft drinks

Assigning students to lobby: John Banzhaf’s latest is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system