Advice for Erwin Chemerinsky

As Nancy noted here earlier, Bill Henderson and I used the publicity surrounding the hiring-firing-rehiring of Erwin Chemerinsky as dean of the new UC-Irvine law school to generate ideas for reforming legal education from some of the leading thinkers in the law school world. In all, we gathered forty contributions from university presidents and law deans, faculty, students, librarians, technology specialists, and career planning professionals, as well as practicing lawyers:

• Anonymous Law School Dean: Abolish Tenure
• Brian Baker (San Joaquin): Tie Tenure to Teaching
• Ben Barton (Tennessee): The Business School Case Method
• Ann Bartow (South Carolina): Gender Equity
• Derrick Bell (NYU): Law School, Like Law, Can Only Do So Much
• Doug Berman (Ohio State): Reengineer the 1L Curriculum
• David Bernstein (George Mason): Make Law School an Undergraduate Program
• Matt Bodie (St. Louis): Open-Access Approach to Legal Education
• Tom Bruce (Cornell): Public Understanding of the Law
• Paul Butler (George Washington): Take Back the Law School From Dead White Men
• Paul Caron (Cincinnati): Abolish Tenure
• Larry Cunningham (George Washington): Institutional Diversity
• Jim Freund (Skadden): Teach Students How to Resolve Disputes
• Conor Granahan (Oium, Reyen & Pryor): 1L "Life in the Law" Course
• Bill Henderson (Indiana): Lead with Data
• Gail Heriot (San Diego): Rethink Three Common Assumptions About Law School
• Mark Herrmann (Jones Day): Hire Adjuncts to Teach Substantive Courses
• Ken Hirsch (Duke): Teach Psychology and Human Behavior
• Dave Hoffman (Temple): Eliminate ABA's Role in Law School Accreditation
• Mina Jefferson (Cincinnati): Teach Students to Listen
• Sam Kamin (Denver): 2L Real-World Experiences, 3L Capstone Courses
• Dennis Khong (University of Manchester): Ph.D. in Scientific Legal Research
• Brian Leiter (Texas): Hire to UC-Irvine's Strength in Interdisciplinary Scholarship
• Jeff Lipshaw (Suffolk): Structure the Curriculum Around the Profession's Needs
• Mike Madison (Pittsburgh): Require Students to Have Two Years of Experience
• Rick Matasar (New York Law School): Create Real Value for University, State, and Students
• John Mayer (CALI): Frequent Feedback to Students
• Andy Morriss (Illinois): Embrace Competition and Disclose Audited Employment Data
• David Oppenheimer (Golden Gate): A "Kaleidoscopic Curriculum"
• Russell Osgood (Grinnell College): Focus on Three to Four New Ideas
• Dan Polsby (Geore Mason): Comparative Advantage
• Nancy Rapoport (UNLV): Law as One Tool to Analyze a Client's Problem
• Larry Ribstein (Illinois): Real Diversity
• Dan Rodriguez (Texas): Faculty as Financial Stakeholders and Cheerleaders
• Natsu Saito (Georgia State): Be Honest About the Real Pressures
• Gordon Smith (BYU): Concentrate on Classroom Instruction
• Ilya Somin (George Mason): Ideological Diversity
• John Steele (Fish & Richardson): LL.B. and LL.M. Programs
• Roy Stucky (South Carolina): Put Students First
• Tom Ulen (Illinois): A 3L Capstone Course