Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

George Mason's law school to be named in honor of Justice Scalia...

...in recognition of 20 million dollars from an anonymous donor and 10 million dollars from the Koch Foundation.  WSJ story here.

Lawyer salaries rising according to the latest from BLS

Stephen Diamond (Santa Cara) has the details.

Outstanding Chicago graduate (who has not been on the teaching market this year) seeking teaching position (tenure-track or VAP) for 2016-17

This individual has an outstanding academic record, has clerked on the U.S. Supreme Court, has fabulous high-level legal experience in the public sector, and extensive teaching experience (and is an excellent teacher).  He also has published several articles, including in top law reviews, and has a new job talk paper as well.  His areas include administrative law, civil procedure, national security law, federal courts, constitutional law, and criminal law and procedure; he can also teach appellate advocacy, in which he's had substantial experience.  His recommenders include Douglas Baird, Lisa Bernstein, Richard Epstein, Jack Goldsmith, Michael McConnell, and David Strauss.

If you are interested, please contact me at bleiter@uchicago.edu, and I can forward his materials and give you more details about the reasons (having to do with prior professional obligations) for his late entry to the market.  But this is a fabulous opportunity for a school still able to hire at this late date.

Professor Choudhry's lawyers challenge University of California President's treatment of the former Berkeley Dean

They have shared the letter sent to President Napolitano:  Download 2016-03-18 Letter to President Napolitano

The letter makes a number of very good points.  President Napolitano has handled this very badly and unfairly.

Georgetown Prof. Peller files "grievance" with University Committee over alleged defamation by Dean Treanor

Story here, including a link to the grievance.  If the facts as alleged by Peller are accurate, then Dean Treanor should simply provide the requested relief and retract his prior public statement that Prof. Peller had violated Law Center rules.

Jury Rejects Fraud Claim by 9 to 3 in Alaburda v. Thomas Jefferson School of Law (Michael Simkovic)

Details were reported in the San Diego Union Tribune, by CBS news,  by the Times of San Diego, by Fox 5 and by the Seattle Times. 

CBS News reported as follows:

"Alaburda filed her lawsuit in 2011, seeking $125,000 in damages on claims of false advertising and misrepresentations by TJSL and an order preventing it from misleading students. Jurors awarded her nothing. . . . 

 

Michael Sullivan, the attorney for the law school, said the jury verdict showed that TJSL does its best to provide accurate information on its graduates . . . Sullivan told the jury that Alaburda, 37, did not suffer any damages and that she went to TJSL because it was the only law school where she got accepted.
   
Once there, the plaintiff was awarded a $20,000 scholarship to help with tuition, making her total debt $32,000 after three years, Sullivan said. Alaburda decided not to work during her first two years of law school and within two months of graduating, had two job offers in the legal field, the attorney said.
   
Sullivan said the process of gathering employment data for graduates is "difficult'' and a "challenge'' for the school, but said there was "not a pattern of mistakes'' by TJSL. . . .

 

Eventually, Alaburda got a $60,000 job offer from a San Bernardino law firm and took a $70,000-a-year job with a legal publisher . . ."

I'm taking a hiatus for Spring Break...

...but I'll be back on the blog come March 28 or so.

More on the new bar passage requirements

Here.

A couple of philosophically-minded papers related to Nietzsche...

...with material perhaps of use to others with general interests in moral and political theory.  "Moralities are a Sign-Language of the Affects" offers an interpretation and defense of Nietzsche's moral psychology, with special attention to the relationship between moral judgment and emotional response, and some of the empirical evidence in support of Nietzsche's kind of view.  (This paper was published two years ago, but the PDF can now be made available on-line.)  "The Death of God and the Death of Morality" offers an interpretation of the moral import of Nietzsche's claim that "God is dead," focusing in particular on its import for moral egalitarianism and the basis of equality problem (in virtue of what are all humans morally equal?).

US News.com 2016 rankings: a few remarkable "facts", plus reputation scores

Once again, Columbia Law School reports the best student-faculty ratio in the nation, clocking in at an incredible 6.1 to 1, compared to Yale's sorry 7.8/1, Stanford's 7.3/1, Chicago's 8.6/1 and Penn's 10/1--even though all those schools are smaller than Columbia.  Remarkable!

Equally remarkable are the 96.5% of NYU grads who were reported as employed at graduation!  Columbia managed only 95.7%, Chicago 93.6%, and Stanford 90.9%.  Of course, this is nothing compared to UVA's 98.3% employed at graduation! 

The academic reputation scores are gradually forming new clusters reflecting the "overall" U.S. news rank, and not anything else that's discernible.  In the academic reputation survey, 67% of those surveyed responded; meanwhile, the response rate to the lawyer/judge poll (always low), has apparently collapsed since (a) they don't report it, but (b) US News.com is now using three years worth of surveys [instead of two] and averaging them!

The top 25 in academic reputation (US News score, most recent scholarly impact rank [2015])

1.  Harvard University (4.8) (2)

1.  Stanford University (4.8) (5)

1.  Yale University (4.8) (1)

4.  Columbia University (4.6) (7)

4.  University of Chicago (4.6) (3)

6.  New York University (4.5) (4)

6.  University of California, Berkeley (4.5) (9)

8.  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (4.4) (15)

8.  University of Pennsylvania (4.4) (11)

10. University of Virginia (4.3) (17) 

11. Cornell University (4.2) (13)

11. Duke University (4.2) (8)

11. Northwestern University (4.2) (12)

14. Georgetown University (4.1) (15)

15. University of Texas, Austin (4.0) (20)

16. University of California, Los Angeles (3.9) (13)

16. Vanderbilt University (3.9) (9)

18. Emory University (3.5) (27)

18. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (3.5) (19)

18. Washington University, St. Louis (3.5) (21)

21. Boston University (3.4) (21)

21. University of Notre Dame (3.4) (25)

21. University of Southern California (3.4) (39)

21. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (3.4) (33)

21. University of Wisconsin, Madison (3.4) (not in the top 40)

The top 25 in lawyer/judge reputation

1.  Harvard University (4.8)

1.  Stanford University (4.8)

3.  University of Chicago (4.7)

3.  Yale University (4.7)

5.  Columbia University (4.6)

6.  New York University (4.5)

6.  University of California, Berkeley (4.5)

6.  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (4.5)

6.  University of Virginia (4.5)

10. Duke University (4.4)

10. Northwestern University (4.4)

10. University of Pennsylvania (4.4)

13. Cornell University (4.3)

13. Georgetown University (4.3)

15. University of Texas, Austin (4.2)

16. University of California, Los Angeles (4.1)

16. Vanderbilt University (4.1)

18. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (3.9)

18. University of Notre Dame (3.9)

18. Washington University, St. Louis (3.9)

21. Emory University (3.8)

21. University of Southern California (3.8)

23. Boston College (3.7)

23. George Washington University (3.7)

23. Indiana University, Bloomington (3.7)

23. University of California, Hastings (3.7)

23. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (3.7)

23. Washington & Lee University (3.7)