Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

U.S. News Proposes Ranking Law Firms; ABA Notices, and Is Concerned

But will they do anything meaningful about it?  And will they help save the law schools from the tyranny of the U.S. News fiasco?  ABA rankings of law schools would command attention!  I'd even supply them a legitimate methodology, on the cheap!

What is the "window of opportunity" for Spring law review submissions?

Take the poll and check out the results.  I would have thought early-to-mid March, but I have also not submitted to the student-edited law reviews in many years (I've done commissioned pieces only since tenure, though I do submit to peer-edited law journals).  However, I plan to submit an item this year, so I'll be watching this poll with particular interest!

Stirling's Duff to Take Up Half-Time Post at Minnesota

Antony (R.A.) Duff, one of the most influential philosophers of criminal law in the world, and a longtime member of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Stirling in the U.K., has accepted a half-time appointment at the University of Minnesota Law School starting this fall.  That's an outstanding hire for Minnesota!

Hastings has had a faculty blog for three years...

...and I only found out yesterday.  Check it out.

How *Not* to Improve Your U.S. News Ranking

Don't insult the Deans and faculties of some 130 law schools by stating in public, as David Van Zandt (Northwestern) has now done, that it doesn't make "economic sense" for a student to go to any of their schools.  Northwestern's academic reputation score has been in something of a 'free fall' (at least by U.S. News standards) for a few years now, but this surely won't help when the surveys go out next fall for next year's ranking.   (Its scholarly impact ranking is actually improving, however, as a new study I'll release in a couple of weeks will confirm.)

UC Davis Faculty Blog

New!

Improving the AALS Annual Meeting: The Poll Results

So with 105 responses to last week's poll, four proposals for improving the AALS Annual Meeting all attracted strong support, as follows:

1. *Require speakers to prepare written remarks and/or pre-circulate their papers; no 'shooting from the hip' allowed.  (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)

2. *Provide detailed descriptions of the program of each session beforehand, including abstracts of the papers or presentations.  loses to *Require speakers to prepare written remarks and/or pre-circulate their papers; no 'shooting from the hip' allowed. by 59–37

3. *Have more sessions featuring papers selected in a peer review process in advance of the Annual Meeting.  loses to *Require speakers to prepare written remarks and/or pre-circulate their papers; no 'shooting from the hip' allowed. by 53–42, loses to *Provide detailed descriptions of the program of each session beforehand, including abstracts of the papers or presentations. by 48–47

4. *Cut back on the number of speakers at each session, to allow each speaker to develop a more sustained argument/position and to make sure there is adequate time for discussion and questions.  loses to *Require speakers to prepare written remarks and/or pre-circulate their papers; no 'shooting from the hip' allowed. by 60–36, loses to *Have more sessions featuring papers selected in a peer review process in advance of the Annual Meeting. by 53–43

Will the AALS act on these suggestions?   Other thoughts from readers about ways to improve the meetings or other AALS Annual Meeting-realted problems?  Signed comments will be very strongly preferred.  Submit your comment only once, it may take awhile to appear.