Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
News
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Beyond the Best and Brightest
Expanding on a story in Above the Law, Judd Legum reports how Liberty Law School is openly recruiting interns for the Department of Labor with postings that suggest alignment with President Trump and hard work are all that’s necessary. Strong GPA’s not required. [Posting below.] There may be more to the story but if it’s…
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Yale Law School Terminates Library Director
From Law.com (Feb. 4, 2026): Yale Law School has terminated its library director, Femi Cadmus, allegedly due to poor morale within the library and just weeks after she filed a complaint with the Office of Institutional Equity & Accessibility over a previously conducted review of the law library. The complete story appears here. More below…
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More States Cracking Down on the Montana Vehicle Registration Tax “Loophole”
Michael J. Bologna (Bloomberg Law): More States Cracking Down on Tax Losses From Montana LLCs At least four states are developing tougher enforcement strategies against the “Montana loophole,” which encourages drivers to register expensive assets in other states to skirt their in-state sales tax and vehicle registration obligations.
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Women’s Studies Program Ends as Texas A & M Complies with New Board Policy
Texas A&M University announced the elimination of its Women’s and Gender Studies degree program and the cancellation or revision of other courses. University leadership said the decision responds to a newly adopted policy restricting how topics related to race and gender can be taught, and cited limited enrollment in the women’s and gender studies major and minor as part…
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Blank and Osofsky Selected to Conduct New Agency Legal Study
Joshua Blank (UC Irvine) and Leigh Osofsky (UNC) have been selected by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) to lead a comprehensive study of how federal agencies use “agency legal explainers” — such as FAQs, practice guides, and social media content — to improve public understanding of the laws they administer. The project…
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Reuters: Joby aims to double US output as air-taxi push gains momentum
Reuters: Joby aims to double US output as air-taxi push gains momentum: Joby Aviation (JOBY.N) said on Wednesday it would double its U.S. manufacturing capacity, as the electric aircraft maker looks to cash in on demand for air-taxis. Regulators and industry players have been accelerating efforts to bring electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft into mainstream transportation…
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Immigration Law Watch List
Concerning reports that the federal government has a “watch list” for immigration attorneys. Attorney Discovers Secret ‘Watch List’ for Immigration Lawyers, ABA Journal, December 15, 2025. See also Salvador Rivera, Attorney Uncovers ‘ICE Watch List’ of Prominent US Immigration Lawyers, WGNO, December 10, 2025; Kathryn Rubino, ICE Accidentally Publishes A ‘Watch List’ Of Immigration Lawyers,…
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Truth to Power
University of Alabama Law Professor, Joyce Vance, claps back at our President. Her words, linked below, need no embellishment. But for our purposes it’s worth noting that “Quiet Piggy” is simply unacceptable language from persons in leadership speaking to journalists seeking to discern the facts. And such demeaning talk thwarts our efforts as legal educators…
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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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OECD Corporate Tax Statistics, 2025
The OECD has released its latest data on corporate tax and the economic activities of MNEs worldwide, in its Corporate Tax Statistics 2025 Report: Corporate tax revenues have increased while statutory corporate tax rates have remained stable, according to new OECD data released today. The 2025 edition of OECD Corporate Tax Statistics shows that the share of…
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Law Profs Weigh In
Two law professors, among others, write to the NYTimes challenging David Brooks on his column, which argues that the political left developed the rhetorical and ideological strategies now being effectively, even ruthlessly, deployed by the political right. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/15/opinion/trump-republicans-democrats-politics.html?unlocked_article_code=1.1k8.qcjt.HcNJx9C8nRUv&smid=url-share
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Faculty Speak Out
Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College (and former visiting professor at Yale Law School), reports that the Amherst faculty, on Oct. 24, adopted the following resolution by a vote of 102-26: in light of escalating threats to democracy and the rights of citizens and non-citizens in the United States,…
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Kaplan Survey: Another Fierce Law School Admissions Cycle Looms Large, Driven by Politics
The red-hot law school application boom, fueled by a nearly 20 percent surge in applicants last cycle, shows no signs of cooling, according to a new survey of law school admissions officers by global education company Kaplan.* A combined 90 percent said the 2025-2026 application cycle would be at least as competitive as the 2024-2025 cycle. Of…
