The Faculty Lounge

Browne Lewis Appointed as Dean at NCCSU Law

Browne Lewis, currently the Leon and Gloria Plevin Professor of Law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, has been appointed as the Dean of NC Central University. From the school's announcement:

An accomplished legal scholar, Lewis is accomplished in the areas of bioethics, environmental, family and inheritance law. Her thought leadership has appeared in prominent law reviews, including George Mason Law Review, Cardozo Law Review, and Case Western Reserve Law Review. She is the author of two books on assisted reproductive technology and has a book on death and dying forthcoming from Edward Elgar Publishing Company.

Lewis is a member of the American Law Institute and serves on the board of the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI). She has also been a visiting researcher at the Brocher Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Medical Humanities (University of Texas Medical Branch), The Hasting Center and Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. As a Senior Fulbright Specialist, Lewis lectured and conducted research at Haifa University and Hebrew University in Israel. She also lived in the United Kingdom for five months as a Core Fulbright Scholar at King’s College in London. Additionally, Lewis received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the public health consequences of small cigars.

Lewis holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Grambling State University, master’s degree in public policy from the Humphrey Institute, a Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota School of Law and an L.L.M. in energy and environmental law from the University of Houston Law Center.

The full announcement is here. Congratulations, Professor Lewis!

David Ruder (1929 - 2020)

My friend, colleague, and former dean David Ruder passed away on February 15 at age 90. David was the last of a generation of true giants in legal education, whose career included law practice, scholarship, and public service. He was dean of the Northwestern law school 1977 -85 and chair of the SEC 1987-89. David joined the law faculty in 1961, becoming emeritus in 2005; he continued teaching through the 2016-17 academic year. He practiced law at Quarles & Brady (early in his career) and Baker & McKenzie (later). Most important to me was David's powerful commitment to clinical legal education. At a time when clinical teaching was far from the mainstream at most law schools, David took the lead in developing and expanding Northwestern's Bluhm Legal Clinic. At his 90th birthday celebration last spring, he said that one of his proudest accomplishments as dean had been tenuring three clinicians (one of whom was me, in 1981). Law faculties were much smaller in those days, and David took an intense interest in the career development of younger colleagues, providing unfailingly wise counsel with kindness and warmth.

It is moving beyond words that David's family has requested that memorial donations be made to the Bluhm Legal Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker Law School.

The university's obituary is after the jump.

SMU Law Seeks PR Visitor for Fall 2020

This just in:

THE SMU DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW in Dallas, Texas is seeking applications from qualified persons for a visiting professor position in the area of Professional Responsibility for the Fall 2020 semester. Candidates may also teach another upper-level, mutually agreed upon course. A J.D. degree and teaching experience are required. Applications should be directed to Faculty Appointments Committee, via email to bettya@smu.edu as soon as possible.

SMU will not discriminate in any employment practice, education program, or educational activity on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status. SMU's commitment to equal opportunity includes nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. The Executive Director for Access and Equity/Title IX Coordinator is designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies, including the prohibition of sex discrimination under Title IX. The Executive Director/Title IX Coordinator may be reached at the Perkins Administration Building, Room 204, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas, TX 75205, 214-768-3601, accessequity@smu.edu. Inquiries regarding the application of Title IX may also be directed to the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.

Hiring is contingent upon the satisfactory completion of a background check.

Remember the Maine

On this day in 1898 the USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor.

The Temptations

CFP: International and Comparative Insolvency Law Symposium

This just in:

The Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and the Corporate and Business Law Journal are pleased to announce the Third International and Comparative Insolvency Law Symposium. The symposium will be held at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law from November 12 to November 13, 2020. In conjunction with Professor Laura Napoli Coordes of the Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Professor Andrew Dawson of the University of Miami Law School, Professor Adrian Walters of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Professor Christoph Henkel of the Mississippi College School of Law, the members of the Arizona State University Corporate and Business Law Journal are organizing the symposium.

