The Faculty Lounge

I Hear You Knockin' on Wood

In 1966, Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper wrote "Knock on Wood" on a stormy night in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel, about two years before Martin Luther King would be assassinated in the same location.  At the time, the Lorraine was one of the few places in Memphis where Black and white people could meet together, or where Black people could stay in modern commercial accommodations. Over the years, virtually all of the great Stax acts stayed there, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, Otis Redding, and others. According to Steve Cropper, the thunderstorm gave them the idea for the refrain, "like thunder, lightning, the way you love me is frightening." The song was a hit for Eddie Floyd and has been covered many times over fifty years. Other "knockin'" songs on this post include Fats Domino's "I Hear You Knocking" and Little Richard's "Keep a' Knocking" (covering an earlier recording by Lil Hardin, as explained below).

CFP: Islamic and Jewish Law in the Modern Economy

This just in:

Islamic and Jewish Law in the Modern Economy”
Islamic and Jewish Legal Scholars Symposium May 5 & 6, 2025
University of Villanova School of Law, Villanova, Pennsylvania

Description: The Islamic and Jewish Legal Scholars Symposium invites submission of paper abstracts for a workshop hosted at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, May 5 & 6, 2025.

The symposium will explore the integration of pre-modern religious law and norms into the modern financial economy. We anticipate that papers will explore the tools used by religious traditions to construct their own commercial law in ways that both align with and diverge from modern state law. Comparative inquiries between Islamic and Jewish law are encouraged, although comparisons to other legal traditions and/or works related to one religious legal tradition are welcome.

Papers are welcome from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to legal studies, including law, sociology, anthropology, politics, and history, from scholars based in law schools and other academic departments.

This symposium is organized by the Islamic and Jewish Legal Scholars Symposium, whose leadership includes Samy Ayoub (UT Austin), Michael Broyde (Emory University), Chaim Saiman (Villanova University), and Rabea Benhalim (University of Colorado).

Applying: Paper abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent to Chaim Saiman ([email protected]) no later than Friday, January 31, 2025. Submissions are welcome from academics at all levels: tenured, pre-tenure, non-tenure track, fellows, visiting assistant professors, adjunct professors, graduate students, etc.

Funding: Meals and lodging will be provided for all attendees. Limited, additional travel funds may also be available.

CFP: AALS Clinical Conference 2025 Seeks Proposals

This just in:

The Planning Committee for the 2025 AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education welcomes proposals for programs in the following categories:

• Concurrent Sessions (60 minutes)
• Lightning Sessions (30 minutes)
• Poster Presentations
• Workshops

The dates of the 2025 Conference on Clinical Legal Education coincide with the 10 year anniversary of the police killing of Freddie Gray and the uprising in the streets of Baltimore that followed. In the intervening 10 years, the Baltimore uprising, the Black Lives Matter movement, and other movements and organizations fiercely, beautifully, and lovingly led the way toward necessary structural changes, including in the legal academy with the implementation of ABA Standard 303. Those same 10 years, however, saw threats to democracy and the rule of law worldwide, a climate increasingly unstable, uncertainty spurred by the emergence of generative AI across industries and education, lasting changes and barriers to the justice system and the profession as the result of COVID-19, the ascendence of a politicized and ethically compromised Supreme Court, and so many more. The clinical legal education community has historically been the first to advocate for changes to legal education, and this conference has served as the incubator for some of those changes. Now, with legal education, our profession, and our society facing pressures from so many external factors, it is more important than ever to come together and share our insights and ideas.

 

New Mexico Law Seeks Multiple Faculty

This just in:

Business and Commercial Law

The University of New Mexico ("UNM") School of Law invites applications for a faculty position in the areas of business associations, contracts, and other business and commercial law topics. Additional courses could include contract drafting, business planning, various intellectual property classes, and commercial law courses such as the UCC.  This faculty position is a full-time tenured or tenure-track position starting in Fall 2025. Entry-level and experienced teachers are encouraged to apply.

Offering a J.D. degree, the UNM School of Law is nationally recognized for innovative classes that combine law practice skills training with doctrinal instruction and a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Our faculty is one of the most ethnically and racially diverse faculties in the country and our student body is similarly diverse.

We seek candidates with scholarly distinction or promise as well as a commitment to excellence in teaching.

We value candidates from varied backgrounds and perspectives in order to enhance student learning and the faculty’s mission of research, teaching, service, and community engagement in New Mexico, the United States, and the world. Women, underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, people who attended law school later in their careers, people from rural origins, first‐generation college graduates, veterans, and groups historically marginalized in American life are especially encouraged to apply.

All applicants should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and list of references to the University of New Mexico Jobs website at this link: https://unm.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/18/home/requisition/30880?c=unm.

The general jobs website is https://unmjobs.unm.edu/. For best consideration, please apply by September 27, 2024. For more information, please contact:

Nathalie Martin, Chair, Faculty Appointments Committee - [email protected]

 

Call For Papers: Corporate and Securities Law (for Law and Society Conference)

From Prof J.S. Nelson (Pitt Law):
================

Dear Faculty Lounge readers,

 
This is a call to participate in Law & Society CRN 46's programming. CRN 46 broadly covers Corporate and Securities Law in Society.

