The Faculty Lounge

Gotta Dance -- Part Three

This is the third and last installment. Part one is here. Part two is here.

In inclusive music choice for Hee Haw

Common Law Season 5 launches with Taboo Trades

My dean, Risa Goluboff, and colleague, Cathy Hwang, launch the fifth season of the podcast “Common Law” by interviewing me about my courses (including a new course, Blood Feud, taught with Peter Jaworski), my podcast (the Taboo Trades podcast), and my recent paper, “Markets, Repugnance and Externalities,” published in the Journal of Institutional Economics this summer. I have no idea how these two busy and productive women fit time for me into their busy schedules, but I’m very glad that they did. The episode was a lot of fun.

 

Common Law · S5 E1: Taboo Trades

Here’s a description of the Common Law podcast, a production of the University of Virginia School of Law:

Though much divides us these days, there are still some things we all share in common. One of them is law. From the kind of health care we receive to the laws that determine what’s a ticket and what’s a court date, law is everywhere. “Common Law” gives insight into the laws around us and what’s next. This season, Dean Risa Goluboff hosts with “Co-Counsel” Danielle Citron, John Harrison, Cathy Hwang and Greg Mitchell, who are also UVA Law professors. Transcripts are posted at commonlawpodcast.com.

Do memories of the Meat Market still send a chill down your spine?

This is the second guest post by Steve Epstein, about his book Extreme Punishment:  The Chilling True Story of Acclaimed Law Professor Dan Markel’s Murder.

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 5, Daniel Eric Markel:

          The next step of the process is the one that years later continues to send shivers down the spines of even those applicants who succeed—but especially those who fail.  The Meat Market, which few call by its official name—the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference—is a two-day event at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C. that typically falls on either side of November 1.  It is there that appointments committee representatives gather in hotel suites to meet with the slate of candidates they’ve decided to interview. 

Dozens of interviews occur simultaneously throughout the sprawling, 1,152-room, two-building hotel complex, every thirty minutes like clockwork.  Candidates literally crawl over one another in the lobby, elevators, and as they race through corridors to make their next interview—a hazing ritual nearly as brutal as those perpetrated by college fraternities.  For those lucky enough to land 15 or more interviews, getting from one room to the next on time is challenging enough—remembering which school is which, and the names of the committee members, all the more daunting.  The process is a diabolical mixture of chaos, terror, and endurance.  Enough to fill to capacity both the hotel bar and nearby watering holes by dinner time.

By September 2003, Dan’s phone at Kellogg Huber was ringing off the hook with law schools eager to schedule interviews—attracted by his stellar resume and scholarly potential.  He had more than two dozen lined up—including with Florida State—more than just about any other candidate in attendance.  Which made the odds of him not landing a quality teaching position very low.  His only remorse heading into the meeting—conveniently taking place a short Metro ride from his apartment—was that his alma mater Harvard had passed on putting him on its schedule.

Widener Law Commonwealth Seeks Dean

This just in:

Widener Law Commonwealth (WLC) invites applications, expressions of interest, and nominations of candidates to be our next Dean.

About Widener Law Commonwealth

WLC is a small, close-knit, collegial law school committed, above all, to our students’ success.  WLC’s supportive community of teachers, staff, and alumni is dedicated to providing our students with a personal, practical, and professional legal education.  We work together to provide an education that values each individual student and emphasizes individual attention.  Our goal is to transform promising students into skilled lawyers—whether in government or in the private sector—who know the law and use the law to solve problems, and who are engaged as leaders in their communities.  We view as crucial to this mission a dedication to excellent and innovative teaching, engagement in scholarship that enriches our teaching and the development of the law, and participation in public service.  These activities—teaching, scholarship, and service—enrich the institution and provide models for students in their personal, practical, and professional development.

 

Hiring Announcement: Washington University in St. Louis (John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics)

From an email message that I recently received:

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics seeks applications from junior scholars and recent Ph.D. graduates for up to four postdoctoral fellowships in residence at Washington University in St. Louis. The appointment is for one year, renewable for a second year. Eligible applicants must complete the Ph.D. by July 1, 2023, and are expected to have completed it no earlier than January 1, 2018. In exceptional cases a qualified applicant who completed the Ph.D. prior to 2018 or who hold a J.D. without a Ph.D. may be considered. Research associates will spend most of their time pursuing research and writing for their own projects. They will also serve the intellectual life of the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics through participation in its biweekly interdisciplinary seminar and events hosted by the Center. Their teaching responsibilities will include: 1) developing one course per year to complement and contribute to the Center’s curricular offerings, and 2) possibly assisting in one additional course each year (depending on the particular teaching needs of the Center). Washington University in St. Louis is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and especially encourages members of underrepresented groups to apply.

