National Jurist - February 2009 - (Page 11)

FORTHERECORD Appointed • University of Illinois College of Law Professor Bruce P. Smith was recently named acting dean of the law school. Smith is a noted legal historian and awardwinning University of Illinois law professor. He joined the law faculty in 2001 and has served as associate dean for academic affairs since April 2008. Pending approval by trustees, he will become the college’s 12th dean and Guy Raymond Jones Faculty Scholar, effective Feb. 16. He replaces Heidi Hurd, who was dean from 2002-2007, when she stepped down to join the faculty of the more than century-old college. Charles Tabb and Ralph Brubaker served as interim deans for the past two years. • Harvard University President Drew Faust announced in January that Howell Jackson, the former vice dean for budget at Harvard Law School, will serve as the acting dean of the law school upon the United States Senate’s confirmation of Dean Elena Kagan as U.S. Solicitor General. Kagan, who has led the law school since 2003, was named as President Barack Obama’s nominee in early January. She is the first woman nominated for the position. In addition to Kagan, two other Harvard Law School graduates were nominated to high-ranking Department of Justice positions. • Phoenix School of Law appointed Dean Eugene Clark of Charlotte School of Law as interim dean. He succeeds Dean Dennis Shields, who will continue with the school as a tenured faculty member. Both schools are members of the InfiLaw System, a consortium of independent law schools committed to making legal education more responsive to the realities of new career dynamics. Phoenix Law opened in Dean Eugene Clark Januar y 2005 and received ABA provisional approval in June 2007. They reported a 97 percent bar pass rate for the first-time takers from the July 2008 bar exam. Guilty A Stanford Law School graduate pleaded guilty in January to federal income tax evasion charges, admitting she ran a highpriced call girl service for clients in cities across the country. Under a plea agreement, filed in federal court in San Jose, Calif., Cristina Warthen agreed to pay $313,000 to the government to cover taxes and earnings she made as a prostitute who went by the name of “Brazil.” Instead of prison, she’ll serve one year of home detention and three years of probation. Loss Columbia University reported a $3 million loss related to Bernard Madoff, according to school officials. The school discovered the loss after a review of its investments. The school’s endowment, valued at $7.15 billion last June, doesn’t show the amount devoted to the law school. Ousted According to the ABA Journal, the former dean of Duquesne University School of Law was given a choice between resigning from his post within 24 hours or being removed from the position in early December. The now-former dean, Don Guter, opted to step down and return to a teaching job. He told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in an interview that he was in shock about the situation. “The school — really by a lot of people’s accounts, not just mine — has never been in better shape,” he told the newspaper. Guter had been acting dean since 2005. A number of students and alumni are protesting the former dean’s demotion. Donation Television personality Bob Barker, who hosted “The Price is Right” for many years, recently donated $1 million to the University of Virginia Law School for the establishment of an animal law program. In a release, Dean Paul Mahoney said the Bob Barker Animal Rights Program will include coursework, guest speakers and a writing competition focused on animal law. The class is planned to debut in the 2009-10 academic year. Survey The latest findings in a 2008 survey by the Law School Survey of Student Engagement found that nearly half of all law school students report that their education does not contribute substantially to their ability to apply legal writing skills in the real world. LSSSE was first introduced in 2003 and is an annual report providing comparative data on self-reported student experiences at law schools in the United States and Canada. Eight-five of the 200 American Bar Association-approved law schools participated in this year’s survey. February 2009 THE NATIONAL JURIST 11 Uniform bar exam The possibility of a uniform bar exam that would help standardize attorney licensing state-to-state is becoming closer to a reality, according to The National Law Journal. “Currently, 19 states are positioned to implement the uniform bar exam, or UBE as it is called,” the publication reported. “The exam, designed to create a consistent competency measure for admission to practice, would be a threecomponent test, all with the same questions, administered in each jurisdiction.”

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of National Jurist - February 2009

National Jurist - February 2009 Contents Entertainment: Get Organized! The Firm Report: The Part-Time Lawyer News: Keeping Ethics Intact, New Law Deans, Latest Survey Findings Seattle Law Students Secure Asylum for East African Women Laptops in the Classroom Attorneys Dissect Health Law Law Students Contribute to 2008 Election Process Remembering Professors Obama and Biden Bar Exam Diaries How Well Balanced are Law Students? How to Choose a Summer Program Career Hotline Linguistic Gymnastics Disturbing the Peace

National Jurist - February 2009

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