Harvard Law Prof Who Was Ousted From Deanship For Representing Harvey Weinstein Failed To File Tax Returns For Nearly A Decade

Following up on my previous posts:

• After Ouster From Deanship For Representing Harvey Weinstein, Law Prof Blasts Harvard's Capitulation To A 'Loud Minority Of Students' (June 17, 2019)
• Sullivan: Why Harvard Was Wrong To Make Me Step Down As Faculty Dean For Representing Harvey Weinstein (June 25, 2019)

Sullivan v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2019-153 (Nov. 19, 2019):

Petitioner is a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and the faculty director of the Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop and the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute. He did not file a Federal income tax return for 2012 or 2013; IRS records indicate that he likewise failed to file returns for 2005-2011. ...

[P]etitioner’s aggregate outstanding liability for 2012 and 2013 was $1,231,775. The bulk of this assessed liability, for 2013, appears to be attributable to petitioner’s sale during 2013, for $1,865,000, of his former residence at the Newton address.

Petitioner timely filed Form 12153, Request for a Collection Due Process or Equivalent Hearing, listing his address as the Winthrop House address. He checked the box captioned “I cannot pay balance.” Referring to the 2013 liability in particular he stated: “I did not (nor have I ever made) enough money to justify a $1.2M tax.”

On July 3, 2017, the IRS sent petitioner a letter, addressed to his Winthrop House address, acknowledging receipt of his hearing request. The letter advised him that, to be eligible for a collection alternative, he would need to file Federal income tax returns for 2012-2015 and supply a completed Form 433-A, Collection Information Statement for Wage Earners and Self-Employed Individuals. He did not respond to this letter and did not supply any of the requested documents. ...

Finding no abuse of discretion in any respect, we will grant summary judgment for respondent and sustain the proposed collection action.

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Longest-Serving Female Prof Sues Nebraska Law School Demanding Equal Pay With Her Male Counterparts Earning $257k-$274K

Omaha World-Herald, Longtime NU Law Professor Josephine Potuto Sues Over Unequal Pay For Women:

The longest-serving female professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has sued the university, alleging she has received unequal pay because of her gender.

Josephine Potuto has been a law professor for 45 years and is the longest continuously serving professor in the NU College of Law, male or female.

The suit was filed Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court by her Lincoln-based attorneys, Vincent Powers and Kathleen Neary. The defendant officially is the governing board of the NU system, the Board of Regents. ...

The suit says pay discrimination has been cited for several years by the UNL Commission on the Status of Women. Further, the suit says, NU Law Dean Richard Moberly has called Potuto's situation a compelling example of gender pay disparity in the law school. ...

The NU system lists Potuto's salary as $229,460, compared with long-serving law colleagues Robert Denicola's $273,653 and Martin Gardner's $256,755. Neary said Potuto has no problem with her male colleagues' compensation, but she wants equal pay.

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Law School As Hunger Games: Why Are Stress Levels Rising Among Law Students?

The Guardian, Legally Drained: Why Are Stress Levels Rising Among Law Students?:

Law students tend to be workaholics with very little free time, but finding the right life-work balance can be a tough task.

“One of my lecturers describes law school as being like the Hunger Games,” says law student Erin May Conely. “It can be quite cut-throat with everyone fighting for the same jobs at top law firms.”

For the 22-year-old, who is studying law at the University of Birmingham, the competitive atmosphere has led to so much stress that she has decided not to enter the profession once she graduates. She wants to go into teaching instead.

Conely’s experience is not unique. The Junior Lawyers Division’s 2019 resilience and wellbeing survey found that 93% of respondents – students, graduates, trainee solicitors and solicitors up to five years’ qualified – felt stressed. Almost half said that they had experienced poor mental health, which is a 10% increase from the year before.

It’s no secret that the legal profession can often be a high-pressure working environment; lawyers are the second most stressed professionals in the country. Some universities are therefore taking steps to help students better cope with academic pressures and the transition from legal education to a career as a lawyer.

The BPP University Law School has announced that it will introduce lessons on mindfulness, meditation, relaxation and resilience as part of their courses. Students will learn topics including “balancing work and life”, “self-care” and “getting a good night’s sleep”. ...

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'Penn Law' Keeps Its Name Until 2022, When It Will Become 'Penn Carey Law'

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  A Message From Dean Ted Ruger to Law School Students and Alumni:

November 18, 2019
Dear Law School students and alumni,

Just over a week ago we announced a historic and transformative $125 million gift from the W. P. Carey Foundation, the largest ever in legal education. In addition to its many ties to and longstanding support of the University of Pennsylvania, the Carey Foundation is a leading philanthropic supporter of education. 