Required Qualifications: Applicants should hold a doctorate in religious studies, politics, anthropology, law, philosophy, theology, American studies, history, Jewish studies, Islamic studies, sociology, or another relevant field. Scholars should be engaged in projects centrally concerned with religion and politics in the United States, historically or in the present day.

Mathews County, Virginia: Confederate Monument

Mathews County, Virginia Confederate Monument.

Judge James Ho's Boycott of Yale Law School Violates the Code of Judicial Conduct

Judge James Ho, of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, has announced that he will no longer hire clerks from Yale Law School. Judge Ho’s boycott, which has been joined by at least 13 other federal judges, is in response to Yale’s perceived failure to adequately protect conservative speakers and students.

Whatever the merits of Ho’s complaints against Yale, the boycott is not merely wrong, it violates two provisions of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, as I explain in my new column at The Hill. Here is the gist:

October 19, 2022

The Hill

The wrong way to combat cancel culture

Citing two notorious incidents in which Yale students faced no disciplinary action for disrupting presentations by conservatives, Ho announced that “starting today, I will no longer hire law clerks from Yale Law School. And I hope that other judges will join me as well.” That was an unprecedented public pledge from a federal judge. It was also seriously unethical.

Such a coercive boycott violates two provisions of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, adopted by the United States Judicial Conference and binding on all federal judges below the Supreme Court.

Under Canon 3B(3), a judge must “exercise the power of appointment fairly and only on the basis of merit.” Hiring “on the basis of merit” should mean evaluating the abilities of individual applicants, unrelated to Ho’s disapproval of law school deans or his desire to force changes in the school’s operations.

Canon 2B provides that a judge must not “lend the prestige of the judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge.” Ho has attempted to do just that, dangling the possibility of prestigious clerkships before future students who abjure Yale, and withholding it from those who disregard his admonition.

The inescapable fact is that Judge Ho abused his office by using clerkship hiring to bully a law school into compliance with his non-judicial agenda.

Yale Law School is a private institution, but Ho holds a public trust. Although Yale administrators may have acted badly, Ho has done worse.

You can read the entire essay, including a further explanation of how Ho’s boycott violates the Judicial Conduct Code, at The Hill (not paywalled).

University of District of Columbia Law Seeks Tenure-Track Faculty

This just in:

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DAVID A. CLARKE SCHOOL OF LAW (UDC LAW) seeks to hire two tenure-track faculty members to join our dynamic and mission-driven community in the 2023-2024 academic year.

We are looking broadly for candidates, but particularly welcome applications from candidates with an interest in teaching Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Property, Civil Procedure, and Torts. The position will begin on August 16, 2023. Candidates must have a J.D. degree and must demonstrate high scholarly distinction or promise and a commitment to teaching excellence. Applications are encouraged from women, candidates of color, LGBTQIA+ candidates, candidates with disabilities, and others whose background and experience would contribute to the diversity of the law school community.

UDC LAW is the District’s only public law school and is one of only six American Bar Association approved law schools at a Historically Black College or University. UDC LAW has a statutory mission to recruit and enroll students from groups traditionally underrepresented at the bar; to provide a well-rounded theoretical and practical legal education that will enable students to be effective and ethical advocates; and to represent the legal needs of low-income residents through the School’s legal clinics. Notably, UDC LAW:

• ranks No. 1 most chosen law school by older students (Princeton Review, 2022);
• ranks No. 2 for greatest resources for minority students (Princeton Review, 2022);
• ranks No. 3 for most diverse faculty (Princeton Review, 2022);
• ranks No. 5 for Clinical Training (US News & World Report, 2023);
• ranks No. 6 Best School for African Americans (The National Jurist and prelaw, 2022);
• received an A+ for Diversity (prelaw, 2022);
• ranks No. 9 for greatest resources for women (Princeton Review, 2022); and
• is a Top 15 Best School for Asian Americans (The National Jurist and prelaw, 2022).

UDC LAW has been a leader in clinical and experiential education for fifty years. Every student in our day program is required to complete two 300-hour clinical courses. UDC LAW also has a robust evening program.

