Legal Ed News Roundup

• Above the Law, Law School Applications Are Way Down And It's Bad News For The Profession
• Above the Law, The LSAT's Potentially Numbered Days
• Daily Report Online, John Marshall, Volunteer Lawyers Group Joining Forces to Take on Atlanta’s Housing Crisis
• Noah Feldman (Harvard), There’s a Lot of Harvard and Yale on the Supreme Court. And That’s OK.
• Law.com, Ahead of the Curve: Is COVID-19 Still an Excuse to Sit Out the Bar Exam?
• Law.com, New York Not Keeping Pace With ABA Distance Education Rules
• Law.com, UVA Law's 'Roadmap Scholars' Program Drives Toward Equity in the Legal Profession
• National Jurist, 82% of Young Attorneys Happy With Career
• National Jurist, Mercer Law School Launches Corporate Counsel Externship Program

Continue reading

Welcome, Pepperdine Caruso Law School Class Of 2025

Welcome to the members of the Pepperdine Caruso Law School Class of 2025 who begin their legal education today in a week-long introduction to law school and professional formation, as well as the over 400 students pursuing joint, LL.M., and masters degrees and certificates, including our LL.M. and certificate programs in Entertainment, Media, and Sports and our online masters in Legal Studies and Dispute Resolution and our online LL.M. in Dispute Resolution.

We are thrilled that, despite the 12% nationwide decline in the number of law school applicants (and the 14% nationwide decline among applicants in the highest LSAT bands), we exceeded our enrollment target of 180 and enrolled a class with the highest credentials in the 54-year history of our law school (3.85 median UGPA and 164 median LSAT). 

This is my sixth year as Dean, and I am thrilled that you have decided to join our very special law school community. You will learn and study on our spectacularly beautiful campus in Malibu with easy access to Los Angeles, one of the world's most vibrant cities for young professionals. Beginning today you will experience the faculty and staff's faith-fueled commitment to you and to your success that manifests itself in various ways, large and small, in daily life at Pepperdine Caruso Law. My fervent wish is that you will love your time here as I have since joining the faculty in 2013, and that you will leave here with a deep sense of your professional and personal calling in law and in life.

Katherine Magbanua Transported To Florida State Prison, Begins Serving Life Sentence In Dan Markel’s Murder

WCTV, Magbanua Transported to State Prison, Begins Serving Life Sentence in Dan Markel’s Murder:

Florida Department of Corrections records show that Katherine Magbanua has now been booked into state prison to begin serving a life sentence in the murder of FSU professor Dan Markel.

Magbanua was picked up from the Leon County Jail at 3:03 a.m. Thursday, Leon County court records show, and has since arrived at the Florida Women’s Reception Center in Ocala.

Magbanua is the third person convicted and sent to prison in the murder for hire plot. She was arrested in October 2016 and accused of being the link between Markel’s ex-brother-in-law Charlie Adelson and the men who traveled to Tallahassee to kill Markel in the summer of 2014. Prosecutors contend the plot was fueled by a bitter custody battle between Markel and his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, who is Charlie’s sister.

Continue reading

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• Former Students Sue Columbia, Say They Were Misled By Misreporting Of Data That Inflated Its U.S. News Ranking
• Penn Wharton: Decomposing The Decline In Estate Tax Liability Since 2000
• Penn State Orders Hiring Freeze, 3% Budget Rescission To Close $191 Million Deficit

Sunday:

• NY Times: What's God Got to Do With It? The Rise of Christian Nationalism In American Politics
• The Secret Of Vin Scully's Success: Faith
• Christian University Sues Attorney General, Says Investigation Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Hiring Practices Violates Its Religious Freedom
• Forty Democratic Lawmakers Call For IRS Investigation Into Family Research Council's ‘Church’ Status
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

NY Times: What's God Got To Do With It? The Rise Of Christian Nationalism In American Politics

New York Times, What's God Got to Do With It? The Rise of Christian Nationalism In American Politics:

Esau Macaulley and Katherine Stewart on how the G.O.P weaponized Christianity — and where we go from here

Christian nationalism has been empowered in American politics since the rise of Donald Trump. From “Stop the Steal” to the storming of the U.S. Capitol and now, the overturn of Roe v. Wade — Christian nationalist rhetoric has undergirded it all. But given that a majority of Americans identify as Christian, faith also isn’t going anywhere in our politics. So what would a better relationship between church and state look like?

To discuss, Jane Coaston brings together two people who are at the heart of the Christian nationalism debate. Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism and has reported on the Christian right for over a decade. Esau McCaulley is a contributing writer for Times Opinion and theologian-in-residence at Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago.

Continue reading

The Secret Of Vin Scully's Success: Faith

Los Angeles and baseball fans everywhere are mourning the death of Vin Scully at age 94. Vin was the voice of the Dodgers (and Los Angeles) for 67 years. My dear fried and former colleague Bob Cochran sent me this wonderful interview with Vin for my Sunday faith posts: 

Continue reading

Christian University Sues Attorney General, Says Investigation Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Hiring Practices Violates Its Religious Freedom

Inside Higher Education, Seattle Pacific Sues Washington AG:

Facing a state investigation for discriminatory hiring practices against LGBTQ+ individuals, Seattle Pacific University is going on the offensive, suing Washington attorney general Robert Ferguson.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, accuses Ferguson of violating the Free Methodist Church–affiliated university’s constitutional right “to decide matters of faith and doctrine, to hire employees who share its religious beliefs, and to select and retain ministers free from government interference.”

At the root of the lawsuit is a policy that has long been a source of friction at Seattle Pacific: a prohibition on the hiring of openly gay faculty and staff members, which the president and Board of Trustees have vigorously defended despite opposition from students, employees and alumni. Students have walked out and sat in to protest the policy; the board refuses to budge out of concerns that doing so would end its 130-year membership in the Free Methodist Church. ...

SPU subscribes to the belief that “sexual experience is intended between a man and a woman,” according to its Statement on Human Sexuality. Its policy holds that “employees are expected to refrain from sexual behavior that is inconsistent with the University’s understanding of Biblical standards, including cohabitation, extramarital sexual activity, and same-sex sexual activity.”

In the lawsuit, lawyers for the Christian university accused Washington’s attorney general of “wielding state power to interfere with the religious beliefs of a religious university, and a church, whose beliefs he disagrees with. He is using the powers of his office (and even powers not granted to his office) to pressure and retaliate against Seattle Pacific University.”

