Law Commons^™

Aba Standard 303(C) And Divisive Concepts Legislation And Policies: Challenges And Opportunities, Sherley Cruz, Becky L. Jacobs, Karen L. Tokarz, Kendall Kerew, Andrew King-Ries, Carwina Weng

Scholarly Works

This article by six clinicians discusses the challenges and opportunities of new ABA Standard 303 (c), including the implications of and interactions between Standard 303(c) and “divisive concepts” laws and other threats to representation, academic freedom, and free speech in legal education. The article also highlights the intersection of Standard 303(c) and Standard 303(b)(3), which addresses professional identity formation; discusses opportunities to adapt current curriculum and teaching and create new curricular responses to meet the new accreditation standards and interpretations; and explores ways to resist increasing limitations and find a supportive academic community to sustain hope and resilience.

Tell Elon Musk, The Hell With It, Jethro K. Lieberman

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Federal Court Orders Reinstatement Of Discharged Trans Professor, Arthur S. Leonard

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Maybe Law Schools Do Not Oppress Minority Faculty Women: A Critique Of Meera E. Deo’S “Unequal Profession: Race And Gender In Legal Academia” (Stanford University Press 2019), Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Law School News: A Fond Farewell To Dean Michael Yelnosky 06-26-2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Voting Like A Duck: Reflecting On A Year Of Legal Writing Voting Rights, Meredith A.G. Stange

College of Law Faculty Publications

Over the years, in various legal writing forums, I have heard that legal writing professors should try to “look like ducks.” This means we should publish, teach doctrinal courses, and otherwise do everything we can to make ourselves look like the tenure-track, non-legal writing faculty. The theory is that the more we look like tenure-track faculty, the harder it will be to treat those of us who are not tenure track differently. This has always bothered me because it seems to minimize the work that legal writing professors do and makes it seem that in order to have value, we …

Treating Professionals Professionally: Requiring Security Of Position For All Skills-Focused Faculty Under Aba Accreditation Standard 405(C) And Eliminating 405(D), Lucille A. Jewel

Scholarly Works

In 2014, the American Bar Association (ABA) decided to retain Accreditation Standard 405 in its current form to preserve tenure for law faculty as well as the status, security of position, governance rights, and academic freedom that tenure provides. In doing so, the ABA also preserved the long-standing hierarchy that elevates doctrine-focused faculty over skills-focused faculty. That hierarchy discriminates against skills-focused faculty, particularly those who specialize in legal writing--most of whom are women. This paper calls on the ABA to address this discrimination against skills-focused faculty and the negative effects it has on schools, faculty, and students. As explained in …

Gender Inequity Throughout The Legal Academy: A Quick Look At The (Surprisingly Limited) Data, Kristen K. Tiscione

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The long-standing overrepresentation of female law faculty in skills teaching and service-oriented positions is well documented. In contrast, the historical underrepresentation of female law faculty in top dean and tenured or tenure-track teaching positions has been widely recognized but difficult to quantify. The American Bar Association has a link in the statistics archives of its website to a chart from Fall 2013 on the gender, ethnicity, and status of law faculty. The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) links to the same chart on its website. This chart replaced a similar chart covering 2008 to 2009 that the ABA has …

The Professor Anthony J. Santoro Business Law Lecture Series Presents Becoming A Valued Business Lawyer, Roger Williams University School Of Law, Michael M. Bowden

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Remembering Rwu Laws Founding Dean 9-10-2019, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Dean Michael Yelnosky To Step Down After 2019-20 Academic Year 9-5-2019, Jill Rodrigues, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Familiar Battles Yield Next Generation Victories, Karin Mika

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

No abstract provided.

Cooperation And Turnover In Law Faculties: A Game-Theoretic Model And An Empirical Study, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

A standard account of group cooperation would predict that group stability would bring about greater cooperation because repeat-play games would allow for sanctions and rewards. In an academic unit such as a department or a law faculty, one might thus expect that faculty stability would bring about greater cooperation. However, academic units are not like most other groups. Tenured professors face only limited sanctions for failing to cooperate, for engaging in unproductive conflict, or for shirking. This article argues counter-intuitively that within limits, some level of faculty turnover may enhance cooperation. Certainly, excessive and persistent loss of faculty is demoralizing, …

Newsroom: 'You Can't Help Being In Awe' 1-30-2018, Michael M. Bowden, Edward Fitzpatrick

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Tenure Redux, Jacqueline D. Lipton

