The Faculty Lounge

Yesterday

Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" is often said to be the most covered song of all time, with well over 2000 recorded versions (others say the honor goes to George Gershwin's "Summertime"). The Beatles' original 1965 release featured McCartney's solo vocal, accompanied by an acoustic guitar and a string quartet. It was an indication of things to come, as the Beatles expanded their arrangements well beyond the standard rock quartet of the Cavern Club and Hamburg waterfront days. As the story goes, the melody came to Paul in a dream. Upon waking up, he ran to the piano to make sure he didn't forget it. For some time afterward, McCartney worried that he had actually remembered someone else's tune, and refrained from recording it for fear of unintentional plagiarism. He finally figured out that it was his own in time to include it on the album Help.

(Feel free to suggest more covers in the comments.)

Final Call for Applications: Participatory Law Fund Awards

This just in from my Drexel University Kline Law colleague, Professor Rachel Lopez.  Rachel is doing amazing work using tools of participatory law scholarship.

This is a gentle reminder that applications to the Participatory Law Fund are due on Dec. 15, 2023. The fund is devoted to supporting the production of an emerging genre of legal scholarship called "participatory law scholarship" or PLS. As defined in Participatory Law Scholarship, recently published in the Columbia Law Review, PLS is legal scholarship written in collaboration with authors who have no formal training in the law, but rather expertise in law's injustice through lived experience. The PLF provides awards to the co-authors of PLS who are not lawyers or academics.

Applications can be submitted here. Awards will be made in the amounts of $4,000 for full length articles (over 20,000 words) and $2,000 for essays (between 10,000 words and 20,000 words). The Selection Committee will announce the recipients of the awards in February 2024 and the funds will be awarded upon completion of the piece.

Donations to the fund can also be made here. Your donation will allow us to make more awards available going forward. The hope is to be able to continue to fund this work for years to come.

Cynthia Nance Appointed Permanent Dean of Arkansas Law (Again)

University of Arkansas School of Law has announced that Cynthia Nance will be its dean through 2026.  She joined the law school in 1994 and became dean in 2006.  After her term was over in 2011, Nance rejoined the faculty. Last year, she was appointed interim dean.   Nance holds a JD from University of Iowa.

Gillian Lester Stepping Down as Dean of Columbia Law

Columbia Law has announced that Gillian Lester will step down as dean at the end of the academic year and return to teaching full-time.  Lester joined the law school from UC Berkeley Law in 2015.  

ABA Names Jennifer Rosato Perea Managing Director of Accreditation and Legal Education

The ABA has announced that Jennifer Rosato Perea will serve as the Managing Director of Accreditation and Legal Education. Rosato Perea currently serves as the dean of DePaul College of Law.  She will assume her new position on June 1. 

That's the newsy part.  But this is especially exciting for me - and folks at the Drexel Kline School of Law.  Jenn and I were among the first faculty hired in 2005 to start what was then the Drexel College of Law.   She was named interim dean shortly before the law school opened and was a superb leader through the birth of the law school and our process of initial ABA accreditation.  I can't imagine a person better situated to understand the diversity of issues that face law schools than Jenn.  And putting aside the practical part, Jenn is the best of human beings.   What good news for all of us in the law school world!