The goal and purpose of the conference is to (1) specifically develop and promote legal scholarship on global and domestic bankruptcy and insolvency law topics in the United States, and (2) to advance the dialogue on these topics with a global perspective among academics, the practicing bar and the bankruptcy bench.

The symposium focuses on comparative and cross-border issues in bankruptcy and insolvency law in its broadest sense. This includes both consumer and corporate bankruptcy and insolvency topics as well as any related subject, such as secured transactions. The following topics and themes will be included in the program:

• Current issues of insolvency law in a global context (i.e. executory contracts and ipso facto clauses)
• Harmonizing cross-border bankruptcy, insolvency and restructuring law
• Insolvency and bankruptcy law reforms and trends (i.e. the EU Restructuring Directive, the U.S. Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019, UK post-Brexit)
• Specific regional developments in the Americas, Africa, India, Asia or Europe
• Sovereign bankruptcy, including Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy filing under PROMESA
• Alternative Dispute Resolution in bankruptcy and restructuring
• Treatment of small and medium sized enterprises in bankruptcy
• Personal and consumer bankruptcy and restructuring
• Insolvency of financial institutions, such as SMEs or GSIFIS
• Treatment of Digital Assets in insolvency proceedings
• Impact of technology on insolvency law and restructuring (i.e. Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence)
• Communications and cooperation between courts across borders
• UNCITRAL Working Group V discussions and updates
• Hot topics and works-in-progress

Please note that the above list of topics is not exclusive. Any paper submitted with a comparative or cross-border component will be considered for presentation and publication.

John Ford, Actor and Movie Director ... and Klansman

He was a Klansman.  This was in 1915.  But he was director How Green was My Valley and the Battle of Midway.  Odd and strange.

A Guest Post on California's Unfair Bar Pass Rates by Mitchel Winick

Faithful readers of TFL will recall that I have been critical of California's high cut score on the bar exam, which results in unfairly denying or delaying admission to the bar of well-qualified law graduates.  For more on this topic, please read this informative post from Mitchel Winick.  -- David Frakt

Highest Performers but Lowest Pass Rate, there is Something Seriously Wrong in California

By: Mitchel L. Winick, President and Dean, Monterey College of Law

Great news! California bar examinees were once again among the highest performers in the nation on the July 2019 bar exam. According to last month’s released results, California examinees scored 17 points higher on the Multistate Bar Examination than the national mean (1428 v. 1411 scaled points). In MBE terms, this is a very significant difference and also predicts that these examinees performed better on their state-topic essays and performance tests because these scores commonly correlate. These exam results unquestionably reflect the high quality of legal education and preparation of California bar examinees.

But something is seriously wrong! Only 50.1% of these high performing examinees passed the California bar exam. Meanwhile, lower scoring examinees passed at a 20% higher pass rate in many other major jurisdictions. This dramatic difference results from California using an artificially high minimum passing score (“cut score”) when compared with every other major jurisdiction. To put this in context, California’s cut score of 1440 is significantly higher than the national mean of 1350. Furthermore, every other U.S. jurisdiction except Delaware has adopted cut scores between 1290 and 1390. The five most comparable large jurisdictions, including New York, use passing scores of 1330 to 1360. Only California sits as an outlier using 1440.

Tennessee Law Announces Dean Finalists

The University of Tennessee College of Law has announced its four finalists for the deanship.  They are: Joan Heminway (Tennessee), Susan Kuo (South Carolina), Stephen Mazza (Kansas) and Amelia Rinehart (Utah).  

Should Pete Rose Be Reinstated? [UPDATED]

Evan Caminker and Erwin Chemerinsky have an oped in today’s New York Times calling for the reinstatement of Pete Rose to Major League Baseball, including eligibility for the Hall of Fame. Their basic argument is that Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball, imposed in 1989, has proven to be excessive in comparison to the lighter punishments more recently meted out for the illegal use of steroids and high-tech sign stealing. In other words, the lifetime ban is disproportionate and Pete Rose has suffered enough.

