Outside Counsel

Visiting Memphis. This is a city more people should see. It is true, as Craig Finn tells us, that everything is fried but it also seems to be true that this is a city that is easy to fall in love with.

// posted by Bill @ 10:29 PM 0 comments

As mentioned infra I am a member of an ABA's Law School Accreditation Committee's Site Visit Team. A big part of the process is the self-evaluation survey the school submits. Unsurprisingly this document is largely written in the passive voice, and it is full of jargon and the sort of acronyms that amount to an insider's code, but with persistence a narrative emerges. It seems to me that the actual visit will resemble a deposition, which is also a storytelling process. 

// posted by Bill @ 1:42 PM 0 comments

Some of the best writing I've ever done. 

 https://www.dailypublic.com/articles/12232014/lawrence-brose-sentenced-probation

https://www.dailypublic.com/articles/12162014/lawrence-brose-federal-sentencing-guidelines

// posted by Bill @ 3:57 PM 0 comments

 Through the good offices of A's late law partner Diane Bosse I find myself a member of a site visit team for the American Bar Association's Law School Accreditation Committee. Along with six others I'll be spending a very busy few days at a school which I am not going to identify reviewing whether the school continues to meet the standards set by the ABA. Over the summer I went to the training, which was kind of overwhelming. I expect the visit will be more so. At the training we were told that the accreditation criteria for diversity, equity and inclusion were under review as a consequence of recent Supreme Court jurisprudence (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ) and "recent Executive Orders and the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague” letter dated February 14, 2025." We are presently advised that our team will not be reporting on the school's DEI efforts. 

Naturally, I have thoughts, but my thoughts are not relevant to the assignment I accepted. However, I will say that in my view it is entirely inappropriate for Attorney General Pam Bondi to threaten to have the ABA's accreditation authority pulled if it doesn't scrap DEI standards outright.  

// posted by Bill @ 10:21 AM 0 comments

I know a lot of serious political science types disliked Nate Silver, but I found Five Thirty Eight generally useful. It changed hands a couple of times, and ABC News had it last. It's been shuttered now, but I am keeping the link on the sidebar for the time being

// posted by Bill @ 7:55 AM 0 comments

For a few years a couple of other Buffalo Spree writers and I did an annual Academy Awards predictions column. It was fun to write, but looking back on it I am somewhat surprised that the Oscars don't really provide the sort of insight into the zeitgeist that I'd have thought. That said, it's interesting to consider this year's nominees as cultural signifiers. 

•  Emilia Perez 
• A Complete Unknown 
• Conclave
•  Nickle Boys 
• I'm Still Here
•  The Substance 
• Dune, Part Two 
• Wicked 
• Anora 
• The Brutalist 

What are we to make of this list?

// posted by Bill @ 11:16 AM 0 comments