Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

NY Times covers decline in law school applications

Probably no need to flag a front-page Times story on this subject, but for the sake of completeness I note it.  There's not really anything new for those who are regular readers of this blog.  One irony, I expect, of a high-profile story like this is that it may actually push the number of applicants up a bit, since at least some prospective students will conclude, probably correctly, that they will get into a better law school, and at a better price, this year than they would have in the past and perhaps also the future.  But we will see how the rest of this admissions cycle plays out.

UPDATE:  This item makes the correct point, one somewhat obscured in stories like the one linked, above, namely that the "crisis" in the legal marketplace and law schools is not evenly distributed, as it were.

Law School Faculty Lateral Hiring

I'm gathering a list of all law school lateral faculty moves over at the Faculty Lounge.  Check the new post out here and make sure to share news with me. 

In Memoriam: Richard Barnes

Professor Richard Barnes of the University of Mississippi School of Law passed away last week as a result of an automobile accident.  Barnes, who joined the Mississippi faculty in 1989, was 58 years old.

Diverse group of leading constitutional law scholars submits statement to Congress about the Second Amendment and regulation of guns

It's a pretty sober and straightforward analysis, and it doesn't even question the decision in Heller which itself is highly questionable.  Signatories include my colleagues Albert Alschuler, Richard Epstein, Eric Posner, Geoffrey Stone, and David Strauss, as well as Laurence Tribe, Bruce Ackerman, Charles Fried, Sanford Levinson, Mitchell Berman, Michael Dorf, Walter Dellinger, Erwin Chemerinsky, and many others.

It would be fair to say that the Federal Law Clerk Hiring Plan is finished...

...when the D.C. Circuit officially gives up on it.  Let us hope a successor emerges.

Niles from Seattle to American

Dean Mark Niles, of Seattle University School of Law, is stepping down as dean. He will return to the faculty of American University Law in Washington, DC, where he taught for a dozen years prior to assuming the Seattle deanship.

Cyber-misogyny, redux

The sad saga, that became infamous with Autoadmit, continues.

Law school applications likely to hit an all-time low this year since records were kept (going back to 1983)

Details here. 

This essentially guarantees that next year's job market for law teachers will be even more difficult than this year's.  Until enrollments stabilize (or increase), the majority of schools have to put off or limit full-time faculty hiring.

Diamond on Tamanaha

A different take on Failing Law Schools.  (My own, briefer view.)

First the architects, now the lawyers?

A cautionary tale.