Law School

Padding

Posted on March 07, 2008
I am a big sports fan but not that knowledgeable about ways to pad sports statistics. Of course, in basketball, total rebounds is not very useful. Offensive rebounds are critical. Points without much attention to attempts is pretty worthless. In baseball, I am not sure...

Liar's Poker Revisited

Posted on March 06, 2008
Lest we forget our literary inspirator's first book, the debacle with Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee illustrates key differences between practicing law and attending law school. As the next wave of law graduates approach entry into the market, this case helps to show why practicing law can sometimes be deflating to graduates after the law school experience...

Law School Advice Wiki

Posted on March 06, 2008
I have created a wiki to collect links of advice pro/contra/useful for aspiring law students.The link is here. To remember it, think anti-troll: http://lawschooladvicewiki.wikispaces.com/I have made this public, so that anyone can edit this wiki and do whatever it is that people do on wikis...

Good riddance

Posted on March 03, 2008
Herewith an open letter to Michael Stokes Paulsen, Distinguished University Chair and Professor at the University of Saint Thomas School of Law.Dear Mike,I just got around to reading your piece, Good Riddance, Jim Chen, You No-Good Lousy So-and-So, 24 Const...

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Is T.O. on Your Team?

Posted on March 03, 2008
Two posts below, Jim Chen has noted the importance of playing for the team as opposed to oneself. He is writing about the Louisville basketball team but suggests the question can be applied to other university units. No doubt, he is thinking about law schools...

Teaching (commercial) law

Posted on March 03, 2008
Editor's note: Overnight I posted this item on the new Jurisdynamics Network blog, Commercial Law. Given the post's connection to Beyond ratings: Actually doing our jobs, an item published on this forum in August 2006, I thought I'd post it here at MoneyLaw as well...

The name on the jersey

Posted on March 02, 2008
University of Louisville Men's BasketballSenior Class, 2008#43 Terrance Farley#4 David Padgett#3 Juan PalaciosSunday, March 2, was the home finale for the University of Louisville's men's basketball team. I was privileged to attend. The pregame ceremony honored three seniors who played their final game at Freedom Hall: Terrance Farley, David Padgett, and Juan Palacios...

Faking it

Posted on March 01, 2008
Looking back over the years I've served in some form of educational administration, I must confess that this was the single most effective pep talk I've given:I know you're hurting. For that I'm sorry. But for your sake and the school's as well, you must be cheerful...

A new blog: Commercial Law

Posted on February 28, 2008
The Jurisdynamics Network is pleased to announce a new member of its family of weblogs, Commercial Law. The law of sales, leases, payments, finance, and lending has manifested some of the most dramatic responses by the law to social, economic, and technological change...

The Ensemble Factor

Posted on February 27, 2008
Apropos of Jim's post on rookie legal academic talent, an underexplored aspect of talent assessment might be called the ensemble factor. A new hire, even a "best athlete," inescapably fits into an existing faculty ensemble. Some candidates present interesting possibilities to change the ensemble for the better...

There's a new sheriff in town--thanks, Green Bag!

Posted on February 27, 2008
Thanks to the Green Bag, there's going to be a new rankings system to compete with the USNWR rankings. Various blogs (including mine, here) have mentioned Green Bag's new Deadwood Report: see Inside Higher Education and Brian Leiter, along with the original article in the Green Bag...

Doing what comes naturally: Learning university administration on the job

Posted on February 26, 2008
The University of Colorado has named Bruce Benson as its president, and Stanley Fish's observations on this appointment are right on the money. A university "which dismissed controversial professor Ward Churchill because of doubts about his academic qualifications, has appointed a president who doesn?t have any...

Legal academia's rookie combine

Posted on February 26, 2008
First the Super Bowl, then the NFL combine. Mike Madison imagines how legal academia might emulate the drills by which National Football League scouts evaluate rookie talent:Passionate followers of professional football know that the National Football League is just now concluding its annual ?combine,? the camp where would-be draftees get timed, tested, and measured by pro scouts in anticipation of draft day...

The equalizer

Posted on February 26, 2008
Does the word equalizer (semi)automatically conjure images of the Colt .45? Or does The Equalizer mean Edward Woodward playing Robert McCall, hero of the mean streets? Scott Greenfield makes a strong case that blogging is the real equalizer:They say the Colt ...

Advice for New Assistant Professors

Posted on February 25, 2008
This may come from a sociology academic blog (Scatterplot), but I think the tips offered by "Olderwoman" are very instructive for new professors of any discipline. I am excerpting the ledes from the first five tips, but do go to the link above for the entire post--and the very good comments:1) Don?t take anything personally, especially not at first...