All candidates must apply through the Human Resources link located on the university website:

https://udc.applicantstack.com/x/detail/a2hbyxh7pi3z

Interested candidates may also send a resume and cover letter to the “Faculty Appointments Committee,” with attention to Professor Saleema Snow. Materials can be delivered by email to Ms. Khadijah Muhammad at [email protected]. Although we will accept applications until the positions are filled, we strongly encourage interested applicants to submit applications by October 31, 2022, for most complete consideration.

Hiring Announcement: University of Memphis, Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law (Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion)

From an email message that I recently received:

The University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law invites applications for the position of Associate Dean for Diversity & Inclusion.  In addition to the duties and responsibilities below, the position has a teaching commitment of two courses per academic year and will include an appointment to the law school faculty.  A recommendation of tenure upon appointment may be made to the Board of Trustees if approved by the University’s President.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Administration

• Assist the Dean and faculty in setting, prioritizing, and executing the Law School’s diversity, inclusion, and access goals and objectives.
• Oversee the administrative operations of the Law School Office of Diversity and Inclusion fund budget and complete necessary reporting to the Law School Dean, Vice President for Student Academic Success, and University Provost.
• Oversee and execute all aspects of the Tennessee Institute for Prelaw Students (TIP) and other pipeline initiatives, including supervision and training of necessary support staff and graduate assistants.

2. Student Success & Climate

• Encourage continuous student, staff, and faculty professional development and serve as a general resource in the areas of diversity, inclusion, access, and cross-cultural competence.
• Encourage institutional policies, practices, and programs that promote diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and cross-cultural competence.
• Monitor general success of diverse and first-generation students.

3. Outreach & Development

• Develop outreach and communication plans as necessary to meet Law School diversity, inclusion, and access goals.
• Develop and maintain strategic partnerships that support diverse and first-generation students and promote Law School diversity, inclusion, and access goals and initiatives.
• Work strategically alongside the Law School Dean and Office of Development to ensure sustainability of Law School diversity, inclusion, and access goals and initiatives, seeking grant funding where possible.

Position Qualifications

The Minimum Position Qualifications include a tenured appointment and at least five years of teaching experience at an ABA accredited Law School.

The University of Memphis School of Law

The University of Memphis School of Law is housed in a stately, late 19th century building, a converted federal courthouse in the heart of downtown Memphis on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Memphis Law has an active and diverse student body, colleagues committed to excellence in both scholarship and teaching, and a community that has the offerings of a major city, such as museums, restaurants, and professional sports, but the feel of a tight-knit community – not to mention affordable cost of living.

Application Procedure

Please submit applications via https://workforum.memphis.edu/postings/33920. The screening of applications will begin promptly and will continue until the positions is filled. Applicants may also contact Peter Letsou, Chair of the Faculty Recruitment Committee, at [email protected] for additional information.  The University of Memphis is an EEO/AA employer.

Hiring Announcement: Auburn University (undergrad program in Law and Justice)

From an email message that I recently received:

Job Title: Lecturer, Law and Justice

Job Description Summary: The undergraduate program in Law and Justice (LAWJ) at Auburn University invites applications for a lecturer position to begin August 16, 2023. This position is a full-time, nine-month, non-tenure-track position, and is eligible for annual renewal based upon job performance, need, and availability of funding. Summer teaching may be required and will provide additional compensation.  The lecturer will be dedicated entirely to effective teaching and program coordination and will not be required to develop, pursue, or maintain an independent research agenda. The lecturer will be reviewed annually by the department head. Based on department and university guidelines, the lecturer will be eligible for promotion to Senior Lecturer.  Lecturers teach 4 three-credit hour classes each semester. Those classes include undergraduate courses in the following areas: Introduction to the Legal Profession, Civil Procedure, Contracts, Legal Research and Writing, Torts, and other courses that students may encounter in their first year in law school. Other areas of need include election law and administrative law. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to develop additional law-related courses.

Minimum Qualifications : Required qualifications include a JD or PhD in a law-related field at the time employment begins (ABDs who will complete the doctoral degree within one year of hire will also be considered); demonstrated teaching experience and skill; fluency in English; and excellent written and interpersonal communication skills. The successful candidate must meet eligibility requirements for work in the United States at the time the appointment is scheduled to begin and continue working legally for the term of employment.

Review of applications will begin December 1, 2022 and will continue until a suitable candidate has been selected. To apply, please visit https://www.auemployment.com/postings/32585.

Direct questions to Dr. Steven P. Brown, LAWJ Search Committee Chair, Department of Political Science, 7080 Haley Center, Auburn University, AL, 36849-5208. Email: [email protected].

