Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Legal Ed News
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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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New Loan Limits and Responses
As student loan caps go into effect, we are seeing media coverage over the way some law schools are responding. A story yesterday on this issue from Bloomberg Law: Students pursuing graduate or professional degrees previously were able to borrow up to the full cost of attendance through federal loans. Uncapped loans were eliminated by…
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Legal Education in Alaska
Coverage of law school partnerships with the University of Alaska so that Alaskan residents don’t need to leave the state to attend law school. The University of Alaska Southeast is partnering with Minnesota-based Mitchell Hamline School of Law to allow Alaska students to get a law degree without needing to leave the state. Normally, students…
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Washington State Bar Exam Cancellation
Many law graduates sat for bar exams this week, with almost all jurisdictions having their exams yesterday and today. Yesterday there were connectivity and technical issues in Missouri and Washington (and some reports of a delayed start in Maryland). NBCE, Statement on the July 2026 NextGen Bar Exam Administration, July 28, 2026; see also Ryan…
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Relentless: The Pressures Shortening Law School Deanships and What Must Change
A new AALS study, “Relentless: The Pressures Shortening Law School Deanships and What Must Change,” finds that law school dean tenures have fallen by more than half over the past century. Co-authored by AALS researcher Katie Kempner and Patricia Roberts, dean at St. Mary’s University School of Law, the report draws on surveys from over…
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Law School Dean Tenure Shrinks to 2.8 Years Due to Financial Constraints and Strained Relationships With University Administration
ABA Journal, Financial Pressures Lead Law Deans to Leave Their Posts, New Study Finds: The average tenure for law school deans has shrunk from 10.3 years in the 1950s to 2.8 years since 2020—and financial pressures are largely to blame, according to a study published Wednesday by the Association of American Law Schools. … While 65.9% of…
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High Point Law School Dean Mark Martin to Receive ABA Civility Award
ABA Press Release: The American Bar Association Judicial Division will present its William D. Missouri Civility Award to Mark Martin, former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, ,,, on Thursday, July 30, during the 2026 ABA Annual Conference. Martin will receive the Missouri Civility Award, which is named in honor of Judge William D.…
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Dean Danielle Conway’s Legacy at Penn State Dickinson Law
In deaning news, Dean Danielle Conway is returning to faculty as a Distinguished Professor of Law after a tremendously impactful seven years as dean at Penn State Dickinson Law (and an impressive 11 years tenure as a dean combined). While legal academia regains a distinguished scholar and teacher, Dean Conway returning to faculty is a…
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Gonzaga Appoints Linda Jellum as Interim Dean
From the announcement from Gonzaga Law School: Linda D. Jellum will serve as Interim Dean of Gonzaga University School of Law beginning July 20, 2026. A nationally recognized legal scholar, educator, and academic leader, Interim Dean Jellum brings more than three decades of experience in legal education, scholarship, public service, and academic administration. “As we…
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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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Staying Updated on Legal Education News (AALS Lens Now)
Just a reminder. In addition to this blog, you can stay updated on the latest legal education news as well as higher education news through AALS Lens Now (a weekly digest). You can find the latest July digest here. Subscribing can be done easily too (from this link). And, of course, it’s worth checking out…
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Proposals for AALS Annual Meeting
Proposals for programs for the AALS 2027 Annual Meeting in New York are now being accepted, and are due on August 7th. You can find more information as well as detailed submission guidelines on the AALS website. Proposals that are not organized by AALS Sections are selected by the Program Committee covering five categories: (1)…
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ABA Eyes More Rollbacks to Law School Diversity Rules; Public Comments Are Mixed
Reuters, ABA Eyes More Rollbacks to Law School Diversity Rules: The arm of the ABA that oversees U.S. law schools is poised to further curtail its diversity and inclusion rules in August when it could vote on a pair of proposals that would end requirements for schools to educate students about bias, racism, and cross-cultural…
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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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Continued Growth in Legal Sector
From Karen Sloan of Reuters: The U.S. legal sector added 5,100 jobs in June, pushing legal employment to an all-time high for the third straight month, according to figures released on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Karen Sloan, US Legal Sector Jobs Continued to Climb in June, July 2,…
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Law School Debt Declining for Third-Year Lawyers
A piece in Law.com summarizing findings of a new NALP study that was featured on TaxProfBlog yesterday: Average debt loads for third-year lawyers decreased for the third year in a row, according to a recent NALP Foundation study of employment outcomes and satisfaction for the law school class of 2022. . . . Third-year lawyers…
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NY Times: Law Firm Associate Salaries Jump Higher (First Year: $235,000)
New York Times DealBook: Salaries For Law Grads Jump Higher, by Elizabeth Olson: Big law firms are enjoying staggering upticks in profitability after years of consolidation and double-digit billing rate increases. That has led to eye-popping compensation for top partners despite concerns that artificial intelligence tools could disrupt the industry. Now the elite firms are again ratcheting up…
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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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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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Fromer & Lemley: “State Supreme Courts Can Resolve Early Legal Recruiting Mess”
Jeanne Fromer (NYU) & Mark Lemley (Stanford): State Supreme Courts Can Resolve Early Legal Recruiting Mess (Bloomberg Law) Law firms now hire people for summer jobs 18 months in advance; in practice, they are hiring first-semester 1Ls for full-time jobs that won’t start for almost three years. State supreme courts can help fix this situation.…
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NY Times: Congress Should Reform Endowment Tax to Incentivize More Wealthy Colleges to Expand Access to Working- and Middle-Class Students
New York Times Op-Ed: A Bold Idea to Open Up Elite Colleges, by James S. Murphy (Fellow, Class Action) & Ryan Cieslikowski (Co-Founder & Director, Class Action): Princeton recently waived tuition for most students from families making up to $250,000 a year. Reporting in The Daily Princetonian suggests that this move may have removed the university from…
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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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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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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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Legal Education Existentialism, No. 1
News from Austin: Dean Bobby Chesney at the University of Texas (UT) School of Law circulated a long-ish memo the other day that lays out a mostly clear-eyed, common-sense view of how artificial intelligence technologies and systems ought to be folded into the legal education program at that law school. Here at TaxProf, Kevin Johnson…