Author: Kevin R Johnson
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Book Review: “BigLaw’s Race Problem”
Colleges and universities for years have sought to diversify student bodies and faculties. Law schools have as well. Although there has been some improvement, most would agree that there is much work to be done Law firms have found it considerably more difficult to diversify the attorney ranks. Things are not likely to get much
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Stephen A. Rosenbaum, An Essay on Constructive Outrage: Law School in the Times of the MAGA Supreme Court and Trump 2.0
It is almost summer time and time to think of new courses for next year (and divert attention from grading exams). Stephen A. Rosenbaum lays out an interesting idea for a topical first year law school course in An Essay on Constructive Outrage: Law School in the Times of the MAGA Supreme Court and Trump 2.0,
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Ranker: The Best Songs About Law and Lawyers
Ranker ‘s Top 10 Best Songs About Law And Lawyers MB_51973_50819_MA_EN_tch_IDO_Vid_Res_1920x1080 The Ranker list includes ten more tunes.
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Law School Pathway Programs
LawHub has compiled a list of “programs available that are dedicated to expanding access to legal education and that specifically focus on supporting individuals while they explore and pursue their interest in law. Participating in one of these programs can help [a potential applicant] build the skills . . . to succeed in law school
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Best Law School Movie of All Time: The Paper Chase or Legally Blonde?
What is the best law school movie of all time? There are a few contenders but a couple are especially well-known. So is it the dated The Paper Chase (1973) or the comedy Legally Blonde (2001)? The Paper Chase (1973) – The first time Hart answers questions from Kingsfield (10) Legally Blonde (2001) | Official
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A Thought Provoking Article: Paulette Brown, More than Equity Is Required: The Enhanced Impact of Racism on Women of Color in the Legal Profession
This article got me thinking about the future of the legal profession: Paulette Brown, More than Equity Is Required: The Enhanced Impact of Racism on Women of Color in the Legal Profession, 105 B.U. L. Rev. 1321 (2025). Here is the abstract: This Essay examines the experiences of women of color in the legal profession and the
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Can AI Help Improve and Make More Efficient Admissions and Faculty Hiring?
My experience has been that admissions and faculty hiring take a considerable amount of time and effort. Some question whether it is worth it (especially when it comes to the use of their time). Troy Lowry for the Law School Admissions Council has written about the “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of AI
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The Conversation: We teach at a Florida university that agreed to cooperate with ICE – and we worry that it is making our students feel less safe
“At least 15 Florida state universities and colleges have signed agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that authorize campus police to carry out immigration enforcement.” For The Conversation, two professors write that “[w]e teach at a Florida university that agreed to cooperate with ICE – and we worry that it is making our students
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5 U.S. Law Schools to Carefully Consider (or Not) in 2025
At this time of year, the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings are on the minds of law faculty, students, staff, and administrators. Academicful notes that “[w]hile some [law] schools are highly rated, some are the exact opposite. These schools have low GPAs, poor job placement rates, low employment rates, and other unimpressive
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From the Bookshelves: Teaching Law by Design: Engaging Students from the Syllabus to the Final Exam
Teaching Law by Design: Engaging Students from the Syllabus to the Final Exam Third Edition by Michael Hunter Schwartz, Sophie M. Sparrow, Olympia Duhart, Gerald F. Hess Carolina Academic Press, 2026 Here is the Press’s pitch: “Professors Michael Hunter Schwartz, Sophie Sparrow, Olympia Duhart, and Gerry Hess, experts and leaders in legal education, have collaborated to offer a third
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Law Schools Ranked by Best Local Pizza
Will the rankings never cease? Pizza is part of the law school experience. I still remember Three Aces Pizza (now closed) on Mass Ave in Cambridge. ChatGPT listed the following as the top 5 law schools with the best pizza nearby: 1. UCLA School of Law (Los Angeles, CA) 2. New York Law School (Tribeca,
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Best Law Schools for Coffee
Message Co-Pilot cautioned that “No major ranking organization evaluates law schools by coffee quality, so there is no official list of `law schools ranked by best coffee.’ However, several campuses are widely known—informally and anecdotally—for having exceptional coffee cultures due to strong campus cafés, local roasters, and student reputation. . . . Below is a
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Law Schools Ranked by Best Steak Restaurants
Message Copilot warned me that“Here’s the truth: no reputable ranking system evaluates law schools based on nearby steak restaurants — but we can pair top law schools with cities known for elite steakhouses.” Here is the list generated: 1. Columbia Law School — New York City 2. University of Chicago Law School — Chicago 3.
