Christopher Edley Sees Silver Lining in Law Firms’ Job Crunch

The Shark blog, May 11, 2009 by Petra Pasternak
http://theshark.typepad.com/weblog/2009/05/berkeley-law-comes-out-with-its-list-of-helpful-whatnots-for-students-and-alums-in-a-financial-pickl.html#more

Edley predicts the bigger crunch will come next year, when he says he expects fewer private sector openings for second-years and for students earning their JDs in 2010. Students who may have—in more robust economic times—hopped and skipped off to big firm gigs will instead be taking a closer look at their options in public interest work. “This is useful for opening their eyes to other forms of practice,” Edley said.

John Yoo Calls for a Moderate Supreme Court Justice

The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 10, 2009 by John Yoo
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/currents/20090510_Obama_needs_a_neutral_justice.html

Obama could make a pick based solely on race or sex—though it’s not clear why the most empathetic judges are minorities or women—to please parts of his coalition. But if the president wants to secure the success of his economic, political, and national-security objectives, he should remember FDR’s example and choose a judge who believes in the right of the president and Congress, not the courts, to make the nation’s policies.

Stephen Rosenbaum, Chris Kutz, Susan Gluss Respond to Questions about Professor Yoo

The Daily Californian, May 8, 2009 by Katie Meyer (Corrected May 11)
http://www.dailycal.org/article/105632/professor_john_yoo_could_face_disbarment

“One can argue about the appropriateness of someone teaching in a law school who has expressed those interpretations of the law,” Rosenbaum said.

“The dean is always mindful of the interplay between academic freedom, which is the right to express an opinion no matter how vile or odious, and the need for law professors to abide by the highest ethical and professional standards,” Gluss said.

“I do not believe that the memos are professionally adequate statements about the law, nor did the Justice Department—they repudiated all the memos written by John Yoo,” [Kutz] said.

David Sklansky Explains Shortcomings of Justice Department’s Public Integrity Unit

The New York Times, May 8, 2009 by Charlie Savage
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/politics/08justice.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print\

“What you are having is a kind of organizational failure,” said David A. Sklansky, a Berkeley law professor and former federal prosecutor. Mr. Sklansky said the pressure to bring cases coupled with the erosion of “the institutional memory of the unit and the availability of prosecutors with seasoned, detached judgment” had created an ideal environment for mistakes like the disclosure violations.

Robert Cole Supports Campus Inquiry into Ethics of Legal Memos

Associated Press, May 7, 2009 by Terence Chea
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ca_interrogation_memos;_ylt=AmVhlsSSV22c8A8hUodFphHZn414

Robert Cole, a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s law school, said he believes the university should conduct its own investigation to determine if Yoo’s work for the Bush administration violated the campus’ faculty code of conduct.
“The university has got to protect its integrity,” Cole said. “Every professor we put in the classroom has to have professional competence and ethical integrity.”

Jonathan Simon Deplores Failings of “Tough on Crime” Rhetoric

UC Berkeley NewsCenter, May 7, 2009 by Cathy Cockrell
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/05/07_crime2.shtml

“When we say that we want government to be tough on crime, we mean that we want prison sentences to be long and the rhetoric to be sharp. But we don’t actually hold government accountable for reducing crime. If we did, we wouldn’t put up with prisons that produce 70 percent recidivism rates. We would long ago have said ‘Why are we building and supporting these prisons if they’re failing most of the time?’ Instead we’ve been satisfied with the rhetoric of toughness, and an emotional appeal to solidarity with the victim and disparaging disdain for the offender. We’ve taken government off the hook.”

Chris Kutz Notes Problems with Privately Funded University Research

The Daily Californian, May 6, 2009 by Carol Yur
http://www.dailycal.org/article/105588/increased_role_of_private_funding_concerns_some_ca

One concern with privately funded research is that companies want immediate gains, which may conflict with the university’s interests, said Christopher Kutz, a Boalt Hall School of Law professor and vice chairman of the campus’s Academic Senate. “There are some special concerns about private corporate funding having to do with short-term profit interest,” he said. “Finding an intersection with short-term interests with the university’s interest can be challenging, but I think it’s also possible.”