Law Professors

US News Won’t Alter Old Surveys, But Foresees ‘Negative Impact’ re New Villanova LSAT, GPA Info

Admitted fudging of the LSAT and GPA data provided by Villanova University to U.S. News & World Report won’t change its place in the magazine’s prior law school rankings. That’s because U.S. News has decided to stick with its policy of making no after-the-fact changes, writes research director Robert Morse…

Feb 17, 2011 10:35 PM CST

Law Prof Urges Work on ‘Freedom Box’ to Decentralize the Internet

Columbia Law School professor Eben Moglen is promoting a project to decentralize the Internet—and neutralize the ability of any government to order it shut down. Moglen tells the New York Times that the project will require “cheap, small, low-power plug servers” that are the size of a cellphone charger, and…

Feb 16, 2011 3:54 PM CST

Law Prof’s Job on the Line for Using Hypotheticals Involving Dean’s Murder

Updated: The dean of Widener’s law school has been shot several times, but the wounds are only hypothetical. Criminal law professor Lawrence Connell used the shooting scenario in classroom hypotheticals. Now his job is on the line after students complained that the scenarios were violent, racist and sexist, Delaware Online…

Feb 14, 2011 4:54 PM CST

Harvard Professor Announces Launch of Project to Study Impact of Emerging Economies on Lawyers

David B. Wilkins, one of the nation’s leading thinkers on where the legal profession is headed, received the outstanding scholar award Saturday from the fellows of the American Bar Foundation. But the Harvard Law School professor is hardly about to rest on his laurels. Instead, Wilkins used the occasion of…

Feb 13, 2011 7:57 AM CST

Harvard Law Prof Testifies Congress Can Make You Buy Veggies and Insurance

Harvard law professor Charles Fried testified before Congress on Wednesday that he’s “quite sure” the health-care law’s insurance requirement is constitutional. Fried, who was solicitor general in the Reagan administration, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the commerce clause gives Congress the power to require insurance, the Talking Points…

Feb 3, 2011 4:31 PM CST

Law Prof Nominates Imprisoned Gov. for Nobel Peace Prize, Sees Message in No. 167

Imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for halting executions in the state, according to a University of Illinois law professor who nominated him for the honor. Francis Boyle is allowed to make nominations for the prize because he is an international law professor, according to…

Feb 2, 2011 1:17 PM CST

Harvard Law Instructor Moonlights as ‘Secret Garden’ Maid

A clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s clinical legal ed program is 32 years old, but she often impersonates younger people on stage. Jennifer Beth Glick is currently playing a 19-year-old maid in an adaptation of The Secret Garden for a professional family theater in Boston, the Boston Herald reports.…

Jan 28, 2011 11:30 AM CST

‘Betrayal Effect’ Leads Consumers to Reject Safer Products, Law Prof Finds

Why do people reject products that make them safer—such as vaccines or air bags—when they learn of a very small chance of injury from the items? The reason is a “betrayal effect,” according to a new study by Northwestern law professor Jonathan Koehler and University of Texas marketing professor Andrew…

Jan 26, 2011 12:00 PM CST

Book Argues Ideas Hatched in Law Schools Are ‘Catastrophically Bad for America’

Elite law schools are “churning out ideas that are catastrophically bad for America,” according to a new book by blogger and Cato Institute senior fellow Walter Olson. That description is from the book jacket, and it’s posted on Olson’s Overlawyered blog. “Rights to sue anyone over anything in class actions?…

Jan 19, 2011 3:27 PM CST

Yale Law Prof Targeted in Mommy Wars Offers Further Explanation of Her Thoughts on Parenting

A professor at Yale Law School has received death threats since an excerpt of her new book about parenting, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was published this week in the Wall Street Journal, putting her front and center as a target in the mommy wars. But, while defending her…

Jan 13, 2011 11:31 PM CST

Chinese Moms Succeed Because They ‘Gasp in Horror’ at an A-Minus, Yale Law Prof Says

Updated: Want your kids to be super-achievers? Try Chinese parenting, a Yale law professor advises. Writing at the Wall Street Journal, law professor Amy Chua explains the differences between Chinese mothers—used to describe anyone with a strict parenting style—and Western parents. Chinese parents can order their kids to get straight…

Jan 11, 2011 1:09 PM CST

Want to Lose Weight? Try Visiting This Law Prof’s Contracts Website

A website created by a Yale graduate and two professors at the school—including a law professor—is betting that a contract can help you lose weight. The contract isn’t the one you have to sign before joining a health club. It’s one you develop yourself through a website called StickK.com in…

Jan 6, 2011 11:30 AM CST

Another Ex-Senator Secures a Job Teaching Law School

Russ Feingold will be joining Marquette University Law School as a visiting professor following his Senate loss to a Republican opponent in November. The former Democratic senator from Wisconsin will teach an elective course called Current Legal Issues: The U.S. Senate, according to a press release. Feingold told the Milwaukee…

Jan 5, 2011 7:39 PM CST

Arlen Specter Has New Gig as Adjunct Law Prof

Arlen Specter is moving from the U.S. Senate to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Specter lost the primary election last spring, 13 months after switching to the Democratic Party. He had served on the Senate Judiciary Committee since 1981 and was its chairman from 2005 to 2007. Specter, a…

Jan 4, 2011 4:59 PM CST

Judge Dismisses Law Prof’s Suit Claiming Casebook Co-Author Killed New Book Deal

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Case Western law professor that claimed conduct by his casebook co-author killed plans for a revised version of the publication as well as a different book deal. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston dismissed the suit by law professor Kevin McMunigal in…

Jan 4, 2011 1:57 PM CST