Academic

AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference: Returning Telephone Calls

Posted on September 15, 2009
Over at Prawfsblawg, one can cut the anxiety with a chainsaw as candidates (many adopting the moniker "anon" or some variation thereof) trade updates and questions on interview scheduling for the "meat market." I started making telephone calls last week...

Ballerina Epistemology

Posted on September 15, 2009
As legal scholars, we often find ourselves on a side of an issue where it is difficult to comprehend the other side. Many times, understanding the opposing side is a teleological triumph unto itself. In my Family Law classes, I...

What Corporate Insiders Say About Why Diversity Matters (Sotomayor And The Value Of Diversity, Part IV

Posted on September 14, 2009
In my prior post on this topic, Money Is Diversity Or Diversity Is Money?, I discussed performance-based rationales for board diversity, but noted that there is no consensus on the crucial question of whether board diversity improves corporate performance...

Social Sciences Citation Index and Law Faculty Rankings

Posted on September 14, 2009
I haven't blogged about rankings in, oh, a while--maybe not since the US News rankings came out this spring? (Ok -- I had a fun post on the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, which was feature on Law and Order,...

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US-China Trade War Erupting: Remember Smoot-Hawley?

Posted on September 14, 2009
The Financial Times is reporting that the Obama administration's decision to impose special high tariffs on Chinese auto tires has caused China to consider retaliatory trade barriers against imposts of American poultry and autos. Chinese tires are, of course, but...

Cartoons in the Academy

Posted on September 14, 2009
Cruise the halls of a typical grouping of faculty offices in any law school, and several cartoons are sure to adorn the walls and doors. Some are funny in a mild-mannered way, while others can be quite political. Are cartoon...

Mice Levitate; Are People Next?

Posted on September 13, 2009
Am I the only one who enjoyed this weekend story about levitating mice? Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge have succeeded in levitating mice...."We first tried a fully conscious mouse, and he didn't like it very...

Weekend Links

Posted on September 13, 2009
What not to say on your blog (especially if you?re a public defender): that your client lied to the court, and that certain judges are clueless or a-holes, among other things. ABA Journal. James Boyle, A Copyright Black Hole Swallows...

Half of Britons Injured While Eating Biscuits

Posted on September 12, 2009
The Telegraph, via Tyler Cowen. Half of Britons surveyed report being injured while eating biscuits. Risks include such varied hazards as scalding from hot tea or coffee while dunking, breaking a tooth, injury from flying fragments, people poking themselves in...

Law Schools (and by implication, lawyers)

Posted on September 12, 2009
There has been a lot of talk lately about whether there are too many law schools, and whether new ones should be opening or not (especially the "not" part of that). The arguments are many, but they seem to focus...

The Magic No. 15

Posted on September 12, 2009
As the fall submission season (I assume) is coming to a close, I thought I'd muse on the number 15. For some reason, I've always found that when trying to trade articles up within the top 30 or 40 general...

Weekend Musing

Posted on September 12, 2009
Thoughts after seeing a "What Would Hitler Do" sign during coverage of this morning's "tea party" protest: It?s a pity we can?t just seriously divide the country in two. On one side, all you people who don?t want ?socialism? can...

Baseball Trivia: All-Star Games

Posted on September 12, 2009
Identify the players who hold these all-star game records: Hitters: 1. Most career hits. 2. Most career RBI?s. 3. Most career home runs. Pitchers: 4. Most appearances. 5. Most starts. 6. Most innings pitched. Miscellaneous: 7. Most career appearances...

Sexism, Collusion, and the Price of Eggs

Posted on September 12, 2009
Over at doublex, Kerry Howley's talking about Kim Krawiec's paper Sunny Samaritans and Egomaniacs: Price-Fixing in the Gamete Marketa. Howley said she was afraid that Kim's paper on "would send me into a Joe-Wilsonesque fit of rage." But there are...

Goodbye Buies Creek, Hello Raleigh!

Posted on September 11, 2009
A big shout-out to our friends at Campbell University's Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, which opens the doors today to its new facility in Raleigh (bottom of picture). Story here. Details of the facility here. May the transition be...

