Ethics

Dean Search Committee Chair:  We believe that the Committee has brought to you three outstanding decanal candidates.  The first, Hillary Clintlock, is a Yale Law grad.  She started her career at a law firm and then spent a considerable amount of time in government work.  Her scholarly interests include health law and election law.

The second candidate is Barry Orama.  Orama is a Harvard Law grad and was President of the Harvard Law Review.  He has spent his career in community organizing.  His scholarship focuses on state and local government law as well as international relations.

The final candidate is Jon Edmonds, a graduate of the University of North Carolina Law School.  He has spent his career in private practice as a plaintiff's lawyer.  His scholarship relates to torts, civil procedure, and poverty law.

I'd like to open this up to some discussion.

Faculty Member (Edmonds supporter): Edmonds is an intriguing decanal candidate.  He really seemed to care about the financial plight of our students and all of the debt they're taking on.  I think he's right that we need to come up with more financial aid for our students. I also liked what he said about beefing up career services to make sure all of our graduates get well-paying jobs. That would be great!

Faculty Member (Orama supporter):  That's all very nice.  But how is he going to pay for all of that?  He said he is going to get the money from our wealthy alum.  But our wealthy alum aren't going to give enough money to make a real difference in financial aid.  It's unrealistic.  We just don't have those resources.  If we dedicated that much to financial aid, we'd adversely impact the other things that we need to do as a law school. 

I like Orama.  He said that he would improve our image throughout the legal academy.  He thinks he can boost our reputation score in U.S. News substantially!  And I think he can do it.  The guy is so personable.  Can you imagine how people will react when they hear him talk at conferences?  Our school will get quite the buzz.  And plus, our school could sure use some more diversity.  We could really make some headway with an African-American dean.

Faculty Member (Clintlock supporter):  I think you're both out to lunch.  Clintlock is the only one with any real experience in legal education: her husband used to be the dean of Harvard Law School.  I can only imagine the stuff that she must have learned, given the complicated politics of that job.  Plus, after hearing her talk, she's the only one with a real scholarly agenda.  The other two just seem to be blowing a lot of hot air.  Orama's talk was rhetorically nice but lacking in detail; Edmonds was just polemical.  Clintlock has specific ideas about how to improve the school.  And as for the diversity thing, we've never had a woman as our dean.

Faculty Member (Professor Dennis Kennedy):  I think none of these folks are any good.  We need a revolutionary who won't simply reproduce the same old hierarchies.  The three candidates who have been brought to us are all a bunch of incrementalists! 

Dean Search Committee Chair: Thanks.  That's helpful.  Let's vote.