Law Professors

Southern New England Law Dean Prepares for Battle over Merger Plan

Southern New England law school dean Robert Ward is preparing for battle over his school’s plan to merge with the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and become the state’s first public law school. Ward defended his school during a tour of the campus with a Boston Globe reporter. Ward says…

Nov 6, 2009 2:41 PM CST

Ex-Chief Justice of New Mexico Dies While Giving Speech to Law Students

Former New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Gene Franchini collapsed and died Wednesday while giving a speech to first-year students at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Students tried to perform CPR but were unable to revive Franchini, KOB.com reports. The audience of about 100 people included students,…

Nov 5, 2009 2:25 PM CST

Law Prof Drops Privacy Suit Against Above the Law; Blog Offers Prof Guest Spot

A law professor at the University of Miami has seemingly changed his mind about the federal invasion of privacy suit he filed only last week against the publisher of Above the Law over a 2007 post on the self-described tabloid law blog. Plaintiff Donald Marvin Jones today voluntarily dismissed the…

Nov 4, 2009 10:20 PM CST

Law Prof Sues Above the Law, Claims ‘Racist Series of Rants’ About His Arrest

Updated: A University of Miami law professor arrested but never prosecuted on a charge of trying to solicit an undercover police officer has sued the Above the Law blog for its posts on his predicament. But, in a startling development only days later, Donald Marvin Jones then voluntarily dismissed the…

Nov 3, 2009 2:53 PM CST

Law Prof Who Raised Awareness of ALS Dies from the Disease

Brigham Young University law professor Michael Goldsmith has died of respiratory failure from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease he wrote about in a Newsweek column. Goldsmith was 58, the New York Times reports. In the Newsweek column, Goldsmith challenged Major League Baseball to fight ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig’s…

Nov 2, 2009 1:25 PM CST

Law Prof Argues Pay Czar Is Unconstitutional

Is the appointment of pay czar Kenneth Feinberg constitutional? Stanford Law School professor Michael McConnell, a former federal appeals judge, thinks not. In a Wall Street Journal opinion column, McConnell argues that Feinberg’s appointment violates the appointments clause requiring Senate approval of all officers of the United States. Feinberg was…

Oct 30, 2009 12:59 PM CDT

US Recommends Asylum in ‘Iconic’ Domestic Violence Case

The United States has recommended asylum in the closely watched case of a Guatemalan woman fleeing domestic abuse. Rody Alvarado Peña will likely win asylum because of the U.S. stance, her lawyer, Karen Musalo, told the New York Times. This “has been the iconic case of domestic abuse as a…

Oct 30, 2009 12:04 PM CDT

Economics Blog Posts by Judge Posner & U of Chicago Prof Morph Into Book

Two well-known economic thinkers at the University of Chicago are morphing their best blog posts into a book. Uncommon Sense: Economic Insights, from Marriage to Terrorism is being published by the University of Chicago Press, the Becker-Posner Blog reports. The blog is authored by professor Gary Becker and Judge Richard…

Oct 29, 2009 6:43 PM CDT

Chemerinsky Represents Teacher Who Called Creationism ‘Nonsense’

The dean of the University of California’s newest law school is representing a California high school teacher who called Creationism “religious, superstitious nonsense.” Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky of the UC Irvine law school is one of four lawyers representing history teacher James Corbett as he appeals a ruling that his…

Oct 27, 2009 4:36 PM CDT

GAO Puts Blame on US News Rankings for High Law School Tuition

Updated: Law school tuition has been rising since 1994, reaching as much as $50,000 per year when combined with fees at law schools such as Yale and the University of California at Hastings. But don’t blame the ABA. A new report (PDF) by the Government Accountability Office says accreditation requirements…

Oct 27, 2009 1:13 PM CDT

‘Vampire’ Law Prof Takes Academic Look at Zombie Litigation

Just in time for Halloween, a Canadian law professor has put together a round-up of vampire and zombie references in legal jurisprudence. There have been more than 200 such mentions during the past 50 years, with the vast majority in the United States rather than her own country, found Sharon…

Oct 23, 2009 11:05 PM CDT

Two Calif. Law Profs with First Amendment Interests Have Died

Two law professors with an interest in media issues have died. Stephen Barnett, who taught at the University of California at Berkeley, died of cardiac arrest on Oct. 13, the New York Times reports. He was 73. A specialist in intellectual property and the First Amendment, he campaigned against a…

Oct 22, 2009 2:13 PM CDT

This Week on LegalRebels.com

Profiled on LegalRebels.com this week were: Charles Nesson: Post-It-All Prof If he doesn’t have the right answers, that’s OK with Charles Nesson. In fact, many say the legendary eccentric—a proud pot smoker who loves poker, almost always records everything and has taught at Harvard Law School for more than 30…

Oct 21, 2009 4:50 PM CDT

‘Toxic Titles’ Make Mortgage Foreclosures a Lot More Complex

Already dealing with a deluge of mortgage foreclosures, courts in Massachusetts now have a new problem. And, although litigation over the issue is farther along there than in a number of other states, it’s a growing concern that is also affecting other properties throughout the country. So-called toxic titles created…

Oct 9, 2009 8:27 PM CDT

Law Prof Appointed to Copyright Case Sees Parallels to Erin Brokovich

Ohio State University law professor Deborah Jones Merritt didn’t shy away from media interviews about her first Supreme Court argument. She told the Columbus Dispatch how she practiced before large photos of the nine justices. She confessed to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times that she felt like “the…

Oct 8, 2009 2:33 PM CDT