Would Above the Law really publish a story about a law school dean’s bio being replaced with dungeon porn?
Yeah… that tracks.
If you’ve spent any time in the legal academy — or even just read our coverage of it — you understand that the annual U.S. News rankings transformed law school administration into a blood sport. The apotheosis of the joke that every academic fight is so existentially fierce because the stakes are so cosmically meaningless. The gap between T14 and the TTT matters, but schools mortgaging integrity to move from 50th to 45th makes makes college football coaches look at deans and say, “the important thing is that everyone has fun!”
Michael Orey’s new novel, Dean’s List, takes a flamethrower to that whole ecosystem with a glee that only someone who’s spent real time inside the machine could muster.
Orey, an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law and the school’s head of public affairs since 2010, has navigated egos and institutional PR for almost two decades. Before that, Orey worked as a legal affairs reporter and editor at American Lawyer, the Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek. Dean’s List marks a foray into fiction after previously releasing Assuming the Risk, a nonfiction account of tobacco litigation.
Dean’s List follows Charles Ogden Dean III — unfortunately nicknamed “Dean Dean” — taking the helm of a once-floundering law school newly rebranded under the prestigious Brown University banner. Think Cooley’s association with Western Michigan, but with Ivy League stakes. Brown doesn’t have a law school — even if the real-life Department of Defense doesn’t realize it — but the idea that an Ivy would leap into the law school business by purchasing an existing school has been speculated before. Decades ago, rumors swirled that Princeton would start a turnkey law school by acquiring NYU School of Law. That never came to pass, but Orey envisions Brown pulling off what Princeton couldn’t by acquiring Providence Law School and pumping resources into a mad pursuit of Top 5 status.
Along the way are moral compromises, institutional absurdities, and outright chaos. A rogue nation bankrolls a secret slush fund and pirates get involved, which sounds comically ridiculous until you remember Yale exists.
But the heavy satire balances with authenticity. The faculty grievances, the donor politics, the watching rankings become the golden calf that administrators worship all rings true because Orey has been watching the circus from inside the tent. It’s the kind of insider satire where you laugh and then wince because you’ve seen some version of every scene play out in real life.
And, yes, Above the Law gets multiple shout-outs in the book. Orey graciously provided us an excerpt as a preview for our readers. Complete with an Above the Law mention:
Dean’s List is available for pre-order now. If you’ve ever worked in legal academia, survived a U.S. News ranking cycle, or just want to understand why your dean looks like that, check it out. And if you’re a future military lawyer, you’re apparently not allowed to attend the school described in its pages anyway, so at least you’ll have time to read the book.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
The post New Novel Skewers Law School Rankings, Faculty Politics, And When Legal Education Gets Kinky appeared first on Above the Law.