Another Hiring Coup for Harvard Law School?
Under the leadership of the beloved Elena Kagan, Harvard Law School continues to raid other schools for law professor talent. Word on the street is that another big hire is in the works. This past weekend, Dean Kagan crowed about her coup before a group of admitted students, saying it would be announced later this week.
We checked for news and gossip over at Leiter's Law School Reports, the definitive source for information about senior-level appointments in legal academia, but didn't see anything. Any guesses as to who will be snatched by HLS next?
In addition to the Harvard name (and endowment), Dean Kagan has other weapons in her arsenal for doing battle in the recruitment wars. She wooed Feldsuk with a million-dollar mansion, and Cass Sunstein with a million-dollar bab[e]. What fabulous prizes will Kagan bestow upon her latest hire?
Feel free to speculate and opine in the comments, or by email. Thanks.












Comments
First to care less.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 02:32 PM
BINGO!!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 02:32 PM
First
Posted by: Numero Uno | March 17, 2008 02:33 PM
Akhil Amar? Jack Balkin? Eugene Volokh? I'm trying to think of someone not currently at HLS who would be a big enough name to be newsworthy to a group of admitted students. Surely she wouldn't tell prospective students to stay tuned to hear about a big coup, only to unveil the hiring of a little-known Corporations professor from Wash. U.
Posted by: Anon | March 17, 2008 02:40 PM
ZZZZZZZZZZ........................
Posted by: Sleepy | March 17, 2008 02:50 PM
May not be a lateral hire. Eliot Spitzer is available.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 02:51 PM
Akhil Amar is going to Pepperdine... just wait and see
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 02:53 PM
Akhil Amar is going to Pepperdine... just wait and see
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 02:54 PM
JT will be joining the HLS faculty next fall.
Posted by: Justin Timberlake | March 17, 2008 02:54 PM
Janet Reno
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 02:58 PM
maybe Nussbaum has decided to accept Harvard's offer afterall. perhaps she wants to win her man back from her much younger rival.
Posted by: ILLinVA | March 17, 2008 02:58 PM
The coup is that she is going to show everyone her balls.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 02:59 PM
Rick Pildes? HLS needs an election law person and he visited a couple years ago.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:00 PM
Lessig.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:04 PM
Steven Calabresi
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:06 PM
Is there any real reason that HLS needs to deprive people who didn't get into HLS of quality professors?
Posted by: Anon | March 17, 2008 03:06 PM
Sandra Day O'Connor's wax dummy from Madame Tussauds
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:08 PM
Robert Post and/or Reva Siegel
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:08 PM
Silda Wall Spitzer
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:09 PM
I have heard rumors that Tim Wu has been being wooed.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:09 PM
I'm putting my money on Ayres (Yale), Herzog (Michigan), Merrill (Columbia), and/or Schanzenbach (Northwestern)
Posted by: ILLinVa | March 17, 2008 03:10 PM
Catharine MacKinnon, it's been rumored that this is her last semester here at Michigan and is going Harvard full time.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:12 PM
Volokh a big name? hahaha. Just because you have a blog does not make you a big name in academia.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:15 PM
Pildes would be great although he was given an offer back in 2004 that he turned down. Persily just visited last semester and would also be amazing.
We definitely need an election law person but I have heard rumors that Issacharoff might be visiting next fall so I would be surprised if we grabbed an election law person right now.
Lessig would be amazing. Maybe he wants to be back on the east coast since he has moved on to his whole "change congress" thing and decided not to run for the seat out in CA?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:17 PM
Tom Merrill and/or Henry Smith. Yale and Harvard are in a dogfight over both.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:20 PM
Rumor at Vandy is that Dean Jonah Goldberg and Prof. Lisa Bressman have flown to Cambridge multiple times to meet with Kagan. Goldberg will probably go.
Posted by: Vandy 3L | March 17, 2008 03:26 PM
Mackinnon is indeed the best bet; she was a visiting professor here in the fall, expressed her desire to come full time, and e-mails were sent to students in her class asking for feedback on her.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:26 PM
Steve Calabresi.