I am writing to you in response to feedback the Law School and University have received regarding the gift and the renaming of the Law School to the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and the short-form name of Carey Law, in particular. Some reactions have been very positive, some very critical, and others wonder what the future of legal education at Penn will look like thanks to these tremendous resources. All of your responses are heartening in demonstrating how deeply you care about this institution and the abiding affinity you have for it.

Much of the conversation has centered on concerns over the short-form name, instead of a focus on how the Carey Foundation gift will be used. We have heard you. Like all of you, my colleagues and I care deeply about the Law School’s history, tradition, and reputation in the academy, profession, and across the globe. Therefore, consistent with the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, which is our official name, the Law School will continue to use Penn Law as our short-form name until the start of the 2022-23 academic year, after which we will use Penn Carey Law, thereby embracing both tradition and transformation.

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Alice Abreu Named Inaugural Director Of Temple Center For Tax Law And Public Policy

The tax faculty at Temple University Beasley School of Law is delighted to announce the launch of Temple’s Center for Tax Law and Public Policy, with Professor Alice Abreu as the inaugural director. Temple’s Tax Center not only serves as a hub for the many tax-related activities at Temple, it affirms Temple’s commitment to leadership in tax education and scholarship.

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University Of Florida Wants $2 Million Research Prize Won By Professors

Chronicle of Higher Education, ‘It Felt Like a Betrayal’: Researchers Won a $2-Million Prize. The University Wants to Take It.:

October 24 should have been a great day for John M. Shea and Tan F. Wong, professors of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida.

The day before, after three years, their team — which includes three Ph.D. students and an undergraduate — won the $2-million grand prize in an artificial-intelligence competition, beating out more than 100 teams from around the world.

The message that day from the administration, however, was far from congratulatory.

“Please understand that if Shea and Wong convert university funds to personal funds,” stated the email from a university lawyer to a lawyer representing the university’s faculty union, “they will be subject to personnel action and possibly other more serious consequences.”

The battle for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contest was over. But the team had another fight, this one with its own university. Who gets to keep the prize money?

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‘Yale or Harvard Would Never Do This’: Grads Upset Penn Law Changed Name After $125 Million Gift

Following up on my previous posts:

• Penn Receives $125 Million Naming Gift, Largest Gift Ever To A Law School
• Hundreds Sign Petition To Change 'Carey Law' Back To 'Penn Law'
• Administration Considers Changing 'Carey Law' Back To 'Penn Law' After Student Backlash

Philadelphia Inquirer, ‘Yale or Harvard Would Never Do This’: Grads Upset Penn Law Changed Name After $125 Million Gift:

Did you graduate from Penn Law? Better buy your sweatshirt and other swag soon.

The University of Pennsylvania law school's name has changed to Carey Law, after a $125 million donation that included the naming rights to one of America's oldest law colleges.

Grads, faculty and students are alternately happy or furious the naming rights belong to the W.P. Carey family's foundation.

"We've received alum responses who are outraged about the change. They feel a strong attachment to the brand, as I do." said Michael Frieda, currently a third-year student at the law school. "We're just asking to maintain the Penn Law branding." ...

According to an online petition against the name change, signed by CEOs and partners from top Philly law firms, not all Penn Law alums are thrilled either. As of Wednesday, 2,200 alums and current students had signed the petition.

M. Kelly Tillery was one of the first to sign. The 1979 graduate of Penn Law is now a partner at Pepper Hamilton in Center City.

"It's an awesome, generous donation. But Yale or Harvard would never do this," Tillery said in an interview.

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Chasing Rankings Is Starting To Strain Some Elite Universities

Chronicle of Higher Education, How Chasing Prestige Is Starting to Strain Some Elite Institutions:

The pressure to maintain elite status is starting to be reflected in the finances of some of the nation’s pre-eminent private research institutions.

Last month Northwestern University became the latest such institution to have its bond rating lowered by Moody’s Investors Service, the financial-information company. Moody’s cut the university’s rating of nearly $2.2 billion in debt, from its top grade of Aaa to Aa1, its second-highest score.

As Moody’s noted, the “pressure to invest to sustain competitiveness with other elite universities will be challenging.” ...

