The new law school planned at the University of California Irvine was officially declared unneeded because the state already has plenty of law schools. But that didn't stop the institutional ambitions of UCI, and there was apparently enough support among the Regents and elected politicians that the plan is moving ahead. Despite the embarrassment of hiring, firing, and re-hiring left wing legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky to be the founding dean of a school which promises to focus on training "public interest" (a euphemism for left wing) lawyers. Already endowed by Orange County philanthropist Donald Bren, after whom the school is named, the UCI law school has just received a one million dollar gift from a revealing source: a member of the natural constituency of the new school. Walter Olson, writing at the Point of Law blog  describes the gift-giver as "Mark P. Robinson Jr. of Newport Beach, Calif.'s Robinson, Calcagnie & Robinson, known for lawsuits against...(Read Full Post)