I have no strong opinion about Rose’s reinstatement, but I do think that Caminker and Chemerinsky get one thing wrong. They write, in Rose's defense,

Pete Rose was banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on games, including on the team he managed, the Cincinnati Reds, to win. No one has ever claimed that Rose’s misconduct was intended to gain a competitive advantage over other teams or had the slightest effect on the outcomes of any games.

This minimizes the severity of Rose’s offense, and not only because frequent involvement with gamblers made him vulnerable to extortion or blackmail, in which case he might well have been compelled to lose a few winnable games.

Moreover, it is a myth to say that there is not even the “slightest effect” on game outcomes when the manager bets only to win. Rose obviously did not bet on every game, as no team will ever win 162 times in a season. Rather, he bet on games that he expected or hoped to win, which gave him an incentive to shuffle his lineup, adjust the pitching rotation, tweak the bullpen, or keep injured players in the game. Each of these strategic choices, even when meant to win a particular game, had a ripple effect on other games – when Rose chose not to bet – making certain players either unavailable or less effective.

If the star closer pitched two innings in game one of a series, to nail down a victory when Rose had money riding on the game, the bullpen was diminished for game two, when Rose wasn’t betting. All of this would have been invisible to fans or officials at the time, which made it all the more corrupting.

Rose’s betting also served as a signal to his bookies. When Rose bet heavily on a game, that meant he expected to win. When he didn’t bet, that meant he had less confidence in his team, perhaps due to injuries or a plan to give some of his best players a rest. In either case, professional gamblers might move huge amounts of money based on signals from Rose, thus making his bets the equivalent of insider trading. Compulsive gamblers inevitably run up huge debts, which provides a strong incentive to curry favor with the illegal bookmakers.

Perhaps thirty-one years is a sufficient penalty for Rose’s crimes against baseball, and his on-field record certainly justifies recognition in the Hall of Fame. But betting on your team to win is a lot like bribing a witness to tell the truth or paying off a judge to acquit the innocent. The act itself is culpable.

Caminker and Chemerinsky close their essay with the simple request to “Let Pete Rose back in.” I have no objection to Rose’s reinstatement, so long as the gravity of his offense is fully recognized.

UPDATE: Howard Wasserman has observations on the C & C oped at Prawfs.

Also, I have thought of another downstream effect of Rose's gambling. An occasional unexpected loss for the Reds would have the effect of improving the odds on games when Rose was betting. He thus had a personal financial incentive to lose random games when he was not betting. Of course, it could never be proven that he did throw some games in order to boost his winnings in other games, but the incentive -- and therefore the conflict of interest -- is evident. Given that Rose was already gambling illegally and in violation of MLB rules, his denials of intentional losing have no persuasive value.

Suffolk Seeks Trusts & Estates Visitor

Suffolk University Law School in Boston is looking for a Spring 20201 visitor to teach Trusts & Estates.  Here is the info:

Suffolk University Law School in Boston invites applications for a position as a Visiting Professor for the Spring semester of the upcoming academic school year (Spring 2021), with the primary responsibility of teaching two sections of the course in Trusts and Estates (one day and one evening section).  Applications should be received by February 17 (although applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled) and must include a letter detailing desire and qualifications to teach Trusts and Estates, as well as a curriculum vitae.  Applications should be addressed to Professor Rosanna Cavallaro (rcavalla@suffolk.edu) and uploaded to the Suffolk University website via Jobvite.

Suffolk University is an equal opportunity employer. The University is dedicated to the goal of building a diverse and inclusive faculty and staff who contribute to the robust exchange of ideas on campus, and who are committed to teaching and working in a diverse environment.  We strongly encourage applications from groups historically marginalized or underrepresented because of race/color, gender, religious creed, disability, national origin, veteran status or LGBTQ status.

