Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Legal Ed News
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ABA Journal: Penn State Law Goals Include an ‘Antiracism’ Focus; ABA Legal Ed Council Votes to Repeal DEI Accreditation Standard
ABA Journal, Penn State Dickinson Law Goals Include an ‘Antiracism’ Focus: Penn State Dickinson Law School’ strategic plan for the next five years will include an “antiracism” focus, according to the Washington Free Beacon. In a strategy document sent to faculty in April obtained by the publication, the law school describes itself as a “leader in antiracism” aiming…
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ABA Council Votes to End Diversity Standard
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/american-bar-association-votes-eliminate-dei-rule-law-schools-2026-05-15 The prior rule, which has been suspended since February 2025, required ABA accredited law schools to consider diversity in recruitment, admissions and student programming. Of course this decisions comes with the backdrop of pressure from the Trump Administration, which opposes diversity, equity and inclusion as factors in accreditation and has threatened to remove the…
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Are law profs to blame for today’s S.Ct.
Renowned political commentator Josh Marshall, of Talking Points Memo, offers an iconclastic take on how we got to the point where Supreme Court justices are taking inappropriate gifts and reaching unjust outcomes. He notes the trend over many decades of professionalizing the bench through dominance of elite law schools and wonders aloud if law faculty…
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AALS and LSAC Launch Before the JD II
AALS and LSAC have partnered to launch a new major research study on undergraduates, with findings expected by the end of 2027. From the announcement on AALS Lens: [T]he Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) have launched Before the JD II, a major research initiative designed to illuminate how undergraduates make decisions about law…
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Chapman University Names New Law Dean
After a national search, Antony Page has been selected as the next dean of the Dale E. Fowler School of Law. Page most recently served as dean of the Florida International University College of Law in Miami. Page will begin this fall.
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Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage Rate (Class of 2025)
Following up on last Sunday’s post, Law School Rankings: 10-Month Employment Rate (Class of 2025): Here is the ranking of law schools in the Calendar Year 2025 First-Time Takers Bar Pass Data from the ABA’s spreadsheet. The ranking uses an adjusted pass rate that is the sum of the school pass rate (including alternative pathways)…
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Impact of Finalized Student Loan Limits on Law Students and Law Schools
ABA Journal, Finalized Student Loan Limits Will Impact Law Students, Law Schools and the Legal Profession: Regulations that limit the amount of federal loans available to “professional” advanced degrees such as law were finalized Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education, potentially limiting access to legal education in ways that could impact law students, law schools and…
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Higher Racial Diversity in US Business and Law Schools Is Linked to Higher Graduate Salaries
Researchers from UConn and Dartmouth examined more than 6,000 cohorts of MBA and law students over several decades. They found that MBA and JD students graduating from schools with higher racial diversity were paid higher median salaries than were graduates from less racially diverse institutions. Conversely, lower racial diversity was associated with lower median salaries.…
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Temple Names New Law Dean
Lonnie T. Brown Jr. has been named the Kean Family Dean of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law. Brown is currently the dean and Elvin E. Overton Distinguished Professor of Law and Haslam Family Professor at the Winston College of Law at the University of Tennessee, Brown will begin his new role on Aug. 1.
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Law School Rankings: 10-Month Employment Rate (Class of 2025)
Here is the ranking of schools in the 10-Month Employment Data for the Class of 2025 from the ABA’s spreadsheet, based on the current U.S. News methodology for “maximum credit” jobs: “Outcomes 10 months after graduation (weighted 33%): This measures the extent to which graduates obtain the most in-demand jobs — namely those that are long…
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What Happens when Woke Dies
Katherine Mangan in the Chronicle of Higher Education raises and reports on key issues facing public universities in states where lawmakers are restricting what faculty may say in the classroom. If students, on chat rooms or elsewhere, begin to propagate truly hateful rhetoric, how are administrators and faculty to make clear that such destructive speech,…
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How Heavy is the State’s Hand?
