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Academic

Adjunct Law Prof Blog

By Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Post Frequency: 42.5/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 01:00:00

Are you about to be replaced by a software program?

Posted on January 01, 2010
It's not just American factory workers who need to worry about being replaced by a robot. The Carnegie Mellon Institute has been developing software that may make flesh and blood professors obsolete. Almost. According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University,...

The Decades 25 Biggest Legal Stories

Posted on December 31, 2009
On Dec. 14, 2009, the National Law Journal published an article on the 25 most important legal decisions of the decade. That article is available here. So what are some of them? The National Law Journal lists the top 3...

Another law professor botches a final exam

Posted on December 30, 2009
We'd previously told you about an NYU visiting law prof who distributed as his final exam one he'd used a year earlier as a practice exam at Northwestern. Now comes this story, also courtesy of Above the Law, about a...

The "soft Socratic" method of teaching law students

Posted on December 30, 2009
Here are a couple of posts from the Legal Profession Blog and The Faculty Lounge describing a "kinder, gentler" post-Kingsfield form of Socratic teaching that I assume most 1L profs employ. The Faculty Lounge describes "soft Socratic" as creating "a....

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Becker's NLRB Nomination Delayed

Posted on December 30, 2009
Workplace Prof Blog reported on Dec. 28, 2009 that Craig Becker's nomination to the NLRB has been referred back to the President. Reportedly, one Senator, in this case Senator McCain, can put a hold on a nomination, but the candidate...

Religious Accommodation Case Based Upon Employer Clothing Requirement Is A Triable Issue

Posted on December 29, 2009
A retailer that required a female employee to wear clothing similar to its own brand was not entitled to summary judgment on the EEOC's claim that it violated Title VII's religious accommodation requirement. The employee alleged that the retailer's "look...

ABA lobbies for debt relief for unemployed law grads

Posted on December 29, 2009
Recent and soon-to-be law grads are in a tough spot: they took on a boat-load of debt to attend law school at a time when it was still a financially attractive, or at least sustainable, career move. But then the...

Parents sue school district for failure to check teacher's MySpace page before hiring

Posted on December 29, 2009
The parents of a child who was allegedly sexually abused by a high school teacher are suing the Nebraska school district claiming that had it checked the defendant's MySpace page as part of a routine background check, it would have...

6th Upholds Ten Year Prison Sentence For Employing Undocumented Workers And IRC Violations

Posted on December 28, 2009
The Sixth Circuit has upheld a 10-year prison sentence of a company official who employed numerous undocumented workers, paid them in cash and failed to withhold federal income tax, Medicare or social security from their paychecks. He pleaded guilty to...

Humanities adjunct fired in retaliation for videotaping contentious board meeting

Posted on December 27, 2009
In yet another example of how the "adjuncting" of American higher education threatens both academic freedom and administrators' accountability to the faculty, Inside Higher Ed is reporting on the case of an Ohio community college adjunct who is suing the...

Anti-Day Laborer Law

Posted on December 27, 2009
The Town of Oyster Bay, New York recently passed a Local Law which outlaws ?solicitation of employment? and which is aimed at Day Laborers. Ordinance 205-32 only calls for a $250.00 fine, but that may be enough to deter a...

2nd Circuit Again Upholds The Authority of NLRB To Issue 2 Member Decisions

Posted on December 26, 2009
As readers to this blog all know, the Supremes granted cert to decide if the NLRB has the authority to issue 2 member decisions. The 2d Circuit, in Kingsbridge Heights v. NLRB, ___Fed Appx.___(2d Cir. Dec. 23, 2009), again issued...

In New York, Lower Courts Are Required To Follow Appellate Decisions From Other Departments

Posted on December 26, 2009
A procedural question I have come across is whether a New York lower court is required to follow an Appellate Division decision when the decision is from a different Department from the lower court. The answer, as explained in Lambner...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays!!

Posted on December 25, 2009
Adjunct Prof Blog wants to take this opportunity to wish our readers a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays. Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Blackberrys At Work

Posted on December 24, 2009
On Dec. 21, 2009, the New York Times Blog ran a series of posts on Blackberrys and the right to privacy. In the private sector, there is no right to privacy because their is no state action. The Supreme Court...

