Welcome back to Ahead of the Curve. 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'm happy to be back after a Labor Day break! This week, I attempt to read the tea leaves to determine what will happen with entry-level law faculty hiring this year, with some guidance from Northwestern law professor Sarah Lawsky. Next up is a look at "Unrig the Courts," a new campaign from the law student-founded People's Parity Project that offers a refreshing list of young, diverse, and progressive potential candidates for future seats on the U.S. circuit courts. That list includes five legal academics. Finally, I'm checking in on this welcome trend of law deans cutting big checks to their schools. The latest entrant is the University of Florida's Laura Rosenbury.

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


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The Faculty Hiring Mystery

I don't think it's controversial to say that lots of things are out of whack in 2020 and the status quo is a distant memory. In-person classes are few and far between this semester, and by far between I mean socially distanced. The bar exam? It's all over the map—online, in-person, you name it. Academic conferences and workshops have migrated to Zoom.