Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Victory for academic freedom at the University of Toronto (UPDATED)

After an offer on the law faculty was blocked as a result of outside political interference, the University of Toronto was censured by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT).  CAUT has now "paused" the censure, since the University has now offered the position to the candidate previously blocked. 

UPDATE:  The censure is only "paused" because it's not yet clear whether the University of Toronto will protect the offeree's academic freedom in the face of harassment from outside groups.

(Thanks to Mohan Matthen for the pointer.)

9/18/21 UPDATE:   This is not so good:

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), which imposed the censure in April, says it has called for a pause on the measure after it says the school met one of its key demands: to re-offer the position of director of the school's International Human Rights Program to Valentina Azarova....

After careful consideration, the CAUT says, Azarova has declined the offer.

"Her decision, while unfortunate, is understandable given the University's initial reaction to the unfounded and scurrilous attacks on her reputation and her research," CAUT said in a statement Friday.

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10 Most-Cited Legal History Faculty (in law schools) in the U.S., 2016-2020 (CORRECTED)

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited law faculty working on legal history in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.   Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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20 Most-Cited Corporate & Securities Law Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the twenty most-cited law faculty in corporate law and/or securities regulation in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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10 Most-Cited Property (including Wills & Estates) Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020 (CORRECTED)

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited law faculty working on property law (broadly construed to also include land use, real estate, and wills, trusts & estates) in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.   Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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20 Most-Cited Criminal Law & Procedure Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020 (CORRECTED)

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the twenty most-cited law faculty in criminal law and/or procedure in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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15 Most-Cited Law & Social Science (excluding economics) Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020 (CORRECTED)

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the fifteen most-cited law faculty in law & social science (excluding economics) in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  This is meant to capture scholars who work under the "law & society" rubric and/or who deploy methodologies from psychology, sociology, political science and anthropology to law, including empirical legal studies scholars. Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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U of Minnesota law professor calls out Richard Painter's misrepresentations

A brief follow-up on yesterday's post about Richard Painter's serial dishonesty.   In typical Trumpian fashion, Richard simply doubled-down on his lies yesterday.  But now his Minnesota colleague, Professor Daniel Schwarcz--with whom I had the original discussion about academic freedom that Richard has misrepresented in dozens of posts over the last seven weeks--has weighed in.  While Professor Schwarcz disagrees with me about the academic freedom issue, he did note the following:
Professor Schwarcz put the point more strongly in an email to me:  "I am truly sorry that you've had to endure what, I agree, has been a terrible misrepresentation of your statements and attempt to twitter-harass you."  I thank Professor Schwarcz for his tweet and for permission to quote from his email to me.  Richard's bad behavior puts his colleagues in a difficult position, and I know a number of them are embarrassed about all this.  I am grateful to Professor Schwarcz for speaking out, and I hope others will as well.

ADDENDUM:  A funny email this morning from a law professor in California:  "I looked at Painter's twitter feed last night. It is amazing, both in terms of how much time he spends on it and how much of it is unhinged vitriol. It is a shame that faculty do not have a 25th amendment to invoke against their colleagues in situations like this."

On mention of the N-word in a pedagogical context

Sensible analysis, as usual, from law professor Randall Kennedy (Harvard); an excerpt:

I am skeptical of some of the claims of hurt. I suspect that some of them are the product of learned strategic ripostes. It is now well known that in certain settings, particularly those that strive to be socially enlightened (like colleges and universities), you can effectively challenge speech to which you object by claiming not only that it is socially abhorrent (racist, sexist, transphobic, etc., etc., etc.) but that it makes you feel insulted, offended, or endangered.

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Richard Painter (Minnesota) is an astonishingly dishonest person

Some readers will recall some posts from July about Twitter's most unhinged law professor. Remarkably, he continues to lie about me almost two months later, I guess because he's not used to getting any pushback on his unethical behavior.  Here is a tweet from September 8 (although he's made the same false claim literally dozens of times over the last seven weeks!), which also included a screen shot of an earlier tweet of mine, lifted out of context from an exchange about academic freedom:

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20 Most-Cited Constitutional Law Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the twenty most-cited law faculty in constitutional law in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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UIC law professor Jason Kilborn's "suspension" lifted

Details here.  (Earlier coverage.)