Posted by: Wildcat | March 17, 2008 03:26 PM
Another vote for MacKinnon. It's got to be a name that prospectives would recognize.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:32 PM
Please don't be Caleb Nelson...
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:32 PM
Calabresi is a good guess as he already lives in Boston and commutes to Chicago. If it is true, this would be a major blow for NU.
Posted by: ILLinVA | March 17, 2008 03:34 PM
Calabresi is a good guess as he already lives in Boston and commutes to Chicago. If it is true, this would be a major blow for NU.
Posted by: ILLinVA | March 17, 2008 03:35 PM
pildes is too close personally to revesz to jump from nyu.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:43 PM
I heard Harvard got JoPo
Posted by: PENN State 3L | March 17, 2008 03:44 PM
harold koh will be looking for a job soon...
Posted by: rmm | March 17, 2008 03:45 PM
It's Klarman. If not Klarman, it's Don Julio Rigo Phillipe of San Juan Marmaduke Escola de Law in Abilene, TX.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:48 PM
richard epstein?!?
Posted by: rmm | March 17, 2008 03:49 PM
I, too, think its Catherine MacKinnon
Posted by: anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:52 PM
Probably Catharine MacKinnon
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:54 PM
3:48 - Klarman already took tenure at HLS in january.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 03:57 PM
Why MacKinnon, though? My impression of MacKinnon is that she's from the Critical Legal Studies crowd that was popular in maybe the 90's but aren't as hot properties today. Or maybe there's a push this year to balance the conservative hires of the earlier Kagan period (e.g. Goldsmith, etc.)? Hence Sunstein and possibly another trendy liberal scholar?
Then again I'm not a legal academia maven so could be way off-base.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:01 PM
viet dinh, john yoo, bradford clark, ken starr, doug kmiec...
Posted by: rmm | March 17, 2008 04:04 PM
3:06: because we can, because we can. Ain't life great?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:09 PM
hey 4:04...its not an f'ing guessing game. do you have any reason to think its one of those people or are you just playing "name a legal academic"?
Posted by: anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:25 PM
4:09. Couldn't have said it better. Life is great.
Although I really hope it isn't MacKinnon (CLS is so passe) I think that is the smart money.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:29 PM
As a student at Michigan, reading this list of faculty members such as MacKinnon and Herzog who may well be leaving for Harvard and Leiter's blog on Howse leaving for NYU make me feel like a Florida Marlins fan.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:30 PM
MacKinnon is also an idiot. I really hope this isn't true.
Posted by: HLS TWO-EL | March 17, 2008 04:39 PM
4:09 and 4:29 = two law students who still think who you have for contracts matters when it comes to patrolling actual contracts for commas
To quote Prof. Jesus Quintana . . . "Laughable man, laughable."
Posted by: Donny | March 17, 2008 04:40 PM
I saw Henry Smith (Yale) in a Cambridge bookstore a few weeks ago.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:40 PM
Answer: Who cares? You know what would be great, if these schools hired professors who taught any course related to "how to practice law" instead of "my right wing nut job take on Property" or "my pinko commie leftist view on Con Law." Who cares.
It would also be great if they hired actual lawyers. I have always found it odd that the road to scholarly teaching rarely travels through the real world. This would explain the flood of green associates looking to share their useless feelings about theory and ideology. Who cares?
Posted by: Who cares? | March 17, 2008 04:44 PM
It's Ann Coulter.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:45 PM
4:40: no, I'm a partner [Harvard '99]. Just a snobby, asshole type. But then, I repeat myself. One day you will learn that crushing the little guy is fun every now and then, as long as you're not the one representing him.
Posted by: 3:06 | March 17, 2008 04:46 PM
At least the Florida Marlins won a couple of World Series', no such luck for Michigan.
Herzog is definitely Miggy Cabrera though.
Posted by: Primus | March 17, 2008 04:51 PM
4:46: I don't know which is funnier, your claim that you are a partner or your claim that you went to Harvard.
