Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

I talk with Orin Kerr (Berkeley) on "The Legal Academy"...

...about law school hiring trends, rankings, the effect of COVID on the teaching market, and other topics. (Link now added!)

Bad news for Alan Dershowitz in his various legal disputes with Epstein accusers and their lawyers

Virginia Guiffre, one of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers who has implicated Dershowitz in misconduct, has sued Dershowitz for defamation--as has her former lawyer David Boies.  This development is bad news for Dershowitz.

Yale law professor Jed Rubenfeld suspended for two years as outcome of sexual harassment investigation

Story here; an excerpt:

On Monday morning, members of the Yale Law School faculty received a terse message from their provost informing them that Professor Jed Rubenfeld “will leave his position as a member of the YLS faculty for a two-year period, effective immediately,” and that upon his return, Rubenfeld would be barred from teaching “small group or required courses. He will be restricted in social gatherings with students.” As of Tuesday morning, he was no longer listed on the Yale Law faculty site.

 

Three people familiar with the investigation that led to Rubenfeld’s suspension said it stemmed from the university finding a pattern of sexual harassment of several students. The allegations, which spanned decades, included verbal harassment, unwanted touching, and attempted kissing, both in the classroom and at parties at Rubenfeld’s home.

 

In a phone conversation Tuesday, Rubenfeld told me, “I absolutely, unequivocally, 100 percent deny that I ever sexually harassed anyone, whether verbally or otherwise. Yes, I’ve said stupid things that I regret over the course of my 30 years as professor, and no professor who’s taught as long as I have that I know doesn’t have things that they regret that they said.”

It is striking that he's been erased from the website.  I wonder whether he will be returning in two years as a member of the tenured faculty; it is unclear from the news report.

 

The first Faculty Appointments Registry is out...

MOVING TO FRONT FROM AUGUST 20--UPDATED

...with only 297 candidates, down from just under 400 last year.   That's good news, given that there are also fewer jobs.   The new format, however, is a bit harder to search than last year's.  Last year, for example, it was quite easy to search by subjects a candidate was interested in.

ADDENDUM:  Unless I'm missing something (and I may be, given my technical ineptitude), a school needing a contracts professor can't search the 297 candidates to find those interested in teaching contracts!   E-mail me if I'm wrong.  I find it hard to believe they could have reduced the search functionality of the website so dramatically.

CORRECTION:  Thanks to Professor Lawsky, I can report that the first FAR last year had 334 candidates, not "just under 400" (which was more like the final tally after all distributions).

UPDATE:  Professor Jamie Macleod (Brooklyn) helpfully explains how to search by subjects taught:

1. When viewing the long list of applicants unfiltered, click “Filter”.
2. At the bottom right corner of the drop-down box that appears, click “Filter by Form Responses”.
3. In the new window that appears, click “Select Form”à”Position Sought and Teaching Preferences”.
4. I’m guessing the rest is self-explanatory. But do note that you can then click “Save” and name the filtered view you create, then return to that filtered view later by clicking “Saved Views” (which is next to the “Filter” button).

Blast from the past: when Forbes opiner Mark A. Cohen didn't know what he was talking about

Which is pretty much always.  The guy is a parody of management-speak.

With no "meat market," how soon will interviews be scheduled?

The first FAR distribution occurs this week, but with the traditional "meat market" in Washington, DC cancelled, I expect that schools may start scheduling Zoom interviews to occur before August is over.  I've advised our job candidates to be prepared for that possibility in any event.  Thoughts from readers on hiring committees at their schools?  Submit comments only once they may take awhile to appear.

AALS jobs bulletin is out

I count 32 AALS-member schools that are advertising, in several cases for multiple positions (roughly half the number last year, if my memory is correct).  As noted earlier, more than 100 schools have constituted appointments committees, but some are only looking at laterals I've learned, while others are probably constituted in case it's possible to hire.  I should note I've already heard from one law school (not a top 20 school) that is planning on hiring that has not advertised in the bulletin.

UPDATE:  I've now looked at the first AALS job bulletin from last August, and there were 76 accredited schools advertising, some (again) for multiple positions.  So the drop this year is by more than 50%.  Some schools may yet return to the market, of course, depending on developments in the months ahead.

Penn State-Dickinson and Pepperdine law deans donate 125k each to help students at their schools with "emergency needs"

Wow!

Hiring committees for 2020-21...

MOVING TO FRONT--ORIGINALLY POSTED JULY 29

...you can announce yourselves and your hiring plans here.

Ten lateral moves that made law professors take notice during 2019-20

Based on my in-box and conversations with others, these were the ten moves that transpired this past year that were thought to be the biggest hiring coups (I omit any lateral moves my school was part of and those that won't officially happen until 2021):

*Kimberly Kessler Ferzan (criminal law, law & philosophy) from the University of Virginia to the University of Pennsylvania.

 

*Tara Leigh Grove (federal courts, constitutional law, civil procedure) from College of William & Mary to the University of Alabama.

 

*Alexandra Natapoff (criminal law & procedure) from the University of California, Irvine to Harvard University.

 

*Michael Pardo (evidence, law & philosophy, law & neuroscience) from the University of Alabama to Georgetown University.

 

*Frank Pasquale (law & technology, cyberlaw, privacy, health law) from the University of Maryland to Brooklyn Law School.

 

*Christopher Robertson (health law, bioethics, torts) from the University of Arizona to Boston University.

 

*Lawrence Solum (constitutional law & theory, civil procedure, law & philosophy) from Georgetown University to the University of Virginia.

 

*A. Benjamin Spencer (civil procedure, federal courts, military law) from the University of Virginia to the College of William & Mary (to become Dean).

 

*Karen Tani (legal history) from the University of California, Berkeley to the University of Pennsylvania.

 

*Hannah Wiseman (energy law, environmental law, administrative law) from Florida State University to Pennsylvania State University, University Park.