Stanford Law Seeks Director of Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program

This just in:

The Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School invites applicants for the position of Director of the Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program. The thriving Negotiation and Mediation Program provides training in negotiation skills and theory to over two-thirds of the student body at one of the nation’s leading institutions for legal scholarship and education. The Director is at the helm of a vibrant Program and is responsible for setting its overall mission and goals in consultation with the law school dean, for executing the strategy to meet those goals, for managing all aspects of the Program, and for developing the Program’s curriculum.

 

How the Left Lost Faith in SCOTUS and Learned to Love Packing the Court

Mother Jones has a terrific article about the movement for SCOTUS expansion, featuring many quotes and much analysis from Sarah Lipton-Lubet. Here is a taste, and you can read it all here.

How the Left Lost Faith in SCOTUS and Learned to Love Packing the Court

On the spring day last year the Supreme Court announced it would hear a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, Sarah Lipton-Lubet knew immediately how the case would end: the court, stacked with six conservative Justices, would kill the right to abortion. A veteran reproductive rights advocate and lawyer who was consulting for multiple reproductive rights groups at the time, her realization was followed by another: She needed a new job. She’d spent the better part of two decades fighting for abortion access, relying on a backbone of judicial decisions that upheld reproductive rights—and on the premise of a Supreme Court that would uphold those precedents. But that wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

“Simply trying to move around the pieces on the playing field that existed was not going to treat this like the crisis that it was, the crisis that it is now.” Instead of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, she needed to plug the hole and right the ship. About two months later, she became executive director of Take Back the Court. This is an advocacy group that since 2018 has been leading the movement to add four justices to the Supreme Court and dethrone the conservative majority that now controls it. With the legal precedent central to her previous work now dead, Lipton-Lubet is fighting to change the make-up of the court before every other progressive priority goes the way of Roe. “I’ve never felt more hopeful about my work,” she says.

There is much more and you can read it all here. (Yes, Sarah is my daughter.)

Hiring Announcement: University of Ottawa

From an email message that I recently received:

The Common Law Section of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa is seeking applications for a tenure-track position in law to commence on July 1, 2023. 

Applications are accepted at all ranks, including full professor based on experience.  We have particular needs in international law, especially international trade, environmental law, health law, and clinical legal education.   In our Programme du common law en français, we have needs in private and public law.

Application deadline: October 30, 2022.  The selection process will begin immediately after the closing date and will continue until the position is filled.  Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

About the Common Law Section

The Common Law Section offers Juris Doctor degrees in English and in French.  Together with the Civil Law Section, the Common Law Section offers master’s and doctoral programs.  The Common Law Section has over 1,200 students in JD programs and over 200 in graduate programs.  We are an innovative and international faculty of more than 60 full-time professors dedicated to inclusive teaching and research, located in the heart of Canada’s capital.  

Position title: Assistant or associate professor or full professor.  Appointment at the higher rank of associate professor will only be considered should the successful candidate have the appropriate level of experience and commensurate achievements.

Skills:  Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following areas:  international law, especially international trade, environmental law, health law, clinical legal education, public or private law.

Terms: This tenure-track position is in either the Programme de common law en Français, taught in French; the English Common Law Program, taught in English; or in both.  Applicants should note at the top of their cover letter which program(s) they are applying for.

Location of work:  University of Ottawa, 57 Louis Pasteur Pvt., Ottawa, ON Canada.

CFP: Ninth Applied Legal Storytelling Conference in London, July 2023

This just in:

This is the call for proposals for the ninth biennial conference on Applied Legal Storytelling. We are offering two deadlines for submitting proposals: December 2, 2022 (priority deadline) and February 3, 2023 (extended deadline).

About the Conference

The Applied Legal Storytelling Conference brings together academics, judges, other law-makers, practitioners, and any other type of legal storyteller. The conference has previously convened in 2007 (London), 2009 (Portland), 2011 (Denver), 2013

(London), 2015 (Seattle), 2017 (Washington D.C.), 2019 (Boulder), and 2021 (Virtual/Mercer).

Applied Legal Storytelling (AppLS) examines the use of stories, storytelling, or narrative elements in law practice, legal education, and the law. This definition is intentionally broad to allow people creativity in the way they think and present on the topic. Examples may include: the ways in which fiction-writing techniques or narrative theory can inform legal storytelling; stories in the law, or law as stories; legal storytelling and metaphor; client story advocacy; legal storytelling and cognitive science; and ethical considerations in legal storytelling. Undoubtedly there are many other avenues to explore.

Gordon Smith Stepping Down as BYU Law Dean

D. Gordon Smith has announced that he will step down as dean of BYU Law at the end of the 2022-23 school year.  Smith became dean in 2016.

