Discourse.net

The Edge-of-Campus Mugging that Wasn't

A week ago I asked, Why Are There TV Crews On the Edge of Campus? and several commentators suggested it was related to a mugging of a student on the other side of campus.

By way of follow-up, I should mention that the Miami Herald reported the other day that police figured out the ‘victim’ made the whole thing up.

A University of Miami student scratched cuts into herself, ripped her clothing and then lied to police about being attacked by a man while jogging on campus, investigators said Thursday.

Coral Gables detectives noticed holes in the 21-year-old’s story about a robbery and attempted sexual assault at knife-point last Friday.

“They determined the tearing on her shirt was from a rip by hand, not by knife like she claimed,” Officer Frank Jackson said.

…

“We believe this was some sort of mental-health breakdown,” he said.

More on U. Miami Data Breach

The University of Miami is mostly getting praise for the way it has handled notification of the theft of patient medical information last week. (For more on that, see Shalala’s Message on U.Miami Employee Medical Data Privacy Breach.) Here’s an example of the positive publicity from a Wall Street Journal blogger, calling the U’s response exemplary.

Meanwhile, however, I seem to be one of the 47,000 people whose credit card info was on one of those tapes and have got the boilerplate note suggesting I check my credit history and put fraud warnings on my cards. Recall, though, that both the University and the Secure Information Services group at Terremark say that the data is very hard to read.

Hard to read, perhaps, but maybe not impossible to read. And it seems that the data could have been encrypted, but wasn’t.

So should I worry or not? So far, I’m leaning, “not”.

The End, The Beginning

I taught my last class of the semester this afternoon. For several of the students it was their last class of law school, and they were more than a bit giddy with relief — demob happy. But we had a good class anyway, or because of it.

The end today for graduating students is really just a beginning of something bigger and longer and likely more important, which is why we call that ceremony coming up “Commencement”. The end today for me is just a turning of a wheel: I expect to do it all again next year.

But for one of my colleagues today, it was the final turn of this particular wheel. After 56 years on our faculty, here since September, 1951, Minnette Massey taught her last class today. It is very hard for me to imagine our University of Miami School of Law without this indomitable, outspoken, adorable, sometimes irascible, deeply decent, icon and pioneer of the Florida bar—one of the first women to do innumerable things in the Florida legal world. Minnette was Acting Dean for three years in the ’60s; I have to suspect sexism kept her from ever being appointed as ‘Dean’. She was a mentor to two generations of state legal luminaries, and the go-to person for local federal judges who needed special masters in complex cases, particularly before they had Magistrate Judges to do some of those jobs. Among Minnette’s many achievements is decades of work to fully integrate the bar, not least by mentoring students and young professionals. She’s not young, but no one who knows her thinks she had to retire. Minnette made it clear, however, that she didn’t want to be one of those people who waited until she had to be forced out: her leave-taking, like so much else in her life, would be her own decision on her own time on her own rules.

Everyone has a Minnette story or three. Here’s one of my earliest: back when I was in my first year of law teaching, with a full three months under my belt, I attended the AALS winter conference for the first time. I was teaching Civ Pro I in those days, so of course I went the to the meeting of the Civil Procedure Section, which happened to be a joint section meeting with the Admiralty section that year — the big case was Carnival Cruise Line, which was about the enforcement of forum selection clauses on cruise tickets. On the way into the room, I bumped into Minnette. I had planned to lurk in the back. Minnette steered me to the front row, greeting everyone in the room on the way, which left us craning our necks up at a panel on a raised dias. The talk began. The admiralty speaker was, from a civil procedure standpoint, somewhat obvious. And he was not brief. I was thinking how much better off I would have been in the back, but here I was in the front, with a senior colleague I didn’t know very well, she had said hello to everyone, we were very visible, there was no escape, we’d just have to look interested. “ISN’T THIS BORING?” Minnette said to me in a stage whisper loud enough to be heard next door. (I later learned that was her regular voice.) I wanted to crawl under my seat. But no one else seemed to mind. I suspect that everyone in the room just knew she was being herself: you always know where you stand with Minnette — she doesn’t play games, and no, she won’t suffer fools in silence, but you cannot be around her long without seeing how much she cares about people and about justice. Minnette doesn’t brag (much), so it takes somewhat longer to learn just how much she has given to others and to our law school. I will miss Minnette enormously — unless we are lucky and she again blazes a new trail, this time in retirement, and makes Emeritus status something that involves greater involvement in the law school community than has commonly been the case in the past.

Several of us snuck in at the end of her class this afternoon to join the standing ovation in Room 109, and formed an impromptu receiving line in the aisle as she left the room. When she came to Charlton Copeland, currently our most junior faculty member, she said, “It’s up to you now.”

Now, For a Limited Time Only, UM Offers 'The Tunnel of Oppression'

The weekly University of Miami electronic newsletter brings me this offer, which sounds quite resistible:

Today, Monday, April 21 through Wednesday, April 23 The Tunnel of Oppression. The William R. Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development, UM Citizen’s Board, the Ford Foundation, the Office of Student Affairs, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression urge individuals to participate in a powerful, one-time, campus wide program, the Tunnel of Oppression, hosted in the University Center Ballrooms. The Tunnel of Oppression is a nationally renowned sensory-based experiential learning opportunity designed to expose participants to the various types of oppressive acts that exist in society today. Through interactive tours, it is designed to challenge peoples’ thoughts, perceptions, and inner feelings on issues dealing with oppression and hatred. Tours occur every 15 minutes from 4 to 9 p.m. and last approximately 20 minutes. For more information, e-mail b.tedeschi@umiami.edu, slemmons@miami.edu, or vjones@miami.edu or call 401-290-7437.

Look, I already go to faculty meetings — isn’t that enough?

Why Are There TV Crews On the Edge of Campus?

As I was driving on the north and north-west sides of the UM campus this afternoon, there seemed to be at least two different TV crews set up, from two different local stations, one on the north, one on the NW sides of the campus. No idea if there are others elsewhere. We’re used to them when there’s an event, and of course down near the south-west side where the baseball stadium is. They were still there when I came back 30 minutes later.

So what’s up with this on a SundaySaturday afternoon? Nothing (yet?) on the local news I could find. For a minute I thought this might be it — Police: College Students Attempt To Capture Gator - Miami News Story - WPLG Miami, but no, the dateline is Daytona Beach Shores, Fla.

So I still have no idea.

Shalala's Message on U.Miami Employee Medical Data Privacy Breach

This popped into the inbox:

A Message from President Shalala

April 17, 2008

To the University Community:

I wanted to let all of you know that we recently learned that a case containing computer back-up tapes with patient information and employee health benefit information was stolen from an outside storage company vehicle. The truck was on its way to an off-site storage facility. Local law enforcement is investigating the theft. Unfortunately, our employees’ basic health information was on those tapes.

Shortly after learning of the incident, the University determined it would be unlikely that a thief would be able to access the back-up tapes because of the highly secured format in which they were written. Even so, we engaged the leading computer security experts in the U.S. to attempt to hack into the data from a similar back-up tape. All of their attempts over a lengthy process were unsuccessful. Based on this information, we believe misuse of the information on the tapes is unlikely.

The tapes were in a transport case that was stolen from a storage company vehicle on March 17 in downtown Coral Gables. The Coral Gables police have told us this is one of a series of vehicle thefts in the same area.

Because accessing the tapes is highly unlikely, we are not required by Florida law to disclose information about the theft, and we are confident that everyone’s data is safe, we felt that it was in the best interest of our patients to be completely transparent in this matter. Also, it is the ethical thing to do.

Anyone who has been a patient of a University of Miami physician or visited a UM facility since January 1, 1999, is likely to have their basic information included on the tapes. The data on the tapes included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, or health information. The University will be notifying by mail the 47,000 patients whose data may have included credit card or other financial information regarding bill payment.

Off-site storage is standard practice and is particularly critical in areas susceptible to severe weather. I want you to know the University’s permanent records are not affected; all your information remains current, safe, and appropriately available on UM systems.

We have created a Web site to serve as the principal source of information about this incident: www.dataincident.miami.edu. As a back-up for this Web site, we have established a call center at 1-866-628-4492. If you receive any calls asking about the incident, please encourage callers to visit the Web site.

I deeply regret any concern this event may cause, and you have my assurance that everything possible is being done to make UM the safest place for our patients’ health information.

There’s an online FAQ with a tiny bit more info, including this teaser:

Q: Is my personal information at risk?
A: After consulting with computer security professionals, the University has determined that it is unlikely that the data on the tapes could be accessed by an unauthorized user. Attempts by a leading Miami-based computer security firm to access the information on identical tapes were unsuccessful. Therefore, we believe misuse of the information on these tapes is unlikely.

There’s a phone number to call if you want more info. I called it to find out the name of the “leading Miami-based computer security firm” as I’m always interested to know about local folks who do computer security. The call center person referred me to the web site from which I got her phone number.

