Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
News
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AAU Legal Action Over ICE’s New CPT Interpretation
On Monday, the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, and others filed a lawsuit challenging ICE’s changes to curricular practical training (CPT) for international students. The changes have significant impact on international students. You can find prior coverage on TaxProfBlog (noting “new rules restricting curricular practical training, new H1-B fee…
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Tennessee Reduces Reliance on ABA Accreditation
The Tennessee Supreme Court entered an order on Friday “to further reduce reliance on ABA accreditation,” noting that the state will “consider adding additional or alternative accreditors to the list of Approved Accreditors in the future, including other state supreme courts.” The Court also announced it will “establish taskforces to further explore the following issues:…
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Merritt McAlister Named Dean of the University of Florida Levin College of Law
From the announcement from the University of Florida: I am pleased to announce that Merritt McAlister has been appointed dean of the University of Florida Levin College of Law following a nationwide search. The appointment is effective immediately. The Levin College of Law, Florida’s premier law school, is nationally recognized for excellence in legal education, influential scholarship,…
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Coverage of NACIQI Hearing re the ABA Council and National Accreditation
Last week, The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity— a panel that advises the U.S. Department of Education on accreditation matters — held a hearing on whether the ABA Council should continue as the national accreditor of law schools. The Committee last Thursday morning voted 11-1 to report that its members couldn’t reach a…
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Proposed New Non-Lawyer Legal Aid Program in California
This week the Board of Trustees of the California State Bar approved a recommendation to the California Supreme Court to establish a statewide Community Justice Worker Program. The proposal, if approved by the Court, would authorize trained nonlawyers to provide limited legal assistance to California residents under the supervision of approved legal aid organizations. From…
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The Future of Leadership in Legal
The headline is not a typo. This post is first about the legal services industry (“legal”) and second about developments in legal that bear reflection among legal educators. The news: Clio, the legal software firm, has hired Bridget Mary McCormack as its new “General Manager, Judiciary.” A new “General Manager” sounds a bit like “normal…
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Law Grads Settle Class Action Related to California Bar Exam
As reported by Karen Sloan in Reuters: A testing company involved in California’s bungled February 2025 bar exam has reached a preliminary class action settlement with test takers who sued, according to a federal court filing on Monday. Attorneys for the seven plaintiffs did not disclose the terms of the proposed settlement but said they…
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Michigan Prevails in Email Access Dispute
From the New York Times (August 14, 2026): A lawsuit against the University of Michigan demanding the emails of a professor who has worked on “climate superfund” laws has been dismissed by a state judge. Conservative groups and the energy industry oppose these laws, which would require oil companies to help cover the mounting costs…
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Department of Education Letter to Universities
On Monday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent an open letter to Universities that repeats themes from the Trump administration’s 2025 highly problematic higher ed compact. From the New York Times: The Trump administration is making another push to persuade university leaders to address policies that it says have eroded trust with the American public, sending…
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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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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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Report Released Detailing Problems with February 2025 California Bar Exam
Last week, the legislatively mandated audit of the problems of the February 2025 California Bar Exam was released. You can find the report here. And here’s coverage from Julianne Hill at the ABA Journal: A rushed timeline, poor planning, contract failures and a host of questionable decisions—including the use of generative artificial intelligence to help…
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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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Upcoming State Elections Could Impact Legal Education
From a story in the ABA Journal: The upcoming state elections could shape legal education, particularly related to diversity, equity and inclusion, according to a new report by the AccessLex Institute. Later this year, 39 gubernatorial elections will happen in states where 21 governors are either term-limited or not seeking reelection, according to the National Governors Association. In…
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Law Jobs: Historic High for US Legal Jobs; NALP Podcast
Lots happening in the legal market. An interesting piece by Karen Sloan on the historic high of legal markets jobs in May suggesting “that the rapid adoption of legal AI tools has not yet impacted staffing, even as experts predict it may in the near future.” From Reuters: The U.S. legal sector posted another historic…
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Legal Writing Awards & 22nd LWI Conference
Each year, the Legal Writing Institute presents several national awards for contributions to legal writing. Last week, the University of Oregon announced that Prof. Rebekah Hanley (Oregon Law) had received the Legal Writing Institute’s (LWI) 2026 Mary S. Lawrence Innovation Award. This followed an announcement earlier in the year that Tamara Herrera (ASU Law) had…
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Law Deans and Principles of Professional Independence
Stories in the ABA Journal and Law.com cover a recent letter sent by former and current law deans to “former judges John E. Jones III, from the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and Shira A. Scheindlin, from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, who led the…
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Reports: Trump To Drop Anti-Weaponization Fund Plans
Marc Caputo, “Scoop: Trump admin plans to drop ‘weaponization’ fund” (Axios): The Trump administration plans to drop its controversial $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund the president sought to compensate alleged victims of prosecutorial conduct under his predecessor, two senior administration officials told Axios. “It’s dead for now,” one of the sources said. [ . . .…
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Law School Dean Appointments and Reappointments
A flurry of law school dean appointments and reappointments have occurred over the last month. Some of these announcements have been reported before on this blog, but from April alone this includes: And significant coverage continues over the controversial appointment at the University of Kentucky of Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove over the law faculty’s objections.…
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All Those A.I. Note Takers? They’re Making Lawyers Very Nervous.
A recent piece from the New York Times. Does sharing a meeting with an AI bot/AI note taker void the attorney-client privilege, rendering otherwise privileged conversations discoverable? From the article: “In February, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that the transcripts generated with the Claude…
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BigLaw and AI Legal Workflows
A sharp-eyed law student brought this to my attention: Global law firm Freshfields and Anthropic, a leading AI research and technology company, are joining forces on a multi-year agreement to accelerate AI co-innovation and firm-wide adoption and develop novel AI legal workflows. Freshfields has provided access to Claude, Anthropic’s family of frontier AI models, to…
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Home Distilling Limits in Tax Code Struck Down by Appeals Court
Laura D. Francis (Bloomberg Law): Home Distilling Limits in Tax Code Struck Down by Appeals Court The US Tax Code’s Reconstruction-era ban on home distilling is unconstitutional and can’t be enforced, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Siding with Texas-based “certified bourbon steward” Rick Morris and other members of his Hobby Distillers Association, the US Court…
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SALLD Statement on Role of Academic Law Library Directors
The Society of Academic Law Library Directors (SALLD) has published a “Statement on the Role, Qualifications, and Institutional Protections of Academic Law Library Directors” in response to events at Yale Law School, which I posted about here. From the Statement:
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House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees to Lose Experience After Midterms
Bloomberg Law: Powerful Tax-Writing Panels to Lose Experience After Midterms High-profile retirements and competitive elections among senior tax writers will likely give the House Ways and Means Committee a new look next Congress. The Senate Finance Committee, the chamber’s counterpart to Ways and Means, only has three members who have announced their plans to retire.…
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California Bill Proposes 50% Gross Receipts Tax on Private Immigration Detention Facilities
Bloomberg Law: Immigration Facility Contractors Warn on California Tax Proposal The bill (A.B. 1633) from Assemblymember Matt Haney (D) would levy a 50% tax on gross receipts from contracts to operate private immigration detention facilities in California. There are two companies that do such work in the state, according to the bill sponsor’s office: CoreCivic Inc. and…