Penn Law

Finished with a 30-year career in the Senate, Arlen Specter will take his talents to the University of Pennsylvania's law school, Penn announced Tuesday. As an adjunct faculty member, Specter will teach an upper-level course on the relationship between Congress and the Supreme Court, beginning in fall 2011, Penn officials said. "It's a subject matter which could use a lot more understanding. And it's a subject which warrants additional study. Penn Law is a good place to do it," Specter, 80, said in an interview.

Women, on average, make mediocre law school students. That's a fair summary of the findings from a new study of law students at the University of Pennsylvania. According to the study, women participate less in class than men, receive lower grades and fewer honors, and rate their school experience more negatively. The chief author, Penn law professor Lani Guinier, has impeccable liberal and feminist credentials. Guinier, a former Yale Law School classmate of President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, first gained national recognition when the President tapped her to be his chief civil rights attorney in 1993 but withdrew her nomination when critics assailed her views on voting-rights issues as too radical and left-wing.

After setting the table for Sheryl Crow in 2009 and having to endure the ignominy of opening for the Goo Goo Dolls last year, Philadelphia and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon band the Roots will finally get to headline its hometown July 4 celebration! Mayor Nutter announced the bill Tuesday morn for the free concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at the Art Museum. Along with the Roots, the lineup includes classic R&Bers Earth Wind & Fire , singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles , blue-eyed Doobie Brother Michael McDonald , British hip-hop soul singer Estelle , and, on the wheels of steel, Philadelphia's DJ Jazzy Jeff . Aaron Neville , whose Joe Henry -produced gospel album I Know I've Been Changed was one of the overlooked treasures of last year, and Philadelphia bass man Gerald Veasley will play Penn's Landing during the Taste of Philadelphia festival, which runs June 24-26.

Six months ago it looked as if "Loony Lani" Guinier, the "Quota Queen," was about to exit the national stage in disgrace. Her old pal Bill Clinton had decided her views on race and voting rights were just too controversial for his administration. On June 3, five weeks after nominating Guinier to be assistant attorney general for civil rights, he yanked her nomination. That was her cue to disappear quietly, the way Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood had done before her. But Lani Guinier hasn't disappeared.

More than half the students enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania Law School have signed a petition protesting a recent faculty vote denying tenure to a popular assistant professor who is regarded as a national expert in jurisprudence. The professor, Drucilla Cornell, who has been teaching at Penn since 1983, plans to file a suit accusing the university of sex discrimination, breach of contract and denial of academic freedom if the tenure vote is not overturned, said Alice Ballard, her attorney.

Paul W. Bruton, 84, a former professor of constitutional law at the University of Pennsylvania and the first chairman of the Philadelphia Tax Review Board, died Saturday at Abington Memorial Hospital. Mr. Bruton began his teaching career at Penn Law School in 1937 as a visiting associate professor, specializing in constitutional law and federal taxation. He was named a full professor in 1939 and served as the school's acting dean in 1951-52. By the time he retired in 1974, Mr. Bruton had held two endowed chairs - the Ferdinand Wakeman Hubell chair and the Algernon Sidney Biddle chair - and he was the author, with two other scholars, of a major textbook on constitutional law. John Honnold, a former colleague at Penn Law, recalled Mr. Bruton for his intelligence, judgment and, above all, his sense of fairness.

The University of Pennsylvania yesterday named Colin S. Diver, dean of the Boston University School of Law, to head its 750-student law school, one of the oldest and most prestigious in the nation. Diver's family was one of three profiled in J. Anthony Lukas' award-winning 1985 book, Common Ground, a social history of Boston school desegregation. Diver said he expects to assume the dean's post at Penn by Sept. 1. "I know the school well and I realize it is poised to really make a dramatic move in legal education," said Diver, 45, who was a visiting law professor at Penn five years ago. "I just see this as a glittering opportunity.

Robert H. Mundheim, dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, will leave the school's top administrative post to return to full-time teaching at the law school next year. In a Dec. 11 letter to Penn President Sheldon Hackney, Mundheim, who has been dean since 1982, said there were "strong personal reasons" for his decision not to seek another term as dean when his seven-year term expires in February. "More importantly," he added, "I think the time is ripe to find new leadership which will be able to consolidate and extend the significant strides the law school has made in reasserting a leadership role in legal education.

A prominent University of Pennsylvania Law School professor has agreed to join the Harvard faculty, but it isn't Lani Guinier. At least, not this year. "I talked to her this morning and she said she is not going anywhere yet," Penn spokeswoman Barbara Beck said yesterday, referring to a report in the Boston Globe that Guinier would move to Harvard in September. "She is still on sabbatical and she plans to be here in the fall to resume teaching. " The professor who is leaving Penn for Harvard is Elizabeth Warren, who teaches commercial law. Guinier, 45, gained national attention in 1993 when President Clinton nominated her to be assistant attorney general for civil rights, then withdrew that nomination five weeks later because of her controversial views.

Jefferson B. Fordham, 88, an educator who was dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1952 until 1970 and a leader in the struggle for racial equality, died Friday in Salt Lake City. A. Leo Levin, a professor emeritus at the law school, said Dr. Fordham "was absolutely a leading force in building the Penn Law School up to great heights. " A six-footer with sparkling blue eyes and enormous energy, Dr. Fordham was called on by everyone from the President to Penn law students for advice.