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Robert Bork joins U. Richmond law faculty Adam Henry Leading today's law schools news, the University of Richmond has announced that former Solicitor General and US Circuit Court of Appeals judge Robert Bork will join the faculty of the university's T.C. Williams School of Law in the fall. A highly accomplished scholar and practitioner of the law, Bork is still best known for the nasty confirmation battle that his nomination to the Supreme Court engendered in 1987, and that inspired the pejorative term "borking." As Distinguished Professor of American Law and Culture at Richmond, Bork will teach courses in constitutional law to law students, undergraduates, and the general public. Also in the comings and goings category, Dean David Yellen of the Hofstra University School of Law has announced that he will step down at the conclusion of his term in May. The New York Law Journal offers more on the story here. Lastly, the Daily Texan reports that an Islamic law conference at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law has raised concerns about discrimination after a special agent for Army Intelligence appeared on campus and demanded a list of conference-goers. The Army's appearance tends to confirm the advance billing that the conference, entitled "Islam and the Law: The Question of Sexism?" received: "Due to the American government's concerted interaction and intervention with Middle Eastern ... nations with predominantly Muslim populations, this conference is of paramount importance at this juncture in American history." Read the Texan's full report here. 12:00 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News
U. Washington law school applicants appeal affirmative action ruling Adam Henry In today's law school news, three white applicants denied admission to the University of Washington School of Law have appealed their case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In their first hearing, a US district court in Washington state rejected the plaintiffs' claims of discrimination under both the Constitution and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Instead, it ruled that the law school's affirmative action admission program "was narrowly tailored to achieve the compelling state interest of educational diversity...." Read the full text of the court's decision in Smith v. University of Washington Law School [PDF] here. Incidentally, although the district court upheld the law school's use of race as a plus factor, a state initiative passed in 1998 ended the practice. Read the text of Initiative 200 here. In other law school news, Professors Paul Caron and Rafael Gely, both of the University of Cincinnati College of Law, have secured publication for their article "What Law Schools Can Learn from Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics." As detailed in the bestseller Moneyball, Beane bucked traditional measures of baseball player talent and exploited inefficiences in statistics in turning his small-market organization into a perennial winner. Caron and Gely argue that the story has implications for legal education, with its equally inefficient measures of institutional quality. In short, they advocate more comprehensive collection of data with improved quantification of faculty performance. Their article will be published in Volume 82 of the Texas Law Review in May; until then, the abstract is available here. 12:00 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News
Clinton speaks at Columbia Brown v. Board celebration Adam Henry Leading today's law school news are speeches by several prominent men of the law. On Tuesday evening, former US president and law professor Bill Clinton spoke on the unfulfilled promise of Brown v. Board of Education before a crowd of students and faculty of Columbia University Law School. Clinton was introduced in his address by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, whose leadership on affirmative action as president of the University of Michigan landed him at the defendant's table in the high-profile Grutter and Gratz [both PDF] cases last year. Tuesday's event was one of several in Columbia's yearlong "Year of Brown v. Board of Education" celebration. Video of both the address and introduction is available here. Also on Tuesday, Professor Christopher Edley, Jr. of Harvard Law School addressed his new constituency at the University of California, Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. The incoming dean laid out his vision for Boalt to much applause before a packed auditorium of students and faculty. "The backbone of that vision," according to the university's news center report, "is a very ambitious fund-raising campaign to make up for dwindling state support." Edley also plans to establish a counterpart to the Civil Rights Project that he founded and still co-directs at Harvard. When Edley formally takes over Boalt in July, he will become the first African American dean to lead a major U.S. law school. Read a conversation with Edley, published along with the announcement of his selection, here. 12:00 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News
ABA withdraws challenge to Western State accreditation Adam Henry Leading today's law school news is yet another update on the fight of Western State University College of Law to retain its national American Bar Association accreditation. After lawyers for the school convinced a federal judge last week to temporarily enjoin any ABA action on its accreditation status, lobbyists have convinced the ABA to withdraw its recommendation to revoke accreditation at the group's annual meeting. The Los Angeles Times carries the full story. Law school professors have also been making national news in recent days. On Friday, President Bush appointed George Mason University School of Law professor Charles Robb - former Virginia state governor and US Senator - as co-chair of the Commission on Intelligence Operations. The commission is charged with investigating intelligence failures relating to alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. On Monday, the New York Law Journal reported that Professor Francis McGovern of Duke University School of Law has been named fund administrator for a $1.4 billion settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and several prominent brokerage firms. Also on Monday, the University of Wisconsin Law School announced that Professor Stewart Macaulay has been presented with the American Bar Foundation's annual Outstanding Scholar Award. Macauley adds his name to a distinguished list of past winners that includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1995) and, most recently, Richard Posner (2003). Lastly, the winter issue of the Yale Law Report, the biannual alumni magazine of Yale Law School, features a great read on the role of YLS faculty and alumni in the overturning of Bowers v. Hardwick by the Supreme Court last term in Lawrence v. Texas. Read "Yale Law School and the Overruling of Bowers v. Hardwick" here [PDF]. 12:00 PM | | link to this post | latest Law School News Comments by Haloscan |