Continue reading

Forty Democratic Lawmakers Call For IRS Investigation Into Family Research Council's ‘Church’ Status

Following up on my previous post, ProPublica: Family Research Council Is Now A Church In The Eyes Of The IRS:  Washington Post, Democrats Call on IRS to Review Right-Wing Group’s ‘Church’ Status:

Congressional House Democrats are asking the IRS to review the tax-exempt status of a prominent conservative advocacy group recently reclassified as a church, arguing the organization may be exploiting the designation to avoid scrutiny.

Forty Democratic lawmakers, led by U.S. Reps. Suzan DelBene (Wash.) and Jared Huffman (Calif.), outlined their concerns about the Family Research Council in a letter sent to the head of the IRS and the secretary of the Treasury on Monday. According to a recent report from ProPublica, the FRC successfully applied to be reclassified as a “group of churches” in 2020.

Lawmakers say that while the FRC often appeals to faith and advocates for a “biblical worldview,” the status change “strains credulity” because the group operates primarily as “a political advocacy organization.”

“They do not hold religious services, do not have a congregation or affiliated congregations, and do not possess many of the other attributes of churches listed by the IRS,” the letter reads. “FRC is one example of an alarming pattern in the last decade — right-wing advocacy groups self-identifying as ‘churches’ and applying for and receiving church status.” ...

Among the letter’s signatories are U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin (Md.), Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.).

Washington Times, Democratic Lawmakers Demand IRS Probe of Family Research Council’s Tax Status:

The head of the Family Research Council said Tuesday evening that a call by 40 Congressional Democrats for a Treasury Department/IRS investigation of the group’s “association of churches” tax-exempt status was “factually challenged” and asserted the organization isn’t “trying to hide anything” from the public.

Continue reading

This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

1. Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), Lesson From The Tax Court: Excise Tax On Messed Up IRA Rollover Different From Income Tax
2. Bradley Areheart (Tennessee),  Top 100 Law Schools, Based On 5-, 10-, And 15-Year Rolling Average U.S. News Rankings
3. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), The Fall 2022 Law School Admissions Season: Applicants Are Down 12%, The Most Among Whites (-14%) And The Highest LSAT Bands (-14%)
4. Stephen Carter (Yale), Last Week's Bar Exam: Send In The Clowns
5. Press Release, Bloomberg Law Announces Inaugural Law School Innovation Program
6. Seth Barrett Tillman (Maynooth University School of Law), A Response To Penn Dean Ruger’s Letter Calling For A Major Sanction Against Professor Amy Wax
7. New York Times Op-Ed, Elite Universities Are Out of Touch. Blame the Campus.
8. Florida Tax Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Fall 2021)
9. Wall Street Journal Editorial, The IRS Is About To Go Beast Mode
10. Deborah Merritt (Ohio State), Stephen Carter on the Bar Exam

Former Students Sue Columbia, Say They Were Misled By Misreporting Of Data That Inflated Its U.S. News Ranking

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Higher Ed Dive, Columbia University Sued by Students Alleging They Were Misled by Potentially False U.S. News Ranking Data:

Columbia University faces twin lawsuits from two former students alleging the Ivy League institution broke a New York consumer protection law — and its contract with them — by submitting potentially false data to bolster its placement on U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges rankings.

One student, who remained anonymous in court filings, sued Tuesday, while the other, Ravi Campbell, filed a lawsuit in mid-July. Both argue students paid “a premium for tuition and other fees” but were deprived of the education Columbia claimed to offer when it submitted information for rankings about factors like student-to-faculty ratios and class sizes. They described Columbia’s alleged misreporting as false, immoral and unethical.

Continue reading

Penn State Orders Hiring Freeze, 3% Budget Rescission To Close $191 Million Deficit

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Penn State Implements Hiring Freeze Through at Least Summer 2023:

Pennsylvania’s flagship public university has ordered a hiring freeze at least through next summer as it and other higher education institutions confront spiking inflation and public fallout over tuition hikes aimed at easing strain on campus budgets.

Penn State University confirmed the move late Monday, days after leaders announced a planned rescission in the school’s 2022-23 operating budget of 3%, or $46.2 million. The decision, like a tuition hike approved July 22, was aimed at helping the university narrow a growing operating deficit. ...

Continue reading

Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• ABC News, Why Yale Law’s Dean Says Eliminating Tuition for Students in Need Benefits the Legal Profession:
• Bradley Areheart (Tennessee), The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data
• Nick Burns (New York Times Op-Ed), Elite Universities Are Out of Touch. Blame the Campus
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), The Fall 2022 Law School Admissions Season: Applicants Are Down 12%, The Most Among Whites (-14%) And The Highest LSAT Bands (-14%)
• Stephen Carter (Yale; Bloomberg Op-Ed), Oh, You've Got Tech Woes? Try Taking the Bar
• Florida Times Union, $6 Billion Loan Settlement Could Spare Grads of Florida Coastal School of Law, Business Schools
• Scott Fruehwald (Legal Skills Prof Blog), The Advantages of Being A Critical Thinker

Continue reading

Arizona Summit, Charlotte, And Florida Coastal Law Grads Have Their Student Loans Forgiven As Part Of $6 Billion Class-Action Settlement

The Washington Post reports that a federal court yesterday approved a $6 billion settlement for 200,000 federal student loan borrowers at more than 150 schools in a class-action lawsuit. Florida Times-Union, $6 Billion Loan Settlement Could Spare Grads of Florida Coastal School of Law, Business Schools:

Former Florida Coastal School of Law students have been hurrying to request forgiveness of sometimes staggering student loan debts ahead of a court order that could cancel $6 billion in obligations haunting people who attended for-profit schools nationwide.

“My time is now or never,” said Natacha Ciezki, who said that including interest she owes about $500,000 for the law degree she earned in Jacksonville in 2014. ...

Florida Coastal, which closed its doors last year, was among the schools where the Education Department agreed to “presumptive relief” for students who had filed borrower defense applications before the settlement was signed June 22.

Continue reading

UCLA Law School Launches Project To Track Attacks On Critical Race Theory

UCLA Newsroom, UCLA Law Launches Project to Track Attacks on Critical Race Theory:

UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies Program has created an innovative project to track and analyze legislative, regulatory and administrative efforts to block or undermine the teaching of a more complete history of the United States in schools across the country.

Critical race theory, or CRT, is the study of systemic racism in law, policy and society. It has come under fire from local school boards, state legislatures and even federal-level inquiry, all of which have discussed or adopted measures that would ban its teaching.

