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Paul F. Campos is a law professor, author and blogger on the faculty of the
University of Colorado in
Boulder. Campos received his A.B. (1982) and M.A. in English (1983) from the
University of Michigan and in 1989 his J.D. from the
University of Michigan Law School.
[1] Campos worked at the law firm Latham & Watkins in Chicago from 1989-1990 and became an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado in 1990, where he teaches classes on property, punishment theory, jurisprudence, and legal interpretation.
[2]Professor Campos is not admitted to the bar in the State of Colorado,[3] Illinois,[4] or Michigan.
[2][5] In 1996, Paul Campos married Kaylah Campos Zelig, a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School and an administrator at a local community college.
[6][7]
Outside the legal community, Campos is perhaps best known for his 2004 book The Obesity Myth (later published as The Diet Myth) which reviews research that Campos asserts questions the connection between obesity and mortality rates.[8] Campos's contentions that obesity is not a health risk were heavily criticized by scientists, medical doctors, and public health researchers.[9][10][11][12]
Soowon Kim and Barry M Popkin praised Campos for "bringing attention to some of the complexities in overweight/obesity and health relationships and covert financial interests involved in obesity research" but criticized him for "selective use of research", "fallacious interpretation of literature" and "misunderstanding of basic epidemiological principles" and thereby "harm[ing] the most vulnerable subgroups in the population."
[9] Neville Rigby criticized Campos's lack of relevant academic qualifications and poor grasp of scientific research, noting that: "It is unusual to find academics concerned chiefly with legal, social, political, and educational issues seeking to challenge the whole arena of the epidemiology, clinical, and public health aspects of the obesity problem. To start from scratch to deal with all their spurious statements in this response is hardly appropriate. The suggestion that there is growing ‘concern’ about the validity of the serious health issues associated with obesity is really quite bizarre, as there has been the most remarkable and growing consensus among an extensive range of governments, academics, health economists, and policy makers relating to the impact of excess weight gain."
[10] June Stevens, Jill E McClain and Kimberly P Truesdale countered specific claims about the state of scientific research made by Campos.
[13] Campos's obesity work was praised by sociologist Susie Orbach for discussing unhealthy body image issues related to an emphasis on extreme thinness.
[14] His writing appears on the blog
Lawyers, Guns and Money.
[15]
In August 2011, Campos began a blog,
Inside the Law School Scam. Initially posting anonymously, he criticizing other law school professors for not knowing enough doctrinal law or having much practical experience in legal practice. Knowing that his identity was soon to be outed, he claimed responsibility for the blog on August 20. Campos admitted
[16] that he wrote a second, anonymous blog, titled
Inside the Law School Scam,
[17] in which he was harshly critical of the value proposition of a law school education. The blog has attracted criticism from legal scholars, including
Brian Leiter of the University of Chicago Law School.
[18] According to Leiter, Campos's blog contained misleading, inaccurate, and inflammatory statements.
[19] Leiter also criticized Campos more broadly for allegedly shirking his job responsibilities through poor scholarship and poor teaching.
[20][21][22]
However, Campos attracted support from Deborah Jones Merritt of the University of Ohio law school, who joined him as a co-blogger on "Inside the Law School Scam"
[23] and from Walter Olson at the right-wing/libertarian
Cato Institute.
[24][25] Merritt accused law professors of being "greedy",
[26] threatened litigation against those who challenged her and Campos's views
[27] and suggested that law school deans should be disbarred.
[28] Olson has criticized law schools for being sources of influential liberal ideas and training grounds for future liberal political leaders.
[29] Another Campos supporter, Brian Tamanaha at Washington University, has also accused law professors, especially liberal law professors, of hypocrisy and greed.
[30]
In 2012, Campos self-published a book on law school, "Don't go to law school . . . unless" through a vanity press.
[31][32] On February 27, 2013, Campos discontinued ITLSS.
[33]