I surely hope Harvard partners have a better command of the english language.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:53 PM
4:46 - partner in under 10 years. I'm impressed. I thought the standard track for DUI work in Tuscaloosa was 12 years.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 04:54 PM
Because of stuff that happened last week, I am almost 100% certain its Merrill.
Posted by: HLS | March 17, 2008 04:56 PM
4:53/4: Amlaw 200 firm. I'm comfortable with who I am. You?
Posted by: 3:06 | March 17, 2008 05:02 PM
Amlaw 200? You made that up.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 05:08 PM
who cares?
Posted by: anon | March 17, 2008 05:09 PM
Merrill's admin class was so dreadful that 50% of the registrants dropped out in the first week. Those who remained regretted their decision.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 05:12 PM
2:40, I hardly think Volokh would be something to brag about. I had him for 1st Amendment when he visited HLS in 2003. He is a total hack. Waaay below the HLS par. I stopped going to his worthless class (basically the Barbri/black letter fare that apparently passes for teaching at UCLA) halfway through the semester, but I definitely made sure to return on the last day to fill out the form strongly recommending that he not be extended an offer to come to the school permanently. Agreed that Amar or Belkin would be a steal - but I guarantee they're not going anywhere.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 05:31 PM
NYU is just as good as Columbia.
Posted by: NYU 3L | March 17, 2008 05:34 PM
Harvard is doing a great service by offering these incredible incentives for top scholars. They make young brilliant professors at UVA work ridiculously hard to be the best teachers and scholars in their fields, without caring about current compensation. At UVA the professors have to be accessible and nice to their students, while publishing groundbreaking work. Then they get offered tenure at Harvard, get paid a ton of money, and become inaccessible and lazy. So the UVA students get the best professors in the world when they are at they are at the top of their game, and Harvard subsidizes the whole thing.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 05:59 PM
UVA is just as good as Fordham.
Posted by: UVA 3L | March 17, 2008 06:02 PM
Also, 5:59, they give us a running topic for at least one skit every Libel Show.
Posted by: Law School for the softball, beer, & UGs | March 17, 2008 06:09 PM
spitzer--he's going to have some time on his hands.
Posted by: emperor No. 9 | March 17, 2008 06:14 PM
Oliver Wendell Holmes. Man, Dean Kagan has skills.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 06:28 PM
unlikely it's mackinnon since her course is listed on michigan's course options for fall 08.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 07:02 PM
David Slansky
Posted by: Boalt | March 17, 2008 07:53 PM
Viet Dinh is speaking at HLS on Wednesday and receiving some sort of award. Coincidence?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 08:10 PM
It's Hillary Clinton.
Posted by: Joe Camel | March 17, 2008 08:27 PM
I hope it's McKinnon. Then she and Kagan can prove once and for all why Harvard will never regain #1 with their quasi-fascistic bullshit.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 08:32 PM
Pam Samuelson also visited last semester and had reviews solicited from her students.
Posted by: Special K | March 17, 2008 08:34 PM
Merrill is extremely smart and has a great, if understated, sense of humor. It's a shame Columbia is likely to lose him.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 08:53 PM
It's Obama. He's been rumored to be conceding the primary to Hildog any day now.
HLS Tenure >> Vice Presidency
Posted by: Suomynona | March 17, 2008 09:02 PM
People who took MacKinnon's course at HLS this year turned into apostles overnight. It was scary. I bet it's her, people speak of her like she's Jesus.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 09:16 PM
Why the Wash U hating at 2:40? Paredes is a great Corporations professor.