“The project was created to help people understand the breadth of the attacks on the ability to speak truthfully about race and racism through the campaigns against CRT,” said Taifha Natalee Alexander, project director of CRT Forward.

The law school’s CRT Forward Tracking Project is the first in the United States to precisely identify, catalog and contextualize all of these efforts at the local, state and federal levels.

Continue reading

Bloomberg Law Announces Inaugural Law School Innovation Program

Bloomberg Law Announces Inaugural Law School Innovation Program:

Bloomberg Law today announced a new program to recognize law schools and their faculty and staff that have implemented and led innovative programs into their curricula that advance new methodologies and approaches to student instruction, legal technology implementation and usage, experiential learning, and other facets of legal education.

"At Bloomberg Law, we are deeply committed to innovation," said Joe Breda, President, Bloomberg Law. "Through this new program, we are excited to encourage and raise awareness of the importance of innovation in legal education by recognizing the law school faculty, staff, and administrators who are pioneering educational innovations that benefit their students, their schools, and the legal field."

Applications will be evaluated on the criteria of innovation, impact on students, ability to advance the legal industry, and replicability. Submissions will be accepted through September 6, 2022.  More information and submission guidelines are available here.

Continue reading

Case Western Seeks To Hire An Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Prof

Case Western Reserve University Academic Careers, Open Rank Faculty Positions (tenured/tenure-track) - School of Law:

Case Western Reserve University School of Law invites applications for tenured or tenure-track faculty positions, beginning July 2023.

The school is seeking entry-level candidates with demonstrated law teaching and scholarship potential, as well as lateral candidates with strong scholarly track records and substantial law teaching experience. Areas of interest for teaching and scholarship include environmental law, property, copyright, trademark, torts, tax, commercial law, and family law. Appointment will be considered at the Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor level, based upon prior teaching experience and scholarship. Positions may include the opportunity to teach in the Kramer Law Clinic, or administrative responsibilities in the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law or the Spangenberg Center for Law, Technology, and the Arts.

Continue reading

WSJ: Colleges (And Law Schools) Scale Back Covid Precautions For Fall Semester — Pandemic Phase Is Over

Wall Street Journal, Colleges Scale Back Covid Precautions for Fall, Saying Pandemic Phase Over:

Colleges this fall are no longer treating Covid-19 as an emergency upending their operations, shifting to eliminate mask requirements and mandatory coronavirus testing and letting students who contract the virus isolate in their dorms with their roommates.

With easy access to vaccinations and low hospitalization rates among college-aged adults—even during the latest surge in BA.5 subvariant cases—administrators said it is time to lift or at least rethink restrictions and redefine the virus as endemic, not a pandemic. That means scaling back mass testing, removing bans on large indoor gatherings and preparing for a fall term that more closely resembles life before Covid.

Continue reading

A Response To Penn Dean Ruger’s Letter Calling For A Major Sanction Against Professor Amy Wax

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Seth Barrett Tillman (Maynooth University School of Law; Google Scholar), A Response to Dean Ruger’s Letter to Professor Gadsden, University of Pennsylvania Faculty Senate Chair, Calling for the Imposition of a Major Sanction Against Professor Wax:

This is a short statement responding to the misuse of contestable historical materials to achieve ideological ends in the guise of the discipline of an academic colleague. It is a reflection on the dangers of political correctness in today's academic environment.

Continue reading

The Top 100 Law Schools, Based On 5-, 10-, And 15-Year Rolling Average U.S. News Rankings

Bradley A. Areheart (Tennessee), The Top 100 Law Reviews: A Reference Guide Based on Historical USNWR Data:

The best proxy for how other law professors react and respond to publishing in main, or flagship, law reviews is the US News and World Report (USNWR) rankings. This paper utilizes historical USNWR data to rank the top 100 law reviews. The USNWR rankings are important in shaping many – if not most – law professors’ perceptions about the relative strength of a law school (and derivatively, the home law review). This document contains a chart that is sorted by the 10-year rolling average for each school, but it also contains the 5-year and 15-year rolling averages. This paper also describes my methodology and responds to a series of frequently asked questions. The document was last updated in August 2022.

Here are the Top 75 law schools based on their 5-year rolling average overall U.S. News ranking:

Continue reading

NY Times Op-Ed: Elite Universities Are Out of Touch. Blame The Campus.

New York Times Op-Ed:  Elite Universities Are Out of Touch. Blame the Campus., by Nick Burns:

Looking out the window of a plane flying over Boulder, Colorado, recently, I was reminded how much American universities stick out from their surroundings.

I’d never been to Boulder, or visited the University of Colorado’s flagship campus there, but even from 30,000 feet, I could tell exactly where it started and ended. The red-tile roofs and quadrangles of the campus formed a little self-contained world, totally distinct from the grid of single-family homes that surrounded it.

In urban universities, the dividing line between the campus and the community can be even starker. At the University of Southern California, for example, students must check in with security officers when entering the gates of the university at night. At Yale, castle-like architecture makes the campus feel like a fortified enclave.

The elite American university today is a paradox: Even as concerns about social justice continue to preoccupy students and administrations, these universities often seem to be out of touch with the society they claim to care so much about. Many on the right and in the center believe universities have become ideological echo chambers. Some on the left see them as “sepulchers for radical thought.”

These critiques aren’t new — for generations people have thought of American universities as ivory towers, walled off from reality — but they’ve taken on new urgency as public debate over the state of higher education has intensified in recent years. Ideology and institutional culture get frequent attention, but a key factor is often ignored: geography.

Continue reading

ABA Gaining Public Support In Proposal To Make Law School Admission Tests Optional

Following up on my previous post, So Far, Public Comments Largely Support ABA Proposal To Make Law School Admission Tests Optional:  Law.com, ABA Gaining Public Support in Proposal to Make Law School Admission Tests Optional:

So far, support for doing away with the standardized testing requirement for American Bar Association-accredited law schools is outweighing those who want to see the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) remain as a requirement. ...

Since mid-June—when Law.com reported that eight comments that had been posted—that number has nearly doubled with less than a month left in the 90-day comment-and-notice period.

The proposed changes include making admission tests for law school, such as the LSAT, optional instead of mandatory. ...

