Legal Commentary

If We Laugh, The Terrorists Win

Posted on September 02, 2010
Is there an informal norm against humor in legal environs? If so, what are the contours of the norm? My answers are ?yes? and ?I?m not sure.? Humor exists in the law: in trials, in appellate argument, in client meetings, in classrooms. About that there is no doubt...

Dean Searching

Posted on September 02, 2010
Here at University of San Diego we have begun a dean searching year. Our current dean Kevin Cole announced that he will be stepping down at the end of this year. Kevin and his predecessor Dan Rodriguez (who hired me and immediately announced the completion of his tenure as law dean...

What Class That Is Currently Optional At Many Law Schools Should Be Made Mandatory?

Posted on September 01, 2010
I would like to thank Dan Markel for inviting me back for another guest stint at PrawfsBlawg. The last time I was here, I led my posts with an entry about what class more law schools should add to their curricula. I ended up getting some very good responses: classes in plea bargaining, depositions, law firm management, statistics, state constitutionalism, etc...

Course Releases vs. Reducing the Teaching Load

Posted on September 01, 2010
As usual, I should begin with an apology for my sporadic (if ever there was a euphemism) blogging here as of late. Part of it has been guest-stints elsewhere; part of it has been a little bit of writing (why can't book reviews have 24,000 words?!?). But I hope to resume relatively normal Prawfs status shortly, and am bolstered in my hopes by the fact that I have a course release this fall, meaning that I'm teaching one class, as opposed to our usual two (we're a fairly strict 2+2 school, regardless of credits or enrollments)...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Two (or more) Bodies: Problem or Opportunity?

Posted on September 01, 2010
Not sure how I ended up on its email distribution list but I often receive email blasts from the American Association of University Professors. Today's was about how universities could address the increasingly challenging situation of hiring faculty with a partner or spouse who is also an academic...

Greetings

Posted on September 01, 2010
Greetings. Brendan Maher here, and I'm very much looking forward to guest-posting over the next month. I?m particularly fond of civil procedure and ERISA and especially love talking about the latter, which might make me the most boring cocktail guest in the entire world...

Wannabes: Go to Phoenix

Posted on August 31, 2010
Some of my peeps at ASU are hosting a cool conference on Oct 2 for those folks who are aspiring to get in the teaching law game. It's a pretty good setup, naturally, and more evidence of ASU bringing their a-game. (Yes, they're hosting Prawfsfest! 8 in December--how could you tell?)

Rotations

Posted on August 31, 2010
Hard to believe that the new month is soon upon us, and with it, the indisputable end to summer. Alas. One bright shining light amidst this gloom: rotations! I'm thrilled to welcome for the first time at the blog Emily Gold Waldman (Pace) and Brendan Maher (OKCU); and to welcome back some familiar voices including Rick Esenberg (Marquette); Lior Strahilevitz (UChicago); Susan Kuo (South Carolina); and Colin Miller (JMLS)...

My Devalued Marriage

Posted on August 31, 2010
I recently kissed my wife good-bye at the airport and took off for California, where, just days before, a federal district court had declared a ban on gay marriage to be unconstitutional. Many of those who support the ban on gay marriage argue that marriage between a man and a woman will be devalued if same-sex couples are allowed to marry...

The Dude From Stratford-Upon-Avon Abides

Posted on August 31, 2010
I'm happy to say that the phenomenal Shakespeare-Coen Brothers mashup The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, which I believe I posted about at some point, is going to be published in book form. More here. As if I needed to say more to recommend it, here is a stage direction from the work: Alarums...

Tea Parties and the Ethnocentrism of the Left

Posted on August 30, 2010
The recent event to ?restore honor? hosted by Glenn Beck before the Washington Monument provides an occasion to ask once more that question that occupied blogs and op-ed pages back in April: Are Tea Partiers or other attendees at these virtually 100% white and conservative events ?racist?? My perverse inclination is to answer, ?of course ? and so are we all...

Form and Substance in the Reform of American Legal Education

Posted on August 30, 2010
The reform-of-legal-education blogging bandwagon continues to roll. In the legal blogosphere, a good deal of attention has been paid in particular to Jason Mazzone's post at Balkinization suggesting the division of the law school into two physically separate departments, one focused on the study of law as an academic subject and the other on professional education in lawyering...

Shawn Bayern's Conveyance Interpreter

Posted on August 29, 2010
My FSU colleague, the incomparable Shawn Bayern, is generously circulating an instructional tool for those who teach property. Here's how wunderprawf Al Brophy describes and reacts to this new teaching tool over at the Property Prof Blog. I've been worried for some time about computers taking over; here's more evidence of it...

PrawfsPuzzler: Law Prawfs Crawsword!

Posted on August 29, 2010
The first-ever Prawfs crossword puzzle! (Or should we say "crawsword" puzzle?) There's only one special thing to note: In keeping with the hide-the-ball and antique-language traditions of law school, no warning is given in the clue when Latin is required...

The Rise (and Rise?) of the Skype Interview

Posted on August 29, 2010
Through the grapevine, I've now heard that some schools are asking/requiring candidates to do Skype interviews first. I'm not sure if this is in lieu of a DC screening interview or as a pre-cursor to one, but I was wondering what y'all thought of this as a practice that appcomms should adopt...

More on "Whither Law Schools?"

