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The University of Connecticut School of Law has fallen from 50th to 58th in the most recent U.S. News rankings. U.S. News long ago carved out a spot as the popular arbiter of school rankings. A collapse of 8 spots is an alarming development. The UConn’s law school shares its place on the list with Baylor.

Knowing what a collapse in the U.S. News standard can do to a school’s ability to recruit faculty and students, UConn reacted with a statement Monday afternoon. It included the obligatory reference to changes in methodology.

Dear Friends,

As we move together toward the end of a challenging yet inspiring academic year and onward to our centennial, I’m writing to thank you for your support and to update you on news from the UConn School of Law.

Last week U.S. News & World Report released its 2022 law school rankings, and UConn Law ranked #58. Extensive changes in methodology make it somewhat challenging to compare this year’s rankings with last year’s, but our administrative team is analyzing the result, which represents a decline from #50. With the assistance of our outstanding faculty and staff, we will continue to seek ways to improve the law school and to enhance its profile throughout the legal academy and profession. We also remain committed to improving such student outcomes as bar passage and job placement, both of which are critically important notwithstanding the rankings.

It is important to recognize that no ranking can reflect the true greatness of our law school. Our small class sizes, broad curriculum, experiential learning opportunities, caring community, superb teaching, and commitment to diversity, inclusion, accessibility, and affordability continue to make a UConn Law education a superior investment.

As we build on our legacy of excellence, we have relied, as always, on the support and generosity of our alumni and friends. Last spring, as the pandemic canceled many summer internships and uncertainty around the bar exam disrupted post-graduate hiring, the Center for Career Development asked for your help in finding meaningful summer and post-grad opportunities for our students — and many of our dedicated alumni responded.

This summer, we again need your help identifying opportunities for our students. If your organization hires summer interns and may have space available or is looking to hire for the fall, please let us know. Our students know how to be effective in the virtual environment, so every location is an option this year. If a traditional 8- to 10-week internship is not an option, our students would benefit from part-time or project work. Please email the Center for Career Development at law.careers@uconn.edu<mailto:lawcareers@umich.edu> and let us know how you can help our students and graduates, and how they can help you.

There are myriad other ways that you can engage in UConn Law’s mission. The Admissions Office is grateful for the assistance of alumni willing to connect with prospective and accepted students. The Center for Career Development and Office of Alumni Relations seek volunteers to provide career guidance and networking through the Alumni in Residence Online program and the Practice Area Alumni and Student Career Conversations event. Our student affinity groups seek steering committee members to offer networking and mentoring. If you would like to know more about how you can help in these or other areas, please email Alumni Relations Director Alison Swain at aswain@foundation.uconn.edu<mailto:aswain@foundation.uconn.edu>.

Thank you again for your continued support of UConn Law, and for the warm welcome that so many of you have extended to me in my first year as dean. I look forward to working with you in the exciting times ahead, including in centennial celebrations that will begin this fall. Please do not hesitate to contact me at lawdean@uconn.edu<mailto:lawdean@uconn.edu> if I or the law school can be of service in any way.

Best,

Eboni S. Nelson
Dean and Professor of Law

Trinity Health of New England will hold a 24 hour vax-a-thon in Hartford beginning April 9th at 5 p.m. It’s at the Artists Collective, 1200 Albany Avenue and open to people 16 years old and above.

Here’s the link to register. Use it. Now.

Dennis House, veteran newscaster, anchor and host, puts some serious points on the board today by snagging an exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. Her Friday appearance in New Haven was first reported by Daily Ructions.

The resilient House, installed early this year in the constellation of stars at WTNH, is expected to be the only sit-down interview Harris grants a local reporter on her trip to Connecticut. The California Democrat is here to promote recently-enacted child tax credit legislation.

The charismatic Harris will no doubt prove a get worth pursuing. There’s a larger lesson provided by House’s successful pursuit of her: Ever onward.

Julia Bergman of the New Haven Register gets the print interview with Harris.

Connecticut Republicans selected Mary Ann Turner to fill the vacant vice chair position on their state central committee.

Turner, veteran leader of the Enfield Republicans, was incensed on January 6th when state Representative Devin Carney, also a Republican, condemned the insurrection at the Capitol that attempted to halt the counting of electoral votes. Turner, who was at the rally Donald Trump used to incite the rioters, accused Carney of “drinking the kool-aid.” She demanded Carney resign from his seat in the House of Representatives. Read the alarming story here.

Turner told Carney he “should be praying for what little of America is left.” That ugly view of the world was endorsed and elevated by the state Republican organization on Tuesday.

Turner made an unsuccessful bid for the House in 2020.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to travel to Connecticut Friday, Daily Ructions has learned. Harris will devote her trip to highlighting the administration’s efforts to address child poverty through tax policy.

Connecticut’s dismal record of job creation make it a laboratory for policies that seek to lift and provide opportunity. Harris is likely to visit New Haven with Representative Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Appropriations Committee. The California Democrat may also appear with Rep. Jahana Hayes in the state’s 5th Congressional District.