Suffolk University does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, genetic information, or status as a veteran in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs, activities, or employment.

Jindal Global Law School Seeks Faculty for Next Fall

This just in:

Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), India has commenced the hiring process of faculty members for the academic session 2020-2021. We are interested in hiring LL.M./ J.D./ S.J.D. (or equivalent) Graduates passing out in 2020 for faculty positions, who are willing to take up teaching and/or research assignment from Fall 2020.

A JGU delegation will be in New York from March 29, 2020 to March 31, 2020. We would be happy to meet the students who are interested in applying for these positions at JGLS/JGU.

Interested students can e-mail their curriculum vitae and a letter of interest (teaching & research) to Nishant Kapur at NKAPUR@JGU.EDU.IN or at HR@JGU.EDU.IN not later than February 29, 2020.

JGU offers a competitive salary, research benefits comparable to the top international universities along with comprehensive health and accidental insurance coverage, accommodation near the University Campus, staff development allowance, research grants, research rewards for publications and other benefits. We have comprehensive policies on research & publication for motivating and incentivizing faculty members to undertake and contribute to research.  The University's strategic vision is here.

Two More Law Dean Finalists at Indiana-Indianapolis

They been dribbling out - the first two here.  The third and fourth finalists are Ngai Pindell (UNLV) and Karen Bravo (IUI).

The Disneyfication of a University

This guest post is by Dane Kennedy, the Elmer Louis Kayser Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University. It was originally posted on the AAUP's  Academe Blog, and it is reproduced here with permission.

The Disneyfication of a University

Guest Blogger 

BY DANE KENNEDY

The George Washington University faculty and staff ain’t got no culture. Or worse, we’ve got a negative culture. This was the verdict of the Disney Institute, which the president of our university commissioned last year to assess the culture on our campus. Fortunately, the institute, which is the “professional development and external training arm of The Walt Disney Company,” has a remediation plan. It has designed workshops to teach us the cultural “values” and “service priorities” we evidently require.

The culture that Disney has crafted for us is not, it should be said, the high culture of the arts that the poet Matthew Arnold described as “sweetness and light.” Nor is it the anthropological notion of culture—a system of meaning that shapes social behavior. Rather, it is corporate culture, a creature that has become all the rage in the business world—and now, it seems, is burrowing its way into universities. Its professed aim is to instill a sense of shared purpose among employees, but its real objective is far more coercive and insidious.

Lisa Kloppenberg Named Santa Clara Provost

Lisa Kloppenberg, the interim provost of Santa Clara University, and former dean of both Santa Clara Law and Dayton Law, has been named permanent provost of Santa Clara.  She will take the position March 1.

Various Williams

Willie Nelson

Three FAMU Law Dean Finalists - No, Not Those Three

Well, at least not all schools are going the "keep the dean candidates secret" route.  FAMU Law has announced (here) the three finalists for the dean position. They are:

• Roederick White, Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at the Southern University Law Center
• andré douglas pond cummings, Associate Professor at University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law
• James Crawford, US Navy JAG (retired)

Update 2:30 pm:

Something is going at FAMU.  Less than an hour after I posted the names of the three finalists for the FAMU dean search, it looks like those candidates have been scrapped and three new candidates are now listed (here). The new candidates are:

• Associate Dean Deidre’ A. Keller
• Interim Dean Nicola Boothe Perry
• Associate Dean Russell McClain

In case FAMU changes the links, included after the fold are (not great) screenshots of the announcement of the first three finalists and the announcement of new three finalists.

Very strange indeed.

Update 3:45 pm:

A reader wrote to me individually and said that the "mystery" is solved, because the first sent of candidates interviewed in May 2019 and the second set of candidates are interviewing this month.  Nothing to see here? 