Berkeley Law Student Groups' Bylaw Bans Zionist Speakers

My new essay is up at The Chronicle of Higher Education on the latest anti-Jewish move by Law Students for Justice in Palestine at Berkeley Law. It is paywalled, but with free registration.

Here is the gist:

CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

October 12, 2022

A Free-Speech Scandal at Berkeley Law

Nine student groups want to ban supporters of Israel from speaking. That’s wrong.

The bylaw was part of a package of policies promoted by Law Students for Justice in Palestine, in conjunction with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. It goes far beyond other academic boycotts, which claim to be aimed only at Israeli organizations, because it bars individual speakers on the basis of their beliefs, no matter how unrelated to the subject matter at hand. The American Studies Association, for example, has explained that its BDS resolution does not apply to “individual scholars, students, or cultural workers” who will still “be able to participate in the ASA conference or give public lectures at campuses,” so long as they are not expressly representing the Israeli government or universities.

The sweeping prohibition — enacted by the Muslim Student Association, Queer Caucus at Berkeley, Women of Berkeley Law, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Law Students of African Descent, and others — violates the basic values of free speech and open inquiry, which lie at the heart of law practice and legal education. Thus, a group of Berkeley Law faculty recently issued a public statement condemning “the discriminatory bylaw” for “refusing to accept speakers who have Zionist views or beliefs.”

Law Students for Justice in Palestine defended the prohibition. The group argues that “free speech and the exchange of ideas cannot be romanticized when the byproduct of such rhetoric causes harm to marginalized communities,” evidently meaning that the background beliefs of a pro-Israel speaker, even if unexpressed, will cause unspecified “harm to Palestinians.”

I agree with Chemerinsky and Volokh that the nine student organizations have the right to exclude speakers on the basis of perceived political support for Israel, but that is not the end of the discussion. First Amendment principles protect the groups and their leaders from discipline by the university, but that does not mean they are free from other consequences. At a minimum, university faculty of all persuasions should refuse to speak at events sponsored by the nine organizations, so long as their restrictive bylaw remains in effect.

The Berkeley students who have promoted or embraced the “no Zionist speakers” rule have demonstrated utter disregard for the core values essential in a judicial clerk. Their inability to tolerate the mere presence of a speaker who holds uncomfortable beliefs should be disqualifying for a clerkship.

Thoughtful judges might well refuse to hire the student leaders who foisted such a discriminatory policy on one of the nation’s premier law schools. Although the banned speakers would cause no actual “harm to marginalized communities,” intolerant clerks could indeed work great damage in judicial chambers.

You can read the full essay at The Chronicle of Higher Education (paywalled but with free registration).

University of Colorado Law Seeks Director of Law Library

This just in:

The University of Colorado Law School invites applications for the Director of the William A. Wise Law Library to begin at the start of the 2023-34 academic year. The Director of the Law Library is a 12-month, Instructor or Tenure Track faculty position and is appointed on a continuing appointment with rank commensurate with experience and qualifications. This may include, but does not require, appointment to the tenure or tenure-track faculty in the Law School or in the University Libraries (tenure home in the University Libraries, rostered in the Law School), depending on the interests and experience of the successful candidate.

The Law Library’s primary mission is to support the strategic initiatives of the Law School (https://www.colorado.edu/law/about-colorado-law). In order to achieve our mission, the Law Library strives to create a culture of innovation, creativity, responsiveness, and excellence for all of our endeavors. The Law Library supports the scholarly and teaching activities of the Law School’s faculty, administrative staff, and students. The Law Library is a center for innovation in legal research pedagogy, and provides services to the University, the local community, and beyond through its digital collections, outreach, and collaborations. The Law Library currently has 8 professional librarians, 6 support staff, and an annual budget in excess of $3.45 million.

We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, individuals with disabilities, LGBTQ people, veterans, and others whose background, experience, and viewpoints would contribute to the diversity of our faculty. The University of Colorado Boulder is committed to building a culturally diverse community of faculty, staff, and students dedicated to contributing to an inclusive campus environment. We are an Equal Opportunity employer, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Application materials will not be accepted via email and, instead, must be submitted through https://cu.law/library-jobs. For full consideration, candidates should apply by October 31, 2022, although we recommend that you submit your materials as soon as possible.

For questions, please contact Lauren Seney, Chair, Library Director Search Sub-committee, [email protected] and/or Victoria Johnson, Faculty Affairs Program Manager, [email protected].