Judge Tosses Suit Accusing DePaul Law School of Using Misleading Job Statistics

Corrected: Another judge has tossed another lawsuit accusing a law school of misleading prospective students through incomplete job statistics. On Wednesday, Judge Neil Cohen of Cook County dismissed the suit filed by nine graduates of DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. The…

Sep 13, 2012 11:32 AM CDT

Fatal Sept. 11 Attack on US Ambassador to Libya May Have Been Planned, Extremist Act, Officials Say

A fatal Sept. 11 attack on U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others at the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, may have been planned in advance by Muslim extremists and inspired by al-Qaida, officials say. Although many reported details of the attack have not been confirmed, and a White…

Sep 12, 2012 9:55 PM CDT

New Equine Law Casebook Interweaves Human Drama of Horse Racing

Equine Regulatory Law might sound like a dull legal topic. But in fact the new book by attorney and former Kentucky lawmaker Bob Heleringer is a highly readable history of the country’s thoroughbred horse-racing industry, according to the Daily Racing Form and a Bloodhorse.com review republished by The Horse. “I…

Sep 11, 2012 5:43 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: ‘Eastwooding’ in Litigation; In Defense of Strunk & White

Arguing with an Empty Chair in Court Since actor Clint Eastwood’s speech last week at the Republican National Convention in which he talked to an imaginary President Barack Obama in an empty chair on stage, many Internet memes have been born, and the expression “Eastwooding”—to denote the act of arguing…

Sep 7, 2012 1:30 PM CDT

Askew Elected a Trustee of National Conference of Bar Examiners

Hulett “Bucky” Askew, the ABA’s former consultant on legal education, has been elected to the board of trustees of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Askew’s election was announced in a press release (PDF) on Thursday by the NCBE, which develops the tests that are used as part of the…

Sep 6, 2012 11:00 PM CDT

Dean Says Villanova Bounced Back After Admissions Data Scandal; Incoming 2011 Class Set LSAT Record

John Y. Gotanda soon had a scandal on his hands after starting work at Villanova University’s law dean at the beginning of 2011. Within weeks, he told the university community in a letter, he became aware that the law school had “knowingly reported” inaccurate admissions data, including LSAT test scores…

Sep 5, 2012 7:01 PM CDT

Skilled Jailhouse Lawyer Is Now in Law School, Thanks to Bill and Melinda Gates

Shon Hopwood’s life has taken a turn for the better, thanks to his jailhouse lawyering skills and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Hopwood, who served more than nine years in prison for robbing five banks, is attending the University of Washington law school on a foundation scholarship, Bloomberg News…

Sep 4, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Legal Rebels 2012: If the Shoe Fits…

This is our fourth iteration of the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels, our annual nod to lawyers who are helping change the profession in ways both big and small. These are the innovators—the folks who’ve found a different path, some new way to blend the needs of their clients or their…

Sep 1, 2012 10:40 AM CDT

Letters: Elite Talk

Sep 1, 2012 10:00 AM CDT

Hip-Hop at Law: Course Samples Hip-Hop’s Bottom-Up Critique of the Law

Sep 1, 2012 9:40 AM CDT

Belief in Bias Can Block Your Success

Sep 1, 2012 6:00 AM CDT

Judge Denies Preliminary Injunction to Fired Law Prof

Stephanie Brown, a former professor at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law who sued the school after she was refused tenure and subsequently fired, was denied a preliminary injunction to hold off her termination. Although U.S. District Judge Richard Leon didn’t rule on…

Aug 30, 2012 5:57 PM CDT

Appeals Court Tosses Suit Claiming Law Professor Blacklisted Grad in Job Search

A California appeals court has affirmed dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed a Stanford law professor had blacklisted a grad who sought employment at law firms in the San Francisco area. The law school had asserted that the plaintiff, Usha Viswanathan, was “proceeding on nothing more than suspicion, speculation and…

Aug 29, 2012 12:30 PM CDT

Blogging Law Profs Can Disrupt the Rankings and Increase SSRN Downloads, Analysis Suggests

Law school rankings can change when professors are able to attract attention for their schools by blogging, according to University of Denver law professor J. Robert Brown Jr. Brown practices what he preaches. He blogs at TheRacetotheBottom.Org and has posted a paper on faculty blogging at SSRN that is mentioned…

Aug 29, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Penn State Dickinson Plans to Cut JD Enrollment, But Will Keep Both Campuses

Corrected: Joining a number of other law schools that have announced similar plans amidst an apparent paradigm shift in the nation’s legal industry, Penn State Dickinson School of Law is planning to trim total enrollment from about 660 to 500 students. However, the institution plans to keep both its flagship…

Aug 27, 2012 9:34 PM CDT