Cornell Law professor Michael C. Dorf discusses the challenge faced by colleges and universities in accepting donations from wealthy alumni and other benefactors while maintaining academic freedom and independence from ideological influence. Professor Dorf argues that while donors have the right to direct their funds to specific purposes, they should refrain from using their financial leverage to unduly influence hiring decisions or curriculum, as doing so undermines the scholarly and pedagogical judgment that is essential to the success and value of these institutions.

UC Davis Law professor Vikram David Amar offers advice to law students on how to perform well on law school exams. Professor Amar’s main points include the importance of outlining before writing, addressing all major course topics, answering the specific questions asked, allocating time and space wisely, showing one's work, anticipating counterarguments, writing clearly, differentiating between settled and debatable issues, being concise, and proofreading responses.

Notwithstanding some recent competition, the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) remains the most widely used and accepted standardized test considered by American law schools to admit new students to law school. That is why it is significant news that the President/CEO of the Law School Admission Council (LSAC), the organization responsible for designing, administering, and grading the LSAT, recently announced changes to the LSAT’s format, beginning in August 2024.

Rutgers Law adjunct lecturer David S. Kemp argues that despite ChatGPT’s limitations in producing accurate legal research, these shortcomings can be leveraged as teaching tools in law schools. By encouraging students to use AI-generated text as a starting point and then to verify its content using reliable sources, educators can enhance students’ research skills, critical thinking, and ethical responsibility.

Professor Neil H. Buchanan—an economist and legal scholar who is a visiting professor at both Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto Law, and who has accepted a research sabbatical and retirement offer from the University of Florida—discusses the erosion of academic freedom and tenure in universities, specifically focusing on recent legislative changes in Florida that undermine intellectual freedom. Professor Buchanan argues that the political climate has made it nearly impossible to challenge these changes effectively, leading him to conclude that sometimes a strategic retreat is necessary when facing an unyielding and empowered opposition.

Responding to an article earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal criticizing spending by state universities, UC Davis law professor Vikram David Amar argues that while public universities have indeed increased spending and tuition, the situation is more nuanced than simply blaming administrative bloat or wasteful spending. Professor Amar contends that higher education today offers a qualitatively different product than it did two decades ago, with enhanced services in career planning, mental health, and academic support, among other things, and that these changes, along with external factors like professorial salaries and underfunded pensions, contribute to the rise in costs.

Cornell Law professor Michael C. Dorf considers the implications of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools in law schools. Professor Dorf observes that for now, smart, well-motivated students will outperform AI in most tasks required of law students, but legal educators will soon have to grapple with the reality that banning AI-based tools will make less and less sense as they become more mainstream various ways in legal practice.

In this second in a series of columns about law school rankings, Illinois Law dean Vikram David Amar explains how rankings for law (and medical) schools can benefit from innovations in college sports rankings. Specifically, Dean Amar suggests greater reliance on numerical, analytic metrics to help with assessments, less frequent updating of the rankings, and enabling consumers to adjust the weight of various ranking factors according to what they value in a school.

In this first of a series of columns on the controversy over the rankings of academic institutions, Illinois Law dean Vikram David Amar explains the source of the controversy and describes some of the inconsistencies among the critics—among whom he counts himself. Dean Amar points out that academic rankings might look to sports rankings to see how the latter solves some of the issues inherent in prominent national rankings.

Illinois Law dean Vikram David Amar and professor Jason Mazzone consider some possible explanations for the ever-decreasing number of applicants for tenured/tenure-track faculty among law schools. Dean Amar and Professor Mazzone propose five possible reasons but point out that whatever the true reason(s), the apparent decline in the demand among talented new legal minds for law-teaching jobs should be a topic of discussion and concern.

In light of the advent of a new academic year, Illinois Law dean Vikram David Amar offers twelve pieces of advice for incoming law students.

Illinois Law dean Vikram David Amar describes some of the advantages of the in-person setting for law schools (as compared to remote instruction) as an explanation for why he is looking forward to the start of the fall semester being in person. Dean Amar expresses home that, thanks to the vaccines that the overwhelming majority of faculty and students have chosen to receive, law schools around the country will have a very positive, if not quite normal, intellectual and cultural experience.

Illinois Law dean Vikram David Amar comments on the apparent increase in the number of law school applications this year and offers some thoughts as to the reasons behind the trend. Dean Amar suggests that increased job opportunities and heightened social awareness might be behind the higher numbers of applications.

Illinois law dean Vikram David Amar and professor Jason Mazzone describe the increasing importance of courts and lawyers in safeguarding and reinforcing the role of factual truths in our democracy. Dean Amar and Professor Mazzone point out that lawyers and judges are steeped in factual investigation and factual determination, and they call upon legal educators (like themselves) to continue instilling in students the commitment to analytical reasoning based in factual evidence, and to absolutely reject the notion that factual truth is just in the mind of the beholder.

Illinois law dean and professor Vikram David Amar comments on some of the questions commentators and analysts are, or will soon be, asking—specifically why we have bar exams for legal licensure, and, assuming we retain them, what they should look like going forward. Amar observes the limitations of the so-called diploma privilege advocated by some and suggests that states adopt greater interstate uniformity in their bar exams, shift toward more performance (as opposed to memorization) exams, and move away from being so time pressured.

Cornell law professor Sherry F. Colb comments on a minority practice by a number of male faculty at law schools and other institutions of announcing an “open door” policy in their offices, purportedly to protect against false accusations of sexual assault or sexual harassment. For purposes of discussion, Colb steps into the role of a hypothetical male faculty member who has such a policy, and then stepping back out of role, she discusses the pros and cons of such policies.

Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf offers some advice to new law students, highlighting the importance of being able to distinguish among different types of legal questions—easy questions, complicated questions, and indeterminate questions. Dorf explains what he means by each type of question and concludes with a caveat and a warning.

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar reflects on the ABA’s process for reaccreditation of American law schools and describes some of the positive and negative aspects of that process. Amar explains that during the reaccreditation site visits, schools have the opportunity to learn from others similarly situated and to showcase their own progress, but there are still some challenges such as consistent application of ABA standards and the attempt to treat of all schools, however different they might be, the same for accreditation purposes.

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar offers five resolutions he, as a law school dean, hopes to achieve in 2018. These resolutions include taking time to read recent scholarship by his faculty, increasing attendance at campus events, improving communication between faculty and alumni, managing (and reducing, when feasible) bureaucratic burdens, and spending more time with students.

Illinois Law dean and professor Vikram David Amar offers some timely tips for law students during the law school exam season. Noting that there often seems to be a divide between what students know on a given topic and what their exam answers convey to a grader, Amar provides common sense test-taking suggestions to help bridge that gap, as well as insight into what law professors often look for in a successful exam answer.