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IRS Watchdog Report: Staff Shortage to Hit Taxpayer Service
Tax Notes has a new article today (“IRS Staff Shortage to Hit Taxpayer Service, IT Work, Watchdog Says“), based on a new report from the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration. The full report is here, and here is the intro to the Tax Notes piece: Deep reductions in the IRS workforce will create challenges…
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Lesson From The Tax Court: The Finality Rule For §7430 Qualified Offers
When you litigate against the IRS you may win but not prevail. That is, even though §7430(a) promises that a “prevailing party” can recover costs and attorneys fees, it’s hard to be a "prevailing party" within the meaning of the statute. If the government's ultimately losing position was substantially justified at the relevant time, the…
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Organ: A Data-Based Counternarrative To ‘The Big Lie’
Prologue Twelve months ago, on December 29, 2020, I posted a blog analyzing voting patterns in Congressional Districts in five of the six swing states that former President Trump lost. The analysis demonstrated that Trump lost largely because significant numbers of voters who voted for Republican Congressional candidates in those five states did not vote…
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At Yale Law School, A Party Invitation Ignites A Firestorm
Update: Kathleen Parker (Washington Post), Yale Law School Triggers Me (Oct. 16, 2021) David Lat, Yale Law Student Who Sent 'Trap House' Email Faces Removal As 2L Rep (Oct. 18, 2021) Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern), Yale Law School’s Bullying, Coercive Diversity Leaders (Oct. 19, 2021) Yale Daily News, Racism, Conservatism And Free Speech At Yale Law School (Oct. 20, 2021) Eugene…
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Boehner Would Accept ‘New Revenue’ Under ’Right Conditions’
Bloomberg, Boehner Would Accept New Revenue Under ’Right Conditions’ Mother Jones, John Boehner's Desperate Bluff on Taxes NBC News, Boehner Offers Tax Talks, but Outline Is Vague New York Times, Boehner Strikes Conciliatory Tone in Talk of Fiscal Cliff Politico, Boehner ‘Ready to be Led’ on Taxes Wall Street Journal, Reading the Tea Leaves on…
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Obama Win Seen Pyrrhic Without Republican Congress Assent on Taxes
Bloomberg: Obama Win Seen Pyrrhic Without Republican Congress Assent on Taxes: Barack Obama’s biggest test on tax policy will come even before his second term starts Jan. 20. The president wants to use an end-of-year showdown with Congress to force higher taxes on top earners and fulfill a promise from his 2008 and 2012 campaigns.…
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NY’s Highest Court Rules 4-3: Lap Dances Are Not ‘Art’ and Thus Not Exempt From Sales Tax
677 New Loudon Corp. v. New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, No. 157 (NY Oct. 23, 2012) ABA Journal Associated Press BBC Forbes From the dissent: The ruling of the Tax Appeals Tribunal, which the majority upholds, makes a distinction between highbrow dance and lowbrow dance that is not to be found in the governing statute…
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If Only Nixon Could Go To China, Maybe Only Romney Can Do Tax Reform
Wall Street Journal op-ed: Romney Should Release His Tax Returns, by Joseph J. Thorndike (Tax Analysts): Mr. Romney would be well advised to simply cough up a decade's worth of returns. In all likelihood, the only thing he's hiding is more of the sophisticated tax avoidance that he's already demonstrated and that rich people engage…
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Three Swiss Bankers Indicted for Helping U.S. Taxpayers Hide $1.2 Billion From the IRS in Offshore Accounts
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York yesterday announced the indictment of three Swiss bankers with Wegelin & Co. for conspiring with U.S. taxpayers to hide more than $1.2 billion in assets from the IRS. U.S. Attorney press release Bloomberg CNN Financial Times New York Post (headline: "Swiss Bankers Had Fondue For…
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South Korea Passes ‘Buffett Tax’ on Those Earning >$259,000
`Korean Buffett Tax` Passed Despite Ruling Party Chief`s Opposition: The National Assembly has passed a bill on the introduction of a 38% tax rate on the highest income bracket of 300 million won (259,000 dollars) or more. The bill was approved in a plenary session on Saturday, just 10 minutes before the start of the…
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UK Uncut Challenges Sweetheart Tax Deals With Goldman Sachs, Others
UK Uncut, Reflections on the Report on Tax Dodging: A respected cross-party parliamentary committee released a damning report into dodgy tax deals struck between big business and bosses at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). It has made headlines, not just in the Guardian, but in the Daily Mail, the Sun, the Telegraph and as the…
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Tax Planning for the Occupy Wall Street Movement
David van den Berg (Tax Analysts), Occupy Groups Would Face Burdens, Get Benefits From Tax Exempt Status, Practitioners Say, 2011 TNT 250-2 (Dec. 29, 2011): Some of the Occupy groups that have sprouted nationwide have taken steps toward becoming nonprofit organizations — something that would impose several requirements on the groups but would also provide some…