A cursory, week's-end roundup of recent law school news: 1) Vanderbilt Law has named Penn Law professor Edward Rubin as its next dean, effective July 1; 2) Rubin's colleague Kermit Roosevelt has penned a new novel, set for June release and described as "a meditation about the life of the law, the organism that is a law firm, and its impact on those who come within its powerful orbit" (link from JD2B); and 3) Drexel University has announced plans to start a new law school, requiring co-op work and focusing on the university's areas of academic strength (Philadelphia Business Journal). In the legal academic blogosphere, UCLA Law's Eugene Volokh, one of America's "Top 20 Legal Thinkers" according to a Legal Affairs poll, has expressed concern over a letter defending the institution of the filibuster that is currently collecting signatures from law professors, while Texas Law's Brian Leiter has crunched the numbers to calculate the top producers of law teachers the last two years (Harvard and Yale Law, handily).

UPDATE (4/24): A reader in the know informs JURIST that the appointment of Edward Rubin as Vanderbilt Law dean is in fact somewhat old news. JURIST regrets the staleness. There is, however, real "new"s to report from the Vandy camp: outgoing dean Kent Syverud has just accepted the position of dean at the Washington University School of Law. Wash U. offers this press release on the appointment, and Brian Leiter blogs on its addition of a "very talented administrator and academic leader" here. "If Syverud can duplicate his Vanderbilt success in St. Louis," he writes, "Wash U could easily be one of the up-and-comers among top law schools in the next decade."