Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Legal Ed News
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ABA Legal Ed Council Appoints 5 Deans and 3 Law Profs To 14-Member Advisory Committee to Review Accreditation Standards
ABA Legal Ed Council appoints five deans and 3 law professors to 14-member advisory committee to review law school accreditation standards
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Will AI End the Billable Hour, Finally?
For at least forty years, the billable hour’s death has been greatly exaggerated. Time-based billing remains the default at firms of all stripes and sizes. But as artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integral to legal practice, commentators have revived a familiar prognostication: this time, the billable hour surely won’t survive. Some historical context, as well as…
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Top 10 best law schools for government work
There are lots of rankings of law schools out there. preLaw Magazine rank the top 10 best law schools for placing graduates in government work.
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Law Schools With the Most to Do For Fun
I think that rankings are fun. Everyone has one. Here is a law school ranking system that is out of the ordinary and — yes — fun. Online Paralegal Programs ranks the top 30 “Law Schools with the Most to Do For Fun.” Here are the top 5. 1. Colorado Law, University of Colorado, Boulder…
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How Faith Leaders, Pastors, and Spiritual Faculty Responded to the Brown Mass Shooting
How faith leaders, pastors, and spiritual faculty responded to Brown mass shooting
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Ted Afield Leaves Georgia State For Stetson
Tax professor Ted Afield is leaving Georgia State Law School after 10 years for Stetson Law School
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University of New Hampshire Law Students Slam Hybrid JD Program as Dean Steps Down
Following the announcement of Megan Carpenter stepping down as dean, students and a former faculty member have come forward with multiple complaints about the hybrid J.D. program, which Carpenter was instrumental in launching in 2019
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AI for Legal Education Blog
Want to stay up on developments on artificial intelligence and legal education. University of Houston Law Center Foundation Professor Seth J. Chandler has launched a new blog, AI for Legal Education, as a guide for students, faculty, and alumni navigating AI. Here is the UH press release description of the blog: ” The blog (legaled.ai) directly addresses the…
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Chair of ABA Legal Ed Section Council: Accreditation Protects Law Students, Leaves Politics Aside
“The premise of a single, national accreditor isn’t unique to the legal profession. Accreditors for medical, dentistry and pharmaceutical education also apply national standards that help to ensure the quality of education in these important professions.”
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Skadden Fellowships
The Skadden Foundation has announced this year’s 34 recipients of the 2026 Skadden Fellowships. You can find the stunningly impressive group listed and described here: https://www.skaddenfellowships.org Harvard led the way with six students receiving Fellowships. NYU had four. Northeastern had three. Georgetown and Yale each had two. One fellowship was awarded to students from Boston…
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Edutopia: The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2025
Youki Terada & Stephen Merrill, The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2025 (December 4, 2025). I have a new love: Edutopia’s (linked above) annual summary of important educational studies. Some explicitly address higher education teaching issues. Some only apply to k-12 education. And some purport to only apply to k-12 education, but their lessons…
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First-Year Law School Enrollment Trends
From Christine Charnosky, First-Year Law School Enrollees Increase 13% Since 2023, Law.com, December 15, 2025. From the Law.com article: According to those reports, first-year enrollees increased by 7.9% from 39,689 in 2024 to 42,817 in 2025, as of Dec. 15, while 2024 showed a 4.8% increase in enrollment as compared to 2023. Overall, for the past two years,…
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ABA Task Force on AI and the Legal Profession Year 2 Report
The ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence released a new report on December 15 exploring AI’s impact on the legal profession. The report includes a section on AI and legal education that discloses the results of a 2024 survey of law schools regarding plans to integrate AI into their curricula. It highlights AI-related…
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Council Releases Annual Law School Data
Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar Releases Annual Law School Data, ABA Blog, December 15, 2025. Detailed information is available from the Section’s Statistics Page. From the announcement: Information about fall 2025 enrollment, scholarships and other matters reported by Council-approved law schools to the Council of the ABA Section of Legal…
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ABA Finds St. Thomas Back in Compliance With Nondiscrimination and Financial Resources Accreditation Standards
St. Thomas University College of Law is now fully back in compliance with American Bar Association accreditation standards after the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar deemed it out of compliance in February [financial resources] and August [nondiscrimination] for two different standards.
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Private Equity, Long Coming for U.S. Law Firms, Has Arrived
The UK has permitted outside investment in law firms for almost fifteen years. In the United States, litigation finance has expanded exponentially and with increasing sophistication since the industry’s modern roots in the mid-2000s. And lawyers need only look to other licensed professions—doctors and accountants—for models of how to unlock the value of long-term human…
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From the Bookshelves: The Way Forward for Legal Education by David I. C. Thomson
Universities and law schools are still processing the experience and lessons of the pandemic on education. Change is in the wind. This book offers some thoughts on what might be viewed as radical changes to legal education. Food for thought. The Way Forward for Legal Education by David I. C. Thomson (Carolina Academic Press 2023) Publisher’s…
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New Students Begin Legal Education with Community Service
Here is a way to begin a legal education that sends a message on the value of giving back. Incoming students at the University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law “spent their first official day of law school giving back to Dunbar Magnet Middle School through a hands-on beautification and supply drive project.” The…
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Ranking of On-line and Flex JD Programs
University Magazine has released it’s ranking of the nation’s online and Flex JD Programs. You can find it here. universitymagazine.ca/best-online-law-schools-america Of course, I was delighted to see Northeastern at number one.
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West Virginia Announces Four Law Dean Finalists
Kristen Davis (Stetson), Lars Smith (Louisville), Michael Gentithes (Akron), and Megan Carpenter (New Hampshire).
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2026 Law School ROI Rankings
2026 law school rankings on return on investment (cost, bar passage, and jobs)
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The Bar Exam Failed Kim Kardashian
The lesson from Kim Kardashian’s failure on the California bar exam: the bar exam is not about quality control for lawyers; it’s about quantity control of lawyers.
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FTC declares ABA Accreditation Monopoly
Reuters, FTC says ABA is a ‘law school accreditation monopoly’ by Karen Sloan | December 4, 2025 Dec 2 (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday called the American Bar Association’s accreditation of law schools a “monopoly” that increases the cost of a law degree and limits the supply of new lawyers. The…
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LSAC: Strategies for Changing Financial Aid Landscape
A new post out from the Law School Admission Council that is part of a series related to the recent LSAC’s Knowledge Report: 2024-2025 Test Takers. See Noah Austin, Law Schools Ponder Strategies for the Changing Financial Aid Landscape, November 25, 2025. “Changes to federal student loans have already added uncertainty for those considering a legal education,…