 

The 2025 Law & Society Association (LSA) Annual Meeting is scheduled for Chicago, Illinois, USA from May 22-25, 2025. The meeting will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency. This year’s sessions will take place in-person.

 

If you are a member of our CRN and on our CRN email list, we will send you several reminders of deadlines as they approach from our CRN's email list. Of course, if you would like to be removed from these emails at any point, simply let us know.

 

If you have been forwarded this message, are not on our direct CRN 46 mailing list and want to be, please fill out your information here.

 

Meanwhile, the 2025 LSA Call-for-Participation submission window is now open. 

 

The deadline for our Call for Submissions is October 15, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. ET (USA and Canada).

 

There are three types of sessions: (1) Paper Presentations; (2) Author-Meets-Reader Sessions; and (3) Roundtable Sessions.  Please note that you are limited to participating only once at LSA as a paper presenter, book author, or roundtable participant (full rules here). 

 

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. J.S. happens to be organizing both our LSA CRN and the ComplianceNet2025 conference in NYC that will be held the end of the same week as LSA so that international scholars can travel easily from one conference to another. If you are writing, please include "LSA CRN 46" in the title of your email.

 

We look forward to seeing you next summer! 

 

Best,

 

J.S. and Geeyoung  

 

Paper Presentations 

If you would like to present a paper (either completed or in progress) as part of one of our CRN’s paper sessions, please:  

 

(1) By October 15, 2024 at the very latest, submit your paper title and abstract directly to LSA via this link.

• Choose "Individual Paper” in the "Submission Type" drop down menu. 
• Paste your abstract in the "Proposal" portion of the submission form.  Your abstract must be under 2000 characters. 
• [VERY IMPORTANT] Select CRN 46 where prompted.
   

(2) Also by October 15, 2024, please send an email to [email protected] or [email protected] with your paper title and abstract, notifying us that you have submitted your paper directly to LSA. This will help us track your submission and make sure we can find your paper if it doesn’t appear on the list of CRN 46 papers provided by LSA.

 

(3) Please only submit a paper if you plan to the conference. When paper authors drop out post-submission, it can put the entire panel at risk of cancellation. 

 

Chair/Discussant Once we have a list of paper presentations associated with CRN 46, we will organize those presentations into paper sessions. Each paper session will need a Chair and a Discussant (who can be the same person). If you would be willing to serve in one or both of those roles, please let us know by October 15, 2024.

 

Author-Meets-Reader Sessions 

If you have a book (excepting edited volumes or textbooks) that has been, or will be, published in 2024, please consider whether you’d like to arrange an “Author-Meets-Reader” Session around your book!  Here is how LSA describes AMR Sessions: 

 

“An Author-Meets-Reader (AMR) is a session in which discussion is focused on one to three recently published scholarly books. The session must include the author(s) of the book, three designated “readers” per book (as applicable) who provide comments, and a session chair (who may be one of the readers). AMR panels are limited to books published in the year prior to the LSA Annual Meeting. For the 2025 Meeting, the books must have a publication date in 2024.”

 

If you are interested in organizing an AMR Session, please contact us by October 1, 2024, and we will work together to submit an AMR Session as part of the CRN. 

 

Roundtable Sessions 

If you would like to propose a theme for a Roundtable Session, please contact us by October 1, 2024, and we will work together to submit a Roundtable Session as part of the CRN. Here is how LSA describes Roundtable Sessions: 

 

“A Roundtable is a discussion-centered session that is organized around a common theme and does not have papers presented. Roundtables are the most flexible format offered at the meeting. Participants might organize debates, visual and musical performances, workshops, films, and other innovative formats.”

 

J.S. Nelson

Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law

Email: [email protected]

Hiring Announcement: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law

From a recent email message:

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, William S. Richardson School of Law seeks to fill several faculty positions to begin in August 2025. We are hiring for an Assistant Professor (F3-9) or Associate Professor (F4-9) eligible for tenure upon appointment with expertise in Constitutional Law; an Assistant Professor (F3-9) with expertise in Criminal Law; and an Assistant Professor (F3-9) with expertise in Environmental Law. We welcome candidates who, in addition to one of those three fields, have expertise in Asian Legal Studies, Business Law, Family Law, Health Law, Native Hawaiian Law, Pacific Island Legal Systems, or Professional Responsibility.

We encourage candidates who are members of groups underrepresented in the legal academy to apply. Rank and salary commensurate with experience. Separate announcements of two additional positions will be forthcoming.

The Law School is located in Mānoa on the flagship campus of the University of Hawai‘i system. It reflects and embraces Hawai‘i’s diversity, location, and values, and recognizes its special responsibility to Hawai‘i and the Pacific region. The successful candidates will be expected to contribute to furthering UH Mānoa’s mission as a community-serving university committed to being a Native Hawaiian place of learning. The successful candidates should also be willing to contribute to and support the Law School’s new online JD program.