Our Nancy Wride has been busy lately, including this piece for Forum, the magazine for members of Consumer Attorneys of California, on the University of California-Irvine's new law school. From Wride's story:
To recap: UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, his legal gravitas pulling heavyweight faculty from the cream of American law, founds California’s first public law school in 40 years. He is hired. He is un-hired after qualms arise over how his liberal leaning will play in a right-tilting county.
The ensuing national storm over academic independence momentarily threatens the law school’s future. But the fleeting drama leads to cool-headed review and he is rehired. The smoke quickly clears as billionaire Irvine developer Donald Bren and other essential funders in Orange County’s establishment, plaintiffs’ attorneys Mark P. Robinson, Jr., Joe Dunn and Anne Andrews among them, underwrite the vaunted faculty – and every student’s tuition is paid the first year.
In November, Dean Chemerinsky offered a progress report on the school’s website. It concluded: “We could not possibly have a more impressive or nicer group of faculty, staff and students to create what I believe will be a very special law school.”
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