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Top Law Schools in Government Law?
As has been posted, National Jurist recently announced its “Top Schools for Government Law.” The methodology is described as follows: “preLaw magazine grades law schools based on the breadth of their curricular offerings. The scores are figured as follows: 30% for a concentration, 24% for a clinic, 12% for a center, 12% for an externship,
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Law School’s Ranked by Median LSAT Score
Click here to see a rankings by law school median LSAT score. Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, and Columbia top the list.
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From the Bookshelves: How to Lead Academic Departments Successfully
It struck me that this book might be of interest to law school leaders. How to Lead Academic Departments Successfully Second Edition 2025 Edited by Adam Lindgreen, Professor, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark and Extraordinary Professor, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Alan Irwin, Professor, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School and
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National Jurist: Top law schools for estate planning law
On April 1, National Jurist listed its Top law schools for estate planning law. Here is a selection from that list compiled by the National Jurist: Top law schools for estate planning law School Name Honor Roll Baylor University B+ Oklahoma City University B+ South Texas Houston A- Texas A&M University A- University of Miami
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LSAC: 2025 1L Class Was Largest in Recent Years, but First-Gen College Grad Representation Declines Again
The Quote of the Day from Above the Law offers much food for thought: This should serve as a wake-up call to everyone in legal education. This shift is particularly concerning because first-gen college graduates are a vital way to broaden who gets to be a part of the legal profession and what it means
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Is a law degree “worth” the cost in terms of return-on-investment?
Brian Leiter has posted on the question: “The answer is still `emphatically’ yes. Lawprof Sloan Speck reviews some recent research on the topic.” Check out the post and Professor Speck’s analysis.
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Law Schools for U.S. Presidents
In 2024 on the eve of the presidential election, the ABA Journal ran an article about law schools attended by modern presidents. Among the five modern presidents with law degrees, four are from law schools ranked among the top 14 schools by U.S. News & World Report. The fifth, President Joe Biden, is a 1968
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Best Law Fiction for Law Students & Lawyers
Law Prep Tutorial in its Best Books for Law Students & Lawyers lists law books in fiction, nonfiction, and other genres. Here are the top 7 in fiction novels: 1 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 2 The Trial Franz Kafka 3 The Firm John Grisham 4 A Time to Kill John Grisham 5 Bleak
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The Utility of Legal Scholarship
Legal scholarship long has been criticized (and here). LawProfBlawg (Pigs Can Fly!: The Sins Of Legal Scholars) lays out the following allegations in the latest critique: Are these failings of all, most, or some legal scholarship? This got me thinking about how we might best measure the quality and usefulness of legal scholarship. If number
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With $42.3 Million Gift, University of Cincinnati College of Law Renamed Donald P. Klekamp College of Law
University of Cincinnati college to become Donald P. Klekamp College of Law The University of Cincinnati College of Law has been renamed the Donald P. Klekamp College of Law, following a $43.2 million commitment from the Klekamp family—the largest gift in the College’s history. Made in honor of Donald Klekamp, JD ’57, the gift will be
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Big Gift Brightens Graduation of Indiana University Maurer School of Law Class of 2026
Big news from Indiana University Maurer School of Law: “Each of the 154 JD students in the Indiana University Maurer School of Law Class of 2026 who are graduating this May will receive a $10,000 gift from anonymous donors, the school announced today—an unprecedented investment in the next generation of legal professionals. In total, the
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March Madness Final Four All Have Stellar Law Schools
I hope that I am not taking the AALS TaxProf Blog down a dangerous (or meaningless?) path. But everyone is talking about the Final Four of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, which was finalized yesterday. The final four — Michigan, University of Connecticut, Arizona, and Illinois. All are great public universities with great law schools! An interesting