Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Directors of Leading Law Libraries Issue Statement in Support of "Open Access"

Here.

Solum's Entry-Level Hiring Report

The first iteration, with not quite 100 reports, is here.  Here is the "success rate" of those schools with at least three placements (the total number of placements divided by the average size of recent graduating classes, rounded to the nearest 25):

1.  Yale University (.060)

2.  Harvard University (.033)

3.  University of Chicago (.030)

4.  Columbia University (.021)

5.  University of Michigan (.019)

6.  University of California, Berkeley (.018)

7.  Stanford University (.017)

8.  New York University (.008)

This does not factor in, of course, the quality of the placements, or the extent to which graduates had other degrees, VAPs, or the like.

Denver Students Cover Ward Churchill Trial

Here.  We discussed his case on earlier occasions.  On the facts that are public, he really should prevail in this lawsuit.

UPDATE:  This link takes you directly to the page with the coverage.  I see there is also some faculty commentary, including an illuminating item on Professor Churchill's precise legal claims.

Which are the ten best law schools in the United States?

Readers, you can decide by voting here.  By comparison to U.S. News, this really is rocket science!  The survey will end in a few days, at which time the truth will be made known. 

(I corrected one or two errors in the first version of the poll posted.  Your e-mail address will not be visible with the results, though your IP address will be.  This is to discourage strategic voting!)

UPDATE #2:  So with 250 votes cast (as of late Sunday afternoon), here are the top 18:

1. Yale University  (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)

2. Harvard University  loses to Yale University by 131–77

3. Stanford University  loses to Yale University by 191–30, loses to Harvard University by 179–38

4. University of Chicago  loses to Yale University by 198–24, loses to Stanford University by 151–65

5. Columbia University  loses to Yale University by 202–27, loses to University of Chicago by 113–98

6. New York University  loses to Yale University by 208–15, loses to Columbia University by 125–81

7. University of California, Berkeley  loses to Yale University by 211–12, loses to New York University by 184–30

8. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor  loses to Yale University by 208–14, loses to University of California, Berkeley by 112–88

9. University of Virginia  loses to Yale University by 211–12, loses to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor by 116–77

10. University of Pennsylvania  loses to Yale University by 214–8, loses to University of Virginia by 104–84

11. Northwestern University  loses to Yale University by 217–7, loses to University of Pennsylvania by 160–37

12. Duke University  loses to Yale University by 213–11, loses to Northwestern University by 95–92

13. Georgetown University  loses to Yale University by 212–10, loses to Duke University by 104–89

14. Cornell University  loses to Yale University by 210–11, loses to Georgetown University by 98–87

15. University of Texas, Austin  loses to Yale University by 215–7, loses to Cornell University by 131–65

16. University of California, Los Angeles  loses to Yale University by 213–7, loses to University of Texas, Austin by 97–73

17. Tied: University of Southern California  loses to Yale University by 208–2, loses to University of California, Los Angeles by 137–22 Vanderbilt University  loses to Yale University by 210–6, loses to University of California, Los Angeles by 139–29

UPDATE #1:  So with 100 votes cast (and no indication of massive strategic voting yet--though there's been some!), here are the top 18:

1. Yale University  (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)

2. Harvard University  loses to Yale University by 45–32

3. Stanford University  loses to Yale University by 78–11, loses to Harvard University by 77–9

4. University of Chicago  loses to Yale University by 80–9, loses to Stanford University by 57–29

5. Columbia University  loses to Yale University by 81–11, loses to University of Chicago by 45–38

6. New York University  loses to Yale University by 84–7, loses to Columbia University by 49–29

7. University of California, Berkeley  loses to Yale University by 85–6, loses to New York University by 76–10

8. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor  loses to Yale University by 83–7, loses to University of California, Berkeley by 41–38

9. University of Virginia  loses to Yale University by 86–3, loses to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor by 51–25

10. University of Pennsylvania  loses to Yale University by 87–5, loses to University of Virginia by 41–36

11. Northwestern University  loses to Yale University by 89–3, loses to University of Pennsylvania by 59–22

12. Duke University  loses to Yale University by 89–2, loses to Northwestern University by 45–29

13. Georgetown University  loses to Yale University by 88–5, loses to Duke University by 41–38

14. Cornell University  loses to Yale University by 89–2, loses to Georgetown University by 41–35

15. University of Texas, Austin  loses to Yale University by 87–3, loses to Cornell University by 52–27

16. University of California, Los Angeles  loses to Yale University by 88–3, loses to University of Texas, Austin by 35–32

17. Vanderbilt University  loses to Yale University by 86–2, loses to University of California, Los Angeles by 57–11

18. University of Southern California  loses to Yale University by 86–1, loses to Vanderbilt University by 38–30

Arizona's Kevin Washburn Named Dean at New Mexico

The UNM news release is here.

