At least this bit of wild hyperbole was internal puffery, but here it is (thanks to an anonymous informant):
Robert K. Walsh, dean of the Wake Forest University School of Law, announced recently that he plans to retire as dean next summer. Walsh, who will complete 18 years as dean in 2007, will remain at the School of Law as a full-time professor of law starting with the 2007-2008 academic year....
He has seen the School of Law through a major transition in faculty, with more than half of the current faculty joining the school during his tenure.
"I've been privileged to participate in developing the best law faculty in America," Walsh said.
This one tops UCLA's ludicrous claim to be "emerging as the strongest law faculty in America"! Of course, we should allow a retiring Dean some over-the-top hyperbole, and acknowledge that during Dean Walsh's tenure the school's faculty was significantly strengthened, with strong additions like Michael Green (torts, products liability) from the University of Iowa, Mark Hall (health law) from Arizona State University (who was then retained in the face of an offer from Penn), Steve Nickles (commercial law) from the University of Minnesota, and Sidney Shapiro (administrative law) from the University of Kansas. One of Dean Walsh's biggest coups was the recruitment of Michael Perry (constitutional law) from Northwestern University, though he has since left for a prestigious chair at Emory. So kudos to Dean Walsh for significantly strenghtening the Wake Forest faculty, even if it is not the "best" in America.
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