Posted by: anon | March 17, 2008 09:29 PM
its pamela Samuelson, the copyright guru, from Berkeley
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 09:43 PM
yeah, Paredes is a great corpo professor
Posted by: Paredes | March 17, 2008 10:31 PM
The only person who is likely to come and is a big name is MacKinnon. She and Sunstein are good friends and apparently she wanted to stay. Samuelson was a pretty mediocre teacher and while a great academic, is just not that well known.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 11:26 PM
Calibresi is a good bet. It can't be Epstein, can't be Volokh... can't be Pildes or Koh (haha)... Tom Merrill is a good choice except he wouldn't warrant the fanfare. O'Connor would make sense... but... it's an entirely different workload from the ceremonial position she has at W&M. Calibresi is my bet.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 11:55 PM
Maybe it will Zolt. Not a huge steal, but I don't want to take tax from anyone else.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 17, 2008 11:57 PM
MacKinnon is listed on the fall class schedule at Michigan. Herzog is not.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 01:07 AM
has anyone mentioned barak obama yet? i think it's barak.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 01:43 AM
IAN AYRES. suck it yale. we have the beautiful man candy now!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 01:58 AM
Class schedules can and will change. It's MacKinnon. Sorry Michigan.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 08:41 AM
Merrill is a good bet to leave Columbia for Harvard, I have also heard Curt Bradley is being pursued. Add Calabresi and you have a nice conservative trifecta.
Posted by: anonymous | March 18, 2008 08:50 AM
Howse is also on the Fall 2008 schedule at Michigan, and we all know that ain't happening any longer.
Herzog is on the Winter 2009 schedule.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 09:28 AM
I *wish* it were Wu or Lessig. But we're decently staffed for cyberlaw, copyright and feminist BS is more of a need.
But best case scenario is probably Samuelson, with MacKinnon unfortunately more likely.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 10:56 AM
One of the good things about the MacKinnon possibility is thoroughly entertaining panels on pornography opposite Dersh.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 10:58 AM
8:50AM: Bradley is visiting this semester, so maybe next year?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 01:44 PM
MacKinnon is more than just crit -- she'd be one of the most active practitioners on the faculty (not that that's saying much). I took her class when she was visiting, and I wouldn't say I'm an apostle, but I think she'd be a great hire.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 05:34 PM
Just to fuel the fire, Ayres was on campus today. (His partner Jennifer Brown is teaching here this semester, which kinda cuts both ways on this tip.)
Posted by: HLSer | March 18, 2008 06:56 PM
1. Michigan has used MacKinnon as a selling point for years, yet she is hardly ever in Ann Arbor to teach. (For those not familiar with Michigan's propaganda campaign, students are admitted as early as October and inundated with brochures detailing, among other things, the top scholars/rich academic offerings).
It was possible for MacKinnon to be teaching a course for only one semester during one's three year law school career. She's usually visiting Harvard, Columbia, or Chicago or vacationing in the South of France.
2. Herzog's treatise on EU law is very poorly written.
3. Merrill's move from Northwestern to Columbia was pretty recent.
4. By and large, the budding legal academics at Yale are the only law students who have any kind of academic curiosity about legal topics. All other law schools are corporate drone factories whose curricula already cater to biglaw practice.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 08:48 PM
Herzog's treatise on EU law? what could you possibly be talking about?
Posted by: Anonymous | March 18, 2008 10:09 PM
oops, wrong Herzog, but it looks like the Herzog at UMich doesn't have a J.D. The law school has him teaching 1l subjects anyway.
1 Smit & Herzog on the Law of the European Union Author(s)
Smit & Herzog on the Law of the European Union
Copyright 2007, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc., a member of the LexisNexis Group.
Publication Information
1 Smit & Herzog on the Law of the European Union Author(s)
Author(s)
Smit & Herzog on The Law of the European Union VOLUME 1
General Editors
Center for International Legal Studies
Hans Smit
Peter Herzog
Christian Campbell
Gudrun Zagel
[Original Authors of The Law of the European Community: A Commentary on the EEC Treaty: Hans Smit and Peter Herzog]
Posted by: Anonymous | March 19, 2008 11:11 AM
It's Alstott, apparently.
Posted by: Anonymous | March 20, 2008 04:44 PM
4:44 I couldn't agree with you more
Posted by: Anonymous | March 20, 2008 05:11 PM
Post on Alstott here:
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2008/03/harvard_law_school_3l_tuition.php
Posted by: Anonymous | March 20, 2008 05:56 PM