Author: Austen Parrish
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Rural Justice, Legal Deserts, and Alternative Pathways in New Mexico
Last week, justices on the New Mexico Supreme Court justices presented the state’s “Rural Justice and Modernizing the Legal Profession in New Mexico” report. You can find the report here. More details from Law.com: Two New Mexico Supreme Court justices are exploring ways to address legal deserts within the state, including a skills-based assessment initiative.…
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Debate Over Accreditation Intensifies as States Push Changes
The latest from Karen Sloan at Reuters on the debates around ABA law school accreditation: With three states sidelining the American Bar Association in lawyer licensing over the past year and more poised to follow, ABA defenders on Monday warned that ending reliance on the organization’s law school oversight will hurt students, graduates, law schools…
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Clinical Education and AI
From The National Law Review a piece by Katherine Hughes (Fordham Law School) on clinical education and AI, and how clinics can help prepare “the next generation of lawyers more fully to practice and to understand the world they are practicing in.” From the article: In a field undergoing rapid technological transformation, how can law…
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FAMU Law Appoints Simone Marstiller as Dean
From the announcement: Florida A&M University (FAMU) has appointed Simone Marstiller, J.D., as dean of FAMU College of Law, effective July 1, 2026. Marstiller brings more than two decades of distinguished leadership experience spanning the judiciary, state government, regulatory affairs, and legal practice. Her appointment reflects the University’s commitment to academic excellence, student success, and…
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Upcoming State Elections Could Impact Legal Education
From a story in the ABA Journal: The upcoming state elections could shape legal education, particularly related to diversity, equity and inclusion, according to a new report by the AccessLex Institute. Later this year, 39 gubernatorial elections will happen in states where 21 governors are either term-limited or not seeking reelection, according to the National Governors Association. In…
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Deans Driving AI Innovation in Legal Education
A new story in The National Law Review on how law school deans are responding to AI innovation in law schools. Artificial intelligence is no longer a peripheral issue for legal education. It is quickly becoming one of the central questions facing law schools: how to prepare future lawyers for a profession in which AI…
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A Conversation on the Accreditation of Law Schools
National Experts will convene (virtually) to examine ABA Accreditation and discuss the future of legal education. The webinar is hosted by the Houston Bar Association on Monday, June 29, 2026, from 2:00-5:00 p.m. Central Time. It involves “fifteen leaders in legal education, including Kellye Y. Testy, CEO and executive director of the Association of American…
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Teaching Strategies for Creating Community
An article from last year from Sara Berman and Barrett Schreiner (both from USC Gould School of Law) on Teaching Strategies For Building Belonging and Creating Community in Online and In-Person Legal Education has been published in the St. Mary’s Law Journal. From the introduction: Community and belonging are interrelated yet differ in important ways;…
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Forbes: What Law School Grads Need To Know Now
A piece in Forbes by Joseph Andrew (former Global Chairman of Dentons) on how AI is changing the legal profession and the skills junior lawyers will need. The introduction is a bit odd — not sure any law schools “focus on academics or celebrity alumni” as graduation speakers, many schools are “meeting the moment,” and…
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LSAC & NALP Report: Impact of Accelerated Big Law Recruitment
NALP and Law School Admission Council (LSAC) examine the impact of accelerated Big Law recruiting on first-year law students in a new report. You can find the report here and an introduction to it can be found on the LSAC website. From NALP Executive Director Nikia Gray: “To date, conversations about accelerated recruiting have been…
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Law Jobs: Historic High for US Legal Jobs; NALP Podcast
Lots happening in the legal market. An interesting piece by Karen Sloan on the historic high of legal markets jobs in May suggesting “that the rapid adoption of legal AI tools has not yet impacted staffing, even as experts predict it may in the near future.” From Reuters: The U.S. legal sector posted another historic…
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Legal Writing Awards & 22nd LWI Conference
Each year, the Legal Writing Institute presents several national awards for contributions to legal writing. Last week, the University of Oregon announced that Prof. Rebekah Hanley (Oregon Law) had received the Legal Writing Institute’s (LWI) 2026 Mary S. Lawrence Innovation Award. This followed an announcement earlier in the year that Tamara Herrera (ASU Law) had…
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International Students Enrollment Declines: Economic and Broader Harms to Americans
