Author: Jeremy Paul
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Changes at the Top
Long time Harvard Law School, Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin, who now leads the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is leaving Cambridge for the sunny confines of Palo Alto, where she will become Dean of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. Story is here. Also this week, Brown University’s 19th President, Christina Paxson announced that the 2026-27 year, her 15th,…
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Book of the Week
Martin Krygier, Gordon Samuels Professor of Law and Social Theory at the University of New South Wales.has penned an erudite analysis of conventional approaches to the Rule of Law. Available reviews of Tempering Power suggest Krygier has presented a compelling case that the Rule of Law can only be understood in context and that we…
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Academic Freedom Threatened at West Point
We should all be following what’s happening at West Point, where Professor TIm Bakken is suing the military academy arguing that his First Amendment freedoms have been violated by new politicies that restrict what he may teach. A commentary on the controversy by Lucian Truscott is here and the Washington Post account of the the…
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Washington (state) Deans Weigh In
Following up on Dean Parrish’s earlier post detailing technical difficulties that forced cancellation of the bar exam’s July Administration, we see now that Seattle University Dean, Tony Varona, has penned a letter to the Washington Supreme Court urging that diploma privilege be granted to those whose tests were shut down. (note the actual letter corrected…
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Book of the Week
I followed the 2025 election for Chair of the Democratic National Committee quite closely because my son conducted a statement candidacy urging dramatic change in how the party functions, particularly in how it raises and spends money. Ken Martin, who won the contest, is a passionate defender of working people and has delivered an extraordinary…
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Fighting Autocracy: Lessons from Abroad
The July 13 Episode of Strict Scrutiny with host Professor Kate Shaw (UPenn) interviewing Princeton Professor Kim Lane Scheppele offers productive insights about the challenges facing democratic leaders who manage to take power away from autocrats. Don’t miss it. Also in that episode, Professor. Shaw directs us to this article from the NYTimes by Mattathias…
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How to Read a Legal Opinion
July winds down, and the fall semester will be on us before we know it. Always a good time to re-read Professor Orin Kerr’s (Stanford) introductory essay for law students explaining how to read a legal opinion. It’s among the best of the genre. It appeared in Green Bag, Autumn 2007, Volume 11, No. 1,…
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Book of the Week
Great books often begin with great questions. My wonderful colleague, Libby Adler, started with this one: “How might a socialist jurisdiction “do” lgbtq legal advancement differently from a jurisdiction, such as the US, where legal advocates have relied heavily on liberal rights to achieve formal equality but have done far less to economically destratify the…
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Is the Constitution up to the Task?
Vincent Rougeau, President of the College of the Holy Cross and former dean of Boston College Law School, has penned a provocative essay in America: The Jesuit Review wondering whether our current Constitution can still serve the values set forth in its preamble in light of the current polarization in U.S. politics. It’s an importan…
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Professor Sues to Block Dean’s Appointment
This is a hard story to piece together as there is always more behind the scenes than one can read in the press. The basic facts are that Ramsi A. Woodcock, a law professor at the J. David Rosenberg College of Law at the University of Kentucky has sued the university (and its president and…
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Book of the Week
During the first week of June, thanks to a recommendation from Vermont Law Professor (and my former colleague) Alexandra Meise, I had the privilege of attending the National Security Seminar at the U.S. Army War College. While there I attended a lecture delivered by and several discussion sessions led by Professor and Retired Lieutenant Colonel,…
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Faculty Workload Myth
The Chronicle of Higher Education ran this great piece by David Hummels and Jay Akridge explaining why state legislatures moving to increase teaching loads at state universities will accomplish virtually nothing to reduce student costs while doing great damage both to the quality of teaching and advising and to the universities’ research mission. You probably…
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Top Pre-Law Advisers
Juris Education, a private consulting outfit, has created a list of the nation’s top 50 pre-law advisers. Impossible to vouch for the quality of the section method, but enjoyable indeed to read about these wonderful people.. https://www.juriseducation.com/program-spotlight/50-best-pre-law-advisors
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Licensure Reform
Brian Gallini, Dean and Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law, argues persuasively that dramatic expansion in the number of ways to gain a law license should cause us to ditch the framing “alternative pathways”, as it wrongly treats passing the bar as the gold standard. Moreover, he urges the ABA to reformulate…
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Loss of a Legend: Rya W.Zobel
Judge Rya W. Zobel died on July 4 after a remarkable life and career. She escaped the Nazis, lost her father to Soviet prison camps (where her mother was also confined for years), and came to the US with her brother as an immigrant, speaking little English. Soon she had graduated Harvard Law School and…
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Book of the Week
Jennifer Gerarda Brown offers a novel entry into the crowded field of books designed to ease students’ path during the first year of law school. Not content merely to provide her own take on familiar issues, such as outlining, class notes, exam preparation, test-taking skills, and balancing the workload with a personal life that includes…
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National Jurist Launches Law School Excellence Awards
The National Jurist is launching the inaugural Law School Excellence Awards to recognize administrators, offices and programs that have made a meaningful difference in the student experience. You can offer nominations of those whom you admire or had the greatest impact on you at this link.According to the magazine, and unlike traditional rankings, these awards…
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Former Law Dean Set to Become Governor of Colorado.
Congratulations to Phil Weiser, Attorney General of Colorado, and, more important for readers here, former Dean of the University of Colorado Law School. On Tuesday, AG Weiser defeated Senator Michael Bennet in the Democratic primary to secure the Party’s nomination to serve as Colorado’s next Governor. Senator Bennet would have made a very good governor.…
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Book of the Week
What better way to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence than to gather 50 Harvard Law School Faculty members to write 1000 word essays reflecting on the nation’s past, and its future. Congrats to Harvard Professors Sasha Natapoff and Guy-Uriel E. Charles for assembling America Unfinished, which is due July 7 from…
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Deans Reflect on our Future
The University of Toledo Law Review has an esteemed tradition of collecting essays by law school deans on a variety of topics concerning the nature and future of legal education. The most recent instantiation is Volume 57, No. 2, WInter 2026, which you can find here. It contains essays by Nicholas Allard, Founding Randall C.…
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UDC names Angela Gilmore Dean
Congratulations to the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clarke School of Law for removing the “interim” from Angela Gilmore’s title and naming her the permanent dean. Dean Gilmore has had a distinguished career in leadership at UDC; as senior accreditation counsel for the American Bar Association; as associate dean for academic affairs…
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Book of the Week
In Gerontocracy in America, Samuel Moyn, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale, brings us a timely and insightful analysis of how older Americans have gathered and retained wealth and power at the potential expense of creating opportunities for succeeding generations. Consider the most mundane example of senior discounts offered at so many…
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Can Universities Survive AI
Nils Gilman, Senior Advisor to the Berggruen Institute and former Associate Chancellor of UC Berkeley has penned this very thoughtful essay in Persuasion. in which he explores the pressure AI will place on the structure of the university. The main theme is that the University in the 20th century historically combined several functions: research generating…
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American Constitution Society Convention
ACS opened its 25th anniversary convention at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Thursday evening with a panel emphasizing the role of State Attorneys General in defending the rule of law. Moderated by former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Kristen Clarke (far left), the panel featured California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, Minnesota’s Attorney…
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Cheating, Not Just an AI Problem
Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Thought at Amherst College, offers this commentary in The Conversation. He describes both his own conversations with students and a series of academic studies indicating that cheating in high school and college is far more widespread than we in the academy care to contemplate or…