Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

In Memoriam: Michael J. Kelly (1938-2023)

Professor Kelly, an expert in legal ethics and the legal profession, was also a longtime Dean of the law school at the University of Maryland.  The Maryland memorial notice is here.

(Thanks to Robert Condlin for the pointer.)

40 law schools are now "boycotting" the USNews.com rankings...

...according to Blog Emperor Caron, who has been keeping track.  Most of those joined after USNews.com announced it would utilize only public data and its own survey data.  According to the Blog Emperor, 53 schools have officially declined to join the boycott, while the rest are either hedging or not telling!

In Memoriam: Kent Greenawalt (1936-2023)

Professor Greenawalt just recently retired from Columbia Law School, where he taught for more than fifty years and from which he also graduated.  He was well-known for influential articles and books on a wide array of topics in constitutional law (especially the First Amendment), criminal law, and jurisprudence.  I will add links to memorial notices as they appear.

UPDATE:   Professor Greenawalt's son, Sasha, also a law professor, kindly gave permission to share this beautiful tribute to his father.

ANOTHER:  Columbia's memorial notice is here.

Professor Wax files grievance against Penn Law Dean Ruger

An informative report from The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Sudden "resignation" of Pitt Law Dean

The Provost's cryptic announcement.   Perhaps the Dean had compelling personal reasons for resigning (but then why did the statement not say so?), but more likely, from what I can gather, is that the Dean had conflicts with the Provost:  since Provost Cudd took over in fall 2018, a half-dozen Deans have resigned or been terminated.   Please email me with more information, and I'll do a follow up post.

ChatGPT goes to law school at the University of Minnesota

Oy veh:

How well can AI models write law school exams without human assistance? To find out, we used the widely publicized AI model ChatGPT to generate answers on four real exams at the University of Minnesota Law School. We then blindly graded these exams as part of our regular grading processes for each class. Over 95 multiple choice questions and 12 essay questions, ChatGPT performed on average at the level of a C+ student, achieving a low but passing grade in all four courses.

Thoughts from readers?  Submit comments only once, they may take awhile to appear.

UPDATE:  See esp. Derek Muller's comments, below.

So what might the new USNews.com ranking look like?

We know what the criteria will be, and we know most (but not all) of the inputs, what we don't know is the new arbitrary "weightings."   Professor Muller (Iowa) charts the possibilities on various reasonable assumptions about weightings.  (I'm not sure those schools boycotting the rankings will do worse in the reputational surveys, but we'll see.)

Levit & Rostron's guide to submitting to law reviews...

...has been updated.

Blast from the past: "Triumph of the JD/PhDs"

Back in 2016, and as Professor Lawsky's data on entry-level hiring has revealed, the triumph continues.

UC Law San Francisco (formerly Hastings) joins the USNews.com ranking boycott

Dean Faigman's statement is here.  I'm not sure what joining the boycott at this point means, since USNews.com has indicated it will use public data, plus its own survey data.