Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Miller Named Dean at Arizona

University of Arizona law school interim dean Marc Miller has been named the law school's permanent dean. 

U of Kansas Law to Reduce Entering Class Size

This is likely the wave of the future:  Kansas will enroll about 120 this fall compared to 140 in the two classes ahead (and 175 in this year's graduating class).  Kansas has had good employment outcomes for its students, and this move will likely benefit future graduating classes.

Bodie on Henderson's increasingly cataclysmic prophecies

We have often linked and commented approvingly and with appreciation to Bill Henderson's analyses of changes and trends in the legal market, but I have also begun to wonder about some of Professor Henderson's prognostications of late.

UPDATE:  Professor Henderson replies here.

Career paths: from teaching law to acupuncture

Has there been a more unusual career trajectory for an academic?

UPDATE:  A reader writes:  "I'm a long-time reader of your blogs, and a first-time correspondent. In light of your link to the story of Clare Dalton's transition into acupuncture, I thought you might like to read about Ken Klee's alternative healing ministry. I don't know of any other law professors interested in the mysterious arts of 'energy healing,' but I am willing to bet that Professor Klee is the only court-appointed bankruptcy examiner with a thriving side practice."

Rookie hiring summary courtesy of UCI's Sarah Lawsky...

...here.  As a percentage of candidates on the market, here's how the schools fared in terms of tenure-track placement of their alumni (Lawsky's numbers are a bit different, at least in part due to a failure to count tenure-stream jobs in non-US law schools; I list only schools that had at least five candidates on the market):

1.  University of Chicago (58%)

2.  University of Virginia (57%)

3.  Yale University (49%)

4.  Duke University (39%)

4.  New York University (39%)

6.  University of Michigan (31%)

7.  Harvard University (30%)

8.  University of California, Los Angeles (25%)

9.  Cornell University (21%)

9.  Northwestern University (21%)

11. University of Texas, Austin (18%)

12. Georgetown University (17%)

13. Stanford University (15%)

13. University of California, Berkeley (15%)

15. Columbia University (11%)

The Stanford and Columbia performances seem anomalously low--maybe due to underreporting, and maybe due to a fluke this year.

Professor Lawsky's numbers, even allowing for the limits of self-reporting, also clearly show the steep drop-off in hiring this year, on the order of almost one-third fewer hires than in recent years.

UPDATE:  Professor Lawsky's percentage chart, but just for US tenure-track hires.

Nice presentation on the U.S. News ranking methodology...

...from Pitt Dean William Carter, who had the unhappy task of dealing with a big drop in Pitt's overall rank in U.S. News.  As with all such movements, it has nothing to do with the real world, and everything to do with artifacts of the ranking method.  I commend Dean Carter's approach to the matter as a sensible one.  (As you will see if you watch Dean Carter's analysis, there have been some minor and largely cosmetic changes in the U.S. News methodology since I wrote the "Guide for the Perplexed" ten years ago.)

In Memoriam: Daniel Schaffer

Professor Daniel Schaffer of the Northeastern University School of Law passed away on May 8.  He was 74.  Schaffer, a tax expert, joined the Northeastern faculty in 1970. 

Geu Named Dean of South Dakota

Professor Thomas Geu of the University of South Dakota School of Law has been named the school's new dean.  Geu holds a JD from the University of Nebraska and joined the school's faculty in 1990.

"Why Tolerate Religion?" at the Center for Inquiry in Washington, DC

The video.

In Memoriam: Richard Coulson

Richard Coulson, professor emeritus at Oklahoma City University School of Law, passed away last week.  He was 70.  Coulson joined the OCU faculty in 1969 and served as the school's dean from 1973-76.