Former House Majority Leader David Pudlin and former state Senator Billy Ciotto have died.

Pudlin, 68, a New Britain Democrat, succumbed to a fall down stairs. Ciotto, a Democrat beloved far beyond his hometown of Wethersfield, had been suffering from Parkinson’s. He was 91 years old. Ciotto recently enjoyed the elixir of a call from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Many will recall that Billy played the accordion with verve. Few will remember that he once accompanied the irrepressible Bernie Bernacki and me as we made our way through a humorous song at our first (and my only) Senate dinner. He served in the Senate for 12 years.

Governor Ned Lamont has become a serious obstacle to Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman’s efforts to attract data centers to Connecticut.

Dozens of lobbyists representing tech interests will gather in an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon to determine how to thwart H.B. 5645. That’s state Representative Holly Cheeseman’s proposal to levy a tax on digital advertising. The East Lyme Republican received a recent call from Lamont expressing his interest in and admiration for the bill. The East Lyme Republican disclosed her conversation with Lamont to members of the permanent government. Alarm ensued among the tech companies Lamont has deployed Lehman to attract to Connecticut, where relentless job losses continue.

Lamont has done nothing to ease concerns. A common apprehension is growing that Lamont will entertain any tax that does not affect his wealthy Greenwich neighbors. That means opposing a statewide property tax and an increase in the capital gains tax.

Astonishment in the tech community, long dismissive of Connecticut’s economic policies, has grown from brushfire to wildfire in the past week.

The legislature’s Insurance and Real Estate Committee includes meddling in the business of The Hartford Courant among its bad ideas:

AN ACT CONCERNING THE HARTFORD COURANT.

To: (1) Prohibit The Hartford Courant Company and its legal successors from incurring any debt or issuing any dividend that is not in the public interest; and (2) authorize the Attorney General and certain persons to seek injunctive relief against The Hartford Courant Company or its successors if The Hartford Courant Company or its successors incur any debt or issue any dividend that is not in the public interest.

“The Hartford Courant has delivered quality, independent journalism to the readers of Connecticut for more than 250 years. We’ve done so – and plan to keep doing so – free of government interference,” said Andrew Julien, the Courant’s Publisher and Editor-in-Chief.“But this proposal puts the Connecticut legislature into dangerous constitutional waters. The prospect of state officials, whose actions are often the subject of media scrutiny, making determinations that could affect the operations of a newspaper is a threat to the fourth estate — a fundamental pillar of Democracy.” 

If you wonder why businesses continue to be reluctant to come to Connecticut, read that intrusion into the affairs of a state business. It attempts to destroy the First Amendment protections of a free press. it violates any notion of equal protection under the law. It also announces to the world that Connecticut’s legislature does not recognize fundamental tenets of freedom under the rule of law.

The bill is co-sponsored by committee co-chair Senator Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) and Senator Said Anwar (D-South Windsor), a demagogue who, as demagogues do, loathes diversity of opinion and freedom of the press. I know this because in June Anwar used a virtual vigil for George Floyd to call me a racist, disclose where I live, and urge that I be silenced. He failed, but he has not ceased in his efforts to intimidate and incite.

Representative Adam Schiff’s California maneuvering could boost Connecticut Representative Jim Himes into the chairmanship of the House intelligence committee.

Schiff is using his considerable influence to pressure besieged Governor Gavin Newsom to appoint him to fill the soon-to-be vacant attorney general post. President Joe Biden nominated Democratic AG Xavier Becerra to head the Department of Health and Human Services. His Senate confirmation is imminent.

Newsom is facing a recall vote later this year and could use some fundraising help from the energetic Schiff. The politics of a statewide recall can become complicated and Newsom seemed uneasy in interviews as he conceded his opponents appeared to have collected enough signatures to put him on the griddle. He never should have gone to that lobbyist’s birthday dinner. If Schiff gets the California post, that will clear a lane for Himes, a Greenwich Democrat and vice chair of the House Intelligence Committee, to advance to the committee’s top spot.

The Wall Street Journal has more.

Newsom is the former husband of Kimberly Guilfoyle, shouts disciple of Donald Trump and girlfriend of Donald Trump, Jr. She delivered one of her harangues at Trump’s January 6th rally-before-the-insurrection.

Newsom had an affair with his campaign manager’s wife, who worked for Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco. He and Guilfoyle divorced in 2005. In 2018, Fox News reportedly paid a Guilfoyle assistant millions to settle a harassment claim. The Guilfoyle-Newsoms must have been a lot of work to know in their San Francisco days.

A delayed report on job January jobs creation brought more evidence that the state’s economic recovery has stalled. Connecticut lost a net 100 jobs in January compared to December. That left the state down 127,000 jobs from January 2020. December jobs numbers were revised downward, with the state losing a jarring 4,600 more jobs lost.

The January numbers are 7,000 jobs loser than the October report–when the state appeared to be recovering from last spring’s pandemic economic devastation.

Connecticut’s job creation peaked in 2008 with 1.729 million jobs, far from the 1.57 million reported in January.