Sometimes They Make Your Point For You

Posted on February 24, 2008
Previously I posted a MoneyLaw approach to brief writing that my firm uses with success. Scott Greenfield took issue with my position and wrote a Conanesque response. Lacking authority or a Moneylaw thesis, Greenfield went with hyperbole: he claims never to have practiced in a world with smart, unbiased judges, and maintains that the judge will laugh at you if you submit an understated, even-keeled brief...

Faust's midlife crisis

Posted on February 24, 2008
Eugène Delacroix, Méphistophélès apparaissant à Faust (1827)Feeling all four or five or six of your decades? Ready to sell your soul, or at least to hear the terms you might be offered? Gut! Die Seelenmarkt ist Tag und Nacht geöffnet und wartet geduldig auf Dich...

Naked I came into the world

Posted on February 21, 2008
At the intersection of two posts, Julius Caesar was wrong and The lawful responsibility of time, lies the opening to the fictional journal of Cass Mastern, the spiritual gravity of center in Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men (1946):I was born in a log cabin in north Georgia, in circumstances of poverty, and if in later years I have lain soft and supped from silver, may the Lord not let die in my heart the knowledge of frost and of coarse diet...

Punditry In A Perfect World

Posted on February 20, 2008
One of the things that blawgers (myself excepted, of course) like to do is give broad advice to others about how to be the best lawyer you can be. Yes, it can be a bit pedantic, but if you can't be pedantic on a blawg, where can you be?Since I want to be the best lawyer possible too, I paid close attention to the newest addition to the MoneyLaw crew, who likes to call himself "MoneyLawyer...

Work and Identity

Posted on February 20, 2008
No one is their job, you say. People are more than the sum of their professions. What a limited view of humanity. Blah blah blah. This is certainly true. But then why do people introduce themselves as their professional roles? "Hi, I'm a doctor." "I'm a lawyer...

Hire no one

Posted on February 19, 2008
I am very flattered that Paul Horwitz thinks that I would have written Microcosmographia Academica if only I "traveled back in time and space to England in 1908." Thanks to Paul, the entire legal academy can now read F.M. Cornford's satire, free of charge, at sites in Kent and in Kentucky...

Job opportunities at the University of Louisville

Posted on February 18, 2008
The University of Louisville School of Law anticipates hiring visiting professors, both entry-level and experienced, for the 2008-09 academic year. We also anticipate hiring one or more visiting professors of legal writing; again, entry-level and experienced professors are invited to apply...

Word, ugh. What is it good for?

Posted on February 17, 2008
Betsy McKenzie has provided the world of legal blogging a fantastic service: she has compiled a definitive list of websites trashing Microsoft Word. Bill Gates's word processor probably delivers more anger in our verbally intense profession than any other computer application...

Is the Socratic Method Hiding in Your Closet?

Posted on February 16, 2008
Putting aside the arrogance of a title like ?Best Practices for Legal Education,? this book is no doubt motivated by good intentions and includes many good, albeit often obvious, ideas. I was cruising along reading it and agreeing with most until I hit the chapter on ?delivering instruction...

Julius Caesar was wrong: A two-act post

Posted on February 15, 2008
Let me have men about me that are fat;Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.— William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act I, sc. 2Act IThe historic Julius Caesar was star-crossed; he died one week short of the vernal equinox and one civil war short of full-blown, de jure empire...

Too cruel anywhere

Posted on February 15, 2008
To the Northern Illinois University community, in sympathy and shared grief.

Soul journey: A trip to an enigma at the heart of legal education

Posted on February 14, 2008
This is a very long and ambitious post. Because MoneyLaw enjoys the services of Gil Grantmore, the legal blogosphere's finest disembodied webmaster, it will contain extraordinary amounts of visual and audio information. I will proceed in three steps:An introduction to Gillian Welch, one of my favorite musiciansA psuedo-synesthetic presentation of Wrecking Ball , the final cut on Gillian Welch's 2003 album, Soul JourneyA discussion of an enigma at the heart of contemporary legal educationI hope you enjoy it...

Don't Ask the Judge for an Emotional Investment

Posted on February 13, 2008
It may be hard to quantify, but we can easily define a lawyer's job in MoneyLaw terms: make best efforts to bring about a favorable outcome for the client. To accomplish this job, we spend much of our time writing to the judge in the form of pre-trial and post-trial motions...

We Have Met the Enemy . . .

Posted on February 13, 2008
I was sitting with a few colleagues recently and the issue of student performance was the topic. One on the people there produced a list of things the students cannot do: 1) read and follow directions, 2) carefully read fact patterns, 3) apply the law to the facts (this is a big one, they seem to not understand what legal analysis is or why the facts are important), 4) spot large issues...

The tyranny of the clock

Posted on February 12, 2008
[T]he monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition.— Tennessee Williams, The Catastrophe of SuccessI had occasion of late to send two slim volumes of American literature. I sent a dear friend a set of short stories by Carson McCullers, including The Ballad of the Sad Café...

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