Update: A kindly correspondent points me to this UM press release which says a lot more about the security issue than the official web site:

the University engaged leading computer security experts at Terremark Worldwide to independently ascertain the feasibility of accessing and extracting data from a similar set of backup tapes.

“For more than a week my team devised a number of methods to extract readable data from the tapes,” said Christopher Day, senior vice president of the Secure Information Services group at Terremark. “Because of the highly proprietary compression and encoding used in writing the tapes, we were unable to extract any usable data.”

Day said that his team also determined that even in the unlikely event that a thief had a copy of the same software used to write the tapes, “It would require certain key data which is not stored on the tapes before the software would make the data readable.”

Alan Brill, senior managing director at Kroll Ontrack, who was asked by the University to review the testing that had been done, said: “While the report shows it is not impossible to access the data, in this case there are many barriers that stand between a thief and being able to actually get usable data from the tapes. If the thief cannot cross all of those barriers simultaneously, they can’t access the data.”

My Speech for the 'Celebration of Faculty Scholarship'

On of the things I have to do as a result of serving as Director of Faculty Development for the law school is act as head cheerleader for the faculty’s scholarly activities (another is to nag folks to put their writing on SSRN – an uphill struggle). We had our annual ‘Celebration of Faculty Scholarship’ reception yesterday, and I was told I would have to give a speech. Here’s more or less what I said:

I’d like to thank Raquel Matas, Amy Leitman, and especially Robin Schard for all their work in making this event, and this brochure, possible.

The Dean Search Committee members can’t be here as they have yet another meeting – just another example of the many demands on people’s time that might draw them away from writing, conflicts that each of you listed here have overcome.

It’s worth looking at this list of publications: it includes many things you might otherwise not know about – indeed a very substantial number of things that are not on SSRN…you know who you are, and you’ll be hearing from me.

I mourn the death of our former custom of putting every offprint in every faculty mailbox – I understand why, for environmental reasons, this practice went out of fashion, but I wish people would more frequently at least put the abstract, or the intro, in a memo so we wouldn’t have to wait until this list comes out to see what so many people have been up to.

More generally, as long as I’m wishing for stuff, I think that we as a community could probably stand to do more celebrating of achievements. But if we are still celebrating too few things, too infrequently, I am glad that this is one of the things we do celebrate: today we are celebrating our community’s scholarship, which has a very special, very central place in our collective enterprise.

This afternoon, I was talking to Ben Depoorter, who’s at that Dean Search meeting right now. I was urging him to drop by later if the meeting breaks up in time. Economist that he is, Ben went straight to the point: “At what time do they give out the prizes?”

I had to confess that, as far as I know, we will not be giving out prizes today.

But that’s because those of you who are writing have in some sense already had the prizes: I mean of course the 50 free offprints.

No, more seriously, you have already had the prizes:

• the time to think,
• the time to write,
• the chance to speak truth to power (or, as the case may be, to shout “power” to truth),
• the chance to take part in a national or a global conversation,
• the chance make a difference in the world

You do this by your contributions to doctrine, to discourse, to law reform, to clarity of understanding and, yes, to truth, and in so doing you justify our claim to be in a university rather than a trade school, and to take our place in the great invisible college of thoughtful citizens and intellectuals.

I leave you with the immortal words of Oliver Twist, “More, please”.

I much prefer giving academic papers – it’s so much easier.

Crocodile TV

Looks like I missed all the excitement. This all happened about three blocks from my house, but seeing this posted at Habla Mierda was the first I heard of it:

Even though it happened a month ago.

UM Health Ethics Program Recognized by WHO

UM health ethics programs get global nod - 03/18/2008 - MiamiHerald.com The University of Miami has been name a World Health Organization Collaborating Center on ethics and global health policy, a prestigious designation that raises the school’s profile on ethics research.

The decision by the Geneva-based WHO is a recognition of the school’s Ethics Programs research on public policy in Latin America and the Caribbean, among other places.

“The WHO collaborating centers are institutions such as research institutes, parts of universities or academies, which are designated by the director-general to carry out activities in support of the organization’s programs,” according to the WHO website.

There are more than 900 WHO collaborating centers in 99 member countries, working in areas ranging from chronic diseases to nursing. But only two other collaborating centers in the world specialize in ethics. UM’s ethics programs are directed by [UM Business School] law professor Anita Cava and ethics professor Kenneth Goodman.

I’m currently involved in a project on ethical and legal issues relating to medical devices that communicate health data to and about patients with these folks. I would claim credit for having good taste in my choice of collaborators, except that they found me…

UM Law Hires Three Exciting Young Scholars

We hired three people out of the entry level pool this year, and I for one am very pleased with our haul:

• Caroline Corbin, JD 2001 Columbia University; Teaching Fellow, Columbia University
• Osamudia James, JD 2004 Georgetown University, Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin
• Markus Wagner, erstes juristisches Staatsexamen 2002 University of Giessen, JSM 2006 Law Stanford

It Wasn't Me!

Geniusofdespair confesses in Blogger hits University of Miami President Donna Shalala with a chair.

Note that I had nothing to do with this incident: We here on campus are still marveling at the $1.4bn President Shalala has raised for the “U”, so we’re more likely to hit her with outstretched palms than anything else…

How Others See Us

At Giving Papers at Miami, Visiting Professor John Flood has a description of what we’re like in seminar.

We had fun. I’m glad he did too.

Note to Self

Some interesting on-campus events (outside the law school) for this semester.

• Wednesday January 23, Stephen Neale. Neale is the John H. Kornblith Family Chair in the Philosophy of Science and Values at CUNY and an expert on the language of law and the interpretation of statutes and regulations. The event occurs at the School of Business Administration’s Storer Auditorium at 3:30 p.m.
• Monday, February 25 and Thursday, February 28: Natalie Zemon Davis, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University and an adjunct professor and senior fellow at the University of Toronto, Canada
• Tuesday, February 26: Edward Sullivan, dean for humanities and professor of art history at New York University
• Thursday, March 6: Ruth Behar, professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” award.

Mario Barnes Wins Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award

I’ve just learned that UM Law prof and all-around great guy Mario Barnes has won the 2008 AALS Minority Groups Section Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award.

The Derrick A. Bell Jr. Award is named in honor of Derrick A. Bell, Jr. of New York University Law School. The award honors a junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice.

I don’t know exactly what “colleagueship” is, but whatever it is I can’t think of a better person to give this prize to.

There will be a ceremony at lunch on Jan 5 at the AALS to present Mario with the award.

This, wouldn’t you know it, conflicts with a different lunch ceremony in which another member of the Miami Law faculty will be receiving a richly-deserved award: William Twining, who visits here for part of the Spring semester every year, is due to receive the AALS Evidence section’s John Henry Wigmore Award for Lifetime Achievement in Elucidating the Law of Evidence and the Process of Proof.

We Need a 'Research and Instructional Technologist'

The law school is looking for a Research and Instructional Technologist to discover new cool tools for us, customize them, and teach law faculty how to make the most of them.

The Research and Instructional Technologist will design and implement a program to assist faculty in incorporating technology into their teaching and scholarship by providing consultation, advice, training and support for instructional and research technologies. In so doing, the Research and Instructional Technologist will among other initiatives demonstrate the use of specific software in group and individual sessions and will be the faculty resource for specific instructional and research technology software and hardware questions. The person in this position will also focus on researching and recommending the most appropriate combinations of instructional and research technologies for facilitating the Law School’s scholarly and educational missions. Other responsibilities include authoring written instructions and documentation for technology resources available to the faculty. The Information Technology Department’s Assistant Manager of Audio Visual Services will work collaboratively with the person in this position in training the faculty in the use of classroom technology.

This position will coordinate the delivery and support of instructional and research technologies and services with the Director Information Technology and the Director of the Law Library. This person must possess a high level of skill in working inter-departmentally and must be comfortable in both, Law Library and IT settings. Position #002076.

QUALIFICATIONS: B.A. in Instructional Technology, Educational Technology or related field and five years work related experience; Master’s degree in Instructional Technology, Educational Technology preferred. To include: Experience assisting educators in using technology to enhance teaching and/or research; Training or teaching experience; Knowledge of web-authoring, design and development; Broad range of technical proficiency including: multimedia design, developing and administering courses in various course management products, understanding presentation software, HTML, ‘smart’ classroom presentation equipment, graphics packages, streaming video technologies, and Office Packages (Microsoft/Corel). Salary: Competitive.

The University of Miami offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package including medical and dental benefits, tuition remission, vacation, paid holidays and much more. The University of Miami is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

This could be a great job for the right person. And if you are that person, we’ll really appreciate you.

We're Hiring!

Today is the start of the AALS meat meet market, the annual hiring conference for would-be law professors. My wife is the chair of our entry-level appointments committee, so she’s in DC along with the rest of our committee, while I’m minding the home front.