Northwestern is generating smaller gains from its operations than it did in previous years, Moody’s found. While tuition revenue has remained stable, Northwestern’s expenses across nearly every category have grown significantly. Of particular concern to the analysts was the university’s debt load. It tripled between the 2011 and 2018 fiscal years, from $775 million to $2.555 billion. For every dollar Northwestern earned from operations in 2014, the institution was liable for $2.60 in debt. Four years later, that ratio had ballooned to $18.10 in debt for every $1, according to Moody’s calculations.

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TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• Harvard 1Ls: Elite Law Schools Shortchange Students By Veering Left
• NY Times: Warren's Tax Plan Would Dramatically Cut Billionaires' Wealth Over Time
• July 2019 California Bar Exam Pass Rate Increases 9 Percentage Points (7 For CA ABA-Accredited Law Schools)

Sunday:

• The 22 Law School Naming Gifts ($3 Million - $125 Million)
• NY Times: Warren Wealth Tax Would Slow Economic Growth By 13% According To Penn Wharton Budget Model
• Black Male Lawyers In California Are Four Times More Likely To Be Disbarred Than White Male Lawyers
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

The 23 Law School Naming Gifts ($3 Million - $125 Million)

Top Row L-R University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Bottom Row L-R Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law and University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law.

Law.com, What's In a Name for Law Schools? Money. Lots of It.:

In the past month alone, the University of Pennsylvania’s law school received a record-breaking $125 million from the W.P. Carey Foundation to become the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, or “Carey Law;” Pepperdine University got $50 million from real estate developer Richard Caruso and is now home to the Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law; and the University of Kentucky plans to rebrand its law school as the University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law in honor of the new namesake’s $20 million gift. ...

[H]ow much would it take to get your name on Harvard Law School? An informal poll of 10 law deans and legal education experts this week yielded estimates ranging from $150 million to $1 billion, though most predictions fell in the range of $200 to $500 million. A few said the famed Cambridge school likely would never rebrand.

Law.com, Law School Naming Rights 60 Years in the Making:

[W]e’ve compiled data on the 23 donations that led law schools to rebrand in honor of their patrons. Our list kicks off in the 1960s with the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, but the action really picks up in the 2000s. And although there are some outliers, most of the recent naming donations fall between $20 and $50 million.

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Black Male Lawyers In California Are Four Times More Likely To Be Disbarred Than White Male Lawyers

George Farkas (UC-Irvine), Discrepancies By Race and Gender in Attorney Discipline By the State Bar of California: An Empirical Analysis:

Male attorneys have higher probation and disbarment/resignation rates than females, and that racial discrepancies are higher among males than females. The largest racial differences were between Black and White male attorneys. The probation rate for Black male attorneys was 3.2% while that for White male attorneys was 0.9%. The disbarment/resignation rate for Black male attorneys was 3.9% while that for White male attorneys was 1.0%. For Hispanic males the probation rate was 1.9% and the disbarment/resignation rate was 1.7%.

These discipline differences between White male attorneys and male attorneys of color have two components. One is the distribution of the number of complaints that a gender/race group was subject to, and the other is the rate at which attorneys in a particular gender/race group and with a given number of complaints were disciplined. Complaints come to the Bar prior to their investigation, so that only the discipline rates applied to these complaints are attributable to actions of Bar staff. Further, Black and Hispanic attorneys averaged greater numbers of complaints than White attorneys. Accordingly, we undertook simulations to estimate the probation and disbarment/resignation rates that would have been experienced by Black and Hispanic attorneys if their distribution of complaints had been the same as those of White attorneys.

The result of these simulations was to greatly reduce the size of the gender/race group disparities in discipline. For Black males, the group with the largest differences from Whites, the probation rate declined from 3.2% to 1.4% and the disbarment/resignation rate declined from 3.9% to 1.6%. These simulated rates for Black males were only about ½ of a percentage point higher than the rates for White males. Similar results were found for Black females and for Hispanics.

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Harvard 1Ls: Elite Law Schools Shortchange Students By Veering Left

National Review op-ed:  Elite Law Schools Shortchange Students by Veering Left, by Eli Nachmany (J.D. 2022, Harvard) & Jacob Richards (J.D. 2022, Harvard):

The conservative legal movement is in its golden age, but you wouldn’t know it from visiting America’s top law schools. At Harvard Law School, for example, which we both currently attend, originalist faculty and right-of-center educational opportunities are conspicuously lacking despite a tremendous amount of student interest. ...

