The Faculty Lounge

Smolla Stepping Down as Vermont Law President

Vermont Law and Graduate School has announced that Rodney Smolla will step down as president at the end of the academic year.  He became president in 2022.  Beth McCormack, dean of the law school, and Dan Bromberg, dean of the graduate school, will take on Smolla's responsibilities.   A search is expected to happen in the coming academic year. 

Dutch Sperm "Calamity"

The Guardian has the news in this story: ‘Medical calamity’: dozens of Dutch sperm donors fathered at least 25 children. (HT: Al Roth's Market Design Blog)

According to the article: “At least 85 sperm donors in the Netherlands have fathered 25 or more children, the national gynaecology and obstetrics organisation has said, after a new registration system showed fertility clinics have been breaking existing rules on sperm donation for decades.”

These revelations are important because countries like the Netherlands are often held up as regulatory role models, in contrast to the US, which has a fractured and largely unregulated system. But enforcement matters too, it turns out, and here there was none. 

The information became available only once donor anonymity laws were lifted: “Since 2004, when donors’ right to anonymity was lifted, the data showed there had been at least 85 “mass donors” (defined as at least 25 conceptions).”

“Most were biological father to between 26 and 40 children, Schoonenberg said, although several had between 50 and 75. Among them were at least 10 fertility doctors” (emphasis mine)

Celtic Classics

"The Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond" is a traditional Scottish song, with various adaptations dating to the eighteenth century. The "low road" refers to death, of either a lover or the executed soldiers in Bonnie Prince Charlie's 1746 rebellion against the British Crown. "Oh, Danny Boy" is an Irish lament, likely for a son gone off to war, with lyrics written by English lawyer Frederic Weatherly in 1910, and set to the traditional balled "Londonderry Air." Both the Scots and the Irish have many rousing melodies, but two of the most famous are these sorrowful tunes. There are almost limitless versions -- solo, chorale, instrumental, and even rock. Here are some examples (don't miss the two non-traditional arrangements at the bottom of the post):

Hiring Announcement: Brooklyn Law School

From a recent email message:

Brooklyn Law School’s legal writing program is seeking one or more one-year Visiting Assistant Professor(s) of Legal Writing for the 2025-2026 academic year. A professor in this position will teach two sections of students in our year-long 1L legal writing program (approximately 20 students per section).

Brooklyn Law School's year-long 1L legal writing course is seven credits. Our fall semester course is three credits and introduces students to the fundamentals of legal research and writing, focusing on objective legal analysis. In the four-credit spring course, students produce three written works (descriptive, transactional, and persuasive) to advance a client’s interests. Students also learn and develop oral communication skills, including persuasive advocacy.

We welcome entry-level and experienced teachers to apply. Applicants must have a J.D. and at least three years of legal practice experience, including experience reviewing and providing written and oral feedback on the legal work of students or junior attorneys. We are looking for an innovative, collaborative, and creative educator to join our legal writing team.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, CV, and a list of three professional references to [email protected]. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. In accordance with NY State disclosure laws, the salary is $110,000.

It is the policy of Brooklyn Law School not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected status under federal, state, or local law. Brooklyn Law School values a diverse and vibrant community and affirmatively encourages applications from candidates of all backgrounds and life experience.

Miriam Baer Named President and Dean of California Western School of Law

California Western School of Law has announced that Miriam Baer will be its next dean.  She is currently vice dean and professor of law at Brooklyn Law School.  Baer, who holds a JD from Harvard, will take over on July 1.

California Western School of Law has announced that Miriam Baer will be its next dean.  She is currently vice dean and professor of law at Brooklyn Law School.  Baer, who holds a JD from Harvard, will take over on July 1.

How Is Surrogacy/Egg Donation/[Fill In The Blank] Like Prostitution? (Part 986)

In the course of preparing remarks for an upcoming roundtable, I was searching back through my old posts and came across this still-relevant blast from the past, How Is An Egg Donor Like A Prostitute? My views remain unchanged, some 15 years later:*

As I argue in the recently posted, A Woman’s Worth, an egg donor is much like a prostitute in the following sense: both are selling something that is often expected or encouraged to be given for free or at a reduced price, despite its high economic value. 

Like many taboo markets, the markets for sex and oocytes present a paradox. These robust commercial industries attract large numbers of suppliers and consumers, yet continue to be regarded as socially problematic—perhaps deviant or repugnant—and in need of strict controls. Even when legal, taboo markets and those who supply them may be stigmatized, like the prostitute, or, like the egg donor, romantically recharacterized as an altruistic nonmarket transactor whose economic exchange is limited in ways that other markets are not.  I contend that these tendencies are often the product of unexamined instincts and are laden with class and gender prejudices and anxiety about the body, especially women’s bodies, that have little relation to the stated objections to the underlying transaction.

But I also came across this post from co-blogger, Bridget Crawford, making a similar point about selling hair. Of course this post, "Ten Ways Surrogacy is Like Prostitution," from 2018 provides the more typical comparison of reproductive labor to sexual labor. Though I was purposely searching for older posts to demonstrate the long-standing nature of this rhetorical tactic, inevitably designed to cause the reader to judge both sexual and reproductive labor in a negative light, this type of argument is alive and well. (Which is why I was looking for it again, all these years later)

*Have I really been blogging that long?? Good grief!

Statement from Jewish Faculty and Staff at Northwestern

The Statement with a frequently updated list of signatories is here.

Statement from Jewish faculty and staff at Northwestern University

As Jewish faculty and staff at Northwestern University, we write today to defend the values of academic freedom, pluralism and independence that animate Northwestern and undergird its commitment to teaching, learning, and research. We write to dispel misconceptions that are being wielded by outsiders to weaken the university and harm our students. The fact that U.S. government leaders are making unwarranted threats to our university and stripping rights from students, faculty, and researchers nationwide in the name of Jews is deeply offensive to us. We believe it should stop.