The law school has a lot of openings this year — six by some counts, although I’d guess that one or two of those jobs may be earmarked for lateral offers. But whatever the number, we’re hiring, and it’s a recession year. If this turns out to be anything like the year I was on the market, many state schools will find their budgets being cut between now and summer, and some of the jobs they thought they had may evaporate. There are some disadvantages to being in the private sector — high tuition burdening students with debt chief among them — but this may be one of the times when being private works to our advantage.

A few weeks ago I published an extended essay on this blog in which I tried to describe some of the salient features of life at UM from the point of view of entering faculty. I titled it “Ten Reasons Why You Should Teach Here — And Three Why You Shouldn’t”. In case anyone is reading this from the AALS, I repost a slightly amended version of the same essay below.

But before I do that, I can’t resist quoting from our student newspaper, the Res Ipsa Loquitur, which recently interviewed our most recent hire, Charlton Copeland, about his initial impressions of UM Law. This is part of what he said:

The faculty stood out for me a the AALS recruiting conference as one of the most intellectually engaged faculties with which I met over the weekend. They actually were interested in my writing projects, and gave me the sense that they took them and me seriously. My time with the committee ran out too quickly for me. My feeling of intellectual comfort with the faculty was only enhanced during my visit to the campus later in November, but that was augmented by my delight that this would be a group with which I’d be comfortable beyond simply discussing scholarly work. They were a bit quirky, and in a way about which I am excited. I am excited about the diversity of the city of Miami as well, and the opportunities that I think it will provide me to think about my areas of research in new ways — ranging from race and the the law (where the Law School has long been at the forefront in American legal education) to comparative separation of powers issues in Latin America.

And that maybe sums it up better than I can. It’s certainly shorter.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Teach Here — And Three Why You Shouldn’t

1. Faculty

The best reason to come to U.M. is the faculty. At its best (which is to say, “outside of faculty meetings”), this is a faculty that believes ideas are serious things, but also is willing to play with them. You will see this most vividly at faculty seminars, especially those with external speakers. The faculty reads the paper in advance of the talk. It thinks about it. We don’t let the presenter speak a long time — we want to have a discussion. There may be an element of performance in the questions and comments, but that usually just adds to the fun. Unlike some faculties I’ve heard about, we are not worshipers at the temple of sub-disciplinarity: faculty members feel comfortable commenting on papers far outside their own specialties, and they are usually right to do so as the distant perspective sometimes proves at least as valuable as the insider’s.

While faculty vary in the extent to which they will seek you out – some are shy; others are busy – they will almost all be happy to see you if you seek them out. Very few will treat you like a junior colleague; for most, you will be part of the family from the start. And it’s an interesting family, including some big names in international law, tax, law and society, law and identity, and several other subjects.

2. Institutional style & institutional support

UM wants productive faculty, and it believes in research. But it isn’t about telling you what to do. My own story may be instructive: I was hired thinking that I would be writing mostly about administrative and constitutional law. In fact, however, within a couple of years I had turned into an Internet lawyer, and was writing primarily about computers, networks and the law. At no time did anyone here ever suggest that this was a problem. What mattered to people was that I was publishing.

Another way in which UM may differ from some law schools is that our faculty is routinely interdisciplinary and international. Many publish in non-legal journals — a fact which does not necessarily help either our publication or citation counts since the legal tabulators tend to focus only on law journals. Although we recognize that there may be some reputational costs, we are not prepared to tell people where they should publish. We just want it to be good.

There is no international ghetto at UM (the same is true of tax, a traditional faculty strength). As a matter of unwritten policy, everyone is expected to teach a basic course outside their specialty; the result is both that we can have more internationalists (and tax scholars), and that there’s a much greater community of overlapping interests.

3. Library

The University of Miami enjoys a superb law library, the result of a decision more than two decades ago to make library acquisitions a financial priority. And if we don’t have it, the library will borrow it for you, no questions asked. (As one former librarian put it, “we aim to provide law-firm-quality service”. And in fact, it is almost as good as a top law firm, and the librarians are much nicer.)

The law library has extensive holdings in related disciplines, notably political science, and of course the university library is literally next door, and it also has ever-growing electronic access to journals — which can even be accessed from your home office. We have a particularly strong collection in Latin American and Caribbean law, but also strong holdings in European law. We are weak in India, China, and Russia, and no doubt several other countries with non-Romance alphabets, so if your research involves heavy use of materials from one of those countries, you should check to see if we have you covered. I also have a sense that our holdings for pre-1940 materials are not as strong generally as for things published in the last 70 years. But I am continually having pleasant surprises when I consult Baron, the online card catalog. They’ve done some impressive buying over the years — which is a good thing as the next major law library is a long way away.

4. Students

We have smart students with upwardly mobile ambitions. Some come from wealthy families, but for many a law degree will be the highest level of education ever achieved in their families — a matter of pride for an extended clan you may have the good fortune to meet at graduation. Despite the lures of nearby South Beach, UM students are by and large a studious lot: their awareness that few silver platters await at graduation usually translates into a commendable work ethic. At least until the end-of-term fog settles in, I find that my students have done the reading, and often have something to say about it. There is a little shyness — some students don’t want to ask questions for fear of looking silly; other students worry about being labeled a “gunner” — but ordinarily class discussion can be pretty lively. Although we have more men than women as students, it is often the case that the women lead the discussions and make the most substantive contributions. Classes tend to be fun (at least for the instructor). Visiting professors from other law schools consistently remark on the high quality of classroom performance here.

The UM student body has improved greatly in the past decade. Our best students would be at home in any law school. Our worst students would have been near the middle of the class 15 years ago. The only fly in the ointment is that despite their good college grades and creditable LSATs, a substantial fraction of the class comes to law school unable to write as well as they think or speak. Overcoming this obstacle remains one of our biggest challenges. That said, every year we have students who write publishable papers in classes and seminars. It’s been a particular pleasure to see those pieces go into print along side those of full-time academics.

Some of our students will go on to be national leaders; a much larger number will play key roles in the State of Florida, as judges, politicians, and leading members of the bar. Some people have described alumni reunions as state judges’ conventions, but this is slightly unfair. On the other hand, there’s no question that both Florida as a place, and UM graduates as important players in that place, have been at the center of major wrangles with national impact ranging from the 2000 election to the Terri Schiavo affair.

Aspiring faculty sometimes worry that they will not find good research assistants outside a top ten law school. It’s true that I don’t hear stories about students writing papers that professors then publish under their own name as I did when I was a law student at Yale. But if you are looking for a research assistant rather than a ghost writer then my experience suggests this is not a serious problem if you teach a first-year class. As a teacher in the larger first year classes you can identify the students who are good and who fit your style before they get too caught up in other things. Some of them will get on law review, and will be too busy to work for you; some of those that don’t will work downtown for higher pay than the law school can offer, but usually there’s someone you will be happy to have who will be happy to have the job in their second or third year. I can’t claim that every research assistant I’ve had has been stellar, but I can say that some of them were amazing — and that they are harder to find when I don’t teach first years.

5. Research support

Research support exists to make it easier for you to write. The most important part of UM’s research support is its excellent law library. But it doesn’t stop there: In addition to the collection itself, we have a staff of helpful law librarians who seem happiest when given difficult research requests. There’s a document delivery service which will get you any book or article you ask for and deliver it to your office within a day if it’s on campus or a few days if it must be sent from far away. (One down side: you can gain weight from the loss of movement caused by having everything come to you.)

At conferences I sometimes hear stories about places where senior colleagues try to tell tenure-track faculty what to write about (or, worse, forbid certain topics or styles). We don’t do that. If anything, we have erred in the other direction — tip-toeing around junior faculty sensibilities so much that we may have provided insufficient mentoring, In an effort to do better in that department, the faculty now enjoys the services of a “director of faculty development” — yours truly as of a few weeks ago — whose job will be to help colleagues (and especially pre-tenure colleagues) with their research and writing by identifying resources, serving as a sounding board, or just staying out of the way.

In addition, every faculty member has an office budget which allows you to hire a research assistant, books and supplies, and to travel to conferences. Each of these budgets is fairly generous, and the Associate Dean has discretionary funds to add to them up for good cause. In my experience, any cause I can bring myself to ask about has been treated as a good one.

6. The University

A generation ago it was “Suntan U”. Today, under the (very) energetic leadership of Donna Shalala and an impressive suite of Deans, the University of Miami is joining the ranks of the leading research universities in the USA. For openers, President Shalala raised $1 billion for the University. YES, $1 BILLION. Now that it’s in the bank, she’s warming up for a new round of fund-raising. The lion’s share of the first round went to the medical school, but the rumor is that the law school might be able to claim a bigger share of the next round.

More importantly, the past couple of decades have seen a transformation in the quality of both the students and the faculty in the arts and sciences. It’s become hard for students to get in; and departments such as History, Psychology, Business, and Sociology have attracted faculties that include a wealth of potential collaborators, adding to existing strengths in Medicine and Communications. Both the law school and the University encourage inter-disciplinary collaboration. The law school has begun to take advantage of these resources (I, for example, am working with a team on health privacy issues that includes participants from both the Business School and the Med School), but there’s much waiting for you that remains untapped.

