Prof. Tribe Hints He’s Available for DC Gig

Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe began his speech accepting the American Bar Foundation’s Outstanding Scholar Award on Saturday night cloaked in an air of valedictory. But that quickly gave way to a peek into his hypothetical future. He reflected on recently starting his latest class in constitutional law, which…

Feb 15, 2009 1:47 PM CST

Plaintiffs Question Judge’s Son’s Law Firm Link in Medtronic Case

U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle says he didn’t have any idea that his son’s law firm had performed work, in unrelated matters, for a defendant in a massive case he was hearing. But after plaintiff lawyers found out about Fredrikson & Byron’s connection to the litigation against Medtronic Inc., some…

Feb 13, 2009 6:04 PM CST

Law Professors Begin Feeling Economic Pinch

The budget crisis is affecting law school budgets—and the professors and administrators who work there. Some law professors and administrators are facing unpaid leave or frozen paychecks as schools grapple with reduced budgets, according to TaxProf Blog and the National Law Journal. Other schools have implemented hiring freezes and warned…

Feb 13, 2009 5:39 PM CST

Kagan Says She Would Have Defended Military Recruiter Law as SG

Solicitor General nominee Elena Kagan said at her confirmation hearing yesterday that she would have defended a law requiring universities receiving federal funding to accept military recruiters. Kagan, the dean of Harvard Law School, had signed a Supreme Court amicus brief that opposed the law. She and other signers objected…

Feb 11, 2009 11:58 AM CST

Law Prof Files Retaliation Suit Against Florida Law School

A former law professor at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law has filed a race and sex discrimination suit against the school. Sherrie Russell-Brown, an African-American, claims in the lawsuit that her problems began after she complained about discrimination at the school, the National Law Journal reports. Russell-Brown…

Feb 9, 2009 1:15 PM CST

Recipients of TARP Bailout Funds Could Be Targeted in Criminal Cases

The Troubled Asset Relief Program has only been in effect a few months. But already it is the subject of potential criminal probes, as a special inspector general also announced what amounts to a rewrite of TARP rules requiring recipients of bailout funds to certify, under penalty of law, that…

Feb 6, 2009 1:32 AM CST

Mammoth Discovery Delays Work on New Thomas Jefferson Site in Calif.

A significant discovery of fossilized mammoth bones—including the first skull ever found in San Diego County—will delay the construction of the new downtown San Diego building of Thomas Jefferson School of Law for several weeks. A law school press release includes photos of the find, and says it was immediately…

Feb 5, 2009 6:30 PM CST

Va. Lawyer Sees ‘Outpouring of Support’ After Shooting Injury

A Virginia lawyer injured by someone who apparently fired shots through the window of his law office was working remotely on Wednesday, keeping in touch with a computer, cell phone and BlackBerry. The lawyer, Todd Sanders, spoke with the ABA Journal but cautioned he couldn’t talk about the incident because…

Feb 4, 2009 5:28 PM CST

Law Deans Hate Rankings, but Help Perpetuate Them, Article Says

An article by two sociology professors contends that law schools’ efforts to influence rankings published by U.S. News & World Report end up perpetuating the system. Most law schools have adopted strategies to manipulate their place in the rankings and many spend heavily to improve their rank in a kinds…

Feb 4, 2009 2:37 PM CST

BYU Law Prof with ALS Gets Baseball to Raise Money for Cure

A law professor with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, has spurred Major League Baseball to raise money for research in an event on July 4, the 70th anniversary of the baseball great’s farewell speech. Michael Goldsmith, 57, is a law professor at Brigham Young University and…

Feb 4, 2009 12:53 PM CST

High Court Conservatives More to the Right than Those Before Them, Study Says

The U.S .Supreme Court’s conservatives are more decidedly to the right than the liberals are to the left, a recent study has found. Four out of five of the Supreme Court’s most conservative justices since the New Deal are currently on the Supreme Court, according to the study done last…

Feb 2, 2009 3:18 PM CST

Help Wanted: Law Deans

Law school deanships used to be coveted positions, but no longer. At least 27 law schools are searching for deans, and many are having a difficult time filling the jobs, the National Law Journal reports. Thomas Ulen, a law professor at the University of Illinois, told the publication that the…

Feb 2, 2009 2:00 PM CST

Analyze This

Feb 2, 2009 3:10 AM CST

Growing White House Counsel’s Office Includes Ivy League Profs, Bush Critics

The increase in ranks at the White House counsel’s office has raised some fears of infighting between lawyers there and in other federal offices. At least 22 lawyers will work under White House counsel Greg Craig, more than double the number who worked there in the Bush administration, the Washington…

Jan 30, 2009 1:34 PM CST

Law Prof, Nominated for Regulatory Czar, Advocated ‘Senior Death Discount’

Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein, nominated to become regulatory czar in the Obama administration, supports a cost-benefit analysis that has ruffled liberal feathers when advocated by Republicans. Sunstein is “dedicated to calculating the dollar value of every regulation,” the Los Angeles Times reports. He has advocated a “senior death discount”…

Jan 27, 2009 1:51 PM CST