Legal Education

Law schools employ texting service to keep tabs on students’ mental health

With growing numbers of law students facing mental health challenges, at least five law schools are using a service to proactively identify struggling students and intervene as soon as possible.

Mar 24, 2023 1:18 PM CDT

Exchange at Stanford Law event with Federalist Society wasn’t productive, associate dean says

A Stanford Law School administrator shown at a campus event with the Federalist Society in which audience members heckled a federal appellate judge told her side of the story Thursday in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal.

Mar 24, 2023 11:32 AM CDT

After ‘disruptive heckling,’ Stanford Law requires free speech session, notes associate dean’s leave

Stanford Law School is requiring its students to attend an educational session on free speech following students’ “disruptive heckling” of a conservative federal appeals judge during a March 9 speech with the Federalist Society.

Mar 23, 2023 11:09 AM CDT

A real defense of fake trials and a love letter to my family

I knew that arming teenagers with the ability to understand the difference between hearsay exemptions and exceptions would boomerang on me as a parent already locked in daily arguments about truth-telling. And yet, that’s what my husband and I did once our children were old enough to participate in high school mock trial competitions.

Mar 22, 2023 2:11 PM CDT

Weekly Briefs: Protesters target law dean; Florida’s Stop Woke Act blocked at universities

11th Circuit allows block on Stop Woke Act The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to disturb an injunction that prevents Florida public universities from enforcing a law known as the Stop Woke Act pending an appeal. The law bars instruction that promotes eight concepts, including the…

Mar 17, 2023 3:00 PM CDT

How can law schools with history of bar pass issues get their rates above 75%?

For law schools that fall below the bar pass rate required for ABA accreditation, there are many avenues for change. We spoke to three schools that have improved their numbers.

Mar 16, 2023 2:34 PM CDT

Latest version of ChatGPT aces bar exam with score nearing 90th percentile

The latest version of the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT has passed the Uniform Bar Examination by “a significant margin,” earning a combined score of 297 that surpasses even the high threshold of 273 set by Arizona.

Mar 16, 2023 1:59 PM CDT

Data on about 6,500 law students proves my mismatch theory, shows racial-preference harm, law prof says

A controversial law professor has said data on about 6,500 law students at four law schools provides strong support for his “academic mismatch” theory—that law students with lower qualifications than their peers fall behind and have worse outcomes in a learning environment geared toward better-qualified students.

Mar 16, 2023 11:47 AM CDT

Law school gets extension to meet Standard 316; ABA Legal Ed council posts additional notice on faculty diversity

Updated: The Golden Gate University School of Law, which has not had a two-year bar pass rate at or above 75% since its class of 2017, has received an extension to come into compliance with Standard 316, which requires a bar passage rate of at least 75% within a two-year time period.

Mar 14, 2023 10:52 AM CDT

Law prof placed on leave after he’s charged with assaulting woman at New York casino

A Syracuse University law and engineering professor has been placed on leave after he was charged with assaulting a woman in the elevator and parking lot of a casino in New York.

Mar 14, 2023 9:55 AM CDT

Stanford apologizes after conservative federal appeals judge is heckled during Federalist Society talk

U.S. Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan has received an apology after protesters he described as “juvenile idiots” interrupted his March 9 speech with the Federalist Society at Stanford Law School.

Mar 13, 2023 11:32 AM CDT

Finance-related notice for Kentucky law school posted by ABA Legal Ed Section

The University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law is not in compliance with an accreditation standard focused on financial resources, the council of the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar recently found.

Mar 8, 2023 1:35 PM CST

Using data, law prof finds many disciplined lawyers represent consumers—with no oversight

A new working paper claims that for attorneys with records of public discipline, many are sole practitioners who opened firms following lawyer regulation decisions.

Mar 8, 2023 9:05 AM CST

15-year-old who got 174 on LSAT looks forward to law school

A 15-year-old Mississippi youth is planning to attend law school this year after getting a 174 on the Law School Admission Test.

Mar 8, 2023 8:37 AM CST

ABA partners with law schools to advance new approaches to policing and public safety

Kendall Anderson, a 3L at the Syracuse University College of Law, is a fellow in the third class of the Legal Education Police Practices Consortium. He plans to study cases in which police stops end in physical altercations. “I’ll try to get insight from officers as to the training they do that is preparing and equipping them to be able to handle those situations better.”

Mar 7, 2023 11:43 AM CST