Class Action Arbitration

Posted on December 23, 2009
Class Action Procedures In Arbitration is an interesting Nov. 12, 2009 New York Law Journal article (registration required). Samuel Estreicher, the Dwight D. Opperman Professor at New York University School of Law and counsel to Jones Day, and Steven C...

NYC Human Rights Law Broadly Interpreted

Posted on December 23, 2009
Lampner v. Pryer Cashman, ___Misc.3d___(Kings Co. Nov. 6, 2009), demonstrates the importance of state employment discrimination law. The court in refusing to dismiss the complaint, described how New York law is more liberal than the federal counter part: The core...

NYU law prof who recycles old exam creates a mess

Posted on December 23, 2009
Given stories like this, all profs should assume that whatever materials they hand out in class - whether practice exams, samples, PowerPoint slides, whatever - will eventually wind up on the web, sooner rather than later. So this story from...

Online class note databases - do they encourage students to skip class or help them learn

Posted on December 22, 2009
The Boston Globe recently reported on a free, open source website called Finalsclub.org that, among other things, pays Harvard students to post their lecture notes online for use by others. The website is causing concern among educators for several reasons...

School board member's e-mail to other board members claimed to have violated educator's right to privacy

Posted on December 22, 2009
Source: New Item - Eagle-Tribune [North Andover, MA], October 29, 2009 Haverhill [Massachusetts] School Committee member Kerry Fitzgerald sent an e-mail to other board members suggesting that they ?could be sued if they discussed the performance of school employees by...

Misclassification of Employees as Independent Contractors Draws Heightened Government Enforcement

Posted on December 22, 2009
The law firm of Winston and Strawn issued a client briefing in December 2009 about misclassification of employees as independent contractors. It refers to an Illinois employer who was fined $318,000 for stating that certain employees were independent contractors...

Fantasy Supreme Court

Posted on December 22, 2009
You heard of Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Football. Now there is Fantasy Supreme Court where contestants compete to be Chief Judge of Fantasy Supreme Court. From the web site: This Fantasy League allows you to compete against your friends, colleagues, and...

Student Expelled From Graduate School For Plagiarism

Posted on December 21, 2009
Matter of Dequito v. New School, ___A.D.3d___(1st Dept. Dec. 18, 2009), is an unusual case. After a graduate student expelled from school for plagiarism, he brought an Article 78 proceeding against the university. Apparently, he was given two opportunities to...

No Duty To Bargain Over Hair Drug Testing Analysis Involving Police

Posted on December 21, 2009
Matter of City of New York v. PBA, ___N.Y.3d___(Dec. 17, 2009), is an interesting public sector labor law decision. The Court held that a methodology for hair testing known as radioimmunoassay (hereafter, RIAH or hair analysis) for all drug screening...

Arbitration award vacated after court finds arbitrator exceed his authority

Posted on December 21, 2009
Matter of Manhattan & Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth. v Transport Workers Union of Am., Local 100, 2009 NY Slip Op 08013, decided on November 4, 2009, Appellate Division, Second Department Article 75 of Civil Practice sets out the very...

Supreme Court Legal Research

Posted on December 20, 2009
Researchers take note. The Supreme Court Database just got a major grant and will include all Supreme Court decisions. A National Law Journal story about this is available here. The website describes the database as follows: The Supreme Court Database...

No-No Questions On Employment Interviews

Posted on December 19, 2009
KRNTV News 4 ran an interesting story which summarized the types of questions that should not be asked at interviews. That story is available here. All of this should be obvious, but maybe its not. Mitchell H. Rubinstein

University of Akron rescinds DNA testing policy that caused one adjunct to resign in protest

Posted on December 18, 2009
To follow up on a story we blogged about early, the University of Akron has rescinded a policy that required all new hires to agree to submit to DNA testing if the school asked. It was a measure originally taken...

Do you get nervous during your students' final exam?

Posted on December 18, 2009
That's the question posed on PrawfsBlawg in which law schools profs exchange stories and comments about their anxiety over discovering a problem with an exam after it's been distributed to students. The post begins: My environmental law exam is set...

INS Announces Audits Of Employers

Posted on December 18, 2009
The Department of Homeland Security?s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (?ICE?) recently announced 9 that it would deliver I-9 audit notices immediately to approximately 1,000 employers across the country. It appears that the notices are primarily subpoenas for I-9 and supporting...

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