Laura Rosenbury became the Dean of UF law after a failed search in which the central administration was pushing of all people, Anthony Acosta. Why she was selected in the second search no one knew. Her faculty interviews were fine but not unusual. Now as everyone knows, she will be the President of Barnard. Quite a step up I would say and a little mysterious since she has had no experience with undergrads, has only a law degree, and writes for non referred journals.  Still, when she was hired the Law School was pretty much a wreck and, therefore, the Provost must have seen ..read more

 This quote caught my eye in the Gainesville Sun today. It is about, Ben Sasse,  the likely new president of UF, and faculty opposition: “I think many of my colleagues feel that his academic credentials are not where we would have wanted them to be.” I've deleted the name of the person quoted because that quote is representative of  law professors speak. They say things that mean nothing or, put differently, allow for total deniability while at the same time stirring the pot ever so gently. Ultimately they say nothing that could get them in trouble but, at the same time ..read more

 I cannot help but think of Joseph  Welch and his historic face off with Joseph McCarthy when he finally said, in effect, ENOUGH, "Have you not sense of decency." The answer was obvious, Joseph McCarthy had no such thing. Nor does the despicable, demagogue  Ron DeSantis who will do anything to appeal to the worst values in people. Rather then lead people to embrace the moral high ground,  he encourages people to wallow in the mud of racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. Rather than ask people to be better he asks them to be worse, much worse. And among his staunche ..read more

  The latest Bar exam results show that about 1 of 5 UF law grads fail the bar exam. Maybe that is not so bad but something is amiss. First, remember that these students are hand picked because of their high LSAT scores and GPAs in order to raise the school's ranking. And it has worked. When last reported the School was ranking 21st. But there is more. The school in order to raise its ranking by also increasing bar passage has an army of people working to make sure students prepare for the bar by pre testing and attending help sessions. But there is more. Students who are in jeopardy o ..read more

 Just heard on the radio that Scott Strickland, UF athletic director (salary in excess of $1 million a year), announced no LSU like restrictions for admission to the Swamp.  In fact, no mask requirements as far as I can tell.  It's just going to be a total Covid-fest. I guess if you are in the hospital and on a ventilator you are invited too if you can find the right outlets to hook up to.  This follows along with Ken (No Spine) Fuchs' (million dollar salary too) refusal to buck Fuhrer Deathsantis and require masks while on UF campus much less so vaccinations like many othe ..read more

Excerpt for Ken Oldfield's,   "Structural Nepotism: On the Reluctance of Law Schools to Include Social Class Origins among their Faculty Diversity Goals" VII. Confess’n the Blues  Jeffrey Harrison was someone who saw beyond the cultural and social boundaries of his time. In 1992, nineteen years before Mertz et al. conducted their research, he published “Confess’n the Blues: Some Thoughts on Class Bias in Law School Hiring.”88 Harrison was a professor of law at the University of Florida College of Law when his paper appeared in a symposium issue of 86. Id. 87. Id. at 237, 238 ..read more

  I have not thought much about legal scholarship lately but a few months ago my elitist and ratings-obsessed former dean send out a memo to the faculty promoting the idea of writing things that will be cited. The reason -- think about it. It is in the air that USNews rankings may soon use citations as one of the measures in determining rankings. This brought to mind an empirical work my coauthor, Amy Mashburn, and I did a couple of years ago. Citations were correlated at statistically significant levels with the ranking of the school from which you graduated, the ranking of the scho ..read more

  Cutting in Line You might think that law professors are sticklers for following the rules. In fact, the opposite is true. They do not regard rules, and especially University Regulations as applying to them. I have seen this applied to tenure standards and the composition of committees. I’d have to say in fairness to  law professors, it is clear that Universities ignore their own rules and even state law when it suits them. There are many example, but one that stands out is hiring spouses. Under state and federal law as well as university regulation when a position is open it mu ..read more

               Confercationing is  when law professors claim to be going to a conference on the law school’s dime but are really on a one to 5 day vacation. The biggest on of these for law professors takes place in early January when the Association of American Legal Schools  meet. Not as big but easily a bigger boondoggle is the Southeastern Association of Law Teachers Conference which conveniently takes place in the summer in a family friendly location. Palm Beach is a favorite destination as is Orlando. Since Universities pay for tr ..read more

  The Senator [This is an an excerpt from the diary of one of my more elitist colleagues. (Reprinted with Permission) The particulars of the story were generally well know  by every one including me but I will let him tell it in his own words. [I have changed the name of the Senator involved because I cannot guarantee all the facts.] At Nine couple of weeks ago, I received the following from Dean Bob: Memorandum To: Professor Harris From: Dean Bob Date: February 7, 2007 Re: Visit of Senator Faceworth As you are aware [I was not aware] the Law School has invited Senator Jerry Facewo ..read more