Law Professors

Did Procedural Protections for Criminal Defendants Perversely Lead to Longer Sentences?

A law professor’s book suggests a possible link between Warren court protections for criminal defendants and longer prison sentences. Harvard law professor William Stuntz finished the book, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, before his death from colon cancer earlier this year. In a Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) book…

Oct 26, 2011 4:37 PM CDT

John Yoo Praises Justice Thomas, Says His Ideas ‘Set the Table for the Tea Party’

Justice Clarence Thomas is the “intellectual godfather” of the tea party movement, according to one of his former law clerks, University of California at Berkeley law professor John Yoo. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Yoo notes that Thomas has embraced originalism during his 20 years on the court and…

Oct 25, 2011 11:00 AM CDT

UMass Law Dean Resigns Today, Effective Tomorrow, Cites Personal and Health Reasons

The dean of the new law school at the University of Massachusetts tendered his resignation today, effective at 5 p.m. tomorrow. Robert V. Ward Jr. cited personal and health reasons, as well as a two-hour commute in a resignation letter published by the Boston Herald. Unidentified sources at UMass said…

Oct 20, 2011 9:54 PM CDT

Law Grads Rita and Gustave Hauser Give $40M to Harvard; Floyd Abrams Donates $3M to Yale

A former BigLaw partner and a cable television pioneer are donating $40 million to Harvard University, one of two institutions where the two spouses earned law degrees. The money from Rita and Gustave Hauser will be used to provide teaching grants to faculty, adminstrators and students and to improve teaching…

Oct 18, 2011 8:06 PM CDT

Study Finds Women Who Wear Makeup Are Deemed More Competent; Law Prof Isn’t Swayed

A law professor who has written a book on beauty bias would like women in the workplace to be judged on the basis of competence, not cosmetics. Stanford University law professor Deborah Rhode is disappointed by a recent study finding that women who wear makeup are deemed to be more…

Oct 17, 2011 11:00 AM CDT

Law Students Rank Northwestern Best for Career Prospects

If you are looking for a law school with the best career prospects, you might want to consider Northwestern University. Northwestern’s law school was ranked No. 1 for best career prospects in a Princeton Review survey of 18,000 students attending 167 law schools, according to a press release. The report…

Oct 12, 2011 12:44 PM CDT

A Protesting Pioneer of Critical Race Theory, Derrick Bell, Dies at the Age of 80

New York University law professor Derrick Bell, a pioneer of critical race theory, has died of carcinoid cancer at the age of 80. Bell was the first tenured black law professor at Harvard Law School and the first black law dean of a law school that is not historically black,…

Oct 6, 2011 11:52 AM CDT

Study Finds ‘Lopsided’ Concentration of Socioeconomic Elites at Law Schools

Corrected: The vast majority of American law students come from relatively elite backgrounds, especially at top law schools, according to a study by a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. More than three quarters of the students at the nation’s top 20 law schools come from…

Oct 5, 2011 11:00 AM CDT

‘Engaging and Fun’ University of Miami Law Prof Is Arrested on Solicitation Charge

A University of Miami law professor has been arrested on a misdemeanor charge of soliciting a woman he believed to be a prostitute. Professor Donald Marvin Jones is accused of offering $20 to a woman who turned out to be an undercover police officer, report CBSMiami.com and the Miami Herald.…

Oct 4, 2011 2:21 PM CDT

Ex-AG Alberto Gonzales to Teach as Chaired Professor at New Law School

Initially underemployed after his controversial service as the nation’s top law enforcement official, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales plans to accept a chaired professorship at a new law school. Beginning early next year, he will serve as the Doyle Rogers Distinguished Chair of Law at Belmont University, reports the…

Oct 3, 2011 11:23 PM CDT

Brazilian Law Prof Drives to Police Station with Student’s Body and Turns Himself In

A Brazilian law professor shot and killed one of his students in the capital of Brasilia on Friday and then drove her body to a police station, a police officer alleges. The professor, Rendrik Vieira Rodrigues, apparently killed 24-year-old Suenia Souza Farias because she wanted to end their relationship, according…

Oct 3, 2011 3:04 PM CDT

SEC Inspector General Hits $120K in Payments to Law Prof Heading ‘Office of Smart People’

The Securities and Exchange Commission is under fire by its inspector general for paying $120,000 in living expenses to a law professor when he headed an SEC division known as the “Office of Smart People.” SEC Inspector General David Kotz says the agency failed to follow federal guidelines when it…

Sep 26, 2011 5:35 PM CDT

Scalia Defends Moral Judgment and Law Schools That Embrace It

Justice Antonin Scalia thinks moral judgment has a place in education. Speaking to law students at Duquesne University on Saturday, Scalia urged the school to retain its Catholic identity, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. “I hope this place will not yield—as some Catholic institutions have—to this politically correct insistence upon suppression…

Sep 26, 2011 11:33 AM CDT

Can’t Find a Legal Job? Be the Next John Grisham or Fidel Castro, Law School Guide Suggests

Finding an entry level legal job after graduating from law school can be a tough gig, as many know from personal experience. So the University of Arizona’s law school has put together an alternative career handbook (PDF) and suggests that students keep their minds open to other options. But the…

Sep 23, 2011 11:56 PM CDT

Mass. GOP Urges Harvard to Eliminate Law Prof Elizabeth Warren’s Salary as She Runs for the Senate

After seemingly coming close to joining the Obama administration as chief of the new consumer protection agency she helped create, Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren is now running, as a Democrat, for a seat in the U.S. Senate. If nominated, her Republican opponent would be incumbent Scott Brown. But…

Sep 20, 2011 8:32 PM CDT