Continue reading

Stephen Carter, Deborah Merritt, And The Bar Exam

Deborah J. Merritt (Ohio State; Google Scholar), Stephen Carter on the Bar Exam:

Eminent Yale Professor Stephen Carter has penned has penned a thoughtful critique of the bar exam [RIP to the LSAT? Let’s Kill the Bar Exam, Too]. Professor Carter notes the exam’s similarities to the LSAT, which some law schools have abandoned as an admissions requirement. In addition to their shared affection for multiple choice questions, the LSAT and bar exam both constrain the diversity of our profession. Despite the bar exam’s disproportionate racial impact, Professor Carter notes, the exam has never been properly validated. Here, he cites a column I wrote in 2017 for the AALS Newsletter.

As I wrote then, state bar examiners and NCBE designed the bar exam around a definition of minimum competence that they “felt in their bones.” NCBE did not conduct a practice analysis of the knowledge and skills that new lawyers need until 2012. That analysis supported some of the doctrinal subjects that NCBE was testing, but not the depth of memorization required by the exam. The analysis also confirmed that skills like researching the law, fact gathering, negotiating, and interviewing were essential for law practice–all skills conspicuously absent from the bar exam.

NCBE conducted another practice analysis in 2019, which once again exposed numerous flaws in the exam. My own research conducted with Logan Cornett and IAALS (the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System) [Building A Better Bar Exam: The Twelve Building Blocks Of Minimum Competence], reached a similar conclusion: the written bar exam tests both too much and too little. It restricts admission to the profession (especially of people of color) without adequately protecting the public. ...

Continue reading

DePaul Seeks To Hire An Entry Level Tax Prof

DePaul Faculty Jobs, Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) - Law (23-24):

DePaul University College of Law invites applications from entry-level candidates for a tenure-track position expected to begin July 1, 2023. We have particular interest in the areas of Business Law, Contracts, Tax, Commercial Law, and Antitrust. 

DePaul Law is committed to improving society by educating purpose-driven lawyers who will serve their clients, the legal profession, and the broader community in ways that enhance access to justice and promote equitable policies and processes. We enthusiastically encourage applicants who would enrich the diversity of our community to apply. ...

Continue reading

Listening To Our Students: Fostering Resilience And Engagement To Promote Culture Change In Legal Education

Ann Sinsheimer (Pittsburgh) & Omid Fotuhi (Pittsburgh), Listening to Our Students: Fostering Resilience and Engagement to Promote Culture Change in Legal Education, 26 Legal Writing: The J. Legal Writing Inst. 81 (2022):

In this Article, we describe a dynamic program of research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law that uses mindset to promote resilience and engagement in law students. For the last three years, we have used tailored, well-timed, psychological interventions to help students bring adaptive mindsets to the challenges they face in law school. The act of listening to our students has been the first step in designing interventions to improve their experience, and it has become a kind of intervention in itself. Through this work, we have learned that simply asking our law students about their experiences and listening carefully to their answers helps create an environment that supports academic and professional growth.

Continue reading

Henderson: The End Of The 'End Of History' Era — Extreme Wealth Concentration

Bill Henderson (Indiana), The End of the “End of History” Era:

Apolitical technicians working in an ahistorical profession. What are the odds of a happy ending?

The graphic above summarizes the U.S. top marginal income tax rate from 1913 (the year the 16th Amendment was ratified by the states) to 2021. One clear takeaway is that for the vast bulk of the 20th century, the wealthy paid much higher taxes.

As the graphic suggests, however, that changed with the election of Ronald Reagan, whose inaugural address launched an ideological revolution with a simple and memorable message: “government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Reagan Inaugural Address (Jan 21, 1981). Thus, with the public’s consent, top marginal tax rates were slashed throughout the 1980s. At the 1988 Republican Convention, George H.W. Bush (Reagan’s VP) spoke the words, “read my lips: no new tax,” which helped him defeat Michael Dukakis in the general election. See Lily Rothman, “The Story Behind George H.W. Bush’s Famous ‘Read My Lips, No New Taxes’ Promise,” Time, Dec 1, 2018. Yet, the political mood of the late 1980s was also strongly anti-deficit. In 1990, when Congress enacted pay-as-you-go rules for federal budgeting, Bush, who was saddled with a massive Saving & Loan bailout, agreed to increase the top marginal rate from 28% to 31% — an act that arguably ended his political career. See Howard Gleckman, “Reading President Bush’s Lips,” Tax Policy Center, Dec 5, 2018.

Since the early 1990s, much of the electorate has enjoyed the political stability and relative economic prosperity of the “End of History” era, which is a reference to Francis Fukuyama’s famous 1989 essay and 1992 book. Surveying the geopolitical landscape, including the market-based reforms being implemented in China and the former Soviet Union, Fukuyama concluded that there were no longer any “viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism.” Fukuyama, “The End of History?,” The National Interest (Summer 1989) at 3. Full global realization and consciousness may not occur for a few more decades, as small-scale governments based on nationalism or religion would likely linger. But, Fukuyama argued, the outcome of history was no longer in doubt.

I would argue that over the last three decades, a large portion of the legal profession (myself included) slipped into a comfortable “End of History” cocoon. As we built our careers, sent our kids to highly ranked universities, and monitored the size and status of our retirement accounts, we took political stability as a given. Thus, we became oblivious to growing fissures and cracks that might threaten the rule of law. Can an ahistorical profession be learned? ...

Today’s post is a bridge between Part I, which focused on the original Gilded Age lawyers (Post 312), and next Sunday’s Part II, which will carefully consider three empirically based theories of national decline.

In Part I, I acknowledged that for nearly four decades, virtually all my life decisions were premised on the unstated assumption of ongoing (perhaps unending?) political stability and relative economic prosperity (the unstated assumption). However, after living through the national and global turmoil of the last several years, including past and potential future coup attempts against the U.S. government, my unstated assumption has been revealed to be foolish and decadent wishcasting. ...

Continue reading

Eliminating Tuition For Yale Law Students In Need Will Help Diversify The Legal Profession

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  ABC News, Why Yale Law’s Dean Says Eliminating Tuition for Students in Need Benefits the Legal Profession:

As students prepare to return to school in the fall, one Ivy League law school has a new scholarship aimed at broadening access to legal education by eliminating tuition for students with financial needs.

Yale Law School's Hurst Horizon Scholarships will erase tuition and pay for college fees and health care costs for law students with the greatest financial need. It's a first-of-its-kind scholarship that is creating new conversations about what law schools can do to diversify the legal profession.

Yale Law School dean Heather Gerken, the first woman to serve in the role, tells ABC News the scholarship was needed. "We have so many people from low-income backgrounds, who are not going to law school to pursue change because of the debt that waits on the other end for them," she said.

