Tenure Under Attack

"Former UB Law School Professor Proceeds with Federal Law Suit Against Law School," by Lisa Epstein (The Spectrum)

After all the exciting news about the new global initiative and the cheerleader pep rally for more money, the University of Buffalo makes the news once again. A former law professor is proceeding with a federal lawsuit against the law school dean and others for wrongful discharge and breach of contract related to his termination. Reading between the lines a bit, it appears that said professor might have been somehow involved in an attempted coup of the law school dean. The university president quashed said attempted coup. Thereafter, said professor was terminated because his job no longer existed. The law school decided to "terminate" "Legal Research and Writing" and replace it with a whole new program called "Legal Analysis Writing and Research." The dean apparently won't provide the terminated professor with a letter of recommendation thereby effectively ending his professorhood. The article doesn't go on to explain why the professor didn't just take a six-figure salary with Big Law to mitigate his damages. Remember budding revolutionary professors, if you are planning to overthrow the king, you must kill the king.

"Defining Incompetence," by Carl Straumsheim (Inside Higher Ed)

The Board of Trustees at Brooklyn Law School have just adopted an expansive definition of causes for termination of tenured professors. Tenured professors are wondering what this means for them. Is it just a harmless change or is it laying the ground work for layoffs? Let me take a law school educated guess to assist any tenured professors who can't do their own analysis: Layoffs (lawoffs?) are coming.

"Is Law Faculty Tenure In or Out? ABA Can't Decide,"  by Karen Sloan (National Law Journal)

The American Bar Association Standard and Review Committee is currently tackling the issue of law school professor tenure. It cannot reach a consensus and is considering drafting a number of alternatives to increase, decrease, keep the same, or require no law schools to provide no tenure whatsoever. The standard that is adopted should be a weathervane pointing where law schools are headed.