Articles

This essay is a reflection on some of the questions that arose during the author's tenure process that are likely pertinent to others on the tenure track today particularly with respect to questions about writing style in tenure pieces, and on whether early scholars should focus on general law reviews or specialty journals--depending on their areas of expertise--or a combination of both. It also reflects on choice of subject matter for tenure work, and whether some of that work may or may not stand the test of time, as well as on differences between the U.S. legal scholarship process and …

Continuing Derrick Bell's Devotion In Creative Action, Angela Mae Kupenda

Journal Articles

I remember my first time seeing Derrick Bell in person and hearing him speak, just a few years before he passed away. I was in awe of him for many reasons, but primarily for two reasons. First, I noted from watching him with his devoted students, how mutual was the devotion coming from him—devotion to them as people and as those who would surely carry on his great work of seeking to forge equality in America and beyond. And second, I was in awe of him because of his devotion to the elimination of racism, while at the same time …

Rhetoric & Reality In The Aba Standards, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

The rhetoric of Chapters 3 and 4 of the ABA Standards creates, maintains, and perpetuates hierarchies in law school faculties. Those hierarchies subordinate some categories of faculty members and the courses they teach. Without change in the Standards or their implementation, these hierarchies will remain, and the values and norms of traditionally privileged faculty and subject matters will become even more firmly embedded as representing the best of the legal academy. By adopting the 405(c) “best practices” policy statement, individual law schools and law faculties take upon themselves the power to demonstrate that the ABA Standards are the floor, not …

Standard 405 And Terms And Conditions Of Employment: More Chaos, Conflict And Confusion Ahead, Joseph P. Tomain, Donald J. Polden

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In 2008, the Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association commenced a comprehensive review of the accreditation standards for American legal education. By July of 2011, most of the revised standards and rules of procedure had been drafted, discussed and approved by the section's Standards Review Committee ("SRC") and were ready for submission to the council. However, the SRC's revised accreditation policies were not submitted for action by the council until 2014, more than six years after the review process began, as a result of decisions made by section leaders. The revised standards …

Aba Standard 405(C): Two Steps Forward And One Step Back For Legal Education, Peter A. Joy

Scholarship@WashULaw

There has long been opposition to guaranteeing that all full-time law faculty have security of position and participation in faculty governance the same as or substantially similar to tenure. ABA Accreditation Standard 405(c), was meant to provide such security of position and faculty governance for clinical faculty, though this standard has not been consistently interpreted to do so. The situation for legal writing faculty is even more precarious, because the standards only require a law school to provide legal writing faculty with the security of position and other rights necessary to attract and retain well-qualified faculty. As a result, most …

The Constitutional Challenge To Teacher Tenure, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

In 2012, education reformers theorized a novel constitutional strategy to eliminate tenure. They argued that tenure leads to the retention of ineffective teachers, and that ineffective teaching deprives students of the constitutional right to education embedded in state constitutions. This theory immediately caught hold, with a California trial court striking down tenure in 2014 and litigation commencing in other states weeks thereafter.

The outcome of this litigation movement will determine both the future of the teaching profession and the scope of the constitutional right to education. To date, however, no high court or scholar has thoroughly analyzed the theory. This …

Podia And Pens: Dismantling The Two-Track System For Legal Research And Writing Faculty, Kristen K. Tiscione, Amy Vorenberg

Law Faculty Scholarship

At the 2015 AALS Annual Meeting, a panel was convened under this title to discuss whether separate tracks and lower status for legal research and writing (“LRW”) faculty make sense given the current demand for legal educators to better train students for practice. The participants included law professors, an associate dean, and a federal judge.2 Each panelist was asked to respond to questions about the “two-track” system—a shorthand phrase for the two tracks of employment at many law schools whereby full-time LRW faculty are treated differently than tenured and tenure-track faculty. The panelists represented differing views on the topic. This …

'Truth And Reconciliation': A Critical Step Toward Eliminating Race And Gender Violations In Tenure Wars, Angela Mae Kupenda, Tamara F. Lawson

Journal Articles

In this Article, the co-authors confront one of the next generation issues for underrepresented groups in legal education: what happens after tenure victories, especially for the victors in a war wrought with gender and racial inequities? Even if all is fair in love, war, and tenure battles, it remains most troubling when, even in this century, acts of racial and/or gender aggression are targeted at qualified tenure candidates. These violations of the "tenure rules of engagement" based on implicit or explicit racial or gender bias preserve discriminatory practices that impact underrepresented groups and maintain the status quo in the academy …

‘Truth And Reconciliation’: A Critical Step Toward Eliminating Race And Gender Violations In Tenure Wars, Tamara F. Lawson, Angela Mae Kupenda

Articles

“All is fair in love and war,” and . . . tenure battles? However, even in war there are rules of engagement. In “tenure wars” rules apply too. The American Bar Association requires law schools to employ clear rules of engagement in “tenure wars,” akin to how the United Nations collectively proscribes rules of war between nation states as well as punishes violations committed on the battlefield. When innocent nations are attacked by illegal acts of aggression, a coalition of the willing allies within the United Nations defends against the aggression.

