Outgoing Louisville Dean Jim Chen reviews Failing Law Schools (University of Chicago Press, June 15, 2012), by Brian Z. Tamanaha (Washington U.):
Legal education is a broken, failed, even corrupt enterprise. It exalts and enriches law professors at the expense of lawyers, the legal profession, and most of all the students whose tuition dollars finance the entire scheme. With hard numbers and piercing insights, Brian Z. Tamanaha tells the disturbing, scandalous truth. His book is essential reading for anyone who is even contemplating law school, much less committing to a career in law teaching. With any luck, his book will inspire law professors and law school deans who have no other career options to subject themselves to the deepest levels of ethical introspection, the better to lead legal education back into the service of its true stakeholders.
Other reviews of Failing Law Schools:
- Chronicle of Higher Education
- Stanley Fish (Florida International)
- Scott Greenwald (here and here)
- Bill Henderson (Indiana)
- Orin Kerr (George Washington)
- Brian Leiter (Chicago)



