Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Readers Follow Dan to HuffPo

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Huffington Post Passes WashingtonPost.com In Unique Visitors In September: Nielsen. More data at Editor & Publisher

I had no idea Dan was that popular….

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Enhancing Peace and Security

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Bloomberg.com, Bush Preemptive Strike Doctrine Under Review, May Be Discarded.

As I said the other day in Obama Wins Nobel Prize for Not Being Bush,

Best case for the award I can come up: Obama has moved away from the Bush administration policy of pre-emptive self defense. That indeed does contribute significantly to world peace. But it's not noted in the citation, except maybe by implication. Plus, have we officially repudiated the unilateralist elements of the 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States yet?

Glad to see this is on the way.

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Hard Times at Ave Maria Law (Updated)

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

AveWatch reports on Ave Maria Law's latest troubles as it settles into Naples, Florida: Declining LSATs.

This news comes on the heels of a very significant legal victory by former Ave Maria School of Law professor Stephen Safranek who accepted a settlement offer in his October 2007 wrongful termination suit against Ave Maria moneyman and controlling power Tom Monaghan, the Ave Maria Foundation, the Law School, and former AMSL Dean and President Bernard Dobranski — see Safranek Wins Settlement from Ave Maria and Monaghan for details.

Update: A reader points me to Ave Maria Law School Settles Into SW Florida which includes the school's own more cheerful account of its current class (2009, which would be the year after the last summarized in the article linked above):

“We had record applications and the credentials of our students have gone up at the same time that we increased class size,” Dean Milhizer said. “Average LSAT scores went up over the previous year. In terms of selectivity, we admitted less than half of the students who applied which is the first time we've ever been that selective.”

The LSAT scores and grade point averages of the incoming class “increased by significant numbers,” according the the law school's director of external affairs, John Knowles.

There are more than 200 new students at the school and the class also has its highest percentage of women to date, the dean said.

Missing from this account, however, is hard data on grades/scores. In due course they'll be reported the ABA, I suppose.

Posted in Law School | 1 Comment

UM Law May Have a New Building Much Sooner than You’d Think

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Law School to Share New Building With Business School in Fall 2011 (from the Res Ipsa, our student newspaper).

The building is permitted (that's very significant in Coral Gables!) and the elegant outside is already designed. It's planned to be between the Lowe Art Gallery and the existing Business School — a nice part of campus. We'd get three floors built to our specifications, our own entrance, and some shared common space adding up to about 60% of the square footage of our current plant. And the best part is that all of this would be an add-on to our current building, solving our space crisis pending construction of our new hoped-for mega-building on the South-Eastern side of campus…a plan which still requires some substantial fund-raising.

The ink is not yet affixed to this deal, and devils can always lurk in the details, but at first glance this looks like a truly wonderful development for the University of Miami School of Law. And it explains where we'll find suitable office space to house all those new faculty members we plan to hire in the next few years.

My only worry is that this new building will reduce the space on campus for the annual Beaux Arts Festival of Art, as I think it will occupy part of that grassy expanse.