Law Professors

Professor Obama’s Exam Questions Revealed, But Not Revealing

Recent law exam questions and model answers written by Barack Obama when he was a professor touch on hot-button issues of the day, but are so even-handed as to be “simultaneously impressive and maddening,” columnist Ruth Marcus writes. The questions were posted alongside a New York Times article on Obama’s…

Aug 1, 2008 2:16 PM CDT

Obama Was Popular Law Prof Who Didn’t Publish or Take Tenure

Barack Obama refined his public speaking style and his beliefs during his 12 years teaching law at the University of Chicago. But he did not publish any legal scholarship, and he did not accept a tenured position, the New York Times reports. His critics view the lack of scholarship as…

Jul 30, 2008 6:15 PM CDT

Internet Lawyer By Day, Law Prof By Night

Adam Palmer’s day job is working as policy counsel for .ORG, a public interest Internet domain registry based in Reston, Va. But his avocation is protecting children from Internet predators, and he travels around the world teaching other attorneys how to prosecute such cases. That’s why he volunteered to teach…

Jul 29, 2008 5:30 PM CDT

Fall Classes May Be Ditched at Troubled Kentucky Law School

Updated: The construction schedule for a new, expanded library will determine whether fall classes will be held at the troubled Barkley School of Law in Paducah, Ky. School spokesman Ray Lane told the Paducah Sun that classes will be canceled if the new $5 million library and the renovation of…

Jul 28, 2008 12:31 PM CDT

Law Prof Wants to Make Animated Case Book for YouTube

An innovative law professor at California Western in San Diego wants to make an animated case book to help make the law more accessible. Professor and assistant dean James Cooper sketched his idea on Thursday at a comic book convention, the Daily Journal reports (sub. req.). “I’d take the top…

Jul 25, 2008 12:50 PM CDT

Law Blog Considers Obligation of Older Professors to Retire

Do older professors have an obligation to retire? The Adjunct Law Prof Blog notes online discussions on the issue and decides the answer is no. “My own view is there is NO obligation to retire,” writes St. John’s law professor Mitchell Rubinstein at his Adjunct Law Prof Blog. “However, there…

Jul 23, 2008 2:55 PM CDT

Arizona and Harvard Profs Differ Over McCain’s Eligibility for Presidency

Law professor Gabriel Chin of the University of Arizona disagrees with a highly regarded Harvard constitutional law scholar, as well as the U.S. Senate, on how to interpret Article II’s citizenship requirement for U.S. presidents. Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe has concluded that John McCain is a natural-born citizen,…

Jul 11, 2008 12:23 PM CDT

UC Irvine Profs to Include LA Times Reporter, Incoming AALS President

The fledgling University of California at Irvine has released a list of its faculty, and it includes a former reporter for the Los Angeles Times and the incoming president of the Association of American Law Schools. Legal affairs reporter Henry Weinstein, who recently took a buyout from the Los Angeles…

Jul 10, 2008 11:34 AM CDT

RIP: Janet Mary Riley, Crusading Women’s Rights Lawyer

A longtime Loyola University New Orleans School of Law professor who is credited with making Louisiana women equal partners in their marriages died Saturday. Janet Mary Riley was 92. A Loyola law librarian-turned-law student, Riley was Loyola Law’s first female professor, and she took the job in part because she…

Jul 8, 2008 6:10 PM CDT

Texas Judge and Law Prof in Civil Rights Case is Arrested

A part-time Houston municipal judge and Texas Southern University law professor who is one of five plaintiffs in a federal civil rights suit against Harris County apparently spent at least several hours in jail yesterday after sheriff’s deputies arrested her. April Jill Walker was arrested yesterday evening in the driveway…

Jul 3, 2008 5:10 PM CDT

Chemerinsky Has a Dream for UC Irvine

When Erwin Chemerinsky officially takes the helm tomorrow as dean of the new law school still being created at the University of California at Irvine, he knows he wants to catapult it into the nation’s top 20, even as it is still awaiting its first students next year. But that…

Jun 30, 2008 6:12 PM CDT

UW Law Prof Who Banned Laptops Says He Is Not a Luddite

A University of Wisconsin law professor is defending his decision to ban laptops in his constitutional law class. Professor Anuj Desai tells the Wisconsin State Journal that he is not a “Luddite.” Desai said that when he was in law school, he was the only student in his 1991 class…

Jun 27, 2008 1:28 PM CDT

FAMU Law School Finds No Evidence Fen-Phen Lawyer’s Gift Was Tainted

The law school at Florida A&M University says there is “no objective evidence” that a fen-phen lawyer’s $1 million gift to the school in 2002 came from tainted money. The statement by FAMU officials said they are still deciding how to use the money donated by lawyer Shirley Cunningham, reports…

Jun 24, 2008 4:48 PM CDT

‘Theophobia’ Afflicting Legal Academics

A legal blogger notes a malady afflicting law professors that is characterized by irrational fear of, or intense discomfort around, religious beliefs. New York University law professor Roderick Hills calls the affliction “theophobia” in a post on PrawfsBlawg. Hills began thinking about the issue after he discussed a mutual friend…

Jun 20, 2008 4:37 PM CDT

Law Profs Apply ‘American Idol’ Concept to Criminal Law Review Topics

Move over, American Idol: For serious legal scholars, watching to see how a select group of criminal law professors decides whose ideas are best-expressed is becoming something of a spectator sport. A new Criminal Law Conversations website invites scholars to nominate law review articles they admire. Then the authors are…

Jun 17, 2008 7:28 PM CDT