Success Is In the Eye of The Beholder

Posted on September 11, 2009
. . . or rather the camera angle. This "robbery" looks very different from the first video footage shown than from the following three. Via Rolfe Winkler:

Google Books Settlement: The Go-To Guy

Posted on September 11, 2009
For anyone who has been following or even just wondering about the Google Books Settlement, it seems to me the go-to guy is James Grimmelman over at the Laboratorium. Not only is James up (very, very up) on the settlement,...

Conference on Empirical Legal Studies - Update

Posted on September 11, 2009
At long last the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS) has come up with its tentative conference schedule (i.e. what papers were accepted). It is available here. This year, CELS will be held at the University of Southern California School...

Mentoring Junior Faculty: Confidentiality versus Conflict of Interest

Posted on September 11, 2009
As a research dean, one of my roles is to ensure that we have a workable mentoring program in place for tenure track faculty. For some years, the school has been playing with the structure and contours of its tenure...

Casebook Authors, Don?t Let Your Students Read Ian Ayres

Posted on September 11, 2009
Unless you want to shell out some rebate money, that is. In a post over at Freakonomics today, Ayres reveals that he paid out more than $150 in rebate money to his contracts small section this year, because he assigned...

Bad legal writing

Posted on September 11, 2009
Rob Heverley's post, about Larry Cunningham's criticism of starting sentences with "so", reminded me of the very worst brief I ever read while I was in legal practice. The case involved the discharge of an employee for alleged misconduct. I...

Newspapers

Posted on September 11, 2009
I have been following, albeit not closely enough, the trials and travails of the newspaper industry. From general complaints by the industry that the web is challenging it unfairly, to newspapers both cutting staff and shutting down (even when they...

Obama Picks Progressive Law Prof/Judge, Denny Chin, For Second Circuit

Posted on September 10, 2009
The WSJ Law Blog is reporting that the Obama administration will select Denny Chin to fill a vacancy on the Second Circuit. (There are currently four open slots on the Second Circuit.) Chin is 55. He moved to the U.S....

Poverty At State U? Alabama Signs Nick Saban To $42.35 Million Coaching Contract

Posted on September 10, 2009
Formally, at least, the University of Alabama Crimson Tide football team is affiliated with - indeed, part of - the University of Alabama. Times may be tough for state education budgets, and with an 11% cut this year, Alabama is...

So . . . a Sequal

Posted on September 10, 2009
Last week Dave Hoffman made the following observation on writing and word usage: "All else equal, shorter law review articles are better than longer ones. But bloat?s allies are legion: editors; footnote-related positional competition; bad publisher incentives, etc...

Wanted: Faculty Candidate Who Has Been Anointed To Teach Secured Transactions, Payment Systems, Bankruptcy, And Other Commercial Law Courses. Must Have High EQ.

Posted on September 10, 2009
My friend, Beau Baez (pictured), is the chair of the faculty appointments committee at Charlotte School of Law. In a recent hiring-related post over at Prawfsblawg, Beau wrote: Our primary focus will be on those that will fit in with...

To Re(view) or not to Re(view)?

Posted on September 10, 2009
It seems to be that time of year where I'm receiving a ton of requests to review articles for peer-reviewed journals - as I suspect many of you are too. They are not all law journals as I do a...

Law School Dean Searches, 2009-10 Edition

Posted on September 10, 2009
I'm going to get started a bit earlier this year in creating a list of law schools currently doing a dean search. In light of this week's announcement out of the University of Chicago, it appears that one position has...

Money Is Diversity, Or Diversity Is Money? (Sotomayor And The Value Of Diversity, Part III)

Posted on September 10, 2009
In my prior post on this topic, Do The Right Thing, So Long As It?s Free, I discussed fairness arguments related to corporate board diversity, but noted that serious discussion of board diversity (both academically and in the business community)...

Cincinnati Needs A Visitor

Posted on September 09, 2009
Over at TaxProf Blog, editor Paul Caron has posted this announcement: Due to the sudden retirement of a colleague, we are looking for a 2010 Spring Semester visitor to teach Corporations I and one other business-related course at the University...

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