A Big Hiring Coup for Texas: Avraham, Wickelgren from Northwestern

Ronen Avraham (torts, insurance law, law and economics), Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University, and Abraham Wickelgren (antitrust, contracts, law and economics), Assistant Professor of Law at Northwestern University, whom I've heard many scholars describe as one of the very top law and economics scholars in his age cohort in the country, have both accepted tenured offers from the University of Texas School of Law.   That's a major hiring coup for UT!

Bagenstos & Schlanger from Wash U/St. Louis to Michigan

Samuel Bagenstos, a leading authority on disability law, and Margo Schlanger, a leading scholar in the area of civil rights and prison litigation, at Washington University School of Law have accepted senior offers from the University of Michigan Law School.

Faculty Hiring News

Please send your news to Professor Filler who will post the information here.  I'm afraid I'm no longer going to have time to keep up with all of this, but I may write about especially notable developments, and I'll link to Professor Filler's list at various intervals.

ADDENDUM:  I should add, regarding Professor Filler's comment about my predictions about the lateral market, that I don't think we will see the major impact on the lateral market until next year and the year after that--most of the lateral hirings going on this year were in process before the financial crisis unfolded.  There will probably be some lateral positions that disappear due to hiring freezes in the like, but the real effects of budget cuts and the economic environment on lateral movement won't be clear until this time next year.

Petersilia from UC Irvine to Stanford

Joan Petersilia, a criminologist in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California at Irvine whose work has been influential in reform of California's correctional system, has accepted a senior offer from Stanford Law School, where she will also serve as co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.

Who was the most important thinker in American law of the 20th-Century?

Four main criteria were used in coming up with the list of contenders below:   (1) for those born in the 19th-century, most of the thinker's important work must have been done in the 20th-century; (2) those thinkers who are still alive must have entered the profession in the 1960s or earlier; (3) the thinker must have made contributions in more than one field; (4) the thinker's contributions must have had a wide-ranging impact on American legal thinking and scholarship.  I think these are 11 reasonable contenders, but I will be curious to see how readers of this blog vote.  I don't mind if blogs with a large law readership link to this survey, but I'd ask that those with a mixed readership or clear ideological agendas not link to it for a few days, so we can get a mostly law-based response.

Who was the most important thinker in American law of the 20th-Century?
	Bruce Ackerman
	Guido Calabresi
	Benjamin Cardozo
	Ronald Dworkin
	Richard Epstein
	Lon Fuller
	Henry M. Hart, Jr.
	Karl Llewellyn
	Richard Posner
	Roscoe Pound
	Herbert Wechsler
View Results

Free web poll from Free Website Polls

UPDATE MARCH 4 (6:30 am CST):  so with not quite 450 votes in, here are the results so far:  1.  Richard Posner (33%); 2.  Benjamin Cardozo (15%); 3.  Ronald Dworkin (11%); 4.  Henry M. Hart, Jr. (10%); 5.  Karl Llewellyn (9%).  Calabresi (with 6%) and Epstein (with 5%) seem the only ones who have a shot at the top five at this point.  I am surprised Fuller and Wechsler did not do better--the myopia of the present, perhaps.

A FINAL UPDATE (MARCH 5, 1:30 pm CST): so with not quite 750 votes, here are what I'm going to treat as the final results of the poll:

1.  Richard Posner (29%)

2.  Benjamin Cardozo (15%)

3.  Ronald Dworkin (12%)

4.  Karl Llewellyn (10%)

5.  Henry M. Hart, Jr. (9%)

6.  Guido Calabresi (6%)

7.  Richard Epstein (5%)

8.  Roscoe Pound (4%)

8.  Herbert Wechsler (4%)

10. Bruce Ackerman (3%)

10. Lon Fuller (3%)

Allowing for the utterly unsystematic nature of this survey, the top five strike me as not unreasonable.  Notwithstanding my (and most legal philosophers') dim view of Dworkin's work in legal philosophy, there is no doubt that his conception of adjudication, with its debt to Henry Hart's work and that of the legal process school, has had an important influence across many parts of legal scholarship.  (What I have discovered over time is that most legal scholars do not realize that his attractive picture of the relevance of moral considerations in adjudication is a view that any legal positivist can happily embrace--one of many ways, of course, in which Dworkin has muddied the jurisprudential waters.)