Law Professors

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

Dean Complains About ‘Glut of Law Schools’

News that the ABA has accredited 200 law schools raises issues about whether “more is better,” according to an Associated Press news analysis. The story reports that the number of students enrolled in law school is at an all-time high, even as jobs can be difficult to find. Said Makau…

Jun 17, 2008 3:11 PM CDT

Law School Dean Calls Conference to Plan Bush War Crimes Prosecution

The dean of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover is planning a September conference to map out war crimes prosecutions, and the targets are President Bush and other administration officials. The dean, Lawrence Velvel, says in a statement that “plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to…

Jun 17, 2008 11:51 AM CDT

S.S.R.N. Rankings Temporarily Boost Instapundit Law Prof Above Cass Sunstein

The Social Science Research Network allows just about anybody to post a paper that can be downloaded by curious readers. The network, created in 1994, posts about 45,000 articles a year in the areas of economic and legal scholarship, its top two subjects, the New York Times reports. The Times…

Jun 9, 2008 1:45 PM CDT

Urged By Law Profs to Resign, W. Va. U Prez, Michael Garrison, Will Step Down

The president of West Virginia University has agreed to step down after a controversy over an award of an MBA degree to the daughter of the state governor even though she had not completed enough credits. The situation came to light after a newspaper reporter made a routine inquiry about…

Jun 6, 2008 6:36 PM CDT