Some Citations Are Not Picked Up by Hein Online

Citations counts are becoming increasingly important in academics, including legal academics. Beginning with the next ranking issue, U.S. News will report (though not yet include in its overall metric) citation counts for law school faculties as a measure of scholarly impact, using Hein Online as its source. There are many citations, however, that will not show up in Hein Online,

The Third Rainbow Girl, by Emma Copley Eisenberg, is the true story of a double murder in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, committed in 1980. According to the New York Times, it is an “evocative and elegantly paced examination of the murders,” and it is a top-seller on Amazon.com.

The book also quotes me, twice, citing Modern Trial Advocacy on the need for a persuasive theory and theme in a criminal prosecution:

“Your case must have both a theory and a theme,” advises Steven Lubet, author of Modern Trial Advocacy: Analysis and Practice. A winning theory “has logical internal force,” and it should be simple and easy to believe. “Even ‘true’ theories may be difficult to believe because they contradict everyday experiences,” writes Lubet. “You must strive to eliminate all implausible elements from your theory.”

“Lawyers must therefore pay careful attention to the fact finder’s frame of reference, which in turn will be determined, at least in part, by his or her education, training, background, experiences, and biases,” Lubet, the trial expert, further advises. 

I don’t know of any data base that picks up such citations, but I thought it was pretty cool (a friend alerted me, though I had already planned to read the book). These citations, which are in the text rather than footnotes, will probably be seen by more readers -- perhaps by orders of magnitude -- than most law review articles, but that won't count for bupkes in U.S. News.

This, of course, also raises questions about the meaning of "scholarly impact." If defined solely by citation counts, the term evidently means something like "impact among scholars," rather than "impact of scholarship." Without making any claims about the importance of inclusion in The Third Rainbow Girl, it certainly seems that influence beyond academic journals ought to be worth something.

CFP: Access to the Ballot on the Eve of the 2020 Election

This just in:

Access to the Ballot on the Eve of the 2020 Election: What Barriers Still Exist?

With the 2020 election on the horizon, the Elon Law Review invites submissions for a fall symposium exploring the past, present, and future of electoral participation on both sides of the ballot. The Elon Law Review Symposium will be held Friday, September 25, 2020, at Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina. A reception will be held on the evening of September 24.

Considering the broad sweep of American constitutional history as an expansion of electoral participation, as reflected in the 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, along with accompanying federal and state legislative and judicial actions, this symposium will explore the circumstances that animate contemporary electoral dynamics and their effects on electoral participation. As the 100 th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment approaches, we celebrate the progress that has been made but also acknowledge the barriers that remain for women. Additionally, although 150 years have passed since the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, some states are instituting new voter requirements that disproportionately affect certain demographic and socioeconomic populations.

Despite efforts to break down barriers, access to the ballot remains inequitable for some voters and candidates. Nonetheless, over the past legislative session, more states have expanded ballot access rather than restricting it. The Elon Law Review Symposium Editors are interested in articles exploring legislative, executive, judicial, and regulatory perspectives that emanate from local, state, and federal elections, as well as international results. An abstract of the scholarly paper to be presented should be submitted not later than February 28, 2020, to both of the Elon Law Review Symposium Editors Victoria Ford and Samantha Dudley at vford@elon.edu and sdudley2@elon.edu. Accepted proposals will be organized into symposium panels around common themes. Final papers will be due by July 1, 2020, for both presentation at the symposium and publication in the symposium issue of the 2021 Elon Law Review.

In Remembrance: Detroit Mercy Law Professor Howard B. Abrams

From an email message that I received earlier today:

Long-time Detroit Mercy Law Professor Howard B. Abrams has passed away.  He was 79.  Howard served on the Detroit Mercy Law faculty since 1977, teaching a range of courses but focused primarily on Copyright and Entertainment Law.  He was a brilliant legal thinker who thrived on intellectual life.  He was also an exceedingly decent man.  He brought gravity to every conversation, fought passionately for the interests of the law school and its students, and nurtured new faculty with good advice and kindness. The Detroit Mercy Law community will miss him greatly.