Expect Your Work to be Controversial Many deans may not be impressed by websites even those that reach large numbers of people. The law school reward system is based largely on the production of scholarship directed at other academics. At some point, however, the Dean stopped seeming embarrassed whenever he mentioned my website. He began to realize that the site provided the School some worthwhile publicity. So far, however, those perceived benefits have not translated into salary enhancements and I have no illusions that they ever will.
Controversy can be a good thing.
The Famous Trials site has helped fuel an important debate on our faculty about how we should define our academic mission. I've taken the position that a website whose benefits were solely limited to a producing a better understanding of famous trials by students, teachers, and other members of the curious public only accomplishes half of what it is my job as a law faculty member to do. Somehow the site must also become a springboard to new knowledge and insights about trials. A good number of persons write to express thanks or offer suggestions, and for those people, a quick response will suffice. Nearly half of the e-mails I receive, however, contain questions about specific aspects or implications of famous trials.