7. Perks

The law school wants to support your research, and we try to put our money where our mouth is. Entry-level faculty can apply for a summer research grant before starting work in order to prepare their courses. We light-load you (usually only one course per semester) during your first year to give you time to find your feet. You’ll get a summer grant as of right every summer until tenure to encourage you to write — after that you’ll have to submit proposals and make good on them too. And you’re entitled to a semester’s leave before tenure, more or less in the term of your choice, in order to help you write.

The law school is located on a very beautiful campus in the center of suburban Coral Gables, itself a very pleasant city with excellent restaurants. Rumor has it that in the old days the university administration spent more on landscaping than books; whatever the truth, there’s no question that the campus is very nice to look at. It also sports a state-of-the-art gym that’s about three minutes walk from the law school around our picturesque lake (crocodile optional). The campus sports other useful amenities, including a faculty club, a food court, and an on-campus daycare.

8. Miami

Miami is a cosmopolitan city. Part of its identity is as the defacto capitol of Latin America; part is as an artistic and musical center; and then there’s the celebrity-and-tourist thing. It’s an attractive place for young and old, and — if you take care to live in the right school districts, or have kids who qualify for the right magnet schools, or are ok with private schools — a pretty easy place for the middle-aged pater and mater familias. Like many sunbelt cities, Miami is more sprawling mosaic than urban core and periphery. Both urban and suburban living are within easy reach of the campus. Our politics are fascinating and complex, with much political power held by first and second generation immigrants from Cuba, and to a lesser degree Haiti, and Central America. The region now enjoys a lively cultural life, with a rich music and dance scene and some creditable small theater companies. If you prefer nature to culture, there’s always the nearby Everglades as well as world-class coral reefs for diving just south of Miami.

If your work involves domestic issues, you will find them in Miami, which is the city of the future in ways both good and bad. Along with our glitz you will find us on the cutting edge of today’s and tomorrow’s political and social issues: immigration, environmental (think “Everglades restoration”), medical (think “retirees”), and all the social questions that big cities produce.

Housing costs tend to be high, but many other living costs are low and there is no state income tax. The University has, however, taken bold steps to address the housing issue by offering new hires a deal in which the university will subsidize part of your home purchase in exchange for a proportionate share in the equity when you sell, an offer that puts many nice homes within reach.

9. Weather

Miami’s weather is glorious for almost half the year; variable for another chunk, and miserable in the dog days of summer and early Fall. The good news is that much (but not all) of the miserable part comes when the law school is not in session, so you can escape if you choose. When the weather is nice, our central courtyard, the “bricks,” becomes the social center of the community, a place where students and faculty mingle between classes. Even office rats like me end up looking healthier than the wan, pale, parka-clad figures I see huddling on the Boston subway. For those with outdoor ambitions, you can live on Miami Beach, or just enjoy the sea view from a balcony in a tower apartment in downtown Brickel.

10. The revolution is coming

The next five years will see a radical transformation in the faculty, and perhaps the style, of University of Miami School of Law. We have at least six open jobs at present, with the likelihood of much more turnover as faculty retire (couples welcome!). The next three to five years’ appointments, including that of our next Dean, stand a good chance of determining the future course of the school for a generation to come.

At present we have only ten full-time faculty under 50, and only fourteen between 50 and 60; the remaining 17 are over sixty, including some very much over sixty. Our hiring is resolutely in compliance with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (of our last six entry-level hires, two were very experienced lawyers well over 40), but given the overall composition of the entry-level market, it is likely that this age profile will change dramatically in the next few years.

What this means for our new hires is that they will find themselves at the heart of their new community — and have a chance to lead it — much earlier in their careers than they might otherwise. The coming turnover in the faculty, coupled with this year’s Dean search introduces an element of uncertainty about what we’ll be like in the future that may not be to everyone’s taste. Fortunately, the faculty is engaged in a strategic planning exercise this year which means that any new hires will be spared that chore at least. At present, the law school enjoys a nearly unique chance to reinvent itself, and people with ideas and energy should find all the breathing room and opportunity they want. I hope that people reading this will come join us in building something wonderful.

All that is very well, but honesty compels me to say that there are also some reasons why not everyone may be happy here. Indeed, there are three main reasons why you should not teach here:

1. Weather

If skiing is your passion, and neither waterskiing nor snorkeling are substitutes, then Miami may make you sad. It’s hot and very humid here from July until the heat breaks sometime in October or September. That means you can have up to three and half months when it’s not much fun to go outside. Plus, occasionally we get weather with a name. But we don’t get snowstorms, avalanches, wildfires, earthquakes, random tornadoes, floods, or mudslides. If you want immunity to natural disasters, move to Rhode Island.

2. Language

Many people in South Florida speak Spanish as their first (and often only) language. The campus is Anglo — although some of the bilingual staff and students will speak Spanish to each other — so this is not a work issue. But it is a life issue: you will hear lots of Spanish in the stores and on AM radio. If you are the sort of person who can’t cope with foreign languages around you, there’s a strong chance you will not be happy here. I don’t speak Spanish, and I only found it a noticeable handicap for my first few weeks here, when I would get lost driving around and stop at a store for directions, then wait impatiently while they went to find the English-speaker. It’s a non-issue today unless I happen to go bargain shopping for some exotic household good, and indeed contributes to Miami’s cosmopolitan vibe.

3. Geography

It’s flat here — no mountains (and houses have no basements). More seriously, it’s also far from many of the legal nerve centers. If you’re doing national work and you are having meetings related to it, odds are the meeting will neither be in Miami nor even within driving distance. That means air travel. And while we have great direct air connections to most of the world and the law school is generous with travel support, we do not have a working time machine. Given the post-9/11 security regime at airports, and the increasing vagaries of air travel generally, it is rarely possible to have a meeting in New York or Washington without spending the night out of town. That can mean having to reschedule a class (something we allow for good causes), which is a pain for you and even more of one for your students. It certainly means that doing national committee work is always a substantial time commitment. It is almost 500 miles to the state line, and then where are you? Somewhere between Tallahassee and Moultrie, Ga.

This year I am not on either our entry-level or lateral hiring committees. But if you find the positives outweigh the negatives and have an interest in coming here, I’d still be happy to try to answer any further questions you might have, either in comments to this entry or by private email.

A Long Meeting

We’re about to embark on a day and a half of strategic planning meetings, so I doubt I will be posting much until I’ve recovered.

Why Don't You Come For a Visit?

My colleague David Abraham has taken over the lateral hiring committee (we have two, one for entry-level people and one for more experienced scholars). In addition to permanent hires, they find us interesting visitors (in some cases a prelude to something more permanent perhaps).

David writes with this year’s call for visitors,

The University of Miami School of Law is looking for several visitors for the 2008-09 school year. We are particularly interested in commercial law, civil procedure, family law, and T&E.

If coming to Miami for a year of work and intellectual stimulation and is something that might appeal to you, please let me know of your tentative interest.

Prof. David Abraham
University of Miami School of Law
PO Box 248087
Coral Gables FL 33124

dabraham@law.miami.edu

(We do one-semester visits too if a year is too much tropical paradise for you.)

Why I Doubt I'll Be Able to Attend the Debate In Person

The Dean of Students office is a ticket distribution center for the Univision Democratic Forum to take place on Sunday evening, September 9. As many of you are aware, this will be an exciting opportunity to see the Democratic Candidates here at the BankUnited Center located on the Coral Gables Campus.

In accordance with the University of Miami set forth below, our office will distribute tickets to UM Students only on Wednesday, August 29 and Thursday, August 30 from 9:00am through 4:00pm. Each student is entitled to one ticket and must present a Cane Card.

On Friday morning, August 31, remaining tickets will begin to be distributed to UM faculty and staff at 9:00am.

I doubt there will be tickets left on Friday, but in any case I teach 8-9:30 am, so I won’t get one.

I wonder if I should ask for a press pass?

Attention UM Law Students: Research Assistants Needed

I need a research assistant. And so, no doubt, do several other faculty members. Some faculty members will hire their own; others, especially new and visiting faculty, may prefer a clearinghouse approach. As I am now the “Director of Faculty Development” I have appointed myself the coordinator of this process for those faculty who prefer to work through an intermediary. If you are a 2L, 3L or LLM student and would like to work for a professor this year, please send me your application.

Different professors will want different skill sets, so don’t be shy. Some may have special application requirements but I think most would be happy with a copy of your resume, an unofficial transcript (for 2Ls and 3Ls), and a short writing sample. Personally, I prefer a NON-legal writing sample if you have one, but most of the colleagues will want something legal if you have it, so include both if you can.

Your cover letter should include the number of hours you would most like to work (the range is usually 10-20 hours per week, with most clustering in the low part of that range, but there’s a lot of variation), and the legal subjects that most interest you (to help match you with professors in those areas).

I’m particularly interested in students with Linux and HTML experience, although that’s not a requirement for me and won’t be of interest to many colleagues, so don’t let the absence of those stop you.