(Thanks to Ed Clinton for the pointer.)

10 Most-Cited Law & Technology Scholars in the U.S., 2016-2020 (CORRECTED)

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited law faculty in law & technology (including Internet law [cyberlaw], informational privacy, cybersecurity, and AI/robotics) in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.   This is a new category, growing out of (justified) dissatisfaction with the lumping together of cyberlaw and intellectual property in 2018; there will be a separate listing for intellectual property, probably later this week.  (I am grateful to Professors Ryan Calo [Washington/Seattle] and Mark Lemley [Stanford] for help in thinking about how to define the new category.)  Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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10 Most-Cited Law & Philosophy Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited law faculty working in law & philosophy in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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15 Most-Cited Faculty in Law & Economics (including Behavioral L&E) in the U.S., 2016-2020 (CORRECTED)

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the fifteen most-cited law faculty in law & economics (including behavioral law & economics) in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Typically these scholars deploy economic analysis across multiple legal domains. Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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Fall 2021 law school admissions

The Blog Emperor has the final statistics.

Best of the summer blog

Here's a few popular blog posts from the summer months that you might have missed:

Call by ABA comments on revision to standards on non-discrimination and curriculum (June)

A look at this year's lateral moves by race and gender (June)

Do academic norms and politics mix?  The case of Richard W. Painter (July)

Mike Simkovic's posts on the WSJ's continuing shoddy coverage of law schools and the job market (August)

Citation counts vary by field (August)

Lateral hires with tenure or on tenure-track, 2020-21 (final version) (August)

ABA Standards Committee ignores critics, and does what it wants (August)

U.S. News is not going to produce its own scholarly impact rankings using HeinOnLine (August)

New "State and Local Government Law" blog...

...here, featuring an excellent group of younger as well as more senior scholars.

20 Most-Cited Intellectual Property Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020 (CORRECTED)

CORRECTED 9/2/21:  Prof. Sprigman was wrongly omitted from the top 20.

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the twenty most-cited law faculty in intellectual property law in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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20 Most-Cited International Law & Security Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the twenty most-cited law faculty in international law & security in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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Lateral hires with tenure or on tenure-track, 2021-22

These are non-clinical appointments that will take effect in 2022 (except where noted); I will move the list to the front at various intervals as new additions come in.   (Recent additions will be put in bold.)  Last year's list is here.

 

*John R. Brooks (tax law & policy) from Georgetown University to Fordham University.

 

*Amy Schmitz (alternative dispute resolution, law & technology, consumer law) from the University of Missouri, Columbia to Ohio State University (effective January 2022).

 

*Lindsay Wiley (health law) from American University to University of California, Los Angeles (effective January 2022).

"Record-breaking diversity at top law schools"

So this news story announces, but when you look at the details, all you find is reference to "students of color," which presumably includes students of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Bengali, South American, and Cuban descent, as well as African-Americans; and it probably also includes non-American students from China, Japan, India etc..  That the actual representation of African-Americans is now rendered invisible by the triumph of "diversity" (thanks to a mistaken SCOTUS opinion by a Southern corporate lawyer!) tells us how much we have betrayed affirmative action's original goal:  namely, as remediation (indeed, reparations) for the world-historic injustice and cruelty visited upon African-Americans for hundreds of years in the United States, from slavery to de jure apartheid in the South and de facto apartheid in much of the North.  Compensating the victims and their descendants for this grotesque history was the real purpose of affirmative action, not "diversifying" schools with anyone non-white to allegedly improve the educational experience of everyone else.  Of course, the current SCOTUS is unlikely to restore affirmative action's original purpose, let alone follow Bakke and Grutter.  Yet another reason to rein in the super-legislature known as the Supreme Court!

 

10 Most-Cited Commercial Law Scholars in the U.S., 2016-2020

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited law faculty in commercial law (including contracts and bankruptcy) in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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10 Most-Cited Tax Scholars in the U.S., 2016-2020

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited tax professors in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.    Faculty for whom roughly 75% or more of their citations (based on a sample) are in this area are listed; others with less than 75% of their citations in this field (but still a plurality) are listed in the category of "other highly cited scholars who work partly in this area."

