Toledo Law faculty recognized for quality scholarly production
March 22, 2013
The University of Toledo College of Law recently ranked 90 of 176 law schools, as measured by publication in top law journals, in this year’s Roger Williams University School of Law study on faculty productivity. This places Toledo Law third among Ohio’s five state-supported law schools and fourth among Ohio’s nine total law schools.
“This study confirms what many of us have known for a long time – that the Toledo Law faculty has a solid lineup of outstanding legal scholars,” said Daniel J. Steinbock, dean of the College of Law.
Toledo Law faculty scholarship has been cited in recent years in multiple United States Supreme Court briefs and one Supreme Court opinion, several federal trial and appellate court decisions, and in articles by national and international newspapers and other media outlets. Faculty members have penned Supreme Court amicus briefs and testified in state legislative and judicial proceedings and in U.S. Congressional hearings. Three of the College of Law’s 22 faculty members have been elected to the American Law Institute.
Also, as experts in their fields, faculty members are regularly consulted for analysis and opinion by the media. Many faculty members are interviewed for local television and newspaper articles, and several comment frequently in national publications such as The New York Times and USA Today. Additionally, faculty members edit two top law professor blogs.
Gregory M. Gilchrist, assistant professor of law, sees the faculty’s dual commitments to scholarship and teaching as highly complementary. “Deep engagement with teaching generates better scholarship and careful scholarship generates better teaching,” he said.
The University understands this and has singled out individual College of Law faculty members for recognition on several occasions. Faculty members have received UT’s Outstanding Researcher Award, and two current faculty members are Distinguished University Professors, the University’s highest honor.
The Roger Williams University study applied methodology to evaluate faculty productivity developed by Brian Leiter, professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School. The study’s complete listing of schools is here.
"No ranking is perfect, but what makes this one more meaningful to me than the USNEWs.com ranking is that it focuses on output, what schools are doing, rather than on inputs, like what they spend,” said Geoffrey C. Rapp, the Harold A. Anderson Professor of Law and Values. “It confirms what we have known for a while – Toledo Law offers students a chance to study under nationally influential faculty members at an affordable cost."
Learn more about Toledo Law’s faculty here.