Faculty
At Harvard Law, despite a faculty of more than 100 tenured professors and dozens more assistant professors, clinical professors, and lecturers, there are fewer openly right-of-center professors than we can count on one hand. What’s worse, none of them focus their scholarship on originalism. ... All students would benefit from having a more ideologically diverse faculty. 

See Adam Bonica (Stanford), Adam S. Chilton (Chicago), Kyle Rozema (Northwestern) & Maya Sen (Harvard), The Legal Academy's Ideological Uniformity, 47 J. Legal Stud. 1 (2018):

Clinics
At law schools across America, “law clinics” are a way for students to gain hands-on experience lawyering in exchange for academic credit. While these clinics were once a vehicle for providing free representation to indigent clients who faced asymmetries in access to justice, many clinical programs have morphed into cause lawyering and issue advocacy, shaped by priorities that reflect legal academia’s progressive consensus.

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July 2019 California Bar Exam Pass Rate Increases 9 Percentage Points (7 For CA ABA-Accredited Law Schools)

The California State Bar has released the results from the July 2019 bar exam. The overall pass rate was 50.1%, up 9.4 percentage points from last year and the first time in six years that more than half of test-takers passed the July exam.  For California ABA-accredited law schools, the pass rate for first time test-takers was 71%, up 7 percentage points from 2018. The mean scaled MBE scored was 1428, up 24 from last year and up 17 from this year's national average of 1411.

State Bar of California Releases July 2019 Bar Exam Results:

Today the State Bar of California released the results of the July 2019 California Bar Exam, and announced that 3,886 people (50.1 percent of applicants) passed the General Bar Exam, a rebound to the 2017 pass rate.

The State Bar also released two reports on the results: the first, an analysis by the State Bar’s psychometrician, the Research Solutions Group (RSG), concluded that “[t]he results of the … analyses indicated that the premature release of the content had no statistically significant impact on the results of the July 2019 examination.”

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No Legal Tech For ICE: 600 Law Profs, Law Students, Law Librarians, And Lawyers Demand That LexisNexis And Westlaw Terminate Their Contracts With ICE

NoTechForICE:

We are law professors, librarians, attorneys, and law students who are deeply concerned about the role that Thomson Reuters and RELX play in human rights abuses against immigrants.

Thomson Reuters (parent company to Westlaw) and RELX plc (parent company to LexisNexis) play key roles in fueling the surveillance, imprisonment, and deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year. ICE is relying on the data and technology provided by your legal search engines to track and arrest immigrants on a massive scale.

We invite other individuals and organizations to join us in demanding that these companies to end their contracts with ICE.

READ THE FULL LETTER

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Law Schools Are Unlikely To Increase JD Enrollment As Supply Of Lawyers Continues To Outpace Demand

Indiana Lawyer, Good Growth? Lawyer Population Grows, But Supply May Outpace Demand:

The last decade has been fraught with economic uncertainty, as a recession, recovery and an expected new recession have cast a shadow over many industries, including the law. But recent data from the American Bar Association indicates the ups and downs haven’t kept people from the practice.

According to the ABA’s National Lawyer Population Survey, the number of active lawyers nationwide grew by 14.5% in the last decade, up from 1,180,386 in 2009 to 1,352,027 in 2019. ...

These numbers can be seen as a reason to celebrate in a profession that was hit hard by the Great Recession. Law school enrollment, for example, took a nosedive in the early 2010s but has remained relatively steady ever since.

But industry experts also see a potential mismatch between lawyer supply and demand, creating the risk for oversaturation. Indeed, though the employment rate for recent law school graduates is up, the actual number of jobs has declined.

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McCoskey & Narotzki: Education Has Been 'Dumbed-Down' in Tax Reform

Melanie McCoskey (Akron) & Doron Narotzki (Akron), Education Has Been 'Dumbed-Down' in Tax Reform, 22 Fla. Tax Rev. ___ (2019):

With promises of “Make America Great Again” and tax reform for “middle-class” Americans, the current federal government administration has implied that the average American would become more prosperous under this tax system. It is no surprise that most middle-class Americans view a college education as a requirement for achieving a better life. However, under the TCJA, education has not fared well, and in reality, students from many low- and moderate-income families will face reduced scholarships from elite schools, thereby reducing diversity on these campuses. Other proposed changes to education in the original tax bill, which were later removed, are also addressed as they may hint to which direction this may go and face legislative changes in the future.