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10 Most-Cited Law Faculty in the U.S., 2016-2020

Based on the latest Sisk data, here are the ten most-cited active law professors in the U.S. for the period 2016-2020 (inclusive) (remember that the data was collected in late May/early June of 2021, and that the pre-2021 database did expand a bit since then).  Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten.  (Law professors not teaching in 2021-22--e.g.,those who are now retired, in government service, etc.--are not included.)

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Chicago alumni and fellows on the teaching market, 2021-22

MOVING TO FRONT FOR LAST TIME:  ORIGINALLY POSTED AUGUST 10.  MANY THANKS TO THOSE SCHOOLS THAT HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN IN TOUCH; ADDITIONAL INQUIRIES WELCOME.

This post is strictly for schools that expect to do hiring this year.

In order to protect the privacy of our candidates, please e-mail me to get a copy of the narrative profiles of our candidates, including hyperlinks to their homepages.  All these candidates will be in the first FAR distribution.

We have a small but outstanding group of four candidates this year (two alumni, one of whom is also a Bigelow; and two additional Bigelow Fellows), who cover a diverse range of curricular areas, including constitutional law, criminal law and procedure, civil procedure, contracts, torts, corporate law, securities regulation, health law, administrative law, race & the law, federal courts, legislation, antitrust, consumer law, and bankruptcy.

Our candidates include former federal appellate clerks; Law Review editors; a JD/PhD in Government; and accomplished practitioners as well as scholars.  All have publications, sometimes multiple publications, and all have writing samples available upon request.

If when you e-mail, you tell me a bit about your hiring needs, I can supply some more information about all these candidates, since we have vetted them all.

Top 50 law faculties in scholarly impact, 2021

Professor Greg Sisk & colleagues at the University of St. Thomas have updated their scholarly impact rankings (last edition), looking at mean and median citations to tenured faculty scholarship for the years 2016-2020 inclusive, using fall 2021 faculty rosters as the benchmark (so, e.g., faculty on indefinite leave in government service are not counted).  (Sisk et al. studied 99 faculties and ranked 70; I print the top 50, below.)  The weighted score represents the sum of the mean citations for the tenured faculty times 2, plus the faculty median.  Where the median is low relative to the immediate competition that's an indicator that a few highly cited faculty are carrying the school; in other cases, where the median is quite high, it's an indicator of more across-the-boards scholarly impact.  By noting age, one can see that some faculties are heavily dependent on their most senior members for their citations.  Ties reflect the normalized weighted scores.

The citation counts were done in late May/early June of this year in the Westlaw law journals database as follows:  TE(Brian /2 Leiter) and date (aft 2015) and date (bef 2021).  "TE" limited the results to the body of the text, thus eliminating references to names in acknowledgments.  Although the searches were done in late spring/early summer, it's clear the pre-2021 database expanded slightly after then .  Across whole schools this won't matter, since the database was relatively stable during the window when the data was collected.   Professor Sisk & colleagues this year took extra steps to include authors in et al. cites (the details are in their article).

Citations to faculty scholarship in law journals are, of course, only one metric of scholarly distinction and accomplishment (for limitations of the measure, see the discussion in the Sisk article).  Still, it is a useful check on uninformed opinions, and tracks rather well the actual scholarly output of different schools.  Do remember that citation counts vary by field, which is why the ten most-cited faculty at each school is dominated by faculty in fields like constitutional and public law, corporate law, criminal law & procedure, law & economics, and intellectual property.

Over the next few months, I will post new lists of the most-cited scholars by specialty utilizing the Sisk data.

Results for the top 50 below the fold:

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University of Chicago Law School now accepting applications for Bigelow Fellowships

You can apply here.   You can see the academic placement of past Bigelow Fellows here (scroll down).

US News is *not* going to produce its own scholarly impact rankings using HeinOnLine

A recent article made me realize that it is not generally known that USNews.com has decided not to try to produce its own scholarly impact ranking, which will (happily) leave the field to Professor Gregory Sisk and colleagues at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) (their new study should be out next week).   Prior iterations of the Sisk study have already had a significant influence on faculty hiring, including at the University of Virginia--but more on that next week.