In announcing Title VI investigations of 60 universities, including Northwestern, the U.S. secretary of education spoke of “relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year.” As Jews who walk the campus every day and teach in its classrooms, we can reliably report that this depiction bears little resemblance to life at Northwestern. Some of us have been disappointed at times by Northwestern’s response to campus events. We recognize that antisemitism is present on college campuses, as it is in the world. Yet a fair-minded assessment would reveal a faculty and a university administration committed to the education of our students through rigorous and respectful debate.

We come from different points on the political compass. We express our identities as Jews in myriad ways. But we are united by the conviction that our Jewishness must not be used as a cudgel to silence the vigorous exchange of ideas that lies at the heart of university life. To punish Northwestern financially or to limit academic freedom in the name of protecting Jewish students could itself spark antisemitism — and would be an injustice to those very students and an injury to American society at large.

AALS Section on Aging and Law Online Book Event - Hot Flash: How the Law Ignores Menopause and What We Can Do About It

Date: Thursday, May 8 from 1 – 2 pm ET/12 – 1 pm CT/11 am – 12 pm MT/10 – 11 am PT

The event is free and open to the all; preregistration is required, here.

The authors of the book Hot Flash: How the Law Ignores Menopause and What We Can Do About It (Stanford University Press, 2024) and commentators will explore the multifaceted challenges and opportunities at the intersections between and among menopause, culture, and law. Like menstruation, menopause is a largely involuntary and age-related phase of life that has long been enveloped in silence and shame. An estimated 46.5 million individuals worldwide experience menopause annually. The authors and commentators will critically examine the current state of research on menopause, unraveling its impact on individuals within the context of legal frameworks and cultural norms around gender, aging, and work.

Details after the fold.

CFP: Seventh Annual Equality Law Scholars’ Forum

Call for Proposals for the Seventh Annual Equality Law Scholars’ Forum

November 7-8, 2025

LMU Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

Building on the success of the Equality Law Scholars’ Forum held over the past seven years, and in the spirit of academic engagement and mentoring in the area of Equality Law, we (Tristin Green, Loyola Law Los Angeles; Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Boston University Law; and Leticia Saucedo, UC Davis Law) are thrilled to announce the Seventh Annual Equality Law Scholars’ Forum to be held in Fall 2025. 

This Scholars’ Forum seeks to provide junior scholars with commentary and critique and to provide scholars at all career stages the opportunity to engage with new scholarly currents and ideas.  We hope to bring together scholars with varied perspectives (e.g., critical race theory, class critical theory, queer theory, feminist legal theory, law and economics, law and society) across fields (e.g., criminal system, education, employment, family, health, immigration, property, tax) and with work relevant to many diverse identities (e.g., age, class, disability, national origin, race, sex, sexuality) to build bridges and to generate new ideas in the area of Equality Law.  

We will select five or six relatively junior scholars (untenured, newly tenured, or prospective professors) in the U.S. to present papers from proposals submitted in response to this Call for Proposals. In so doing, we will select papers that cover a broad range of topics within the area of Equality Law.  Leading senior scholars will provide commentary on each of the featured papers in an intimate and collegial setting.  The Forum will take place all day Friday through lunch on Saturday.  Participants are expected to attend the full Forum.  The Equality Law Scholars’ Forum will pay transportation and accommodation expenses for participants and will host a dinner on Friday evening.  

This year’s Forum will be held on November 7-8, 2025, at LMU Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.

Junior scholars are invited to submit abstracts of proposed papers, 3-5 pages in length, by May 15, 2025.   

Full drafts of papers must be available for circulation to participants by October 21, 2025. 

Note: We urge submission of proposals for drafts that will still be substantially in progress in November 2025 over drafts that will be in late-stage law review edits at that time.

Proposals should be submitted to:

Leticia Saucedo, UC Davis Law, [email protected]. Electronic submissions via email are preferred.

Former Harvard Morgue Chief Pleads Guilty to Illegal Sale of Body Parts

The latest black market body parts scandal is here. Admittedly it's not the body parts use case I generally imagine when it comes to black market biological material: 

A former manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School will plead guilty to stealing body parts that had been donated for research and selling them for thousands of dollars to people who collected them as macabre curiosities, according to court documents.

 

He “plead guilty to stealing body parts that had been donated for research and selling them for thousands of dollars to people who collected them as macabre curiosities, according to court documents.”

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— Kim Krawiec (@kimkrawiec.bsky.social) April 21, 2025 at 11:28 AM

More On Assisted Dying

Is here, via Al Roth. See my prior discussion here.

 

More on medical aid in dying

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— Kim Krawiec (@kimkrawiec.bsky.social) April 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM

House Ways and Means Publishes RFI on OPOs

The House Ways and Means Committee has published a Request for Information on the Activities of Tax-Exempt Organ Procurement Organizations. The screenshot below of page 3 is probably enough for you to get the idea. I imagine that reports like this one were relevant to the decision to investigate. HT: Frank McCormick

Born in Chicago

Paul Butterfield's iconic "Born in Chicago," the first cut on his first album, was written by Nick Gravenites (who was in fact born in 1938; but that didn't rhyme with "gun"). Along with Butterfield, Gravenites began hanging out in South Side blues clubs in the late 1950s, listening to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, and others. Unlike Butterfield, Gravenites did not become nationally well known, although he did have a moment with Mike Bloomfield in the Electric Flag. He also produced for Janis Joplin and other West Coast acts. He outlived Butterfield by 37 years, passing away in September 2024.

Here is Gravenites performing with some other Chicago blues musicians, including Harvey Mandel, Barry Goldberg, Sam Lay, and Corky Siegel: