Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

George Fletcher sues Columbia and his Law School Deans for age discrimination

The complaint is here.  Fletcher has apparently enjoyed an arrangement in which he teaches his 10 credits in the fall and then spends the Spring in Israel.  His new Dean, Gillian Lester, and the Associate Dean, Avery Katz--both defendants in the suit--had concerns about student enrollments and evaluations of some of his classes.  Fletcher claims they want him to retire, and so are trying to disrupt his cozy teaching arrangement, or something like that.  This ranking of mine makes a surprising implicit appearance in paragraph 29 of the complaint: 

[Dean Gillian] Lester further stated in her communication [to Professsor Fletcher] in January of 2016 that the Law School would "like to go back to offering just two sections of Introduction to American Law, taught by the other instructors." The other instructors referenced by Lester are less qualified than Fletcher: for instance, they are not members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to which Fletcher was elected in 2004. Membership in the Academy is a primary measurement of prestige in law school circles, and is used in determining law school rankings. Upon information and belief, the other two professors are ten (10) or more years younger than Fletcher.

The argument here is obviously absurd:  no one is elected to the AAAS because of their teaching ability, but because of their scholarly accomplishments--often ones from long ago.  Moreover, faculty are typically elected later in their career, as Fletcher was--of course most of his younger colleagues are not elected to the American Academy!  

Be that as it may, I'm not sure the complaint pleads enough facts to suggest that age discrimination was at work here, but we will find out soon enough, as Columbia has moved, predictably, to dismiss.

ADDENDUM:  The complaint mentions that Fletcher taught at UCLA from 1969 until 1983, when he moved to Columbia.  For reasons unknown, it omits that his first teaching job was at the University of Florida (1965-66), and then the University of Washington (1966-1969), where he was, bizarrely, denied tenure, a decision that did not redound to the credit of the UW law school. 

UPDATE:  Reader Eric Chiappinelli kindly passed along a copy of Columbia's motion to dismiss:   Download 2017.05.23 Fletcher v. Columbia MOTION TO DISMISS.  I expect the case will be dismissed.

The ongoing investigation into the murder of Dan Markel and the involvement of his ex-inlaws

The Adelsons are still under investigation, but still no formal charges.  We may find out in July who is paying the legal bills for the go-between between the accused killers-for-hire and the Adelson family; the state clearly suspects it is the Adelsons.

UC Irvine's founding Dean Erwin Chemerinsky to become new Dean at Berkeley

Here's a nice reflection on his accomplishments at Irvine from his colleague Rick Hasen.  And here's the announcement from Berkeley's Interim Provost:

I am very pleased to announce that Erwin Chemerinsky, current and founding Dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, has been appointed to be the next Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. He will begin his five-year term on July 1^st.

 

One of the nation’s foremost scholars of constitutional law and federal civil procedure, Dean Chemerinsky is also a skilled administrator who, in less than a decade, built UCI Law from its founding into an institution whose faculty rank among the top in the country in scholarly impact, and whose student body admissions qualifications are comparable with the nation’s best law schools. Over the course of nine years, Dean Chemerinsky has been a central figure in the creation of UCI Law’s experiential learning-focused teaching philosophy, as well as in its highly successful faculty recruitment, curriculum development, fundraising, and strategic planning efforts.

 

As a professor and legal scholar, Dean Chemerinsky prizes public service and embodies the role of a public intellectual. He is the author of ten books and more than 200 law review articles, a weekly column for the Orange County Register, monthly columns for the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal, and regular op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court. Dean Chemerinsky’s support for public service at UCI Law has placed the institution among the very top law schools in terms of number of federal clerkships, graduates in government and public interest jobs, and community service contribution. In January 2017, National Jurist magazine named him the most influential person in legal education in the United States.

 

Dean Chemerinsky graduated from Northwestern University in 1975, and received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1978. Prior to assuming his deanship at Irvine, he was a professor at Duke Law School and the University of Southern California Law School.

 

Dean Chemerinsky’s appointment comes at the end of a thorough search process, and I would like to extend my thanks to search committee chair Dean Henry Brady, the entire search committee, and everyone in the extended Berkeley Law community who provided feedback on the next dean. I would like to also extend particular thanks to Berkeley Law Interim Dean Melissa Murray, who took the reins at a difficult time and has provided steadfast leadership over the course of the past year.