The scholarship will be given to any Juris Doctor student whose family income is below the federal poverty guidelines and whose assets are below $150,000. The law school tells ABC News that more than 45 students this fall will qualify to be awarded more than $70,000 per year to cover tuition, fees and health insurance. ...

Continue reading

Legal Ed News Roundup

• ABA Journal, Last 2 Winners of ABA Journal Ross Writing Contest Attended this Workshop
• Above the Law, The Annual Legal Profession Hazing Ritual Strikes Again
• Above the Law, The Bar Exam's Motherhood Penalty Is A Barrier To Entry For The Legal Profession
• Above the Law, Be Prepared To Be Terrified: Bar Exam Horror Stories!
• Above the Law, Still In Russian Prison, Brittney Griner Manages To Wish Her Wife Good Luck On The Bar Exam
• Above the Law, Your Bar Exam Results Won’t Define Your Career
• Daily Business Review, The Pipeline: Is South Florida's Legal Community Doing Enough on Diversity for the Next Generation?

Continue reading

The Fall 2022 Law School Admissions Season: Applicants Are Down 12%, The Most Among Whites (-14%) And The Highest LSAT Bands (-14%)

We are now 100% of the way through Fall 2022 law school admissions season. The number of law school applicants reported by LSAC is down 11.6% compared to last year at this time.

43 of the 199 law schools are experiencing an increase in applications. Applications are up 20 % or more at 4 law schools and 10% or more at 12 law schools:

Applicants are up in only one region: Other (+5.3%); and are down the most in Northwest (-19.2%), Northeast (-18.1%), and Midwest (-15.3%):

Applicants' LSAT scores are down -14.2% in the 170-180 band, -13.8% in the 160-169 band, -10.2% in the 150-159 band, and -10.6% in the 120-149 band:

Continue reading

Subscribing To TaxProf Blog

We offer three ways to have TaxProf Blog content automatically delivered to your computer, tablet, or smart phone:

Follow @SoCalTaxProf

RSS Feeds:  You can subscribe to one of three different feeds to receive TaxProf Blog posts via your RSS reader:

• All Posts will send you all blog posts
• Tax Posts will send you only tax-related blog posts
• Legal Education will send you only law school-related blog posts

Email:  You can subscribe to receive TaxProf Blog posts via email through one of four approaches:

• FeedBlitz:  Enter your email address here to receive TaxProf Blog posts via email, delivered to you either daily, every 12 hours, every 8 hours, every 4 hours, or hourly (at your option).
• TaxProf Blog Email Service:  Email me to be added to my daily email with titles and links to all TaxProf Blog posts.
• TaxProf Blog Legal Education Email Service:  Email me to be added to my daily email with titles and links to TaxProf Blog posts on legal education topics.
• TaxProf Blog Faith Email Service:  Email me to be added to my Sunday email with titles and links to TaxProf Blog posts on faith topics.

Last Week's Bar Exam: Send In The Clowns

Bloomberg Op-Ed:  Oh, You've Got Tech Woes? Try Taking the Bar, by Stephen Carter (Yale):

Budding lawyers have run into technical issues with the big test’s software for the third year in a row. Can someone please send in the clowns?

[Last] week, tens of thousands of budding lawyers [sat] for the bar examination. For the second year in a row, the big news is about technology. Last July, Examplify — the software used for remote testing — crashed repeatedly. Just weeks before this year’s exam, test-takers who’d bought new Windows laptops were informed that their devices were incompatible with the test.

They were advised to find another to borrow.

I'm no fan of the bar exam, which I consider both pointless and exclusionary. But if it’s going to exist, those in charge shouldn’t be strewing unnecessary technological obstacles in the path of test-takers. Lately, if unintentionally, that’s exactly what’s happened. ...

Continue reading

Support TaxProf Blog By Shopping On Amazon

TaxProf Blog participates in the amazon.com affiliate program. You can help support TaxProf Blog at no cost to you by making purchases through Amazon links on the blog and through the search box in the right column of the blog:

TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• Katherine Magbanua Sentenced To Life In Prison, Plus Two 30-Year Sentences, In Dan Markel's Murder; Charlie Adelson Trial In Early 2023
• ABA Tax Section|Tax Analysts Public Service Tax Fellowship Application Deadline Extended
• Listen!: Amplifying The Experiences Of Black Law School Graduates In 2020

Sunday:

• Battle Over 'Wokeness' At Christian Colleges Isn't Just About Politics, It's About Dollars
• WSJ Op-Ed: Religion Is Dying? Don’t Believe It
• LA Times: Jews, Muslims And Others Say Roe vs. Wade Reversal Threatens Their Religious Freedom
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

Battle Over 'Wokeness' At Christian Colleges Isn't Just About Politics, It's About Dollars

Detroit Free Press, Battle Over 'Wokeness' at Christian Colleges Isn't Just About Politics, It's About Dollars:

The latest battle in Christian higher education isn't centered on theological issues, but rather on politics.

For decades, Hillsdale College and Grove City College mirrored each other.

Fiercely independent, neither takes any federal dollars, including government-backed student loans, in order to be exempt from most federal rules.

Located in bucolic settings — Hillsdale in agricultural southern mid-Michigan and Grove City in the hills of western Pennsylvania — one feels smarter simply by stepping on the carefully groomed campuses with spectacular academic buildings, chapels and residence halls. Both have reputations as bastions of conservatism.

But the last two years have started to push the two apart, at least in the minds of their core markets.

Hillsdale, to the delight of conservatives and the consternation of liberals, has continued to burnish its conservative credentials. It has worked closely on education matters with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee.

"The college's belief in genuine classical education and its deep admiration for the principles of the American Founding, as espoused in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, has made it a target for those who oppose such challenges to the status quo of what is now taught in most American institutions of higher education," Hillsdale spokeswoman Emily Davis told the Free Press, adding that Hillsdale wants all students, not just those in Michigan, to have a quality education. "Hillsdale College has been dedicated to pursuing truth and defending liberty since 1844 and has no plans of retreating from that noble effort."

And while Hillsdale alumni, students and faculty have been supportive of the college, alumni, students and faculty at Grove City have been engaged in all-out-war  over whether it is woke.

The two schools represent the newest battle in Christian higher education, one that isn't centered on theological issues such as creationism or who is God, but rather on whether Donald Trump won the last election or whether Black people are still targeted by systematic racism in America. It's about politics brought to campus, witnessed by students who arrive as self-styled culture warriors, armed with smartphones and social media.

