Buckingham, D'Angelo, and Vaughn on Law School Rankings and Research Deans

Three of my colleagues to be at Suffolk have posted a new empirical piece on SSRN.  Richard Buckingham, Diane D'Angelo, and Susan Vaughn have posted Law School Rankings, Faculty Scholarship, and Associate Deans for Faculty Research.  Here is the abstract:

The authors contend that a boom in law school rankings has encouraged many U.S. law schools to take new measures to encourage and publicize faculty scholarship. The establishment of associate deans for faculty research is one such measure. The authors conducted a study to determine the number of law schools that have these dean-level positions. They argue that many law schools have established these positions as part of their efforts to improve their standing in the increasingly important rankings. 

The authors begin with a historical overview of the original law school model and discuss how that model evolved over time. They focus on how those changes led to a competitive law school market that helped lay the groundwork for U.S. News & World Report and other law school rankings. They then explore numerous alternative ranking methodologies and conclude with a study of ABA-accredited law schools that have appointed associate deans for faculty research.

The authors have kind words for the assistance of our own Peerless Leader, Prof. Caron, in accumulating data on the institution of research deanships.  I also note that one such associate dean for faculty research is blogger extraordinaire Mike Madison of Madisonian.net.  Note, however, that when Mike is the research dean his picture is at shown at left.  When he is on his own web site, he is as shown at right.  Just keep that in mind.

[Jeff Lipshaw]