The Faculty Lounge

Get Ready [UPDATED]

Smokey Robinson wrote "Get Ready" for the Temptations in 1966, making it the last song he wrote for them at Motown Records. It was re-released by Rare Earth, also on Motown, in 1970, charting both times.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Judicial Superpower

My new column for The Hill explains one more reason to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is the gist:

Ketanji Brown Jackson's judicial superpower: An appreciation of the human consequences of court rulings

There is another aspect of Jackson’s background that deserves more attention. She previously served as a U.S. district court judge for eight years, presiding over civil and criminal trials.

Unlike appellate judges and Supreme Court justices, trial judges must directly confront the impact they have on people’s lives. They see victims and witnesses as they testify, hear the parties explain their cases, determine the truth of claims and defenses and often tell people, to their faces, whether they will go free or spend years in prison. Although not as exalted or sweepingly influential as the Supreme Court, the trial courts are the forums where the most people actually encounter the law.

It is entirely possible that several of the others – perhaps Justices Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh or Chief Justice John Roberts – have never even observed a complex trial from beginning to end. A written trial record may provide sufficient information to affirm or reverse the outcome of any given case, but records alone can be a shaky basis for categorically instructing lower court judges on the conduct of future trials. It is as though there were members of the NBA rules committee who had diligently reviewed many shot charts without ever seeing a complete basketball game.

You can read the entire piece here.

UConn Law Seeks Two Tenured Laterals

This just in:

The University of Connecticut School of Law invites applications from lateral candidates for two full-time tenured faculty positions commencing in the fall of 2022. Although we will consider candidates with a range of curricular and scholarly expertise, subject areas of particular interest include business law, civil procedure, constitutional law, and environmental/administrative law. Any successful candidate will have an outstanding record of professional accomplishments commensurate with an appointment at the rank of Professor, with the opportunity for tenure at hire.

The UConn School of Law is especially interested in candidates who will add to the diversity of our faculty. We welcome applications from women, individuals with disabilities, veterans,  and other individuals underrepresented in the legal academy, as well as candidates with experiences, backgrounds, and viewpoints that will enrich the diversity of our community. 

UConn Law is the top-ranked public law school in the Northeast, offering a professional education of the highest quality. The Law School is committed to building and supporting a vibrant, multicultural, and diverse community of students, faculty, and staff. Its Gothic Revival campus is located in the West End of Hartford, a few miles from the state capitol and courts. The school has both day and evening divisions, and offers JD (Juris Doctor), LLM (Master of Laws), and SJD (Doctor of Laws) degrees, as well as several dual degrees. The UConn Law faculty includes leading scholars, experienced practitioners, and internationally known experts in a wide range of fields. The Law School hosts four student journals, over forty student organizations, extensive clinical and service engagement with the surrounding communities, and one of the largest law libraries in the world.

Visiting Professor Openings at the University of San Francisco School of Law 2022-2023

The University of San Francisco School of Law is seeking applicants for one or more Visiting Professorships for the 2022-2023 academic year.  USF Law welcomes outstanding candidates in subjects including property, human rights, international law, contracts, torts, evidence, and critical race theory. The Visitor(s) may also have the opportunity to teach an elective/seminar, if the schedule permits, as part of a commitment to two courses each semester. 

The University of San Francisco School of Law is steeped in a commitment to social responsibility and justice, hallmarks of Jesuit education, and focused on the training of skilled, ethical, and engaged lawyers. The Law School has a proud 110-year history of preparing its diverse graduates to be excellent and ethical attorneys who serve their clients and communities with integrity and in a socially responsible manner. The law school is committed to recruiting and retaining BIPOC faculty to reflect its mission and practice.

USF is located in one of the world’s most dynamic and progressive cities, which affords our community a global perspective and access to premier arts, culture, and centers of innovation. The campus sits in a beautiful neighborhood just north of Golden Gate Park and halfway between Ocean Beach and the Financial District. 

Successful candidates possess a J.D. degree from an ABA-accredited law school and will demonstrate:

• a record of professional excellence and strong classroom teaching skills;

• a commitment to service and potential for success as a contributing member of a dynamic and diverse community

• a willingness and ability to perform in either an in-person, hyflex, or remote modality. 

The Visiting Professor is a temporary non-tenure-track appointment given to faculty with special skills to complement the law school curriculum. The appointee will usually be on leave or be retired from a full-time faculty position at another university. While in residence, the Visiting Professor will plan, organize, and teach in the school’s programs; perform research, and complete any other duties as assigned by the Dean or Associate Dean.

For additional information and to apply, please visit the USF Job Listing.

A Slight Affront

I recently received an email advertisement from Lands’ End offering a 40% discount on long underwear, and noting that “With waist sizes up to 54”, shirt sizes up to 4XLT, we fit every body.” While I am glad that big people have clothing options, the promise to fit every body falls -- how shall I put this? -- distressingly short.

However much Lands’ End is active in the “Big & Tall” market, the company makes minimal effort to fit adults who are on the smaller end of the scale. Shopping “by size” offers only Regular, Big, Tall, and Big & Tall” options, with no tab at all for short people. Women can filter for "petite" sizes, but no such luck for guys.

Searching individual products does not help. For example, there are no dress or casual shirts with sleeves shorter than 32”— and those are in the elusive “extra small” size, which was not actually offered in any of the “featured” shirts I found on the website.  Even the “small” shirts are 32 ½ inches, which I have to continuously hike up lest they occlude the base of my thumbs. The available measurements for sweaters are similarly short-sighted. The sleeves on the medium squall jackets (necessary for even my slim size 38) are longer, beginning at 33 1/2 inches, but at least they have velcro fasteners at the wrists, requiring only that I get used to the consequent bunching at my elbows.

Pants are not much better. The shortest pre-hemmed jeans have a 30” inseam, which makes them about three inches longer than I can comfortably wear, leaving only the choices of rolling them up like a kid or dragging them on the ground until they fray at the heel. The smallest pajama bottoms can be cuffed only to 32", for some obscure reason, which is 5" too long for me. That isn't a problem while sleeping, but there would be a definite tripping hazard on the way to the bathroom.

Dress pants and chinos can fortunately be hemmed to order, but basic off-the-rack clothing is pretty much out of the question for anyone shorter than 5’8” (which includes all of the men in every known generation of my immediate family).

I understand that short men comprise, shall we say, a shrinking demographic, and catalog outfits like Lands’ End have to take the long view, stocking only items that heighten sales figures. But there is no need to taunt us with claims to “fit every body,” when they really mean “everybody who measures up.”