Pamela Karlan is a brilliant and distinguished law professor at Stanford University. Until this month, she served in a high-level Justice Department position — Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. During her 16 months or so at the DOJ, Karlan continued to be paid by Stanford.
Optics, optics, optics. There is certainly the appearance of conflict.
Fwiw, didn’t karlan also fail the CA Bar the first time she took it (I may be mistaken)