 

Dean Chemerinsky is an acclaimed researcher, gifted teacher, and accomplished administrator, and I believe he will be a phenomenal leader for our law school, someone who will ensure that Berkeley Law remains not only a powerhouse of legal scholarship and training, but also a community built on mutual respect and inclusion.

 

Please join me in welcoming Erwin Chemerinsky to our campus.

 

Sincerely,

Carol Christ

 

Congratulations to Berkeley on a major catch for their Deanship!

UPDATE:  Berkeley's news release about the appointment.

Penn Law (& Political Science) Professor Beth Simmons elected to the American Philosophical Society

A full list of newly elected members is here.

Former Law Dean Bard and U of Cincinnati settle lawsuit...

...on terms that look to me quite favorable to Professor Bard and which vindicate her position.

What is the most productive way to use a sabbatical? (Michael Simkovic)

Every 6 to 7 years, some professors are offered one semester or one year without teaching or administrative duties.  Some use the opportunity to start an ambitious research project, like a book.  Others upgrade their skills by taking courses toward another advanced degree.  Some work in government or for a large corporation, gaining new insights into their areas of interest.  Still others visit another institution, for example where important research collaborators or resources are located.

Since sabbaticals are rare events—perhaps occurring 4 times in a career or less—any individual faculty member will have relatively limited personal experience to draw upon and will instead rely on the collective wisdom of his or her peers.

What do you think are some of the best ways to spend a sabbatical and why? 

Comments are moderated.  Please provide your real name.  

Law school transfer market 2016

Striking data.  A lot, but not all, of this is motivated by attempts to game the USNEWS rankings.

Top corporate and securities articles for 2016

Robert Thompson (Georgetown) kindly shared the 2016 results (this is the 25th year they've been running these surveys about leading articles):

The Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2016

 

The Corporate Practice Commentator is pleased to announce the results of its twenty-third annual poll to select the ten best corporate and securities articles.  Teachers in corporate and securities law were asked to select the best corporate and securities articles from a list of articles published and indexed in legal journals during 2016.  More than 490 articles were on this year’s list.  Because of the vagaries of publication, indexing, and mailing, some articles published in 2016 have a 2015 date, and not all articles containing a 2016 date were published and indexed in time to be included in this year’s list. 

The articles, listed in alphabetical order of the initial author, are:

 

Baker, Lynn A., Michael A. Perino and Charles Silver. Is the Price Right? An Empirical Study of Fee-setting in Securities Class Actions. 115 Colum. L. Rev. 1371-1452 (2015).

 

Cain, Matthew D., Jill E. Fisch, Sean J. Griffith & Steven Davidoff Solomon. How Corporate Governance is Made: The Case of the Golden Leash. 164 U. Pa. L. Rev. 649-702 (2016).

 

Catan, Emiliano M. and Marcel Kahan. The Law and Finance of Antitakeover Statutes. 68 Stan. L. Rev. 629-680 (2016).

 

Cremers, K.J Martijn and Simone M. Sepe. The Shareholder Value of Empowered Boards. 68 Stan. L. Rev. 67-148 (2016).

 

Elhauge, Einer. Horizontal Shareholding. 129 Harv. L. Rev. 1267-1317 (2016).

 

Fox, Merritt B., Lawrence R. Glosten and Gabriel V. Rauterberg. The New Stock Market: Sense and Nonsense. 65 Duke L.J. 191-277 (2015).

 

Goshen, Zohar and Assaf Hamdani. Corporate Control and Idiosyncratic Vision. 125 Yale L.J. 560-619 (2016).

 

Korsmo, Charles R. and Minor Myers. Appraisal Arbitrage and the Future of Public Company M&A. 92 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1551-1615 (2015).

 

Talley, Eric L. Corporate Inversions and the Unbundling of Regulatory Competition. 101 Va. L. Rev. 1649-1751 (2015).

 

Thompson, Robert B. Anti-Primacy: Sharing Power in American Corporations. 71 Bus. Law. 381-425 (2016).