The AALS Clinical Conference begins today (May 1) in Portland, Oregon. https://clinical.aals.org/. A topic on everyone’s mind will be how the dramatic shift in political winds in Washington has influenced faculty teaching in clinical progams throughout the U.S. Washington University Professor Robert Kuehn offers us a cogent analysis. You can find the abstract here. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6668559.…
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NIU College of Law launches part-time J.D. program
The Northern Illinois University College of Law has received American Bar Association approval to launch a part-time Juris Doctor program at the NIU Naperville campus. The program will enroll its first class in fall 2027. NIU Law plans to enroll small cohorts to foster a collaborative learning environment characterized by individualized faculty mentorship, strong peer connections and…
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North Dakota Appoints New Dean
Darse E. “Del” Crandall Jr. has been appointed dean of the University of North Dakota School of Law. A native of Elgin, Illinois, Crandall began his professional journey at Northwestern University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics through a Naval ROTC scholarship and received his commission in the United States Navy. Selected…
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Dayton Appoints Law Dean
The University of Dayton has named Christopher Roederer dean of the University of Dayton School of Law. Roederer has served as the school’s interim dean since January 2025. Roederer joined the School of Law as a professor teaching torts, constitutional law, criminal procedure, remedies, statutory interpretation, and international and comparative law in 2018. He also…
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Law Professors Are Too Old
Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed: Professors Are Too Old, by Samuel Moyn (Yale; Author, Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth―and What to Do About It (2026)): I work at Yale Law School. Its faculty was dramatically transformed by the elimination of retirement coupled with the extension of lifespans. In the…
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ABA: Law Schools Can Satisfy Accreditation Standard 303(c) By Criticizing DEI
Daniel Thies (Chair, Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar), U.S. Law Schools Have Diverse Takes on DEI (Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor (Apr. 23, 2026)): I’d like to clarify a few points relevant to your editorial “How the ABA Spreads DEI in Law Schools” (April 17).…
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2026-27 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings v. Overall Rankings
Following up on yesterday’s post, 2026-27 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings: Here are the law schools whose U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Ranking most exceeds their overall U.S. News Ranking: School Specialty Rank Overall Rank Difference 1 American 33 108 +75 2 Santa Clara 77 150 +73 3 Illinois-Chicago 108 167 +59 4 Suffolk 71 128…
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Cult of Pedagogy: PD is Getting So Much Better!!
Jennifer Gonzalez (Cult of Pedagogy), PD is Getting So Much Better!! (March 4, 2018). With the rapid change to the NextGen Bar Exam (even California seem to be moving that way!), law professors and deans have started thinking hard about how to provide Professional Development (PD) for faculty as we change our teaching and assessment…
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2026-27 U.S. News Omnibus Specialty Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Specialty Rankings include the rankings for 13 specialty programs at 195 law schools. Here are the Top 100 law schools, determined by giving equal weight to each of the 13 separate specialty rankings: School 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Avg. 1 Georgetown*…
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Law Schools That Boycotted The U.S. News Rankings
2023-2024 (Rank) 2024-2025 (Rank) 2025-2026 (Rank) 2026-2027 (Rank) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Stanford (1) Yale (1) Yale (1) Yale (1) Yale (2) Virginia (8) Virginia (4) Virginia (4) Virginia (4) Penn (4) Penn (4) Penn (5) Penn (4) Duke (5) Duke (4) Duke (6) Duke (7) Harvard (5) Harvard (4) Harvard (6) Harvard…
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2026-27 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings
The new 2026-27 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings include the trial advocacy programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50: Rank School 1 Stetson 2 Temple 3 Baylor 4 UCLA 5 Fordham 6 Mercer 6 South Texas 6 UC-Berkeley 9 Denver 9 Samford 9 Syracuse…
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AU Washington College of Law Appoints Dean
Michael Barry has been named dean of American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL). Barry is the former President and Dean of South Texas College of Law in Houston. He will begin his new role on July 1, 2026.
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Belmont Announces New Dean
Belmont University announced the appointment of Deborah Farringer as the new dean of Belmont Law, effective August 1, 2026. She currently serves as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of Health Law Studies.
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Arizona Appoints New Dean
Jason Kreag has been appointed dean of the James E. Rogers College of Law, effective April 13, 2026. Kreag previously served as interim dean. The official announcement can be found here.