You can email me the application bundle, or you can drop it off to Ms. Rosalia Lliraldi, who sits outside Rm. 382 in the library.

UM Hurricanes to Leave Orange Bowl!

‘Canes to leave the Orange Bowl. No tradition is safe!

August 21, 2007

To the University Community:

We have an extraordinary history and tradition at the Orange Bowl: The players running through the smoke tunnel. “Touchdown Tommy” and his cannon. The Ring of Honor. An incredible winning streak of 58 consecutive home wins. And three of our five national championships were won on that field. I love the Orange Bowl-we all do!

As many of you are aware, the University has been working closely with the City of Miami to assess the feasibility of making much-needed renovations to the Orange Bowl. It has long been our goal to have a first-class football stadium.

The City of Miami has been a wonderful partner with us at the Orange Bowl for many years, and they understand how hard we have wrestled with a very difficult decision. Mayor Manny Diaz has been heroic in his efforts to meet our future needs. After much thought, analysis, and discussions with many, many of our trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and fans, we have concluded that we must move our football games to a better facility. The more than $200 million in renovations that the city has proposed would only provide basic and mostly infrastructural upgrades. A part of those funds are not in hand and may or may not be determined until after the proposed construction would be well underway. Overall, the renovations clearly would not address the long-term needs of our athletes and our fans.

The Orange Bowl chapter of our history-in which we can all take great pride-will never close, and we are confident that the legacy of Miami Hurricanes football will live on and thrive as we move to a new location. After an assessment of all options available to us, we have decided reluctantly and painfully to move to Dolphin Stadium for the 2008 season.

Dolphin Stadium is one of the premier football stadiums in the country. At our new home, our student-athletes will have the opportunity to compete in a first-class facility that plays host to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, the FedEx Orange Bowl, BCS National Championship Game, and that has been the site of recent and upcoming Super Bowls.

Our fans will experience outstanding amenities including one of the world’s largest plasma TV displays, high-definition video boards, club seating and suites, chairbacks on every stadium seat, approximately 14,000 parking spaces, and a large variety of concessions and restaurants.

The end zones will be redone so that our shared home will reflect both Miami teams’ pride. The Dolphins are actively pursuing a corporate sponsor so that by 2010 the stadium will have a neutral name.

I want to assure all members of our University community-students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, donors, friends-and the tens of thousands of fans who regularly cheer us on, that we looked exhaustively into every aspect of the choices in front of us, and that your needs figured prominently in our final decision. The quality of your experience at our games is of the utmost importance to us.

As always, we would like to hear from you. Please contact us at an e-mail address we have established for your comments: umfootball@miami.edu. If you have any further questions, please go to the Official Athletic Department Web site at hurricanesports.com or call 1-800-GO-CANES.

Thank you, and Go ‘Canes!

Sincerely,

Donna E. Shalala

Office of the President
P.O. Box 248006 Coral Gables, Florida 33124-4600
305-284-5155 Fax 305-284-3768

As someone who has yet to attend a Hurricanes football game, I don’t feel this very strongly.

But I know a lot of people who will.

Ten Reasons Why You Should Teach Here -- And Three Why You Shouldn't

Hiring season is approaching — indeed, today is the day that hiring committees get to see the first round of AALS faculty appointments register forms — and the law blogs are full of unusually good advice for lawyers wanting to enter the teaching profession. In recent years I’ve felt constrained about what I could say publicly about the hiring process because I was a part of a hiring committee. But this year, as far as hiring is concerned, I am just a regular faculty member, so I can speak more freely.

Rather than repeat the general advice you can find elsewhere, I thought I would instead say a few things about a subject I know particularly well: teaching here at the University of Miami School of Law. Although our overall US News rank is very middle-of-the-pack, due mainly to our large size, our faculty has a relatively high reputation rate both in US News and other comparable surveys. But none of these (flawed) indexes really reflect much about what a faculty member’s life is like, and thus they are even less useful to an aspiring faculty member than they are to would-be law students.

So, aspiring law professors and future colleagues, I’ve compiled ten reasons why you should teach here — and three why you shouldn’t.

1. Faculty

The best reason to come to U.M. is the faculty. At its best (which is to say, “outside of faculty meetings”), this is a faculty that believes ideas are serious things, but also is willing to play with them. You will see this most vividly at faculty seminars, especially those with external speakers. The faculty reads the paper in advance of the talk. It thinks about it. We don’t let the presenter speak a long time — we want to have a discussion. There may be an element of performance in the questions and comments, but that usually just adds to the fun. Unlike some faculties I’ve heard about, we are not worshipers at the temple of sub-disciplinarity: faculty members feel comfortable commenting on papers far outside their own specialities, and they are usually right to do so as the distant perspective sometimes proves at least as valuable as the insider’s.

While faculty vary in the extent to which they will seek you out – some are shy; others are busy – they will almost all be happy to see you if you seek them out. Very few will treat you like a junior colleague; for most, you will be part of the family from the start. And it’s an interesting family, including some big names in international law, tax, law and society, law and identity, and several other subjects.

2. Institutional style & institutional support

UM wants productive faculty, and it believes in research. But it isn’t about telling you what to do. My own story may be instructive: I was hired thinking that I would be writing mostly about administrative and constitutional law. In fact, however, within a couple of years I had turned into an Internet lawyer, and was writing primarily about computers, networks and the law. At no time did anyone here ever suggest that this was a problem. What mattered to people was that I was publishing.

Another way in which UM may differ from some law schools is that our faculty is routinely interdisciplinary and international. Many publish in non-legal journals — a fact which does not necessarily help either our publication or citation counts since the legal tabulators tend to focus only on law journals. Although we recognize that there may be some reputational costs, we are not prepared to tell people where they should publish. We just want it to be good.

There is no international ghetto at UM (the same is true of tax, a traditional faculty strength). As a matter of unwritten policy, everyone is expected to teach a basic course outside their specialty; the result is both that we can have more internationalists (and tax scholars), and that there’s a much greater community of overlapping interests.

3. Library

The University of Miami enjoys a superb law library, the result of a decision more than two decades ago to make library acquisitions a financial priority. And if we don’t have it, the library will borrow it for you, no questions asked. (As one former librarian put it, “we aim to provide law-firm-quality service”. And in fact, it is almost as good as a top law firm, and the librarians are much nicer.)

The law library has extensive holdings in related disciplines, notably political science, and of course the university library is literally next door, and it also has ever-growing electronic access to journals — which can even be accessed from your home office. We have a particularly strong collection in Latin American and Caribbean law, but also strong holdings in European law. We are weak in India, China, and Russia, and no doubt several other countries with non-Romance alphabets, so if your research involves heavy use of materials from one of those countries, you should check to see if we have you covered. I also have a sense that our holdings for pre-1940 materials are not as strong generally as for things published in the last 70 years. But I am continually having pleasant surprises when I consult Baron, the online card catalog. They’ve done some impressive buying over the years — which is a good thing as the next major law library is a long way away.

4. Students

We have smart students with upwardly mobile ambitions. Some come from wealthy families, but for many a law degree will be the highest level of education ever achieved in their families — a matter of pride for an extended clan you may have the good fortune to meet at graduation. Despite the lures of nearby South Beach, UM students are by and large a studious lot: their awareness that few silver platters await at graduation usually translates into a commendable work ethic. At least until the end-of-term fog settles in, I find that my students have done the reading, and often have something to say about it. There is a little shyness — some students don’t want to ask questions for fear of looking silly; other students worry about being labeled a “gunner” — but ordinarily class discussion can be pretty lively. Although we have more men than women as students, it is often the case that the women lead the discussions and make the most substantive contributions. Classes tend to be fun (at least for the instructor). Visiting professors from other law schools consistently remark on the high quality of classroom performance here.

The UM student body has improved greatly in the past decade. Our best students would be at home in any law school. Our worst students would have been near the middle of the class 15 years ago. The only fly in the ointment is that despite their good college grades and creditable LSATs, a substantial fraction of the class comes to law school unable to write as well as they think or speak. Overcoming this obstacle remains one of our biggest challenges. That said, every year we have students who write publishable papers in classes and seminars. It’s been a particular pleasure to see those pieces go into print along side those of full-time academics.

Some of our students will go on to be national leaders; a much larger number will play key roles in the State of Florida, as judges, politicians, and leading members of the bar. Some people have described alumni reunions as state judges’ conventions, but this is slightly unfair. On the other hand, there’s no question that both Florida as a place, and UM graduates as important players in that place, have been at the center of major wrangles with national impact ranging from the 2000 election to the Terri Schiavo affair.

Aspiring faculty sometimes worry that they will not find good research assistants outside a top ten law school. It’s true that I don’t hear stories about students writing papers that professors then publish under their own name as I did when I was a law student at Yale. But if you are looking for a research assistant rather than a ghost writer then my experience suggests this is not a serious problem if you teach a first-year class. As a teacher in the larger first year classes you can identify the students who are good and who fit your style before they get too caught up in other things. Some of them will get on law review, and will be too busy to work for you; some of those that don’t will work downtown for higher pay than the law school can offer, but usually there’s someone you will be happy to have who will be happy to have the job in their second or third year. I can’t claim that every research assistant I’ve had has been stellar, but I can say that some of them were amazing — and that they are harder to find when I don’t teach first years.

