More on Law Professors…

Prof. Hurt over at Conglomerate jumps into the ‘where should you go to school if you want to be a law professor fray’ and raises a very good point: it is important to consider current hiring practices and not just the practices of the past.

To respond to some points that have been raised in various comments on other sites:

1. Prof. Leiter notes: “It appears the person (My name is Dave, but you may call me Mr. Gulbransen –Ed.) surveying the Chicago-area law schools was counting clinical *and* academic faculty…” Personally, I don’t care about the distinction. I doubt outside of the cloistered world of the academy, that anyone cares. Undoubtedly it has career implications but I also suspect there are some who would prefer to be clinical faculty. God forbid people entering the field of higher education have different motives.

2. I don’t think it’s any more difficult to pursue an academic career in law than it is in any other academic field. In fact, I’m still surprised that people can get jobs in legal education with only a J.D. (Although, as Prof. Solum notes, and LLM, SJD, or PhD can an advantage.) I mean c’mon people–the scholarly publications of legal education are student edited journals. I do wonder how the world of legal scholarship would be changed if faculty submitted to peer edited journals. I know I’m not the first to wonder.

3. Publishing is lovely; however, there are those who would just prefer to teach–and there is value in that. Law professors would be wise to bear that in mind. Those who graduate, enter the real world, make their fortunes are those who endow the chairs that afford faculty the luxury of academe. They also tend to remember those who taught them best. (And yes, I’m aware that publishing and teaching aren’t mutually exclusive–but those who master both are as exceptional as the Tier 4 graduate professor.)

4. I never stated that I wanted a career in academics. I wouldn’t rule it out, but it’s not something I’ve given much consideration–it is certainly not why I decided to go to law school. Frankly, if I knew with 100% certainty that I wanted to be an academic, I’d get a PhD before I’d get a JD. I’m one of those freaks who went to law school with the notion that the law applies to so many areas of our lives that it would be worth having the degree–whether I practice or not–and whether I stay in my current career path or not.

I just hate to see members of a class (and “law professor” is definitely a class) crushing the dreams of anyone out there who may be wanting to pursue a career in academics. Yes, a healthy dose of reality is important to anyone–no one should be completely blind to the hurdles they may have to overcome to pursue a career in their chosen field. But to say that if you go to a school outside the top [insert arbitrary, self-serving number] then it’s hopeless isn’t doing a service to anyone because it is just not true.

That isn’t to say that someone who graduates at the bottom of their class from a Tier 4 school has a shot at academics; but that’s not really what’s being debated. None of the student voices I’ve heard lack the understanding that the more prestigious your pedigree the easier the road. But there are those out there who would be very comfortable ending up a faculty member at one of those Tier 2, 3, or 4 schools where they could teach students to be lawyers. And not all of those future professors need degrees from Yale to get there.