Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

Amy Wax threatens to sue Penn if the sanctions are not lifted

Here's the lawyer's letter.  The breach of contract claim is straightforward, and she should prevail on it given the AAUP principles to which the university has committed itself:  as I've noted before, the University has made clear they are punishing her for her lawful but offensive extramural speech.   The letter's claim of race discrimination strikes me as bizarre, but perhaps someone can explain the theory and why Wax has standing to pursue it.  Signed comments (full name, valid email address [which will not appear]) will be strongly preferred.  Submit your comment only once, it may take awhile to appear.

Total law school applicants up 25% this year (and applications are up 35%)!

A "Trump bump" no doubt!  This is good news for those who expect to be looking for law teaching jobs next year:  since most schools are tuition-dependent, a significant increase in applicants means schools can plan to hire.

What's going on at St. Thomas in Miami?

This account comes from a lawyer for the plaintiff, but the allegations recounted are rather concerning!  (Earlier coverage.)

(Thanks to Paul Caron for calling this to my attention.)

Jones v. Vladeck

Apparently things got a little heated at a panel on judicial independence at the Federalist Society national meeting last week.  Judge Edith Jones of the 5th Circuit took exception to Professor Steve Vladeck's criticisms of judge-shopping, especially vis-a-vis "the Supreme Court of Amarillo," as it's known on Twitter/X in lawprof circles.  Judge Jones did not cover herself in glory in my opinion.  Professor Vladeck comments here (which also includes a link to a video of the panel), although I disagree with the idea that non-conservatives should not participate in Federalist Society events.  This one was instructive, and not in the way Judge Jones intended it to be.

 

The study of philosophy in law schools, and JD/PhDs in philosophy, 2024 edition

For those who might be interested.

AALS Faculty Study

Coming soon.  I'll be participating in an online webinar on November 20 with BU Dean Onwuachi-Willig, AALS President and Dean Melanie Wilson, and LSAC CEO Kellye Testy about the report.  Research Katie Kempner will also present an overview of the study findings.

 

$45 million estate bequest to University of Washington's law school

A substantial gift, although fairly narrowly targetted in its purpose.

(Thanks to Rob Grant for the pointer.)

UC San Francisco (formerly Hastings) sees huge increase in applications...

...thanks, it appears, to its most famous alumna.  Now I wonder whether Trump had a similar effect on Wharton applications?

"Law and Historical Materialism"

An interesting symposium at Jack Balkin's blog on a recent paper by legal historian Jeremy Kessler.  I found the contributions by Benkler and Syed most interesting, albeit misguided, and I thought Professor Kessler's responses were judicious and sensible.  Professor Kessler has done a real service in debunking the CLS critique of Marx, which was never taken seriously by philosophers, but had more impact in legal history.

Trends in lateral hiring, 2019-2024

Lawprof Derek Muller analyzes data from this blog.  It would be interesting to see how the lateral numbers compare to faculty size.  Bear in mind, too, that a school like Harvard, which had "zero" lateral moves from Harvard to another school in the last five years, did have many retirements, and sometimes lateral hires are meant to replace retiring faculty.