Continue reading

WSJ Op-Ed: Religion Is Dying? Don’t Believe It

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed:  Religion Is Dying? Don’t Believe It, by Byron R. Johnson (Baylor; Pepperdine; Google Scholar) & Jeff Levin (Baylor):

Reports of religion’s decline in America have been exaggerated. You’ve heard the story: Churchgoers are dwindling in number while “Nones”—those who tell pollsters they have no religious affiliation—are multiplying as people abandon their faith and join the ranks of atheists and agnostics. Headlines declare that the U.S. is secularizing along the lines of Europe. From Britain’s Daily Mail in 2013: “Religion could disappear by 2041 because people will have replaced God with possessions, claims leading psychologist.”

These conclusions are based on analyses that are so flawed as to be close to worthless. In a new study with our colleagues Matt Bradshaw and Rodney Stark, we seek to set the record straight [Are Religious “Nones” Really Not Religious?: Revisiting Glenn, Three Decades Later, Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Vol. 18, Art. 7 (2022)].

Data from five recent U.S. population surveys point to the vibrancy, ubiquity and growth of religion in the U.S. Americans are becoming more religious, and religious institutions are thriving. Consistent with some previous studies but contrary to widely held assumptions, many people who report no religious affiliation—and even many self-identified atheists and agnostics—exhibit substantial levels of religious practice and belief. ...

Continue reading

LA Times: Jews, Muslims And Others Say Roe vs. Wade Reversal Threatens Their Religious Freedom

Following up on my previous post, Does Religious Freedom Protect A Right To An Abortion?:  Los Angeles Times, Jews, Muslims and Others Say Roe vs. Wade Reversal Threatens Their Religious Freedom:

For 25 years Rabbi Barry Silver has served as the spiritual leader of L’Dor Va-Dor, a progressive synagogue in Boynton Beach, Fla. Like most congregational rabbis, he offers a Jewish perspective on major life events, giving weekly sermons, performing weddings, funerals and baby namings, and occasionally counseling congregants wrestling with whether to have an abortion.

Silver tells his congregation that contrary to Roman Catholic and evangelical teachings, which state that life begins at conception, traditional Jewish law, known as Halakha, says life begins at birth: when the baby draws its first breath. Before then, the mother’s physical and emotional well-being is paramount.

In some extreme cases — such as when the mother’s life is at stake — an abortion is not just permitted by Jewish law, but required.

“Right in the beginning of the Torah, Genesis states that God formed the human, Adam, from the dust of the Earth, like you create a work of pottery. Then he breathed the breath of life in him and he lived,” Silver said. “We equate breathing with living.”

For decades, antiabortion Catholic and evangelical Christian perspectives have dominated the religious conversation around abortion. But people of faith hold a variety of views on the issue, rooted in their own traditions, teachings and laws.

Muslim teachings hold that the soul is breathed into a fetus 120 days after conception, and other religious groups — Unitarians, the Oklevueha Native American Church, and the Satanic Temple (a global organization that is headquartered in Salem, Mass., and that, despite its name, doesn’t actually worship the Prince of Darkness) — considerreproductive choice and bodily autonomy to be sacred.  ...

Silver, a progressive activist who also works as a civil rights attorney, made headlines this month after he filed a religious liberty lawsuit challenging a Florida law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. He said the ban makes abortion unlawful even in situations in which it’s mandated by Jewish law. Silver is the first religious leader to file such a suit; legal experts say that after the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overturning Roe vs. Wade, he won’t be the last. ...

Jews in particular are waking up to what abortion restrictions at the state level could mean for their religious freedom. ...

Michael Helfand, a professor at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law, says Jews are well positioned to argue that abortion restrictions violate an individual’s religious liberties, especially in states where so-called religious freedom restoration laws provide heightened protections for religious exercise. ...

Continue reading

This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

1. New York Times Op-Ed, U.S. Inequality Is Much Less When You Measure Spending Power (Including Government Transfer Payments) As Well As Income And Wealth
2. Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), Lesson From The Tax Court: No §6015 Equitable Relief For §6672 Penalties
3. Reuters, Amy Wax Raises Over $125,000 To Defend Against ‘Major Sanction’ By Penn; Academic Freedom Alliance Calls For 'Complete Exoneration'
4. ABA Journal, ExamSoft: New Windows Laptops Won't Work On This Week's Bar Exams
5. Bloomberg, IRS: No Political Influence In Comey|McCabe Audits
6. ABA, Survey: Law Students Prefer Online Classes Over In-Person Classes
7. UC-Hastings, Committee Unveils Proposal For New Name: 'College Of The Law, San Francisco'
8. Wall Street Journal, The Fine Print Cost A Widow A $464,000 Charitable Tax Deduction
9. NALP, Law School Class Of 2021 Placement Outcomes: 'One Of The Strongest On Record'
10. Bloomberg, Do You Need A Tax LL.M. To Land A Great Job Right Now?

Katherine Magbanua Sentenced To Life In Prison, Plus Two 30-Year Sentences, In Dan Markel's Murder; Charlie Adelson Trial In Early 2023

Tallahassee Democrat, Magbanua Sentenced to Life, Plus Two 30-Year Sentences in Dan Markel Murder; Adelson Trial Possible For Early 2023:

Circuit Judge Robert Wheeler sentenced Katherine Magbanua to life in prison plus two additional 30-year sentences to run consecutively for her role in the murder of Florida State law professor Dan Markel. ...

Last week marked eight years since Markel was gunned down in his Betton Hills garage. 

Tara Kawass, Magabanua's attorney:  "One thing that I can say that Ms. Magbanua hopes and prays for is that justice is ongoing and has not been reached in this case and she wants each and every person who had a hand in this and knows something about this to be brought to justice." ...

Continue reading

ABA Tax Section|Tax Analysts Public Service Tax Fellowship Application Deadline Extended

ABA Tax Section has extended the application deadline to August 15 for the Tax Analysts Public Service Fellowship:

The ABA Tax Section and Tax Analysts (the publisher of Tax Notes) have partnered to launch a new public interest fellowship to start this September. Tax Analysts Public Service Fellows will be funded by Tax Analysts to work for two years practicing public interest tax law. The fellowship is geared toward either those with an LLM in tax or experienced attorneys including those seeking to move into the public interest sector. The inaugural fellow will work at La Posada Tax Clinic in Twin Falls, Idaho. You can learn more about Bob Wunderle, who runs La Posada, and his important work providing a range of tax services to vulnerable populations including farm workers throughout the state of Idaho in this podcast from Tax Notes. Applications are due August 15 – the application and more information are available here.

