Adjunct Law Prof Blog

Tenure Application-Law School

Santa Clara Law Professor recently posted both is tenure application and his application to be promoted to full professor online. It is available here. I must admit that I have never seen this type of information before and I assume that many readers also have not seen this type of material. While I understand the need to keep personnel type information confidential, posting information like this is helpful for comparision purposes. 

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Education Law Jobs

School Law Jobs
Job Title	Employer	Job Location
Special Education Attorneys	Harbottle Law Group	Orange County, California
Associate Attorney	Semple, Farrington & Everall, P.C.	Denver, Colorado
Associate Counsel	Baltimore City Public Schools	Baltimore, Maryland
Deputy Counsel	Baltimore City Public Schools	Baltimore, Maryland
IDEA Complaint Investigators	Oregon Department of Education	Salem, Oregon
School Board Attorney	Portsmouth Public Schools	Portsmouth, Virginia

Unemployment Claimant Cannot Rely on Erroneous Advice From DOL

Matter of Smith v. Commissioner of Labor,____A.d3d____(3d Dept. Aug. 2, 2012), was untimely. The claimant alleged that he was given erroneous advice from staff at the DOL and that is why he filed late. The court held that did not estop the government from claiming that the appeal was not timely filed.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Lists of Law Faculty Who Blog

An interesting article about the scope of law professor blogging which is full of carts can be downloaded here. They list Adjunct Law Prof Blog, but they did not list the articles that cited us. 

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Using employer’s computer to store sexually explicit results in recommendation the employee be terminated

 

Human Resources Admin. v. Vila, OATH Index No. 1578/08

OATH Administrative Law Judge Julio Rodriguez recommended termination for a paralegal aide who used the agency computer to store thousands of unauthorized images and video clips, many of which were sexually explicit, as well as other programs and files.

The evidence also showed that the individual was insubordinate and committed multiple time and leave violations.

 

Reprinted by permission New York Public Personnel Law

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Judicial review of disciplinary determination of guilt is limited to considering whether the determination is supported by substantial evidence

 

Barthel v Town of Huntington, 2012 NY Slip Op 05738, Appellate Division, Second Department

The Director of the Department of Human Services of the Town of Huntington adopted the findings of a hearing officer, made after a hearing pursuant to Civil Service Law §75, which the employee guilty of certain disciplinary charges and terminated the individual's employment with the Town.

The Appellate Division dismissed the individual’s appeal on the merits, explaining that the standard of judicial review of an administrative determination made after a trial-type hearing required by law, at which evidence is taken, “is limited to considering whether the determination was supported by substantial evidence.”

In this instance, said the court, there is substantial evidence in the record to support the determination that the individual was guilty of the subject disciplinary charges.

As to the penalty imposed, termination, the Appellate Division found that dismissal “was not so disproportionate to the offense as to be shocking to one's sense of fairness,” citing Ellis v Mahon, 11 NY3d 754; Rutkunas v Stout, 8 NY3d 897, Waldren v Town of Islip, 6 NY3d 735 and Pell v Board of Education, 34 NY2d 222.

The decision is posted on the Internet at:

 

http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reporter/3dseries/2012/2012_05738.htm

Reprinted by permission New York Public Personnel Law

Mitchell H. Rubinstein

Foreign Law Professor Faces Jail For Having Sex With Student In Exchange For A Good Grade

A Singapore law professor has been charged with having sex with a student twice in exchange for a good grade. What is interesting is that the professor faces jail and a large fine. Here in the states, the professor would only be fired. Additional details can be found in the Straits Times

Above the Law as a video of this professor where he proclaims his innocence.

MItchell H. Rubinstein

 

Hat Tip: Above The Law

Dueling Law Schools: La Verne vs. UC-Irvine

The Am Law Daily posted "A Tale of Two (California) Law Schools" by Matt Leichter yesterday.  Leichter compares the two law schools most recently receiving ABA provisional accreditation, University of La Verne and University of California at Irvine, and concludes:

There are two lessons the University of La Verne and UC-Irvine provide us. The first is that there is no "responsible" way to create a law school that doesn't involve creating unemployed graduates. Either the law school will take in students it knows will either not find law jobs or won't even pass a bar exam (La Verne), or it will force another law school somewhere else to do the same (UC-Irvine).

The second and more significant lesson, which is more closely associated with UC-Irvine than La Verne: We are slowly approaching the endgame for public law schools. Once state governments no longer consider training lawyers a public good, by cutting subsidies, public law schools mutate into vestigial state structures whose agendas are orthogonal to any public purpose, unless using their students' tuition for other university programs counts. They should either be privatized or closed.

I am not entirely convinced by Leichter's arguments but I find them to be interesting and worth further thought.  I also learned a new word -- "orthogonal."

Craig Estlinbaum