Law schools roundup

  • Yale Law School “a cult of the 14th Amendment… that happens to have a registrar’s office.” [Elizabeth Wurtzel, Above the Law]
  • Admitted applicants up, near-term job prospects down: “The irresponsibility of law schools” [Brian Tamanaha, Balkinization; Annie Lowrey, Slate] Not new, but relevant to debate over unaffordable nature of law education: George Washington University law school trims night program so as to improve its U.S. News rankings [WSJ Law Blog]
  • While serving as chief Congressional scold publicly blasting the banking industry, Harvard lawprof Elizabeth Warren also had a $90,000 consulting contract with class-action lawyers suing banks; with the notable exception of Richard Painter, few in the Washington conflict-of-interest industry or legal ethics community seem much bothered [Business Week, Examiner, Wash. Times] Should academics publicly disclose their consulting relationships? [Lawrence Cunningham, ConcurOp]
  • Other protections for client confidentiality remain intact, of course: “N.J. Court Says Public Law-School Clinics Aren’t Immune From Open-Records Law” [Chronicle of Higher Education] “Federal employees volunteering for law clinics: What could go wrong?” [Wood, PoL]
  • Egalitarian trappings aside, modern academia essentially embodies an older aristocratic ethos [Nate Oman, ConcurOp]
  • Great news: several of the highest-profile names in public debates about our legal system have indicated their interest in providing blurbs for Schools for Misrule, now nearing publication.

CPSIA, uncompliable

Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason “Hit and Run” provides two snapshots of the continuing damage being done by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, including the rage-and-despair reaction of Rick Woldenberg (AmendTheCPSIA.com), who says that the new regulations “will jack up Learning Resources’ annual compliance costs to $15 million, FAR in excess of our profits. We have no Plan B — so we are trying to get a new government.” And a commenter points to the “Criticism” and (very partial) “List of Companies Whose Closure Is Linked To CPSIA” sections of the Wikipedia entry.

Related: “Not available because of the CPSIA“: wood-and-beeswax Selecta Spielzeug Rhonda dollhouse dining room, formerly imported from Germany. Why pay a whopping testing bill to clear an innocuous product that’s at best going to sell modestly on this side of the Atlantic? [EuroToyShop.com]