Continue reading

Listen!: Amplifying The Experiences Of Black Law School Graduates In 2020

Sarah J. Schendel (Suffolk; Google Scholar), Listen!: Amplifying the Experiences of Black Law School Graduates in 2020, 100 Neb. L. Rev. 73 (2021):

Law students graduating in 2020 faced a number of unusual challenges. However, perhaps no students faced more emotional, psychological, logistical, and financial challenges than Black law school graduates in 2020. In addition to changes in the administration of the bar exam (including the use of technology that struggled to recognize Black faces) and delays in the administration of the exam that led to anxiety and increased financial instability, Black communities were concurrently being disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic led to increased care-taking responsibilities for many, concerns over the health of family members, and a lack of quiet and reliable space to study. Black law school graduates already struggling to juggle these challenges were also confronted with a rise in anti-Black police brutality, and the racist words and actions of politicians. As a result of this unprecedented series of stressors, many Black law gradates struggled to focus on studying for the bar, with some choosing to delay or abandon sitting for the bar altogether. Many expressed anger, disappointment, and betrayal at the profession they have worked so hard to enter. This Article summarizes the survey responses of over 120 Black law students who graduated in 2020 and were asked how the COVID pandemic and increased anti-Black violence impacted their health, education, and career aspirations. It seems likely that the impact of 2020 on the presence and wellbeing of Black lawyers in the legal profession will be felt for years to come. As professors, deans, lawyers, and policymakers reexamine the function of the bar exam and confront inequalities in legal education, we need to listen to these graduates’ experiences.

Continue reading

Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• ABA Journal, ExamSoft: New Windows Laptops Won't Work On This Week's Bar Exams
• ABA Press Release, Distance Education Survey: 3L Student Quantitative Responses
• Bloomberg, Do You Need A Tax LL.M. To Land A Great Job Right Now?
• Bridget Crawford (Pace), Information for Submitting to Online Law Review Companions
• Bridget Crawford (Pace), Menstruation and the Bar Exam: Unconstitutional Tampon Bans
• ComplianceNet, Jeremy Bearer-Friend Wins Article Award For 'Colorblind Tax Enforcement'
• Dana Neacsu (Columbia) & James Donovan (Kentucky), Academic Law Libraries and Scholarship: Communication, Publishing, and Ranking

Continue reading

Law School Class Of 2021 Placement Outcomes: 'One Of The Strongest On Record'

NALP, Job Market for Class of 2021 Law Graduates Was One of the Strongest on Record:

The National Association for Law Placement, Inc. (NALP) today released its Employment for the Class of 2021 — Selected Findings, a synopsis of key findings from the upcoming annual Jobs & JDs: Employment and Salaries of New Law School Graduates. The release of the full Jobs & JDs report is anticipated in October 2022. This year’s Selected Findings show that the employment outcomes for the Class of 2021 were some of the strongest that NALP has ever recorded, as the U.S. economy recovered from the COVID-19 related disruptions that impacted the Class of 2020

Highlights:

• The overall employment rate for the Class of 2021 improved by 3.5 percentage points, to 91.9% of graduates for whom employment status was known, compared to 88.4% for the Class of 2020. This is the highest employment rate since the Class of 2007, when it was also 91.9%, and is a high-water mark for a period dating back more than 30 years to the Class of 1988.
• The percentage of graduates taking jobs for which bar passage is required or anticipated grew by 3.6 percentage points, increasing from 74.6% for the Class of 2020 to 78.2% for the Class of 2021 — reaching a new all-time high for the period since 2001 when NALP began using the current job classifications.
• Overall, 57.0% of employed graduates obtained a job in private practice, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the previous year, and the highest this percentage has been since the Class of 2003.
• The national median salary for the Class of 2021 grew to a record figure of $80,000, up 6.7% compared to the median of $75,000 for the Class of 2020. • The national median law firm salary for the Class of 2021 was $131,500, finally surpassing the previous all-time high median salary of $130,000 that was recorded for the Class of 2009 and that was matched by the Class of 2020 last year.
• Of employed graduates from the Class of 2021, just 8.6% were seeking a different job, an historic low. Except for 2020, this percentage has been declining since reaching an all-time high of 24.6% for the Class of 2011.
• The share of law firm jobs in the largest firms of more than 500 lawyers rose by 1.3 percentage points to 31.8%. The Class of 2021 was the first in which the percentage of jobs taken in the largest firms exceeded the percentage of jobs taken in the smallest firms of 1-10 lawyers (30.7% of all law firm jobs).

Continue reading

Katherine Magbanua To Be Sentenced Today For Dan Markel's Murder; Charlie Adelson To Appear In Court For His First Case Management Hearing

Tallahassee Democrat, Dan Markel Case: Katherine Magbanua to Face Sentencing as Charlie Adelson Makes Court Appearance:

Charlie Adelson and Katherine Magbanua haven’t seen each other in person for the past six years.

They may have their closest encounter since when they both appear in Leon County Circuit Court Friday – Magbanua to face sentencing for being convicted of the murder of Florida State Law Professor Dan Markel and Adelson for his first case management hearing since being charged in the murder-for-hire plot.

• ABC7, Magbanua to Be sentenced Friday in Murder-For-Hire Plot

Continue reading

Ancillary Skills And Law School Success

Michael D. O. Rusco (Southern), Ancillary Skills and Law School Success, 35 The Second Draft 1 (2022):

This article assumes that some of what influences a student’s ultimate law school performance are “ancillary skills.” Ancillary skills are skills that affect performance or address stressors that law students commonly face but are not primarily academic or intellectual in nature. In fact, most of them are physiological, psychological, and organizational. Despite the impact these skills can have on performance, most law students are never advised on the effect they can have or instructed how to use them.

Continue reading

Mississippi Seeks To Hire An Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Prof

University of Mississippi Law Seeks Tenure-Track Faculty:

The University of Mississippi School of Law invites applications from entry-level and lateral candidates for multiple tenure-track faculty positions beginning August 2023. We welcome applications from outstanding candidates in all curricular areas, but have particularly strong teaching needs in tax, bankruptcy, intellectual property, business law, and health care law, in addition to classes in the first-year curriculum. All applicants must have a JD or PhD or equivalent degree by the date of their appointment, and should show either great promise or a record of excellence in both scholarship and teaching.