We’re seeing more analysis and information describing the significant economic and broader harms caused by federal policies that have resulted in plummeting international student enrollment in the United States. The most recent is an article published on June 8 that shows “the state of international enrollment in 6 charts.” Another article from June 7 (“We…
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Law Deans and Principles of Professional Independence
Stories in the ABA Journal and Law.com cover a recent letter sent by former and current law deans to “former judges John E. Jones III, from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Shira A. Scheindlin, from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, who led the…
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Touro Law Center to Establish New Campus in Montana
From one of the articles covering the announcement: Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center has received approval from the American Bar Association to establish a law school campus in Great Falls, Montana, and will start recruiting and enrolling for the inaugural cohort to begin in August 2027. The Great Falls campus of Touro Law…
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Prof. Lawsky’s Entry-Level Hiring Report (2025-2026)
Lots of data available in Sarah Lawsky‘s Entry-Level Hiring Report (lasted edited 05/31/26). From the report, “there were 105 tenure-track hires at U.S. law schools reported, at 75 different law schools.” How does 105 reported hires compare to past years? As the report indicates “Consistent with the last few years. The average number of hires…
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New Law Teacher’s Workshop
Later this week, AALS will host its annual Workshop for New Law Teachers in Washington, D.C. From the program description: The Workshop for New Law Teachers is an opportunity for faculty who have been teaching for three years or less to build networks, establish mentors, and share their experiences, questions, and concerns as new academics…
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States Sue Over Grad Student Loan Limits
Perhaps of interest to those following the impact of the new loan legislation. Last week, Inside Higher Ed described new litigation brought by 25 states (you can find the lawsuit’s complaint at this link). The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration issued a final rule that unlawfully narrowed the pre-existing federal definition of a professional…
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Washington State and ABA Accreditation
A fair amount of coverage of Washington State’s recent decision to recognize graduates from non-ABA accredited law schools in other states as qualifying for admission and licensure. Information from the Washington State Bar Association’s Board of Governors meeting can be found on their website (on pages 153-155 of the meeting materials). From Reuters: Washington state…
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UNC Law Appoints New Dean
Adding to a recent post on law school dean appointments and reappointments, Andy Hessick has been named dean of the UNC Law (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). From the announcement: Andy Hessick, who has served as interim dean of UNC School of Law since September 2025, has accepted the role on a permanent basis, effective…
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LSAC Update on In-Person Testing
Yesterday, LSAC provided an update on the return to in-person testing. While the LSAT will be offered in August, September, October, November, January, February, April, and June (as well as the LSAT-Puerto Rico in February), LSAC will require “in-person testing for the LSAT, starting with the August 2026 test, with only limited exceptions for test…
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Educational Series Focused on Safeguarding Professional Independence
Thanks to Jim Greif for a nice story in AALS Lens on the recently concluded AALS webinar series on professional independence and the legal profession. The six webinars were organized by seven law schools, and the recordings for all six sessions in the series can be found on the AALS website and YouTube Channel. Here is…
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AI and Legal Education
A thoughtful piece by Dean Danielle Conway (Penn State Dickinson Law), Dean Richard Moberly (Univ. of Nebraska College of Law) and AALS Executive Director Kellye Testy in Bloomberg Law. A small excerpt: AI adoption has serious risks, including lack of transparency, the importance of disclosure, and disparate economic impact. But the truth, and the landscape…
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Law School Dean Appointments and Reappointments
A flurry of law school dean appointments and reappointments have occurred over the last month. Some of these announcements have been reported before on this blog, but from April alone this includes: And significant coverage continues over the controversial appointment at the University of Kentucky of Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove over the law faculty’s objections.…
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All Those A.I. Note Takers? They’re Making Lawyers Very Nervous.
A recent piece from the New York Times. Does sharing a meeting with an AI bot/AI note taker void the attorney-client privilege, rendering otherwise privileged conversations discoverable? From the article: “In February, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the transcripts generated with the Claude…