This is my first post on TaxProf Blog, and I want to start by congratulating Paul Caron for his tireless contributions to our profession in authoring this blog for so many years.   My thanks, too, go to the AALS for continuing the effort and for inviting me to contribute here.

Let me then use this opening entry to say a bit about what legal education faces today.  One of my favorite colleagues repeats a standard line every time he’s in front of an audience.  Remember, he says, “the pace of change will never again be this slow.”   He is, of course, right.   And rapid change poses enormous challenges for our profession, which is built on the idea that legislators and regulators today can write rules that will effectively govern the way life will be lived tomorrow.

As I see it, legal educators can meet that challenge only with relentless focus on preparing students to insist on transparency from government leaders about what they are doing, to demand explanations from those in charge about why they are acting as they are, and to secure accountability to the broad public for the consequences of government decisions.   Those are the core principles behind “democracy and the rule of law” to which we are all committed. I will use these posts to highlight anything that helps us understand how better to uphold them.   I look forward to hearing from readers.   Welcome all.