Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Lateral hires in law with tenure or on tenure-track, 2024-25

These are non-clinical/non-LRW appointments that will take effect in summer or fall 2025 (except where noted); (new additions will be in bold.)  Last year's list is here.

 

*Jonathan Adler (environmental law, administrative law) from Case Western Reserve University to the College of William & Mary.

 

*Amna Akbar (criminal law & procedure, social movements) from Ohio State University to the University of Minnesota.

 

*Oren Bar-Gill (commercial law, contracts, law & economics) from Harvard University to New York University.

 

*Jeffrey Bellin (criminal law; criminal procedure; evidence) from the College of William & Mary to Vanderbilt University.

 

*Samuel Bray (remedies, equity, constitutional law) from the University of Notre Dame to the University of Chicago.

 

*Sara Bronin (property, land use, energy law) from Cornell University (City & Urban Planning) to George Washington University (Law).

 

*Devon Carbado (criminal procedure, constitutional law, Critical Race Theory) from the University of California, Los Angeles to New York University (effective January 2025).

 

*Bryan Choi (law & technology, patent law, intellectual property) from Ohio State University to the University of Colorado, Boulder.

 

*Grant Christensen (Federal Indian law, civil procedure) from Stetson University to the University of Alabama (untenured lateral).

 

*Thomas Crocker (constitutional law, criminal procedure) from the University of South Carolina to Boston College.

 

*Jason Czarnecki (environmental law) from Pace University to Chicago-Kent College of Law/Illinois Institute of Technology (to become Dean).

 

*Nestor Davidson (property, land use, housing law, local government law) from Fordham University to Harvard University (Graduate School of Design).

 

*Avihay Dorfman (torts, property, legal and political theory) from Tel Aviv University to University of Texas at Austin.

 

*Matthew Erie (Chinese law, Islamic law, international business transactions, law & anthropology) from Oxford University (Asian & Middle Eastern Studies) to American University (law).

 

*Andrew Guthre Ferguson (criminal law & procedure, evidence) from American University to George Washington University.

 

*Andrew Gilden (intellectual property, law & technology, civil rights, law & gender/sexual orientation) from Willamette University to Southwestern Law School.

 

*Myriam Gilles (civil procedure, torts, civil rights) from Cardozo Law School/Yeshiva University to Northwestern University.

 

*Jonathan Gould (legislation, constitutional law, administrative law, law & politics) from the University of California, Berkeley to New York University.

 

*Sergio Gramitto Ricci (corporate law) from the University of Missouri, Kansas City to Hofstra University (untenured lateral) (effective January 2025).

 

*Sarah Haan (corporate law, First Amendment) from Washington & Lee University to Brooklyn Law School.

 

*Victoria Haneman (tax, trusts & estates) from Creighton University to the University of Georgia.

 

*Jill Horwitz (health law & policy) from the University of California, Los Angeles to Northwestern University.

 

*Jeffrey Kahn (constitutional law, administrative law, human rights) from Southern Methodist University to American University.

 

*Orin Kerr (criminal procedure, computer crime law) from the University of California, Berkeley to Stanford University (effective January 2025).

 

*Ann Lipton (corporate law, securities regulation) from Tulane University to the University of Colorado, Boulder.

 

*Anne Maria Lofaso (labor & employment law) from West Virginia University to the University of Cincinnati (effective January 2025).

 

*Wayne Logan (criminal law & procedure) from Florida State University to Wake Forest University.

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Columbia law professors explain why Trump's "Title VI" demand letter to Columbia...

...violates both Title VI and the Constitution.  One may hope this forms the basis for the legal action the university needs to file against Trump this week.

Victory for UIC law professor Jason Kilborn in the 7th Circuit

Here.  As Prof. Keith Whittington explains, this is a significant victory for academic freedom rights of faculty.

 

Covington & Perkins Coie should now be the top choices for the best law students...

...in light of Trump's abuse of executive power to target those firms.

Political hack serving as Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. threatens Georgetown Law...

...that his office will not hire their graduates if DEI is part of their curriculum, and Dean William Treanor responds forcefully and wholly correctly:  Download Treanor letter.  This is a good model for how educators should respond to the petty tyrants in Trump's orbit.

 

Can AI hold office hours?

Not yet!

AI and legal practice

From the abstract:

While AI models like GPT-4 improve the efficiency with which legal work can be completed, they can at times make up cases and “hallucinate” facts, thereby undermining legal judgment, particularly in complex tasks handled by skilled lawyers. This article examines two emerging AI innovations that may mitigate these lingering issues: Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), which grounds AI-powered analysis in legal sources, and AI reasoning models, which structure complex reasoning before generating output. We conducted the first randomized controlled trial assessing these technologies, assigning upper-level law students to complete six legal tasks using a RAG-powered legal AI tool (Vincent AI), an AI reasoning model (OpenAI’s o1-preview), or no AI. We find that both AI tools significantly enhanced legal work quality, a marked contrast with previous research examining older large language models like GPT-4. Moreover, we find that these models maintain the efficiency benefits associated with use of older AI technologies. Our findings show that AI assistance significantly boosts productivity in five out of six tested legal tasks, with Vincent yielding statistically significant gains of approximately 38% to 115% and o1-preview increasing productivity by 34% to 140%, with particularly strong effects in complex tasks like drafting persuasive letters and analyzing complaints. Notably, o1-preview improved the analytical depth of participants’ work product but resulted in some hallucinations, whereas Vincent AI-aided participants produced roughly the same amount of hallucinations as participants who did not use AI at all. These findings suggest that integrating domain-specific RAG capabilities with reasoning models could yield synergistic improvements, shaping the next generation of AI-powered legal tools and the future of lawyering more generally.

Will US News or the ABA audit these 10-month out employment statistics?

Some are certainly plausible, but many "stink to high heavens" as my Grandmother used to say.  When someone who has Trump's ear is calling for fraud on US News to be grounds for sending University Presidents to prison, this is probably not the time to push the envelope!

UPDATE:  Professor Derek Muller (Notre Dame) writes:

It's worth remembering that when "full weight" employment categories are listed by USNWR, these are five categories (up from two since the Yale/Harvard "boycott" began): full-time, long-term, bar passage-required and J.D. advantage jobs, both those jobs "funded" by law schools and those that are "unfunded"; and students enrolled full-time in a graduate degree program.

There was a spike in funded jobs  placement last year: https://excessofdemocracy.com/blog/2024/5/which-law-schools-saw-the-biggest-changes-in-employment-placement-after-usnwr-gave-full-weight-to-new-categories-of-jobs

Will the SCOTUS conservative super-majority side with Trump on Presidential power?

An analysis from my colleague Aziz Huq.

UC San Diego (which does not have a law school) is suspending all faculty and staff hiring for the indefinite future...

...because of financial concerns related to the loss of NIH funding.  This will happen elsewhere before too long I suspect, especially at schools that get a lot of NIH dollars.  Many of these schools have law schools as well.  In light of this, I think those with offers in hand should inquire about whether there is a risk to the offer being rescinded, and perhaps consider accepting sooner rather than later.  Funding models of law schools differ, so law schools at universities that receive large amounts of NIH money may still be able to follow through on their appointments.