5. Research support

Research support exists to make it easier for you to write. The most important part of UM’s research support is its excellent law library. But it doesn’t stop there: In addition to the collection itself, we have a staff of helpful law librarians who seem happiest when given difficult research requests. There’s a document delivery service which will get you any book or article you ask for and deliver it to your office within a day if it’s on campus or a few days if it must be sent from far away. (One down side: you can gain weight from the loss of movement caused by having everything come to you.)

At conferences I sometimes hear stories about places where senior colleagues try to tell tenure-track faculty what to write about (or, worse, forbid certain topics or styles). We don’t do that. If anything, we have erred in the other direction — tip-toeing around junior faculty sensibilities so much that we may have provided insufficient mentoring, In an effort to do better in that department, the faculty now enjoys the services of a “director of faculty development” — yours truly as of a few weeks ago — whose job will be to help colleagues (and especially pre-tenure colleagues) with their research and writing by identifying resources, serving as a sounding board, or just staying out of the way.

In addition, every faculty member has an office budget which allows you to hire a research assistant, books and supplies, and to travel to conferences. Each of these budgets is fairly generous, and the Associate Dean has discretionary funds to add to them up for good cause. In my experience, any cause I can bring myself to ask about has been treated as a good one.

6. The University

A generation ago it was “Suntan U”. Today, under the (very) energetic leadership of Donna Shalala and an impressive suite of Deans, the University of Miami is joining the ranks of the leading research universities in the USA. For openers, President Shalala raised $1 billion for the University. YES, $1 BILLION. Now that it’s in the bank, she’s warming up for a new round of fund-raising. The lion’s share of the first round went to the medical school, but the rumor is that the law school might be able to claim a bigger share of the next round.

More importantly, the past couple of decades have seen a transformation in the quality of both the students and the faculty in the arts and sciences. It’s become hard for students to get in; and departments such as History, Psychology, Business, and Sociology have attracted faculties that include a wealth of potential collaborators, adding to existing strengths in Medicine and Communications. Both the law school and the University encourage inter-disciplinary collaboration. The law school has begun to take advantage of these resources (I, for example, am working with a team on health privacy issues that includes participants from both the Business School and the Med School), but there’s much waiting for you that remains untapped.

7. Perks

The law school wants to support your research, and we try to put our money where our mouth is. Entry-level faculty can apply for a summer research grant before starting work in order to prepare their courses. We light-load you (usually only one course per semester) during your first year to give you time to find your feet. You’ll get a summer grant as of right every summer until tenure to encourage you to write — after that you’ll have to submit proposals and make good on them too. And you’re entitled to a semester’s leave before tenure, more or less in the term of your choice, in order to help you write.

The law school is located on a very beautiful campus in the center of suburban Coral Gables, itself a very pleasant city with excellent restaurants. Rumor has it that in the old days the university administration spent more on landscaping than books; whatever the truth, there’s no question that the campus is very nice to look at. It also sports a state-of-the-art gym that’s about three minutes walk from the law school around our picturesque lake (crocodile optional). The campus sports other useful amenities, including a faculty club, a food court, and an on-campus daycare.

8. Miami

Miami is a cosmopolitan city. Part of its identity is as the defacto capitol of Latin America; part is as an artistic and musical center; and then there’s the celebrity-and-tourist thing. It’s an attractive place for young and old, and — if you take care to live in the right school districts, or have kids who qualify for the right magnet schools, or are ok with private schools — a pretty easy place for the middle-aged pater and mater familias. Like many sunbelt cities, Miami is more sprawling mosaic than urban core and periphery. Both urban and suburban living are within easy reach of the campus. Our politics are fascinating and complex, with much political power held by first and second generation immigrants from Cuba, and to a lesser degree Haiti, and Central America. The region now enjoys a lively cultural life, with a rich music and dance scene and some creditable small theater companies. If you prefer nature to culture, there’s always the nearby Everglades as well as world-class coral reefs for diving just south of Miami.

If your work involves domestic issues, you will find them in Miami, which is the city of the future in ways both good and bad. Along with our glitz you will find us on the cutting edge of today’s and tomorrow’s political and social issues: immigration, environmental (think “Everglades restoration”), medical (think “retirees”), and all the social questions that big cities produce.

Housing costs tend to be high, but many other living costs are low and there is no state income tax. The University has, however, taken bold steps to address the housing issue by offering new hires a deal in which the university will subsidize part of your home purchase in exchange for a proportionate share in the equity when you sell, an offer that puts many nice homes within reach.

9. Weather

Miami’s weather is glorious for almost half the year; variable for another chunk, and miserable in the dog days of summer and early Fall. The good news is that much (but not all) of the miserable part comes when the law school is not in session, so you can escape if you choose. When the weather is nice, our central courtyard, the “bricks,” becomes the social center of the community, a place where students and faculty mingle between classes. Even office rats like me end up looking healthier than the wan, pale, parka-clad figures I see huddling on the Boston subway. For those with outdoor ambitions, you can live on Miami Beach, or just enjoy the sea view from a balcony in a tower apartment in downtown Brickel.

10. The revolution is coming

The next five years will see a radical transformation in the faculty, and perhaps the style, of University of Miami School of Law. We have at least six open jobs at present, with the likelihood of much more turnover as faculty retire (couples welcome!). The next three to five years’ appointments, including that of our next Dean, stand a good chance of determining the future course of the school for a generation to come.

At present we have only ten full-time faculty under 50, and only fourteen between 50 and 60; the remaining 17 are over sixty, including some very much over sixty. Our hiring is resolutely in compliance with the age discrimination in employment act (of our last six entry-level hires, two were very experienced lawyers well over 40), but given the overall composition of the entry-level market, it is likely that this age profile will change dramatically in the next few years.

What this means for our new hires is that they will find themselves at the heart of their new community — and have a chance to lead it — much earlier in their careers than they might otherwise. The coming turnover in the faculty, coupled with this year’s Dean search introduces an element of uncertainty about what we’ll be like in the future that may not be to everyone’s taste. Fortunately, the faculty is engaged in a strategic planning exercise this year which means that any new hires will be spared that chore at least. At present, the law school enjoys a nearly unique chance to reinvent itself, and people with ideas and energy should find all the breathing room and opportunity they want. I hope that people reading this will come join us in building something wonderful.

All that is very well, but honesty compels me to say that there are also some reasons why not everyone may be happy here. Indeed, there are three main reasons why you should not teach here:

1. Weather

If skiing is your passion, and neither waterskiing nor snorkeling are substitutes, then Miami may make you sad. It’s hot and very humid here from July until the heat breaks sometime in October or September. That means you can have up to three and half months when it’s not much fun to go outside. Plus, occasionally we get weather with a name. But we don’t get snowstorms, avalanches, earthquakes, random tornadoes, floods, or mudslides. If you want immunity to natural disasters, move to Rhode Island.

2. Language

Many people in South Florida speak Spanish as their first (and often only) language. The campus is Anglo — although some of the bilingual staff and students will speak Spanish to each other — so this is not a work issue. But it is a life issue: you will hear lots of Spanish in the stores and on AM radio. If you are the sort of person who can’t cope with foreign languages around you, there’s a strong chance you will not be happy here. I don’t speak Spanish, and I only found it a noticeable handicap for my first few weeks here, when I would get lost driving around and stop at a store for directions, then wait impatiently while they went to find the English-speaker. It’s a non-issue today unless I happen to go bargain shopping for some exotic household good, and indeed contributes to Miami’s cosmopolitan vibe.

3. Geography

It’s flat here — no mountains (and houses have no basements). More seriously, it’s also far from many of the legal nerve centers. If you’re doing national work and you are having meetings related to it, odds are the meeting will neither be in Miami nor even within driving distance. That means air travel. And while we have great direct air connections to most of the world and the law school is generous with travel support, we do not have a working time machine. Given the post-9/11 security regime at airports, and the increasing vagaries of air travel generally, it is rarely possible to have a meeting in New York or Washington without spending the night out of town. That can mean having to reschedule a class (something we allow for good causes), which is a pain for you and even more of one for your students. It certainly means that doing national committee work is always a substantial time commitment. It is almost 500 miles to the state line, and then where are you? Somewhere between Tallahassee and Moultrie, Ga.

As I said at the outset of this essay, this year I am not on either our entry-level or lateral hiring committees. But if you find the positives outweigh the negatives and have an interest in coming here, I’d still be happy to try to answer any further questions you might have, either in comments to this entry or by private email.

SWAT Team Takes Over Part of the Campus Today

Oh what fun.

