Teknoids - Law School Innovation

What does everyone think about free tuition and other early UC-Irvine innovations?

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:41:26 -0600

Last week the AP had this story, headlined "SoCal law school tempts students with free tuition," about the efforts by UC-Irvine to get a flying start with top students in its first class. Here are snippets from the story: A...

Success and the narrow path to professorhood

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:46:23 -0600

In my last post, I reflected a bit on Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and the formation of law professors. Having finished the book, I have a few more thoughts, which suggest that the way we select law professors is to the...

Law Profs and the 10,000 hours

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:27:20 -0600

Malcom Gladwell's book Outliers contains a fascinating theory: That the most successful people in a field tend to be those who met a certain threshold of intelligence or talent, and then practiced their skills for at 10,000 hours before attaining...

What should we make of all the law profs involved in the Obama transition?

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:20:50 -0600

Professor Nan Hunter has this helpful post compiling information on all the law professors who are playing formal roles in the Obama transition. As of this writing, the post is headlined "Law professors in the Obama administration: 35 and counting."...

Naming innovations at law school

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:20:17 -0600

The National Law Journal has this interesting article, headlined "Fla. law school takes 'naming rights' concept to a new level." The piece discusses one law school's innovative approach to naming rights. Here are some excerpts: While all law schools seem...

An exciting honor from the ABA for LSI

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:20:02 -0600

I was both extraordinarily excited and quite surprised to discover that LSI has won a place on the ABA's latest and greatest list of the best legal blogs. This post on the ABA's blog, titled "50 New Sites Make 2nd...

Is anyone teaching a post-Heller seminar on the Second Amendment?

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:28:11 -0600

As regular readers on my home blog know, I find the debate and litigation surrounding the Second Amendment after Heller to be fascinating (and also incomplete and stunted in various ways). For this reason and others, I have been lately...

An innovative legal magazine ... which some law schools might emulate?

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:10:14 -0600

I keep getting e-mail telling me about the soon-to-be published new magazine pictured here. The magazine's website provides this information about the publication: Introducing a brand new publication designed specifically for women professionals in the litigation practice specialty. Demolishing stereotypes....

What should we make of all the (not-always-so?) innovative grading changes?

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:17:08 -0600

Though law school grading and modern grade inflation are hardly an innovative topic, the news of more big schools altering or raising their grading system seems worthy of bloggy reflection. This week the news of revised (and inflated) grading curvescome...

The Quandary of the Beautiful Tangent

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:19:05 -0600

It is something most law teachers have come across at least once: You are working your way through some kind of a doctrine or point of legal history, and a student comes up with a brilliant and compelling question. It...

What will be (and should be) the future of traditional law school grading?

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 09:37:32 -0600

At his law school blog, Brian Leiter has this notable post, titled "Will Other Schools Follow the Yale/Harvard/Stanford Lead of Effectively Eliminating Grades?". Here is how it starts: There are rumors aplenty that Columbia and NYU may move to something...

Yale Law School Information Society Project Fellowships

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:26:59 -0600

Having worked with the ISP for the last few years, I encourage applicants for this program that combines interest in law and information policy. A law degree is not required, though of course lawyers are welcome into the program. --...

Throwing bombs

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:55:56 -0600

Like Doug, I have been reflecting on the number of law professors involved in the Obama transition, and wondering what that will mean. I don't think many of them will bring radical change, for good or bad, despite the fact...

Interesting (and important?) legal development for online law grad

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 10:27:53 -0600

A helpful reader pointed me to this news of a seemingly important ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Here are the basics: The state supreme court has ordered that a graduate of an online law school be allowed to...

"Law school dean trying to break into Top 10 rankings"

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:59:47 -0600

The title of this post might be the title of a mission statement for just about every law school ranked somewhere in the top 50. But, in fact, it is the headline of this interesting local article discussing the goals...