Weekly Legal Education Roundup: The Year-In-Review

Quote of the Year: "Whether or not we act responsibly sometimes crucially depends on whether we believe responsibly and, thereby, shows the relevance of responsible belief." Rik Peels

Here is my annual list of the best legal education articles of the year.

Best Legal Education Articles of 2021

• Edward Cantu (UMKC) & Lee Jussim (Rutgers), Microaggressions, Questionable Science, and Free Speech
• Larry Cunningham (Dean, Charleston), Cross Cultural Competency as a Learning Outcome
• Mary Walsh Fitzpatrick (Albany) & Rosemary Queenan (Albany), Professional Identity Formation, Leadership and Exploration of Self
• Jennifer Gundlach (Hofstra) & Jessica Santangelo (Hofstra), Teaching and Assessing Metacognition in Law School
• Neil Hamilton (St. Thomas), The Major Transitions in Professional Formation and Development from Being a Student to Being a Lawyer Present Opportunities to Benefit the Students and the Law School
• Lucy Jewell (Tennessee), Comparative Legal Rhetoric
• Robert Kuehn (Washington University), Implementation of the ABA's New Experiential Training Requirement: More Whimper Than Bang
• Jaime Alison Lee (Baltimore), From Socrates to Selfies: Legal Education and the Metacognitive Revolution

• Jan Levine (Duquesne), A Curmudgeon’s View of The Multi-Generational Teaching of Legal Writing
• James Levy (Nova SE), Bend It Like Beckham? Using Cognitive Science To Inform Online Legal Research and Writing Pedagogy During The Pandemic
• John McGinnis (Northwestern), Why The Lawyers Cartel Is Pushing For Woke Law Schools
• Eli Wald (Denver), Formation Without Identity: Avoiding a Wrong Turn in the Professionalism Movement
• Carolyn Williams (Arizona), #CriticalReading #WickedProblem

News

ABA Council to Make Significant Changes in Standards

Summaries

• ABA Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Standards Committee Approves Anti-Racism, Bias Training As New Accreditation Standards For Law Schools
• Scott Fruehwald (Legal Skills Prof Blog), ABA Council Approves Addition of Bias, Cross-Cultural Competency and Racism Training Requirement to Law School Accreditation Standards

Comments

• Comments to Proposal
• Letter From Richard Peltz-Steele (Massachusetts), Richard Sander (UCLA), Robert Steinbuch (Arkansas-Little Rock) & Eugene Volokh (UCLA)
• Hon. Kenneth Marcus (Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law), Legal Scholars Castigate the American Bar Association’s Proposed Diversity Standards
• National Review, The American Bar Association Attacks Academic Freedom
• Victor Schwartz (Former Associate Dean, Cincinnati), Opinion: Should the ABA mandate how law schools teach diversity?
• Karen Sloan (Law.com), ABA Gets an Earful Over Proposed Diversity Training Mandate for Law Students
• Karen Sloan (Law.com), ABA Pushes Forward With Racism Training Requirement for Law Schools
• Anton Sorkin (Christian Legal Society), Considering the ABA’s Proposal for Mandating Bias Training
• Washington Free Beacon, American Bar Association Poised To Mandate Diversity Training, Affirmative Action at Law Schools

Controversies at Yale Law School

• The Atlantic, A Worrisome Peek Inside Yale Law’s Diversity Bureaucracy
• Josh Blackman (South Texas), Conservative and Libertarian Law Students At Yale Law School Should Transfer Out En Masse
• Bloomberg Law, On Amy Chua, Yale Law and the Cauldron of Nonsense
• Trent Colbert (Yale 2L), Why I Didn’t Apologize For That Yale Law School Email
• Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern), The Yale And UIC Law School Controversies
• Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern), Yale Law’s Bullying, Coercive Diversity Leaders: How Not To Do Equity Work
• David Lat (Original Jurisdiction; J.D. 1999, Yale), As The Yale Law School World Turns
• David Lat, The Yale Law School Scandals: Dean Heather Gerken Speaks
• Simon Lazarus (J.D. 1967, Yale), Trap House Enters Its Fourth Month: A Take on Where Things Stand
• Simon Lazarus, (J.D. 1967, Yale), Where YLS Has Gone Off The Rails, And What Is Needed To Get Back On Track
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), The Yale Law School Spectacle Continues
• The New Yorker, What Is Going On at Yale Law School?
• New York Times, Gripped by ‘Dinner Party-gate,’ Yale Law Confronts a Venomous Divide
• Glenn Reynolds (Tennessee), Students Suing Yale Law Show America’s Elites Have a Low Opinion of Minorities
• Eugene Volokh (UCLA), The Allegations in the New Lawsuit Against Yale Law School
• Washington Free Beacon, ‘Deplorable’: Top Yale Law Professor Rips Administration Over Handling of ‘Trap House’ Incident
• Washington Free Beacon, Yale Law Dean Admits Error, Stops Short of Apologizing to Targeted Students
• Yale Daily News, Email From Yale Law Student Sparks National Discussion on Racism and Free Speech
• Yale Daily News, Two Students Sue Yale Law Administrators For Alleged Retaliation in Amy Chua Case

Ideological Battles in Legal Education

• Academic Freedom Alliance & Brian Leiter (Chicago), The University Of Illinois-Chicago's Response to Student Complaints Against A Tenured Law Professor
• Bloomberg Law, Vermont Law School Thwarts Claim It Can’t Hide Slavery Murals    
• Paul Caron (Dean, Peppeerdine), University Of Illinois-Chicago Law School Reassigns Jason Kilborn's Spring Classes While He Undergoes Mandatory Diversity Training
• Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), The Targeting of Scholars for Ideological Reasons from 2015 to Present
• Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern), Yes, This Is a Witch-Hunt
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), Violation of Academic Freedom at UIC John Marshall Law School
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), When "DEI Training" goes wrong
• New York Post, CUNY Law Students Warring With Faculty Members Over Anti-Israel Resolution

Other News

• ABA Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Consultant’s Evaluation of ETS’s 2018 Report on the Validity of the GRE
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), The Fall 2021 Law School Admissions Season Was One For The Ages: Applicants Were Up 12.6%, With Biggest Increase (66%) Among The 170+ LSAT Band
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), July 2021 Florida Bar Exam Results: Florida International Is #1 For 7th Year In A Row
• David Frakt (Independent), InfiLaw - The End of An Era (and Good Riddance)

My Comment of the Year

I am concerned by the significant number of law review articles today that ignore unfavorable evidence concerning the article's theories.  Case in point: Rory D. Bahadur, Law School Rankings and The Impossibility of Anti-Racism.  In this article, Professor Bahadur asserts that the U.S. News law rankings are racist based on "antiracist" theories.  Fair enough.

The problem with the article, however, is that he ignores a ton of scholarship criticizing antiracist theory.  The article gives the impression that antitracist theory is solidly established and that there is no criticism of the field.  Nothing could be further from the truth. (see here and the many articles cited therein)  This is ironic considering that Professor Bahadur accuses others of suffering from the confirmation bias ("Confirmation bias is the tendency of people to give more credence and validity to information consistent with their beliefs or hypotheses.").

Legal scholarship should not ignore unfavorable theories and evidence.  A convincing article critically examines the negative material and shows why it is wrong or not applicable.  Like so many other articles today, Bahadur's piece fails to do this.