THE HARVARD LAW SCHOOL invites applications for the position of Alan Dershowitz Chair in Public Outreach. Position will commence August 2022. The Law School welcomes applications from scholars in all subject areas of the law. However, knowledge of the law is not required.
Strong applicants must be willing to seek media attention, and take positions that may seem outlandish or wild to skilled observers in the legal community. In fact, we fully expect the ideal candidate to trade on any scholarly reputation they might have in enhancing their notoriety as media attention is constantly thrust at them. The more outlandish the theories, the better. We need people talking about our faculty, too. And we don’t offer dinner parties.
There is no expectation that the Chair will publish. The only requirement for the position is that the Chair say outlandish things. However, outlandish op-eds, blog posts, and tweets are highly recommended.
April 01, 2024
Back when Larry Solum did parody SSRN postings on April Fool's Day
This one, from 2010, led me to get requests for several years afterwards for the "paper"! I'm sorry he gave it up, I thought they were almost always very funny.
April 1, 2024 in Legal Humor | Permalink
September 05, 2023
Article on whether U.S. legal system is ready for "the challenges of AI to human values" includes citations that appear to have been made up by Chat GPT (link fixed)
Law professors may find this amusing. (Link fixed)
September 5, 2023 in Legal Humor, Of Academic Interest, Professional Advice | Permalink
November 30, 2022
Even if Yale Law may not be #1 in USNews.com rankings much longer...
...it will still #1 for graduates convicted of seditious conspiracy! I would love to see Mr. Rhodes's application file!
November 30, 2022 in Legal Humor, Of Academic Interest, Rankings | Permalink
January 06, 2022
Amy Wax, "color consultant"
This designer can't be happy with the notoriety of her namesake's obsession with a different kind of "color."
(Thanks to Curtis Franks for the pointer.)
January 6, 2022 in Legal Humor | Permalink
November 05, 2021
"Alan Dershowitz Chair in Public Outreach"
At Harvard Law School, no less:
November 5, 2021 in Legal Humor | Permalink
June 02, 2021
"The Originalist Case for Inciting Insurrection" courtesy of the Stanford Federalist Society
UPDATE: Stanford relents. (The Stanford Law Dean has also sent a message to alumni noting that the Law School had nothing to do with this travesty.)
The Stanford Law student responsible for this very funny satire is now under investigation by Stanford, and his graduation is endangered! What an embarrassment for Stanford!
(Thanks to Jeremy Bearer-Friend for the pointer.)
June 2, 2021 in Legal Humor, Of Academic Interest | Permalink
April 01, 2021
US News releases yet a 4th "corrected" ranking, retracting the one issued on Tuesday!
According to a statement from US News.com editor Bob Morse:
Tuesday afternoon, after the rankings had been released, the Oracle of Delphi got in touch to inform us that per capita expenditures had been given too much weight in the formula, and had to be reduced by 5.731 percentage points, which were to be redistributed among employment rate at graduation (+1.21%), faculty/student ratio (.49%), volumes in the library (.21%), bar passage (.89%), and reputation among lawyers/judges (2.269%). We did raise with the Oracle the fact that only 17 lawyers and judges in the country respond to the latter survey anymore, so she informed us that percentage should instead be applied to a new category, "proportion of the curriculum that involves the study of law."
These revisions changed the rank of every law school, excerpt Mercer (which remained at #127). Yale even dropped from #1 to #14. The full revised rankings are here.
April 1, 2021 in Legal Humor | Permalink
February 10, 2021
"I'm not a cat," lawyer assures judge
Just in case any readers missed this, here's the NYT account of this funny Zoom mishap. Here's the video clip of the hearing:
February 10, 2021 in Legal Humor | Permalink