The perfect candidate

By Thomas Lifson

The nascent law school designed to produce left wing lawyers (aka "public interest lawyers") is reported to be considering the perfect dean: UC Irvine is talking with Erwin Chemerinsky, according to the Los Angeles Times. Despite being declared unnecessary by the official body charged with evaluating higher education proposals, the University of California Irvine is pressing ahead, and with a $20 million donation in hand from Orange County billionaire Donald Bren, the newly-named Donald Bren School of Law is able to hire away.

Nobody denies that Chemerinsky is s smart and agile legal thinker (and talker). But he is also about as left wing as they come [intellectual division], the favorite superstar of the (needless to say, left) establishment in law, journalism, activism, and "public interest" circles.

Last March, I noted that the choice of "public interest" law was an obvious attempt to go for national visibility, especially in the media, and predicted that UCI would go for a prominent candidate in this trendy field:

...a brand new school in a beautiful setting, convenient to the beach and to the media-intensive world of Southern California, has a good shot at attracting "cutting edge" thinkers in "public interest law". The faculty to be recruited as "experts" in the field would themselves be no doubt heavy on those pursuing the most radical agendas, for they attract the most attention and commentary. When any new program opens at the University of California, it must recruit nationally and offer high salaries to lure the most "distinguished" faculty to its service. In fact, unconstrained by fusty old law professors, with an institutional mission focused on themselves, there is every chance UCI Law could attract the leading lights [such as they are] of the field.

Chemerinsky is already very high profile. Christopher Chantrill wrote about his "postmodernist" (it's all about power) approach to law two years ago in AT.

Another prediction: assuming Chemerinsky takes the deal, you will see him in the news media ferquently. I would wager that the new facilities for the Donald Bren School of Law will include a small television studio with satellite uplink, to make TV talking head appearances particularly convenient for the dean and faculty.