The study of law and of business are growing more closely entwined, according to a Financial Times story that says universities are offering more joint JD-MBA programs and Masters of Laws or LLM degrees focused on business. “As the big law firms increasingly behave like large global businesses, and the legal framework in which international businesses operate becomes increasingly complex,” says the Financial Times, interest in joint studies in law and business is increasing.

A Notre Dame law professor writes in Slate today that when a student in his torts class asked about Penn State’s potential liability in the sex abuse scandal, the professor decided to confront his own history: “So here it is: I am a victim of sexual abuse.”

Professor Mark McKenna’s article makes a particularly interesting point: “[I]t is a mistake to characterize Jerry Sandusky as some kind of subhuman monster. The inclination to do so is entirely understandable, for his behavior was unequivocally monstrous. But to describe him as a monster shields us from the reality that human beings have the capacity for tremendous evil.”

The article can be found here.

Planned maintenance on the state government’s electrical systems, which will take down the Supreme Court’s web operations over the weekend, has forced the Office of Bar Admissions to issue the list of who passed the July bar exam four hours earlier than usual.

The list is now available on the bar admissions site until 5pm. Traditionally the list goes up at 4 p.m., said Sally Lockwood, the office’s director. That rule goes back years, she said, because officials want applicants who don’t pass to have a weekend to process the disappointment “before they come here” to seek some kind of reprieve of having to take the test over again.

Lockwood said she learned last week that the state’s maintenance plan for “all things electrical” would shut down the Supreme Court’s site by 5 p.m., meaning the pass list would be up for only one hour until the following Monday. She said she asked the Supreme Court for permission to release the pass list early this year, and her request was granted.

Bar pass watchers, however, “should not get used to it,” she added, as the next bar pass list will likely go up again at 4 p.m.

The bar admissions office announcement about the time change is below: Read more »

Emory University has just issued this statement (below) about the release of Ilan Grapel, a law student in the class of 2012 who was being held in Egypt. A New York Times story is here.

Statement On the Release of Ilan Grapel, Emory Law Class of 2012

 Emory University has received confirmation that third-year law student Ilan Grapel has been released from detention in Egypt and is returning home to his family in New York.

 Since Ilan’s arrest on June 12, the University has remained in close contact with his family, and worked with them, with members of Congress, and with the U.S. Department of State, to ensure his safe treatment and facilitate his release.

“The Emory University community is grateful for the release of our student, colleague and friend, Ilan Grapel,” said Emory University President Jim Wagner. “We are thankful to the U.S. Department of State, as well as to the many attorneys and advisors, government officials and University staff who worked tirelessly to help secure his release.”

Ilan traveled to Egypt to complete an internship with St. Andrew’s Refugee Services, an organization dedicated to creating “a safe, holistic place for the isolated and vulnerable refugee communities in Egypt to come together for empowerment, education, community development, and socialservices.”

“Ilan is an active member of the Emory Law community,” said Emory Law Interim Dean Robert Schapiro. “We are of course overjoyed by his release.  We wish him and his family the very best as they reunite and have time together after these trying months apart. Emory Law’s students, faculty and staff look forward to welcoming Ilan back to campus.”

Ken Starr, the former judge, solicitor general and independent counsel, wrote in today’s New York Times that sessions of the U.S. Supreme Court should be televised.

“The benefits of increased access and transparency are many,” wrote Starr (who coincidentally is a player in an Oct. 4 Daily Report story on how legal threats slowed football conference expansion). “Democracy’s first principles strongly support the people’s right to know how their government works. This would seem to be underscored by this court’s stubborn insistence on freedom of communication in a democratic society.”

We can take cameras to the state appeals courts and, often, the state’s trial courts. But the federal courts are closed to cameras. What do you think of Starr’s arguments?

A note from the folks in Macon:

Mercer Law School Celebrates Constitution Day with Speaker Kathryn Abrams, Berkeley Law Professor

Noted constitutional law scholar Kathryn Abrams, a professor at University of California, Berkeley Law School, will present “Fear and Loathing in Maricopa County:  The Emotions of Immigration Regulation” at Mercer Law School’s Constitution Day celebration. The event will take place at noon on Friday, Sept. 16 in the moot courtroom of the Law School. It is free and open to the public.

Abrams will speak during the University’s observance of Constitution Day, a national holiday that commemorates the ratification of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. Established by federal law in 2004, Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution. The day is also designed to recognize those who have become U.S. citizens.

“Kathy Abrams is one of the most prolific, wide-ranging, and respected legal scholars of our time,” said Dean Gary Simson.  “The Law School is honored to have her speak on Constitution Day, the national holiday commemorating the signing of the document that has proven to be such a brilliant charter for our nation.  Professor Abrams is invariably thoughtful and creative in her work, and I am eager to hear her perspective on this constitutional law topic of great current interest.”

Abrams is a distinguished professor of law at Berkeley Law, University of California. Before entering academia, Abrams clerked for Judge Frank M. Johnson of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. She has taught at the law schools at Boston University, Indiana University-Bloomington, Harvard University, Northwestern University and Cornell University. She has been on the Berkeley faculty since 2001. Abrams teaches and writes on feminist jurisprudence, voting rights and constitutional law. Her scholarship has explored questions of employment discrimination, minority vote dilution, campaign finance, constitutional law, and law and the emotions, but it has focused most centrally on feminist jurisprudence. Within this area, Abrams has written on feminist methodology and epistemology, the jurisprudence of sexual harassment, and cultural and theoretical constructions of women’s agency.

A scene in the movie “Crazy, Stupid Love” prompted this tangential question: how realistic is it that a young lawyer studying for the bar exam (Emma Stone) would date her law firm mentor (in the movie, a particularly geeky Josh Groban)?  To be sure, the movie is a romantic comedy and not a documentary about life in a law firm, but I walked away from the theater thinking litigation-averse firms would frown on inter-office romance.  Apparently, I’m not the only one.  This 2004 story from Chicago Magazine tells how, once upon a time, an associate at Sidley Austin named Michelle Robinson was assigned to mentor a summer associate named Barack Obama.  A month later, he asked her out, but she demurred at first, the story said, because “she worried that it would be inappropriate.”

Emory Law Interim Dean Robert Schapiro announced on Monday two new appointments to the school’s administrative faculty.

Robert B. Ahdieh will serve as vice dean and Michael S. Kang as associate dean of the faculty for the 2011-2012 academic year, according to a school news release.. Read more »

Law graduates of the University of Georgia are set for a cushy lifestyle, according to recent rankings by The National Jurist.

UGA came in at No. 2 in the magazine’s rankings of the standard of living experienced by graduates of 50 law schools. In crafting its rankings, the magazine for law students considered median starting salaries, average debt payments, estimated federal and state taxes, and cost of living adjustments for the regions where graduates took jobs. Read more »

Emory University School of Law administrators announced late Monday that professor Robert A. Schapiro will begin serving as the school’s interim dean on July 1.

Schapiro joined the school’s faculty in 1995. A news release issued by the school, describes Schapiro as a “leading constitutional scholar, with particular expertise in federalism and state constitutional law.” Read more »