University of Miami Police, in conjunction with the City of Coral Gables Police Department, will hold an all-day training exercise on the northeast section of UM’s Coral Gables campus from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, July 28. The exercise will involve mock explosions, helicopters, SWAT teams, and multiple response teams from most local municipalities, which are expected to send teams to participate. In addition, Doctors Hospital will participate in the exercise by offering simulated on-site medical assistance to actors posing as victims.

Access to Mahoney/Pearson Residential College will be limited to authorized personnel only on the day of the mock exercise. If you must be on campus in the vicinity of this mock exercise-which will take place between Stanford Drive and Granada Boulevard and from Ponce de Leon Boulevard to Campo Sano Avenue-please display your ‘Cane Card. If you must enter this area, you will be asked to furnish UM-issued identification.

New Endowed Scholarship Fund

I don’t blog most donations to the law school — this isn’t a PR blog — but these guys are longtime supporters of the local NPR station and it feels like I’ve heard their sponsorship announcement a million times on morning radio. It’s nice to learn they are our alumni and that they remember us fondly and that they are supporting our students.

University of Miami School of Law Alumni Support Scholarships for Students: University of Miami alumni Jay Shapiro and Robert Weissler presented the School of Law with a generous gift for an endowed scholarship recently. Shapiro and Weissler are shareholders at the Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson Endowed Scholarship Fund.” Each scholarship will be provided to a rising second year and third year student based on merit and financial need on an annual basis.

The scholarships will be named the “Jay B. Shapiro/Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson Endowed Scholarship Fund” and the “Robert I. Weissler/Stearns Weaver Miller Weissler Alhadeff & Sitterson Endowed Scholarship Fund.” Each scholarship will be provided to a rising second year and third year student based on merit and financial need on an annual basis.

“I’m very pleased to be able to give something back to the UM Law School, to which I owe a large part of my professional success,” stated Shapiro. “It is important for all UM law alumni to support the law school in its efforts to attract and retain the highest caliber students.”

“Our firm’s many graduates of UM Law School exemplify the exceptional quality and creativity in the legal work that is afforded to our clients,” said Weissler. “I am committed to support and financially provide for the success of future graduates of the Law School.”

Messrs Shapiro and Weissler, we thank you.

UM Offers Course on 'Ethical Hacking'

So much of what we hear from the UM administration about computers is scare stories, so it’s nice to see something different:

Ethical hacking and countermeasures course

The goal of the ethical hacker is to help an organization take preemptive measures against malicious attacks by attacking a computer system within the legal limits. This class will immerse the student in an interactive environment where they will be shown how to scan, test, hack, and secure their own systems. Students will learn how intruders escalate privileges and what security steps can be taken. Students will also learn about intrusion detection, policy creation, social engineering, DDoS attacks, buffer overflows, and virus creation. This five-day course, running from Monday, July 30 to Friday, August 3, prepares individuals for the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker Exam 312-50 and will be held at the Blue Lagoon campus. For information, call 305-284-2100 or e-mail f.freire@miami.edu.

But since when do we have a “Blue Lagoon Campus”?

What's Doing (Reptiles Dept.)

I just want to thank all the people who have kept the comments lively at The Buck Doesn’t Even Stop By For Visits while I’ve been somewhat distracted by work.

If I know what’s good for me, blogging will be light for the next few days — I have to write an exam and do major surgery to a paper.

The world certainly is doing its best, however, to be very distracting.

For one thing, there’s a good-sized scaly toothed reptile back in the campus lake. I saw about seven eights of it, but not the snout which it had lodged under something at the bank of the lake, so I don’t know if it’s a gator or a croc, but I’d guess gator. The whatever-it-was had beached the front of its face, nose first, only 100 feet or so from the Rathskeller where students were happily boozing it up on a Friday afternoon, but there was a campus cop keeping the passing students from getting too close. He didn’t seem to be enjoying the job, and gave a rather grim smile when I observed that the gator had a police escort.

Previous posts on our toothy friends include Crocodile Reminder, Crocodile Coincidence, What? A Croc?, Croc II !, Cold Front Flushes Out UM Croc, Fair Warning (Alligator Dept.), Who Gets Custody of the Alligator ? and of course Exam Question: Is an Alligator a Deadly Weapon?. It’s not an obsession, really, just a fact of life.

Speaking of reptiles, the DoJ has done another Friday evening document dump.

Speaking of sinking your teeth into things, or maybe it’s man-bites-dog, don’t miss Army Officer Accuses Generals of ‘Intellectual and Moral Failures’ an amazing article about a Lt. Col. attacking his superiors (generically, not by name) in a prestigious army journal for incompetence and dishonesty in their prosecution of the Iraq war and for misleading Congress about it.

“After going into Iraq with too few troops and no coherent plan for postwar stabilization, America’s general officer corps did not accurately portray the intensity of the insurgency to the American public,” he writes. “For reasons that are not yet clear, America’s general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of Iraq’s government and security forces and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq.”

Yingling said he decided to write the article after attending Purple Heart and deployment ceremonies for Army soldiers. “I find it hard to look them in the eye,” he said in an interview. “Our generals are not worthy of their soldiers.”

Next to last, but not least, the Bush administration war on the rule of law continues apace with its latest attempt to make it impossible for lawyers to provide meaningful or effective representation for Guantanamo detainees. I would write about this but words fail me to describe the petty viciousness of this idea and the manifest hostility to the very due process that I would have thought was one of the great achievements of our civilization. The NYT has an editorial which says part of what needs saying; some more of it is found in this Conversation with Gitmo Lawyer on Proposed DOJ Rules. Don’t look to the Supreme Court to do anything fast — in tangentially related cases, it’s not rushing the process, which is Shakespearian in its delay:

“For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,”

Meanwhile, only the willful blindness of one or two men (Bush, Chaney, take your pick), ensures that the US Army will continue to bleed itself dry in Iraq, to no visible benefit to anyone outside the White House. I understand that our departure could lead to horrors — and think we have a duty to mitigate them, especially be admitting a very large number of refugees here in order to protect all the people who have helped us. If there were a plausible scenario by which staying on would allow us to enact the ‘Pottery Barn rule’ (you broke it, you pay for it), I could support that. But the occupation is as big a failure as the initial military campaign was a success. No one arguing for staying on has a winning strategy that they can articulate other than “retreat is not an option”.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.

Dean Dennis Lynch To Step Down In a Year

This letter just went out the whole law school community (I added the photo):

To: Law School Community

From: Dean Dennis O. Lynch

---

Today I announced to the faculty that the 2007-2008 academic year will be my final one as dean. These past eight years have been the most challenging and rewarding of my professional life. We have hired very talented young faculty, expanded clinical programs for our students, significantly increased student scholarships, and almost doubled the Law School’s endowment. I am grateful to my faculty colleagues for their shared dedication to the quality of the education we provide our students. I want to thank the staff for all that you do to assure the success of our students. I firmly believe that the University of Miami has one of the most talented and socially committed student bodies in the country. We have a wonderfully supportive alumni community who have demonstrated their faith in the School’s educational mission by their generous support of the Capital Campaign. It has been a privilege to serve as your dean. I am looking forward to my final year as dean, to rejoining the faculty as a professor, and to being back in the classroom with our students.

Going Places?

This little item tucked at the end of a column in Sunday’s Herald certainly has people talking,

LEGAL MOVE?

The University of Miami is considering moving its School of Law — from the Coral Gables campus to downtown Miami.

Law school Dean Dennis O. Lynch says developers approached UM. “It’s at the earliest stage of conversation,” Lynch says. But, he acknowledges, “we are crammed.” The law school, founded in 1928, has 1,333 students and 173 faculty and employees — 69 full time, 104 part time. UM has plans for a five-story building adjacent to the law school, with the law school taking four floors, but no groundbreaking is set.

It’s possible to imagine how a big modern building downtown near the courthouse might be fancy enough to justify moving off our beautiful campus in Coral Gables, but I think it would be prohibitively expensive.

The problem is not just that it would have be enough bigger than what we have to justify the move, plus have enormous parking, but that since this sort of a location would be cut off from both the Coral Gables campus and the med school, we’d need even more space to replicate many of the campus amenities we’d be losing (like the courtyard which is our social and faculty/student center, access to the gym, the campus dining area, on-campus child care). And I wonder what it would do to student and even faculty recruiting. This student has a pretty negative reaction, and as things stand I can’t blame him.

The faculty only heard about this on Thursday, and it was presented much as reported in the Herald — an idea to study. It’s good that people are thinking outside of the box about how to improve the law school. And it’s good to think big. My first impression, though, is that unless there’s a ton more money out there to pay for this than I suspect, then this isn’t the right side of the box. And even then, I bet you could do a lot more for the school, for half the price, in other ways.

I especially admire whatever developer first floated the idea — it’s always smart to try to create a client. I wonder if instead of moving the school, maybe a downtown annex would make some sense — although, again, big issues would be parking and night time security. I certainly expect, though, that before we even decide if we want to move anywhere we will do some zero-based planning about what we would want to gain from a new facility.