A New Pricing Model For A New Reality: St. John's Cuts Tuition By 33%, Reaps Record Applications And Donations

Inside Higher Ed, A New Model for a New Reality:

St. John's College administrators insisted they were going against the grain last year when they announced that tuition was being reduced from $52,000 to $35,000.

The leaders of the private liberal arts college contended they were different from other institutions embracing tuition resets and being criticized for taking part in what some consider a misleading pricing gimmick. St. John’s would make up for the loss of tuition revenue not by increasing enrollment or reducing financial aid, but by using a new financial model based on raising more donor dollars -- $300 million more.

Just one year later, St. John’s leaders say they’re already seeing indicators that their big bet may be paying off. A record 1,414 students applied for admission for this year’s freshman class, the first to enroll under the new pricing plan.

The college, which has campuses in Annapolis, Md., and Santa Fe, N.M., has raised $205 million in commitments toward the $300 million goal. More than $1 million came from gifts under $5,000, a first for the institution. The support will help the college “maintain an affordable tuition price and allocate significant resources to support students with real financial need,” according to the fundraising campaign. ...

St. John's is the third-oldest college in the country and a unique and respected institution with small classes, no-frills campuses and a curriculum focused exclusively on the so-called Great Books. The college is promoting the new pricing initiative as an alignment of its values “of offering an honest education at an honest price” and outlines the reasoning behind it in detail on its fundraising campaign website.

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Fired SUNY-Buffalo Law Prof Seeks To Revive Fraud Suit Against ABA For Failing To Enforce Presumptively Renewable Accreditation Standard 405(c)

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Law360, Ex-Law School Prof Seeks To Revive Fraud Suit Against ABA:

A former law school professor urged the Seventh Circuit Wednesday to revive his fraud suit over the American Bar Association’s accreditation standards, saying misunderstandings on both sides of the bench caused his suit to get permanently tossed.

Jeffrey Malkan, who formerly taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, said a lower court misunderstood his claim for damages when it found “zero connection” between his 2008 termination and the ABA’s enforcement powers over its standards for accredited law schools.

And on his end, Malkan misunderstood that a dismissal with prejudice was the alternative he chose when he elected not to amend his complaint before appearing on the ABA's dismissal motion, he told a three-judge panel during oral argument.

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Report On California Bar's Blunder In Releasing Topics To Be Covered On The July Exam

Following up on my previous post, Five Days Before The Bar Exam, California Bar Inadvertently Released The Topics Covered On The Exam:  The Recorder, Report Reveals Frantic Scramble After California Bar Exam Blunder:

Inadvertent human error led California’s state bar to erroneously disclose essay topics on the July 2019 bar exam six days before the test’s administration, a report commissioned by the California Supreme Court concluded.

A 19-page report [Report of the Investigation of the State Bar of California's Pre-Examination Disclosure of July 2019 Bar Exam Topics] prepared by Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni found that a bar staffer, pressured to finish work before having to proctor the two-day exam in July, mistakenly included a list of topics in an email inviting 16 law school deans to observe a test grading session later that summer. The report redacts the names of those bar staffers directly involved with the erroneous release.

Beyond the initial disclosure, the report found the bar’s harried response reflected an agency ill-prepared to handle an administrative emergency and unclear on expectations from the California Supreme Court. Bar leaders did not consult with Supreme Court justices before deciding to provide the exam topics to every applicant registered to take the test, investigators found. ...

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Administration Considers Changing 'Carey Law' Back To 'Penn Law' After Student Backlash

Following up on my previous posts:

• Penn Receives $125 Million Naming Gift, Largest Gift Ever To A Law School (Nov. 9, 2019)
• Hundreds Sign Petition To Change 'Carey Law' Back To 'Penn Law' (Nov. 11, 2019)

Daily Pennsylvanian, Admin Considers Changing 'Carey Law' Back to 'Penn Law' After Student Backlash:

Carey Law School is considering changing its shortened name back to "Penn Law" from "Carey Law" in response to overwhelming student and alumni backlash, an administrator said at a town hall meeting Monday.

Carey Law Dean of Students Felicia Lin, along with three other administrators, held an hour-and-a-half lunch Q&A session on Monday for any law students concerned about the school's renaming. The meeting comes after more than 1,500 students and alumni signed a petition demanding the school revert its short-form name from "Carey Law" back to "Penn Law," arguing that employers will not recognize the new name. ...