Continue reading

Turley: After Cancel Culture Came For Justice Thomas At George Washington, He Stepped Aside; Harvard Welcomes Justice Breyer With No Protests

Following up on my previous posts:

• GW Hatchet, George Washington Refuses To Fire Justice Thomas, Who Has Co-Taught A Course For A Decade
• David Lat, Free Speech And Cancel Culture: A Tale Of Two Law Schools
• Washington Post, Students, Alumni Push Back Against George Washington's Refusal To Cancel Justice Thomas's Con Law Seminar

Jonathan Turley (George Washington), Cancel Culture Came for Clarence Thomas at George Washington Law. Now, He's Stepped Aside.:

After 11 years, students at George Washington University Law School will register for courses this fall with one notable difference: They will no longer be able to take a seminar with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

The removal of Justice Thomas from the list of lecturers followed a cancel campaign that demanded the university ban him from classrooms. At 74, and looking at an upcoming term of major decisions, Thomas hardly needs the aggravation of such protests. However, his departure (even if temporary) is a great loss to students, the law school and free speech. ...

While the university refused to terminate Thomas, the campaign continued and protests were expected in the fall. Now many are celebrating the departure as a triumph, but it is only the latest example of how dissenting viewpoints are being systematically eliminated in higher education.

Indeed, the contrast could not be greater as recently retired Justice Stephen Breyer has been welcomed on the Harvard Law faculty. No protests. No cancel campaign over his liberal decisions.

A new survey report, conducted by The Harvard Crimson, revealed that 82.46% of faculty surveyed identify as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 16.08% identified as “moderate” and a mere 1.46% identified as “conservative.” Not a single faculty member identified as “very conservative,” but the number of faculty identified as "very liberal" increased by nearly 8% in just one year. ...

Continue reading

UC-Hastings Committee Unveils Proposal For New Name: 'College Of The Law, San Francisco'

Update:  Chancellor & Dean David Faigman: Board of Directors Votes on New Name for the College

Today, the UC Hastings Board of Directors voted unanimously on a resolution to remove “Hastings” from our name in the California Education Code and replace it with San Francisco.  This recommendation now heads to the California State Legislature to revise Assembly Bill 1936, which will amend provisions of the California Education Code to conform to the new name. If the recommendation is approved by both houses of the legislature, it will be sent to Governor Newsom for his signature and will become effective in January 2023. If all that happens, beginning in 2023, our great school will be known as University of California College of the Law, San Francisco or, for short, UC College of the Law, San Francisco, or shorter still, UC Law SF.

Following up on my previous post, UC-Hastings Law School To Change Its Name In July Due To Founder's Role In Native American Genocide:  The Recorder, UC Hastings Committee Unveils Proposal for Renaming Law School:

UC Hastings College of the Law, the historic California school grappling with the legacy of its namesake, should be renamed College of the Law, San Francisco, a school committee charged with considering new monikers has recommended.

The school’s board of directors will weigh the recommendation at a meeting Wednesday in San Francisco. If approved, the new name will be forwarded to the Legislature for possible inclusion in legislation to strip the name of Serranus Hastings, California’s first chief justice who historians have linked to the killing of hundreds of Yuki Indians in Mendocino County’s Eden and Round valleys in the 1850s.

Continue reading

Academic Law Libraries And Scholarship: Communication, Publishing, And Ranking

Dana Neacsu (Columbia; Google Scholar) & James M. Donovan (Kentucky; Google Scholar), Academic Law Libraries and Scholarship: Communication, Publishing, and Ranking, 49 J.L. & Educ. 433 (2020):

We argue that the increasing role of scholarly impact in determining a school’s status will provide a new opportunity for libraries to assume a critical institutional role behind its traditional support of scholarship and teaching. In practice, this increased role can evolve in a multitude of ways. Based on the data used here, a strong argument can be made in favor of each library taking charge of both their faculty scholarly impact and publication of its school’s journals. Based on the success story of Perma.cc, a good argument can be made in favor of creating a consortium supporting both these endeavors. Either way, our thesis is that libraries cannot confine themselves to the roles they played in the predigital era. Law faculties create scholarship, and law students decide how much of that scholarship is published in student-edited journals.

Continue reading

Krauss: Pincites

Sam Fox Krauss (J.D. 2022, NYU; Google Scholar), Note, Pincites, 97 N.Y.U. L. Rev. __ (2022):

Within the literature on legal scholarship, academics have studied citation practices. For example, scholars have examined which authors, journals, and articles are most-cited. But no one has examined which parts of articles scholars cite. Understanding which parts of articles scholars cite is not only intrinsically interesting, but also could inform how authors structure articles. This Note presents the results of a unique, hand-coded dataset of thousands of pinpoint citations. In brief: authors are more likely to cite the beginning of articles but split their remaining citations roughly evenly among the remainder. This pattern holds across flagship journals of variously-ranked law schools and articles of varying lengths, but is less-pronounced for self-citation. While a cynical explanation of the data is possible, a better explanation serves as a modest rebuttal to certain criticisms of legal scholarship.

Continue reading

Fall 2022 Online Law Review Article Submission Guide

Following up on last week's post, Fall 2022 Law Review Article Submission Guide:  Bridget J. Crawford (Pace; Google Scholar), Information for Submitting to Online Law Review Companions:

This document contains information about submitting essays, commentaries, reviews, responses, and other writings to online companions to the main law reviews and journals at selected law schools. The document includes word-count limitations, subject matter specifications, preferred submission methods, whether articles from the online journal are included in HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library and other information of possible interest to authors. It covers 20 online companions to main law reviews.

Bridget J. Crawford, Submission Guide for Law Review Online Companions:

Continue reading

Jeremy Bearer-Friend Wins Article Award For 'Colorblind Tax Enforcement'

Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington; Google Scholar) received the Senior Paper Award for his article, Colorblind Tax Enforcement, 97 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1 (2022), at the ComplianceNet Conference (program) held at the University of Amsterdam Law School earlier this month:

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has repeatedly taken the position that because the IRS does not ask taxpayers to identify their race or ethnicity on submitted tax returns, IRS enforcement actions are not affected by taxpayers’ race or ethnicity. This claim, which I call “colorblind tax enforcement,” has been made by multiple IRS Commissioners serving in multiple administrations (both Democratic and Republican). This claim has been made to members of Congress and to members of the press.

In this Article, I refute the IRS position that racial bias cannot occur under current IRS practices.

Continue reading