Even if all is fair in love, war, and …

Top 10 Tips For A Newly Tenured Professor, Eric Goldman

Faculty Publications

Prospective and junior professors can find lots of advice in blogs about key milestones in a junior professor’s life cycle: how to get the first academic job, how to lateral from one institution to another, and how to get tenure.

In contrast, tenured professors don’t get a lot of guidance about what do with the rest of their career. It’s tempting to assume that if you’re good enough to get tenure, you’ll know what to do with it. However, it turns out my pre-tenure experiences hadn’t fully prepared me for what I encountered post-tenure. Based on my experiences, I prepared …

Avoiding Independent Agency Armageddon, Kent H. Barnett

Scholarly Works

In Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Congress’ use of two layers of tenure protection to shield Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) members from the President’s removal. The SEC could appoint and remove PCAOB members. An implied tenure-protection provision protected the SEC from the President’s at-will removal. And a statutory tenure-protection provision protected PCAOB members from the SEC’s at-will removal. The Court held that these “tiered” tenure protections unconstitutionally impinged upon the President’s removal power because they prevented the President from holding the SEC responsible for PCAOB’s actions in the same …

Tenure And The Law Library Director, James M. Donovan, Kevin B. Shelton

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This essay offers a response to the current discussion concerning the possible rescission of ABA Accreditation Standard 603 governing tenure-track appointment of the law library director.

Part I reviews this discussion, highlighting the terms and arguments on all sides of the debate. Part II offers a defense of the current standard, based upon the need for the director both to receive the protections of academic freedom and to participate in faculty governance of the law school. The need for tenure to perform a director's professional duties, however, does not make one automatically tenureable. Part III examines the skeptical attitude that …

Clinical Faculty In The Legal Academy: Hiring, Promotion And Retention, Bryan L. Adamson, Calvin G. C. Pang, Bradford Colbert, Kathy Hessler, Katherine R. Kruse, Robert R. Kuehn, Mary Helen Mcneal, David A. Santacroce

Articles

The Chair of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Clinical Legal Education appointed us in 2005 to the Task Force on the Status of Clinicians and the Legal Academy (Task Force) to examine who is teaching in clinical programs and using clinical methodologies in American law schools and to identify the most appropriate models for clinical appointments within the legal academy. Our charges reflected two ongoing concerns: 1) the need to collect valid, reliable, and helpful data that would inform discussions on the breadth of clinical education in the legal academy and the status of clinical educators …

The Status Of Clinical Faculty In The Legal Academy: Report Of The Task Force On The Status Of Clinicians And The Legal Academy, Bryan L. Adamson, Bradford Colbert, Kathy Hessler, Katherine R. Kruse, Robert R. Kuehn, Mary Helen Mcneal, Calvin G. C. Pang, David A. Santacroce

Other Publications

In the midst of ongoing debates within the legal academy and the American Bar Association on the need for 'practice-ready" law school graduates through enhanced attention to law clinics and externships and on the status of faculty teaching in those courses, this report identifies and evaluates the most appropriate modes for clinical faculty appointments. Drawing on data collected through a survey of clinical program directors and faculty, the report analyzes the five most identifiable clinical faculty models: unitary tenure track; clinical tenure track; long-term contract; short-term contract; and clinical fellowships. It determines that, despite great strides in the growth of …

Do Law Schools Mistreat Women Faculty? Or, Who’S Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, Dan Subotnik

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Penumbral Academic Freedom: Interpreting The Tenure Contract In A Time Of Constitutional Impotence, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Faculty Publications

This article recounts the deficiencies of constitutional law and common tenure contract language - the latter based on the 1940 Statement of Principles of the American Association of University Professors - in protecting the academic freedom of faculty on the modern university campus. The article proposes an Interpretation of that common language, accompanied by Illustrations, aiming to describe the penumbras of academic freedom - faculty rights and responsibilities that surround and emanate from the three traditional pillars of teaching, research, and service - that are within the scope of the tenure contract but not explicitly described by it, and therefore …