Breaking News

Officials at the University of Baltimore began digging for the $107 million, 190,000-square-foot law project at North Charles Street and Mount Royal Avenue in Baltimore, Md. The site will provide space for the University of Baltimore School of Law, the sixth largest public law school in the country.

Over the past two years, the University secured $15 million in private funding to support design, development and construction and to be used in conjunction with funding from the state of Maryland. 

The Hispanic National Bar Association recently honored the Campbell Hispanic Law School Association at Campbell University’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law, located in Raleigh, N.C., as its 2010 Law Student Organization of the Year.

Award winners are nominated by their peers and will be recognized in September at the HNBA annual convention in Minneapolis.

Carolyn Lamm officially passed the gavel to incoming ABA President Stephen Zack Aug. 9 during the 2010 American Bar Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Lamm, the former ABA president, told the House of Delegates that Zack was an “incomparable advocate and strategist.”

Women are often the focus of numerous statistical reports in the legal profession. Making partner, diversity and work-life balance take many of the top headlines. But a recent report by Ms. JD looks at women’s experiences in law school. What they find: women lag in law review leadership.

Results show that while overall percentages of women members of law journals and women in leadership positions correlates strongly to the number of women awarded law degrees during the same time period, the number of women editors-in-chief is low.

Louisiana College, a private university owned by the Louisiana Baptist Convention, has expressed plans to open a law school in downtown Shreveport.

The official site of the Louisiana College School of Law has yet to be confirmed, but reports allege that the law school will operate from the old federal building and courthouse in Shreveport, which would need to be remodeled before opening for classes.

Former Harvard Law School Dean, Elena Kagan, was confirmed as the 112^th justice to the Supreme Court on Thursday, Aug. 5 and sworn in the following Saturday. Kagan will replace justice John Paul Stevens and is the fourth woman ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Prior to her nomination, Kagan served as solicitor general to the Obama administration. 

Following its opening in 2004, the Liberty University School of Law was awarded provisional approval on Feb. 13, 2006 — a mere 18 months after the first students arrived on campus.

The School of Law was awarded full accreditation approval by the American Bar Association Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar during its annual meeting in San Francisco on Thursday, Aug. 5. To be eligible to apply for provisional approval from the ABA, a law school must complete a full academic year.

Sixty law schools have been selected by preLaw magazine as the 2010 Best Value Law schools, the magazine announced Aug. 5.

“With tuition and cost of living expenses outpacing entry-level salaries, it is more important than ever for prospective law students to take into account value,” said Jack Crittenden, Editor and Founder of preLaw magazine and its sister-publication The National Jurist.

Law schools are trying to manipulate its rankings, and U.S. News & World Reportis taking steps to stop the gaming — by changing how it calculates employment data. But critics argue that the data is misleading to begin with, and two students are now trying to correct the situation.

It is all part of an ongoing drama that is playing out in discussions across the blogosphere.