Welcome back to Ahead of theCurve. I'm Karen Sloan, legal education editor at Law.com, and I'll be your host for this weekly look at innovation and notable developments in legal education.

I've got an Ahead of the Curve Lightning Round this week, with quick looks at how law schools such as Chicago-Kent College of Law figure out how to teach legal tech when they offer specialized degrees. Also, Ted Cruz has his sights set on Yale Law School for allegedly discriminating against conservatives and Christians. And can a dating algorithm help law students find the perfect mentor match? BYU Law is trying to find out.

Please share your thoughts and feedback with me at [email protected] or on Twitter:@KarenSloanNLJ

How to Teach Tech

Legal technology is developing so rapidly, how do you design a curriculum around it? Chicago-Kent law dean Harold Krent recently discussed that challenge with my colleague Frank Ready over at Law.com affiliate LegalTech News, which I found interesting. Chicago-Kent this fall will launch an LL.M. program in legal innovation and technology, which means the school has to figure out what to teach and how to teach it. But it's not so easy to predict where the industry is headed. Constitutional law, for example, is far more static that, say, artificial intelligence. Here's Krent: “We know that technology changes at warp speed. If you're in business you make adjustments all the time too, and law schools perhaps for too long were exempt from those kinds of pressures. [Now] law schools have to keep an eye on the market.” Hence, the new program will emphasize the areas of legal tech that are hot right now, including predictive analytics, blockchain, and technology-aided accesses to justice. But the school will have to closely track to the market to see if the curriculum needs adjustment. Krent admits that in eight years blockchain could be a distant memory and the school might be teaching a subject area we haven't even heard of yet.

The Ted Cruz Treatment

I've been avoiding writing about this for at least a week, but it seems the Yale Law School/Ted Cruz saga has blown up on the right, so here goes. (That lovely illustration above was created by my editor Leigh Jones, a woman of many talents.) Here's the abbreviated version: Yale Law School last month announced a policy change whereby summer and post-graduate fellowships must adhere to the school's non-discrimination policy. That means the school won't fund fellowships at organizations that refuse to hire people because of their religion, race, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Now, Ted Cruz (a Harvard Law graduate, I'll note) has launched an investigation into the policy and whether its intent is to punish students who would work in conservative or Christian organizations. For its part, Yale has said other law schools have similar policies and that it's only trying to comply with ABA and NALP non-discrimination rules. I'll be watching to see if this amounts to anything more than saber rattling from Cruz. Meanwhile, Yale Law recently announced—at a Federalist Society reception during an admitted students event—a semiannual conference on originalism. (The school said the conference was in the works long before it came into Cruz's crosshairs, but it wouldn't surprise me if administrators decided to announce it now to counter accusations that the law school is hostile to conservatives.)

Mentorship Matchmaking

Need a mentor? There's an app for that. OK, maybe not an app, but I like this story about the Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law School teaming up with Match.com to facilitate student and mentor matches. Essentially, the program uses personality measures to find mentorship pairs. A Match.com representative told The Salt Lake Tribune that it's the first time its algorithm has been used outside the dating context. The program determines which of four personality categories students and mentors fall into: builder, director, explorer and negotiator. Then, mentors and mentees from the same group are paired up. The hope is that these connections will prove more useful and durable then mentorships established solely on the basis of geographic proximity or practice area. The school previously took that approach, but the mentorship program didn't thrive. The new program launched in February, so it's too early to declare it a success. But law school administrators say early feedback has been positive. Is it just a matter of time before law students and mentors are swiping right and left in hopes of a good connection?

A Wall of History

When it comes to history, The College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law pretty much has every other campus beat. It is the nation's first law school, having opened in 1779 at the behest of Thomas Jefferson. (Well, the first law school still open. The now-closed Litchfield Law School also makes a strong claimto the title of first.) Now, William and Mary's rich history is on display in the law school's library in a permanent exhibit being dedicated later this week. The more than 30-foot display highlights many important firsts as well as major developments for the school, such as the first woman and the first African-American to graduate. (That's 1937 and 1854, respectively.) There was so much material available that it took law librarian Lauren Seney and a team of colleagues four years to sift through it all.What couldn't fit into the permanent exhibit has been compiled online here. Among the information on display is that the law school faculty shrunk considerably in the wake of the Civil War, due to a lack of financing. The law school didn't fully recover until the early 1920s. The display also highlights the courthouse in Colonial Williamsburg, where the schools held moot court sessions. The history wall was funded by donations from the Class of 1988.

Extra Credit Reading

A retired Emory professor has asked the ABA to censure the law school for suspending professor Paul Zwier for the repeated use of a racial slur in and outside of the classroom.

University of La Verne law professor Diane Klein has created a coloring book for adults that details the many lawyers involved in the Mueller investigation.

Shon Hopwood, the bank robber-turned Georgetown law professor, is helping to craft criminal justice reform policy with the White House. 

Catholic University Columbus School of Law is looking to Big Law for its next dean. It has named Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Stephen Payne as its new dean, effective July 1.

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I'll be back next week with more news and updates on the future of legal education. Until then, keep in touch at [email protected]