Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Teaching
-
Levy on What Law Students Want in Law Professors
James B. Levy (Nova) has posted As a Last Resort, Ask the Students: What They Say Makes Someone an Effective Law Teacher, 58 Me. L. Rev. 50 (2006), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: My article discusses the results of a 300+ law student survey that asked them to describe the personality traits, classroom behaviors…
-
What Is an “Ordinary” Business Expense Under § 162?
In yesterday’s federal income tax class, we discussed the meaning of the term "ordinary" in § 162(a)’s definition of deductible trade or business expenses. We talked about the Amend and Trebilcock cases, in which the courts denied the deduction for the expense of hiring a minister to attend to a business’s employees, in the context…
-
What Not To Do When a Student’s Cell Phone Goes Off in Class
Via Andrew Sullivan and Dave Hoffman: a 5-month old YouTube chestnut of one professor’s reaction when a student’s cell phone goes off in class: Check out the 200+ comments as well.
-
What’s More Important in Casebook Selection — Quality or Price?
From a Zogby International poll of professors funded by the Association of American Publishers (AAP): Survey of College Instructors Regarding the Use of Supplemental Materials in the Classroom When choosing which textbook to adopt, do you assign more importance to price, more importance to the effectiveness of the learning tool, or are they equally important…
-
ABA Law Student Tax Challenge Releases This Year’s Problem
The ABA Section of Taxation Young Lawyers Forum has released the Problem and updated rules (J.D. rules; LL.M. rules) for the 6th Annual Law Student Tax Challenge ("LSTC"): Teams are initially evaluated on two criteria: a memorandum to a senior partner and a letter to the client explaining the result. Based on this written work…
-
Have You Been YouTubed?
We previously blogged (here, here, and here) the dangers to faculty posed by RateMyProfessors.com, which now boasts over 5.75 million student evaluations of faculty. Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article on the dangers YouTube poses for faculty: You May Have Been YouTubed, by Scott Jaschik: If you don’t like what RateMyProfessors.com has done for…
-
Harvard Leads Effort to Increase Emphasis on Teaching Over Scholarship
Interesting article in yesterday’s Boston Globe: Harvard Studies Ways to Promote Teaching, by Marcella Bombardieri: Harvard University today begins a new effort to figure out how to improve teaching and make it a bigger factor in whether professors get tenure or raises. If successful, the initiative could counter Harvard’s image as a school that allows…
-
LexisNexis Publishes Employee Benefits Law, Third Book in Graduate Tax Series
On behalf of LexisNexis and the Graduate Tax Series Board of Editors (Ellen Aprill (Loyola-L.A.), Elliott Manning (Miami), Philip Postlewaite (Northwestern) & David Richardson (Florida)), I am delighted to announced the publication of the third book in our Series, Employee Benefits Law: Qualification Rules and ERISA Requirements, by Kathryn Kennedy (John Marshall) & Paul Shultz…
-
Demographics of the Class of 2009: Teaching Blue State Law Students in a Red State Law School
With most law schools having already started classes or starting this week, I thought it would be interesting to share some demographic information from the entering law school class of 2009 at Cincinnati. I taught a section of 36 incoming 1Ls in our week-long Introduction to Law course last week, and asked them a series…
-
More on the Tax Consequences of Wearing the Wrong Shoes in Court
Earlier this week, we blogged what is sure to become a staple in income tax casebooks: Nicely v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2006-172 (8/17/06). The Tax Court refused to let a welder deduct the cost of the boots he wore to work because Judge Chiechi noticed that the guy was wearing them in court (confirming that…
-
More on Scholarship v. Teaching
We previously blogged Ben Barton’s great new paper, Is There a Correlation Between Scholarly Productivity, Scholarly Influence and Teaching Effectiveness in American Law Schools? An Empirical Study. The Empirical Legal Studies Blog has hosted a wonderful forum on the article, with these contributions: Can We Measure the Relationship Between Teaching and Scholarship in Law Schools?,…
-
Class Attendance Improves Exam Performance by 7.7%
Jennjou Chen (National Chengchi University) & Tsui-Fang Lin (National Taipei University) have posted Class Attendance and Exam Performance: A Randomized Experiment on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The study of determinants of a college student’s academic performance is an important issue in higher education. Among all factors, whether or not attending lectures affects a student’s…