Posted on August 28, 2010
The posts by Rick and by Kristen Holmquist below on legal education are very interesting. I also recommend both Jonathan Adler's post on the subject at the VC, as well as the comments on it (sometimes because they are right and sometimes because they illustrate some deeply held views about legal education)...

Van Zandt steps down as dean at Northwestern

Posted on August 27, 2010
David Van Zandt, long-serving dean at Northwestern (my beloved alma mater) is stepping down to become president of The New School in New York. Van Zandt has served as dean since 1995 (he was hired during my 1L year) and has overseen some major curricular and faculty initiatives...

"Preaching What They Don't Practice"

Posted on August 27, 2010
A number of law-blogs have taken note of this paper, by Bruce Newton, called "Preaching What They Don't Practice: Why Law Faculties' Preoccupation with Impractical Scholarship and Devaluation of Practical Competencies Obstruct Reform in the Legal Academy" (Phew!)...

Law School and Lawyering: A Post by Kristen Holmquist (BerkeleyLaw)

Posted on August 27, 2010
Hey there - stopping by again to throw my two cents into the whither-law-school debate. As Rick Garnett notes below, the Bruce Newton piece "Preaching What They Don't Practice: Why Law Faculties' Preoccupation with Impractical Scholarship and Devaluation of Practical Competencies Obstruct Reform in the Legal Academy" has gotten more than a little attention around the law blogs in the last few days...

What Can You Accomplish as a Lawyer? Renowned Lawyer and Legal Scholar Bruce Winick Has Died

Posted on August 26, 2010
I've just received the sad news that my friend and former colleague Bruce Winick, distinguished professor of Law & Medicine at the University of Miami School of Law for some 36 years has died. Bruce will be most remembered as the co-founder, along with David Wexler of the University of Arizona, James E...

Free, Downloadable Casebook for Torts

Posted on August 26, 2010
This week I posted Volume One of a freely downloadable casebook for torts. After using three different casebooks over the past three years (I like changing things up), I decided to create my own for this year. It's available as a pdf through SSRN. Not only should all instructors and students feel free to download this casebook and use it for free, but if any instructor out there would like to customize it, add to it, delete from it, etc...

Criminal Justice and the Constitution in 2020: An ACS Conference at FSU

Posted on August 26, 2010
I'm thrilled to announce an upcoming conference at Florida State Law about "Criminal Justice and the Constitution in 2020." Everyone's invited--please tell all your crimprof friends, among others. Florida State University College of Law and the American Constitution Society are pleased to present a symposium dedicated to an exploration of current and future developments in crime control and equality, punishment and the Constitution, national security and liberty, and citizenship and community...

Policing Decorum in the Limited Public (Social Media) Forum

Posted on August 25, 2010
I have been researching the circumstances under which government sponsored social media sites should be treated as limited public forums. One issue I?ve been examining is whether a government actor who creates, say, a Facebook page that is set up to be a limited public forum constitutionally may police ?decorum? within the forum by eliminating speech ?flagged? as profanity or hateful or defamatory speech...

New paper: Cooperation's Cost

Posted on August 25, 2010
I have a new paper, forthcoming in Wash U's Law Review next year, entitled Cooperation's Cost. The paper got its first workshop start with a grilling from the gang at Prawfsfest! 6 at Southwestern, and then proceeded to a number of exciting and helpful venues, culminating with the Stanford/Yale Jr...

Where Are We Now after Ricci v. DeStefano?

Posted on August 25, 2010
As mentioned a few weeks ago, Prawfs is hoping to serve as a repository for some of the intellectual life that happens at conferences like SEALS. Thanks to SLU's Marcia McCormick, we now have a document that integrates the reactions and comments of the various speakers on her panel (see below)...

Favorite Professorial Phraseologies

Posted on August 25, 2010
Is there a turn of phrase that one of your law school professors used that has stuck with you through the years? For me, it was something Gerald Frug said. I had him for contracts. He had so many wonderful phraseologies, but my favorite was, "Honestly speaking, it's delicious!" As I remember it, it was used to emphasize something ironic that came out of a case...

Are Word Limits for Suckers? (Guest post by Mark Fenster (U-Fla))

Posted on August 25, 2010
You may recall the big deal that was made some years ago (I believe it was 2005) when top journals declared a moratorium on the behemoth law review article. It was supposed to allow for more and more readable articles to be published -- a real boon, ultimately, for scholarship and a relief both for readers and authors...

The Faculty Retreat

Posted on August 24, 2010
I'm about to dash off to class to teach my first class of the year (greetings criminal procedure students!), but I noticed via facebook the other day that someone had just returned from a "faculty retreat." Unless I'm not invited to them, FSU's law school doesn't have these retreats, perhaps because living in Tallahassee is already such a verdant paradise :-) But I am curious: what goes on at these retreats? We have a very good workshop culture here for both internal and external presenters so it seems a bit odd to go to a nice resort to do the...

Taking the "N-Word" out of the Ghetto

Posted on August 24, 2010
The status of the "N-word" was recently placed in issue by Laura Schlessinger's repeated use of it in a radio broadcast and her subsequent resignation from the show in the wake of the ensuing controversy. Schlessinger did not use the word as an epithet...

(Business) License to Blog

Posted on August 23, 2010
Philadelphia is now charging bloggers $300 for a business license. One of the bloggers being charged the licensing fee made a grand total of $11 off of his blog. Forcing bloggers to pay the fee may be penny wise from a revenue raising perspective, but it is pound foolish with regard to fostering the richness of public discourse.

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.