Category Archives: Law School

Thanks to Paul Horowitz's PrawfsBlawg: “O young academic politician, know thyself!”, I now have a link to an online copy of the Microcosmographia Academica.

I was introduced to this wonder by a young man in a hurry when I was student in Cambridge. He's done very well for himself, I might add.

First published in 1908, one hundred years later the Microcosmographia Academica reamains one of the truest and saddest things ever written about academic politics.

There's now an official UM School of Law Dean Search page. Complete with a Position Description.

Here are some of the things the Dean will do:

• Strengthen institutional excellence and selectivity
• Enhance the recognition of the school’s quality and strengths
• Attract and retain promising scholars of the first rank.
• Continue to build and develop areas of strength in teaching and scholarship
• Strengthen excellence in both scholarship and classroom teaching
• Creatively support, enhance and promote faculty productivity
• Focus on ways to enhance the student experience at the Law School
• Fundraise, with a particular focus on relieving the financial burden on students and enhancing scholarship, teaching, and innovative programs
• Work with faculty and University leadership to finalize and implement the Law School’s Strategic Plan
• Maintain the excellence of the academic program in conjunction with the faculty, and provide leadership on innovative curriculum development, academic standards and program initiatives
• Offer students the diversity and richness of a large law school while providing a flexible, student-centered education with a commitment to excellence
• Encourage and support faculty scholarship, teaching excellence, and service
• Cultivate collegial and constructive relations with and among faculty
• Enhance diversity of the faculty, staff and student ranks
• Ensure that library and information resources continue to support the academic program and faculty scholarship, and explore new avenues for the fruitful deployment of technology in law studies

And that's not even the whole list.

And here are some additional “Desirable Characteristics”:

The Dean should be an accomplished scholar who is highly regarded by the legal academy. She or he should have enthusiasm for the Law School’s future and appreciation for its history; institutional and intellectual ambition, energy and judgment; leadership skills, including political sensitivity, an effective personal style, and the ability to foster collegiality and engagement.

The Dean helps set the overall tone for the school. The Dean will have:

• The ability to attract, retain and develop outstanding faculty, administrators and staff
• The ability to promote successful change in response to emerging challenges
• An appreciation for the assets of the Law School and the ability to build its future by their effective utilization
• The capacity to manage and develop a complex academic enterprise
• A global vision with the ability to be an advocate for continued growth and excellence in the academic program
• The ability to promote scholarly enthusiasm and productivity
• A commitment to a collegial model of governance and the ability to cultivate respect for and demands of faculty and staff roles
• The ability to nurture a strong sense of community among faculty, staff, students and alumni
• An appreciation for and commitment to encourage student service in the community and legal careers geared to public service
• A commitment to diversity that will reinforce the Law School’s historic position as a school of opportunity
• A commitment to fund-raising with the interpersonal and communication skills necessary to interact persuasively with the philanthropic community, to solicit and steward both governmental and private support from alumni, members of the Board of Trustees, friends, foundations, law firms and corporations
• Excellent communication skills
• A high level of energy which motivates others, inspires enthusiasm and reflects the forward momentum of the Law School

Walking on water is also optional.

Each year, the Trial Lawyers Section of the Florida Bar sponsors the Chester Bedell Memorial Trial Competition. Each law school in the state is invited to send two teams. This year eight schools responded and sent sixteen teams.

The 2007-08 competition, a mock products liability case, was held on Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday, yesterday, each team tried the case twice, representing the plaintiffs at one trial and the defendant at the other. For each trial, three trial lawyers served as jurors and a judge or another trial lawyer served as the presiding judge. The teams with 2-0 records and the highest scores advanced to the semifinals on Friday morning. (Miami's other team ended day 1 with a 1-1 record, losing to one of the semifinalists.) The winners (Stetson and Miami) advanced to the finals on Thursday afternoon. The finals were tried before a panel of five lawyer-jurors and a circuit judge.

And the UM team won. Robert Palmer, chair of the Trial Lawyers Section announced the winning team. Frank Angones, President of the Florida Bar, presented the best advocate award to Jonathan Weiss, and the team trophy to Joycelyn S. Brown, Christopher M.
Lomax, and Jonathan R. Weiss. Sarah B. King was the witness.

Congrats to all, and to team coaches Terry Anderson and James Gailey.

Today is the first day of class for both my Internet Law class and my Jurisprudence class.

Today is also the day that my office desktop displayed a blue screen of death when I booted it up this morning.

And it's the day that the nice people from IT carted it away….

Today I'll turn in the grades for Administrative Law.

Our Dean search starts in earnest in January. Meanwhile, if you know (or are!) someone who'd be a great Dean for our law school, email me and I'll forward the info to the committee (which, thank goodness, I'm not a part of!).

Irreverent, no doubt irrelevant, video.