Hofstra University will name its law school after a pharmaceutical tycoon who took a stab at law school at age 50 and became valedictorian. The new name, the Maurice A. Deane School of Law, is a result of Deane’s whopping $20 million donation — the school’s biggest gift to date.
Stephen Zack, the immediate past president of the American Bar Association, has donated $800,000 to his alma mater — The University of Florida Levin College of Law. In return, the law school has named a previously unnamed building after him.
With the funds, the law school is establishing the Stephen N. Zack Law Endowment, which will provide funds to enhance academic programs that advance student knowledge of legal ethics and professionalism as well as increasing diversity, two of Zack’s priorities while ABA president.
Recent graduates of the University of Texas who enter private practice take home more pay that their counterparts at every other ABA law school, according to an exclusive study by National Jurist magazine.
The American Bar Association’s censure of Villanova University earlier this month will likely bring an end to negative publicity for the law school. But the fall out could continue, with some questioning whether the ABA took strong enough action, and others wondering if the public humiliation was in the best interests of legal education
Twenty-one law schools made the list of Best Value law schools that were not on the honor roll last year, preLaw magazine announced on Aug. 22. Seven of those 21 law schools have never been on the honor roll, including City University of New York, University of Baltimore, and University of Utah.
This is the fifth time since 2004 that the magazine has honored law schools for providing a good value, with 60 being included on this year’s list. The methodology was modified this year to enhance fairness.
Widener University School of Law has suspended associate professor Lawrence Connell, despite the fact that a university panel cleared him of sexual and racial harassment. Connell must take a year off without pay, undergo psychiatric evaluation, and apologize to two students before he can return to campus.
Connell’s attorney has said he has no intention of meeting the school's demands.
"They'll never terminate him, but they set three conditions that he won't ever meet," said Thomas Neuberger.
Thomas M. Cooley Law School, which already has four campuses in Michigan, is opening its fifth location — this time in Florida. The nation’s largest law school recently purchased a facility in Riverview, a Tampa suburb that it is currently renovating.
The ABA acquiesced to Cooley’s request to open the campus, and officials expect to start classes in May 2012.
Philip Closius, dean of University of Baltimore School of Law, was forced to resign last week and didn’t go quietly — issuing a widely-circulated letter that explained his resignation was related to a conflict over the amount of law school revenue that gets funneled to the general university.
Closius said that while he did not expect the letter to go “viral,” he felt it was in the best interests of the community to take the matter public.
Widener University School of Law professor Lawrence Connell was once again backed up by his colleagues after a university panel cleared Connell of accusations of sexual and racial harassment filed by two of his former students, although he was found to have violated the retaliation provision of the school’s code of conduct.
Thomas Cooley Law School is fighting back against scam bloggers and a law firm that was investigating a possible class-action lawsuit against the school.
The Lansing, Mich.-based school filed two lawsuits on July 14. The first contends that a New York law firm, Kurzon Strauss LLP, posted false statements on websites in an effort to “incite” readers and to “troll” for plaintiffs in a possible class-action lawsuit.
The second lawsuit is against four anonymous scam bloggers who allegedly defamed the school on several websites over the last few months.