An Epic Day

Today is a momentous day for the Caron family:

My son Reed begins his job today at Epic Systems, a health care software company outside Madison, Wisconsin.  My wife and I could not be any prouder of Reed or more excited about this wonderful opportunity. His 60 credit hours of math at Grinnell College have prepared him well. We loved helping him get settled in Madison and learning about Epic (NY Times; Forbes) and seeing its amazing campus (links here, here, and here).  If you are a regular reader of TaxProf Blog, you have indulged me in the past as I have recounted various milestones in my son's life, including:

• Happy 16th Birthday, Reed (June 25, 2006)
• Opening Day and the Passage of Time (Apr. 2, 2007)
• A Father's Strange Bliss (Apr. 16, 2007)
• The Tax Prof Circle of Life (May 13, 2007)
• Belated Thanksgiving (Dec. 1, 2008)
• Graduation Day (June 5, 2009)
• A Bittersweet Day (Aug. 17, 2009)
• Tax Stories in Paradise (Mar. 22, 2010)
• Sending Your Child Into a Hurricane (July 4, 2010)
• Farewell, San Diego! (July 28, 2010)
• GOOOAAALLL!!! (Oct 31, 2010)
• What Does $49,144 Tuition Buy? A Mohawk. (Oct. 3, 2011)
• Farewell, 3810 Miami Road (Aug. 10, 2012)
• GOOOAAALLL!!! (Sept. 4, 2012)
• The Last Game (Nov. 3, 2012)
• Our Christmas Gift (Dec. 23, 2012)
• Graduation Day (May 21, 2013)

Today also marks my first day on the tenured faculty at Pepperdine University School of Law. As I wrote when I announced my move in April:

After 23 years at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and the past four Spring semesters at Pepperdine University School of Law, I have accepted an offer to join Pepperdine's tenured faculty beginning in the Fall 2013 semester.

My wife and I loved our time in Cincinnati, as we launched our careers, raised our children, and found our faith there. We will be forever grateful that the University of Cincinnati College of Law and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio took a chance on us 23 years ago.

I am honored to join the line of lateral faculty that Pepperdine has hired in recent years, including Doug Kmiec (Dean, Catholic), Ed Larson (Georgia), Grant Nelson (UCLA), Bob Pushaw (Missouri), and Tom Stipanowich (Kentucky). Indeed, Brian Leiter (Chicago) recently noted Pepperdine's "steep upward trajectory of both lateral and junior hiring over the last decade," which is reflected in Pepperdine's dramatic rise in the U.S. News rankings, caused in large part by the third-largest increase in academic reputation among 172 law schools over the past 16 years (A Longitudinal Analysis of the U.S. News Law School Academic Reputation Scores between 1998 and 2013, 40 Fla. St. L. Rev. ___ (2013)).  

Although it is a Christian university, Pepperdine welcomes faculty of all faiths. Pepperdine's other lateral tenured hire this year is Ahmed Taha (Wake Forest), who will be the law school's first Muslim professor.