Are Ponzi Scheme Victims Partly to Blame for Their Losses? Law Prof Sees Some Gullibility

When people who eat too much and smoke eventually succumb to heart disease, many would agree they bear some responsibility for the illness, according to Boston University law professor Tamar Frankel. Can the same comparison be made to victims of Ponzi schemes? In an interview with the New York Times…

Aug 22, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Congressional Gridlock Gives Supreme Court More Say in Legislative Interpretation

Congressional gridlock has resulted in a huge transfer of power to the U.S. Supreme Court, a new study has found. When the justices interpret federal legislation, Congress can show its disagreement in a new law, as it did with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the New York…

Aug 21, 2012 1:53 PM CDT

Shhh! Former Supreme Court Clerk Dishes on RBG’s Goofy Song Dance, CT’s Normality

Boston University law professor Jay Wexler tells all in an essay about his onetime job as a U.S. Supreme Court clerk for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, or “RBG” in clerkship speak. Writing for Salon, Wexler says people underestimated Ginsburg’s height and overestimated her seriousness. She wasn’t so serious as to…

Aug 21, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Should State Bar Pay for Justices’ Meeting Travel? Law Prof Calls Practice ‘Horrific’

When Chief Justice Ronald Castille attended a winter meeting of the Pennsylvania Bar Association at the Casa Marina Resort in Key West, Fla., the bar picked up his $2,240 tab. Castille is among five of the state supreme court’s seven justices who reported accepting travel or hospitality on their disclosure…

Aug 20, 2012 3:12 PM CDT

Drexel Law Prof to Use $500K Grant to Expand LawMeets, an Online Lawyering Skills Platform

Law students looking for real-world experience negotiating deals and counseling clients have a virtual sandbox thanks to a Drexel law professor whose innovative start-up has won backing from the National Science Foundation. At the end of July, the NSF awarded Prof. Karl Okamoto $500,000 to expand his Web-based LawMeets, which…

Aug 14, 2012 12:44 PM CDT

PI Attorney Plans to Do SLU Law Dean’s Job for a Year, Plus His Own Law Practice

Thomas Q. “Tom” Keefe Jr. was already hard at work running his his Belleville, Ill., personal injury and criminal defense law firm. But amidst a week of turmoil at Saint Louis University School of Law, where the law dean suddenly announced her resignation in an angry letter, came further surprising…

Aug 13, 2012 5:14 PM CDT

Law Schools Could Be Admitting 80 Percent of Their Applicants This Fall, Statistics Suggest

If you are an aspiring law student with low grades and scores on the Law School Admission Test, this could be your year. University of St. Thomas law professor Jerry Organ explains why in a post at the Legal Whiteboard that chronicles declining enrollments from 2010 to 2011, along with…

Aug 9, 2012 12:45 PM CDT

Turmoil at SLU: Law Dean Resigns, Cites Funding Issues, ‘Hostility,’ Prez Says She Was to Be Fired

Updated: The dean of St. Louis University’s law school has resigned after a year on the job and plans to return to teaching as a tenured faculty member. In a Wednesday resignation letter, Annette Clark stepped down from the job, effective immediately, and brings up multiple issues with the SLU’s…

Aug 8, 2012 7:47 PM CDT

6th Circuit Rules Tenure Didn’t Protect Fired Cooley Law Prof, Cites One-Year Contract Term

A federal appeals court has ruled against a tenured law professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School who claimed she was improperly fired. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the former professor, Lynn Branham, on Monday, report the National Law Journal and TaxProf Blog. Even…

Aug 8, 2012 1:49 PM CDT

New Mexico Law School Dean Nominated to Head Bureau of Indian Affairs

Kevin Washburn, dean of the University of New Mexico Law School, was recently nominated to head the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. A member of Oklahoma’s Chickasaw Nation, the Associated Press reports, Washburn has led the law school since 2009. If the nomination is confirmed, Washburn will replace Larry Echo…

Aug 7, 2012 4:26 PM CDT

Sunstein to Exit Job as White House Regulatory Czar, Return to Harvard Law School

After three years as so-called regulatory czar, Cass R. Sunstein will be leaving his powerful White House post at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to return to Harvard Law School, where he taught prior to joining the Obama administration. A friend of the president’s from the days when…

Aug 6, 2012 10:21 AM CDT

Law Prof Outlines Four Things Baby Boomers Should Never Say to Millennials

Baby boomers are full of advice for the younger generation. Some of it is just plain misguided, according to a law professor who blogs at Inside the Law School Scam. Writing at Salon, University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos tells baby boomers to nix these pronouncements: 1) Education is…

Aug 1, 2012 12:53 PM CDT

Today’s Law Students Shun Human Interaction, Choose Convenience over Self-Denial, Prof Says

Generation after generation is faced with same complaint: Your elders worked harder, faced more hardship and conquered greater obstacles. Now the former academic dean at SUNY Buffalo Law School is airing his beefs about the younger generation in blog posts about how current law students differ from their predecessors. According…

Aug 1, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

To Teach or Not to Teach: Adjunct Work Can Come with a Hefty Price

Aug 1, 2012 7:00 AM CDT

Why are 15 Percent of Americans Still in Poverty? Low-Wage Jobs Partly to Blame, Law Prof Says

Fifteen percent of Americans are in poverty, a number that would be higher without programs like Social Security and food stamps, according to a law professor’s op ed. Still, it’s easy to question whether the nation has won the war on poverty, Georgetown University law professor Peter Edelman writes in…

Jul 31, 2012 11:00 AM CDT