Several "Penn Law is now Carey Law" banners were unfurled on posts outside several law school buildings during the afternoon meeting and were taken down as of the evening. ...

Dean Ted Ruger and Carey Law administrators are considering various options for the acceptable short-form names and their appearance on the website. ...

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The Gender Gap In Invited Scholarly Commentaries

Inside Higher Ed, Gender Gap in Invited Commentaries:

The odds of women writing invited commentaries in medical journals are 21 percent lower than for men, even when controlling for field of expertise, seniority and publication record. The finding, published in JAMA Network Open, is based on a study of who authored these prestigious commentaries in nearly 2,500 journals over four years, through 2017.

Emma Thomas (Harvard), Bamini Jayabalasingham (Elsevier), Tom Collins (Elsevier), Jeroen Geertzen (Elsevier), Chinh Bui (Elsevier) & Francesca Dominici (Harvard), Gender Disparities in Invited Commentary Authorship in 2459 Medical Journals:

Question Is gender associated with authorship of invited commentaries in medical journals among authors with comparable scientific credentials?

Findings In this case-control study of invited commentaries published in 2459 journals from January 1, 2013, through December 31, 2017, the odds of authoring an invited commentary were 21% lower for women compared with men who had similar fields of expertise and publication metrics among researchers who had been actively publishing for the median of 19 years.

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The Six Largest Law School Gifts

Law.com, Keep Your Chump Change. Here Are the Largest Law School Donations on Record:

In the past three weeks alone, the University of Pennsylvania announced a record-breaking $125 million donation to its law school; Pepperdine University snagged a $50 million donation for its law school; and the University of Kentucky College of Law received a $20 million gift. Multimillion dollar donations are hardly new, but the pace of such gifts appears to be picking up.

Here, we’re counting down the six largest law school donations on record, each of which is $50 million or more.

1.  Pennsylvania Carey $150 million (2019)
2.  Arizona Rogers $115 million (1998)
3.  Northwestern Pritzker $100 million (2015)
4.  Chapman Fowler $55 million (2013)
5.  Drexel Kline $50 million (2014)
5.  Pepperdine Caruso $50 million (2019)

Donor Who Made $40 Million Naming Gift Sues Law School For Failing To Print His Name On All Degrees

Globe & Mail, Donor Peter Allard Sues UBC, Demands His Name Be Printed on All Law Degrees:

A prominent donor who gave tens of millions of dollars to the University of British Columbia and whose name adorns the law school is taking the university to court for failing to ensure his name is also on the school’s graduate degrees.

Peter Allard, a lawyer and UBC graduate, gave $10-million to UBC in 2011 in part to fund the construction of a new law school building. In 2014, Mr. Allard made another donation of $30-million and the school itself was renamed the Peter A. Allard School of Law.

The donation agreement signed in 2014 specified that degree certificates granted by the law school would bear the name “Peter A. Allard School of Law.” But graduate degrees (master’s and doctorate) in law have not reflected the name change.

UBC has argued that those degrees are conferred by the faculty of graduate and postdoctoral studies, not the law school, and therefore are excluded from the agreement.

Mr. Allard and his lawyers have tried to get this changed and are now pursuing UBC through the courts. An arbitrator sided with UBC this year, saying that university officials did not address the question of graduate degrees during the negotiations over Mr. Allard’s gift.

Beware Search Committees: Faculty CVs Often Are Too Good to Be True

Inside Higher Ed, When CVs Are Too Good to Be True:

When we think about academic misconduct, we tend to think about misrepresentation of research findings or plagiarism. But a new study says that misrepresentation of academic achievements on CVs is a problem requiring attention, too [Trisha Phillips (West Virginia), R. Kyle Saunders (Florida State), Jeralynn Cossman (West Virginia) & Elizabeth Heitman (Texas), Assessing Trustworthiness in Research: A Pilot Study on CV Verification].

For their experiment, the researchers collected each and every curriculum vitae submitted for all faculty positions at a large, purposely unnamed research university over the course of a year. Then they let the CVs sit for 18 to 30 months to allow any pending articles to mature into publications that they could verify.

To make the data set manageable, the researchers eventually analyzed 10 percent of the sample for accuracy. Of the 180 CVs reviewed, 141, or 78 percent, claimed to have at least one publication. But 79 of those 141 applicants (56 percent) had at least one publication on their CV that was unverifiable or inaccurate in a self-promoting way, such as misrepresenting authorship order.

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