-
Barton: No Correlation Between Scholarly Productivity/Influence and Teaching Effectiveness
Benjamin Barton (Tennessee) has posted Is There a Correlation Between Scholarly Productivity, Scholarly Influence and Teaching Effectiveness in American Law Schools? An Empirical Study on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This empirical study attempts to answer an age-old debate in legal academia; whether scholarly productivity helps or hurts teaching. The study is of an unprecedented…
-
Still More on the Law School Laptop Wars
Interesting article in today’s Chicago Tribune: E-slacking: It’s Laptop Over Lecture: When Classes Are Less Than Riveting, Graduate Students Are Jumping Online to Shop and E-mail. But Some Professors Are Fighting Back, by Jodi S. Cohen: As professor John Decker reviewed bail guidelines and other criminal procedures one recent evening, some students in his DePaul…
-
Charts of the Transactions in Business Tax Stories
As we noted a couple a few weeks ago, Andrew Mitchel has added to his wonderful collection charts of the transactions in the ten cases featured in our Tax Stories book. Andrew has now added charts of the transactions in some of the cases featured in the Business Tax Stories book edited by Steven A.…
-
Tax Ramifications When Companies Let “Beautiful People” Use Their Products
Bryan Camp (Texas Tech) asks about the tax issues faced by the beautiful people when companies shower them with their products to use, sparked by today’s Wall Street Journal story about the New York City model given the use of an $80,000 Jaguar (Jaguar Tries a Living Product Placement, by Gina Chon): He dines at…
-
More on the Law School Laptop Wars
Interesting article on Law Crossing: The Good Law Student, the Bad Professor, and the Ugly Computer, by Megan Rellahan: Rather than going to lecture halls and taking notes the old-fashioned, pen-and-paper way, students are lugging their laptops to class and transcribing verbatim what the professor says. With computers becoming a central theme on campus, the…
-
Charts of the Transactions in Tax Stories
Andrew Mitchel has added to his wonderful collection charts of the transactions in the ten cases featured in our Tax Stories book: Glenshaw Glass (Accessions to Wealth), by Joseph Dodge Eisner v. Macomber (Stock Dividends), by Marjorie Kornhasuer Kirby Lumber (Gain on Bond Retirement), by Deborah Schenck Davis (Transfer for Release of Marital Claims), by…
-
Bizarre “Personal Physical Injury” for § 104(a)(2) Purposes
For those looking for additional examples of what constitutes compensatory damages for "personal physical injuries" for purposes of the § 104(a)(2) exclusion, check out this bizarre case out of Rhode Island. (Hat Tip: Dan Solove,)
-
Brown Speaks on Assessment & Feedback Today at AALS Mid-Year Meeting on Teaching
Dorothy Brown (Washington & Lee) speaks on a panel today at the AALS Conference on New Ideas for Law School Teachers: Teaching Intentionally in Vancouver on Assessment & Feedback During the Course: How do we know whether students are making progress during the course? What types of developmental feedback help students learn? Professors Brown and…
-
The War Over Student Use of Laptops and the Internet in Class
The Boston Globe has yet another story on the war over student use of laptops and Internet access in the classroom: Some Colleges Crack Down on Laptop Use in Classroom; Teachers Say It Distracts from Class Participation, by Cristina Silva: Fed up with students surfing the Web and hiding behind laptop screens, more professors in…
-
Abrams Wins University Teaching Award at Emory
Congratulations to Tax Prof Howard E. Abrams for winning the Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching at Emory: Howard E. Abrams, professor of law, received the Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching, Emory University’s most prestigious award for teaching, during the university’s commencement ceremony on May 15. Seven Emory Williams Awards are given to faculty members…
-
McLaughlin Wins Teacher of the Year Award at Utah
Congratulations to Tax Prof Nancy A. McLaughlin, who was presented with the 2006 Peter W. Billings Excellence in Teaching Award at the commencement ceremony honoring the graduates of the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law: The Excellence in Teaching Award is given annually to a particularly dedicated, gifted, and enthusiastic professor who is…
-
Oseid on Using the Seventh-Inning Stretch to Teach Law Students
Julie A. Oseid (St. Thomas-Minnesota) has posted Take Me Out to the Ball Game: Using the Seventh-Inning Stretch to Teach Law Students, 82 N.D. L. Rev. ___ (2006), on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Major League Baseball recognizes the value of the Seventh-Inning Stretch to give spectators a break and maintain interest in the game.…