It would be tragic to do this wrong, and very hard and, I expect, real expensive to do it right, which is why I have to suspect UM President Donna Shalala will be too smart to try to make it happen once the numbers are toted up.

Green Called on Account of Fear

E-mail from the UM Office of Public Safety, quoted in its entirety:

The UM Police Department had planned to support this weeks environmental initiatives with a “green day” on Wednesday, April 18th; UM patrol officers were logistically set to use only “green,” non-fossil fuel burning modes of transportation such as Segways, bicycles and GEMs (electric golf carts). However, due to increased security measures stemming from the recent events at Virginia Tech, the UM Police Department will be postponing this event.

(Despite this setback, the Green initiative seems real. I’ve noticed cops on Segways running around in the past week. Segways seem just the right size for campus walkways, although it seems I missed my chance to try one.)

As for fear, it could be worse: we’re not locking down the campus in fear of an umbrella.

Still a Rock Star

Bill Clinton came to town Thursday and gave the Spring Convocation address. It was a great performance. And given that Al Gore came by a day earlier and presented the “Inconvenient Truth”, it’s been a busy week.

Clinton’s facility with language and his ability to persuade an audience of his passionate belief never fails to impress, and today was no exception. (The audience interrupted with applause more than twenty times.) He spoke for about 45 minutes, then sat on stage in a nice upholstered armchair next to UM President Donna Shalala and answered some student questions that she had pre-selected.

Clinton’s main talk, which he said was an abbreviated from of a lecture he’s been giving around the world, centered around five questions that he said everyone should try to answer for themselves (everything that follows is summary or close paraphrase; but it’s not necessarily actual quotation unless I use quote marks):

1. What is the fundamental character of the 21st Century?

Many might say globalization, but “I prefer ‘interdependence.’”

2. It it a good or a bad thing?

Both. Many benefits - diversity, variety, exchange of ideas, economic development for the third world. But also some “not-so-good” aspects including (1) It’s unequal: great inequality (e.g. one billion people living on under $1 per day)
(2) It’s unstable: we may actually be less vulnerable today than in the 20th Century, but with modern communication/life more people feel the effects of hijackings and bombings
(3) It’s unsustainable: climate change is ongoing and we are depleting critical resources including water, soil, biodiversity, oil & natural gas, fisheries.

3. How should we change it?

Work from interdependence to integrated communities - work locally, nationally and eventually internationally. “The humanity we share … is more important than our differences”

4. How can we do that?

First, we need a security policy in a dangerous age.
Must deal with climate change. Climate change and avian flu are security issues.
Also need to understand that it is “never possible to kill, jail or occupy all of your adversaries.” (Applause)
Third, need a world with “more partners and fewer enemies” (Applause)

Here Clinton cited North Korea, [where the current administration has just conducted a return to a Clintonian policy] as an example of the advantages of talking.

Diplomacy, he said, is “always cheaper then going to war” (Applause)

Clinton then told several stories about making friends and doing good abroad: bringing aid to Indonesia after the tsunami, causing US popularity which had been much lower than bin Laden’s rise to eclipse him. (Applause) And about fixing broken markets in pharmaceuticals that allowed Indonesia to cut its spending on essential medicines.

But, Clinton warned, it’s not just foreign countries that need aid or need to het their houses in order. We also need “home improvement” or many will “wonder why we are taking care of others and not of our own” (Applause).

5. Who’s supposed to do all this?

Everyone. Everyone should give time or money as they are able (Applause)

President Clinton then detoured into a personal discussion of his role reversal with Senator Clinton (there was only very scattered applause at this point). She got elected just as he left office. I’ve become part of the NGO sector.

One project he’s pursued is lowering drug prices for the third world: in the Bahamas he was able by presenting suppliers with data about prices elsewhere to get them to lower costs for a year’s worth of generic anti HIV drugs from $3500 to $500. And in time, to $140 then $100 per year. Markets, he said, were not functioning properly. By arranging for purchases in bulk, by guaranteeing payment [and, he implied, by being Clinton], his foundation was able to get large price cuts. Similar successes in Rwanda and Malawi. The foundation will help buy drugs in many countries, but if they want more help, they must agree to strict structural conditions so aid will not be wasted by corruption or inefficiency.

[If I have the time, I’ll try to write up the second half of the presentation, the Q&A, some time tomorrow.]

We Have Great Students (and Alumni)

One of our recent LL.M. graduates, and a former student of mine, Dr. Daniel Schnabl, LL.M., has published a book with the imposing title of Die Anhörungsrüge nach § 321a ZPO. Gewährleistung von Verfahrensgrundrechten durch die Fachgerichte which apparently translates as “The Appeal for the Right to Be Heard According to § 321a of the German Code of Civil Procedure. The Guarantee of Basic Procedural Rights in the Courts.”

The right to be heard is one of the essential guarantees in court proceedings granted by Article 103 I of the German Basic Law. Daniel Schnabl examines the new Section 321a, which was changed as of January 1, 2005 and provides an additional safeguard for the right to be heard in the German Code of Civil Procedure and in other procedural codes. Thus the significance of this topic transcends the code of civil procedure. The author gives detailed answers to legal and constitutional issues which are related to this new regulation. In conclusion, he examines whether or not the current version of Section 321a of the German Code of Civil Procedure is compatible with the rule of real legal protection which ensues from the general right to have recourse to a court. The author received an award from the “Dr. Feldbausch-Stiftung” for this thesis.

I’m sure it’s just the start of a glittering academic career.

Crocodile Reminder

The natural Florida habitat and crocodiles at UM

Eight hundred to 1,000 wild American crocodiles live in the southern tip of the Florida peninsula; occasionally, one of these reptiles visits Lake Osceola on the Coral Gables campus. The University of Miami Police Department, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and other University administrators have been closely monitoring the on-campus crocodile situation over the past few years. Attempts have been made on several occasions-some successful-to capture and relocate individual crocodiles to more suitable off-campus habitats. In addition, crocodile barriers have been erected in several locations to impede the reptiles from coming on campus.


The real issue is that South Florida is a natural habitat for crocodiles. The more the crocodile population recovers from the brink of extinction and the more humans encroach on their natural habitat, the more instances there will be of human-crocodile interactions. Crocodiles are very mobile in South Florida waterways, so the number in Lake Osceola is constantly changing and sometimes at zero. The good news is that if you show them respect and keep your distance, there is no need to worry. American crocodiles are a rather shy species of reptiles. So long as the University community respects the crocodiles’ space and doesn’t attempt to feed or harass them, there should be no problems. There is no record of the American crocodile attacking a human in Florida. Crocodiles are a federally protected, endangered species, and feeding, harassing, or otherwise harming them is a felony. If you see a crocodile on shore on campus, keep your distance and call UM Police at 305-284-1105. Further information on the American crocodile is available at www.myfwc.com, www.miami.edu/police, or through the UM Police Crime Prevention Office at 305-284-1105.

Shorter UM Reminder: Do not pet the crocodiles.

Bar Camp Miami Tonight

The UM School of Communications will be hosting Bar Camp Miami tonight.

I’m looking forward to it.

UM International Arbitration Symposium Tomorrow

On January 20, 2006, the University of Miami School of Law International & Comparative Law Review presents a symposium entitled “Dealing With Challenges in International Commercial Arbitration: A Comparative Approach.” Professor Jan Paulsson will give a keynote speech to explain the use of public policy and the notion that a “transnational” public policy could begin to affect enforcement of arbitral awards. Additionally, the other presenters will focus on specific decisions that explicate the judicial climate of their jurisdictions.

International Commercial Arbitration (ICA) is one of the fastest growing fields in crossborder dispute resolution. With the growth of ICA, a transnational public policy (TPP) has emerged that has great potential to change the way businesses and practitioners evaluate the desirability of international arbitration. In this symposium, the International and Comparative Law Review at the University of Miami (ICLR) brings together experts from Europe, Latin America and the United States to consider the classic text on the role of public policy (the New York Convention), the emergence and viability of TPP, and the important trends of which practitioners need to be aware. Other important topics in ICA will be discussed, including anti-suit injunctions, attachment of property, drafting and practical considerations.

Fuller details, including the program, are in this .pdf file. Sounds like a great event if you have any interest at all in this admittedly somewhat specialist subject.

Back in the day, when I was working in a US law firm office in London, most of what I did was international arbitration. It was interesting and highly varied work, with a very diverse set of clients from all over. And now Miami is emerging as a regional center for international arbitration in the Americas.

The Anarchist in the Library: The Revival

For a while I thought that the person who perpetually moved the Anarchy and Order (or is it Order and Anarchy) from the proper place on the shelf at the UM Law Library, had graduated. The book had been in place during the whole of the first semester this year. The only movement was when the entire shelf of books was “shifted” to make room for more books and use empty space.

Well, I was wrong to jump to that conclusion.

The book was removed, once again, from its proper slot in the call number order of books on the shelf, and gently placed on it side a shelf below. Once again, I replaced it.

Previous related post: Library Performance Art.