Welcome to the home page of the Careers in Law Teaching Program (CILTP). The Program provides current students and graduates of Columbia Law School with tools to explore the possibility of a career as a law professor, and support when they have decided to do so. The first couple of notices are for current candidates.
Sample Scholarly Agendas Now Available
As you may know (and as you will know if you read everything on this site), one key to landing an entry-level legal academic position is your "scholarly agenda," i.e., a methodology and set of linked problems that you plan to tackle as a scholar. The scholarly agenda is both an actual program that you can describe and a short document. Although most schools will not ask to see a written scholarly agenda, writing it up is a good way to organize your own thoughts. Click on the "Scholarly Agenda" link from the list on the left to see two sample scholarly agendas by CLS alums who recently completed successful academic job searches.
Career in Law Teaching Discussion, Sept.10, 2008
Professors Christina Burnett and Jamal Greene offered insight and advice to those interested in pursuing a career in legal academia. The panel was open to all students and the focus was on the job market process. You may view this discussion at http://media.law.columbia.edu/aals/aalstalk080910.htm.
Preparing Your Job Talk!
Now that you've been to the AALS Recruitment Conference, if things went well, you will have one or more job talks to prepare. We can help. First, check out this very astute advice from GW law professor Daniel Solove. Next, if you want to practice your job talk in front of real live law professors at Columbia, contact Ms. Mo Siedor, and we will try to set up a moot for you.
What you will find on this site
On this site you will find resources for learning about how to write and publish legal scholarship, advice about the academic job market, announcements about our programs, and much more.
Distribution of Columbia candidate CVs to appointments committees at all U.S. law schools
Panels on Do's and Don'ts for the AALS Recruitment Conference (aka the "Meat Market"), featuring recent Columbia alumni currently in law teaching (available by streaming video for those who cannot attend in person)
Hospitality Suite at the Meat Market
Mock Job Talks
Services for prospective candidates include:
Spring Semester Weekly Panels on Scholarship, Teaching and the Legal Academic Job Market
One to six month fellowships, including a small stipend, for alumni to spend in residence for the purpose of researching and writing a scholarly publication. This fellowship has been extremely useful to graduates transitioning from practice to the academy. Contact Professor Carol Sanger to apply.
Resources for Students and Alumni Considering a Career in Law Teaching
Careers in Law Teaching Program Lunchtime Workshop Series
We have set up the weekly Spring semester workshops, one component of the Columbia Careers in Law Teaching Program. These are lunchtime workshops on a range of tailored topics that follow a larger overview session on becoming a law professor. The animating idea is that there are things a student can know and do while in law school and thereafter that will make success on the academic job market more likely. Students report that they appreciate these sessions very much. We also send out the schedule to New York area alum who have expressed an interest in teaching. If you would like to receive these notices or if you currently are on the list but would like to unsubscribe from it, please contact the Program Administrator, Mr. Gabriel Soto.
The weekly workshops are held each Monday in Room 940 JGH. The audio recordings of these workshops are available by clicking on the highlighted link at the bottom of this page (CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO RECORDINGS - login required). You will need your Columbia login unername and password to access the recordings. If you experience problems accessing the recordings or if you currently do not have a Columbia username and password, please contact the Program Administrator, Mr. Gabriel Soto.
The remaining spring 2009 schedule is:
Monday February 16, 12:10: "Getting into Clinical Law Teaching" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: Mary Zulack & Alexandra Carter
The discussion will focus on the ways one might prepare for a career in clinical teaching and how this is similar to and different from other types of teaching careers. We will also talk about the various types of clinical teaching positions that are available.
Monday, February 23, 12:10: "Writing Opportunities in Law School" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: Bert Huang & Robert Ferguson
This will be a very informal discussion about what you can do in law school to lay the groundwork, or at least leave the door open, for an academic career. We'll focus mainly on opportunities for scholarly writing. The speakers at this session include a former President of the Harvard Law Review and a Professor in Law, Literature, and Criticism. You can gain much from law school writing without publishing, but for some written work on how to publish legal writing as a student, you might also see http://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/volokh/writing.htm, or 48 J. Legal Educ. 247 (1998) available at: http://www.heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/jled48&id=1&size=2&collection=journals&index=journals/jled, which may be useful background to the discussion.
Monday, March 2, 12:10: "From Private Practice to Teaching" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: Jeff Gordon and Alex Raskolnikov
Learn from people who have made the transition from private practice to law teaching for a discussion of questions such as these: How does practice differ from teaching? Why might one prefer to teach? What steps should one think about and begin to take to get ready to go on the teaching market while still in practice? How does one plan a scholarly agenda from the trenches of practice?
Professor Jeffrey Gordon is the Alfred W. Bressler Professor of Law and Co-director for the Center for Law and Economic Studies. Professor of Law Alex Raskolnikov is also Co-Chair of the Charles E. Gerber Transactional Studies Program.
Monday March 9, 12:10: " Beyond Law School: Clerkships, Fellowships, and Ph.D.s" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: Samuel Bray, Elizabeth Emens & Ben Trachtenberg
Are clerkships the ticket to a teaching job? Can getting a PhD before, during, or after Law School help? Other graduate degrees? What about post-law school opportunities to write in fellowship programs and in legal writing programs? Come learn about these things and more.
Samuel Bray is currently Associate-in-Law. He is a former Associate of Mayer Brown LLP in Washington, D.C., and was Law Clerk to The Honorable Michael McConnell, 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Salt Lake City, Utah. Elizabeth Emens is currently Associate Professor of Law and Co-chair of the Program in Careers in Law Teaching. She is a former Bigelow Fellow & Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School and was Law Clerk to Judge Robert D. Sack, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ben Trachtenberg in currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. He was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP, and he clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with the Honorable Jose A. Cabranes.
March 16th: SPRING BREAK, NO WORKSHOP.
Monday, March 23, 12:10: "Interdisciplinarity in Legal Scholarship and Teaching" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: William Gentry & John Witt
Legal academia has become increasingly interdisciplinary. Join Professors Gentry and Witt, historian and economist, for an engaging discussion of this trend.
Monday, March 30, 12:10: "Teaching Abroad: UK and Europe" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: John Armour, Franco Ferrari, Katharina Pistor & Rebecca Williams
This session will focus on the academic teaching market abroad, particularly in the UK and western Europe. Professors Armour, Ferrari, Pistor, and Williams have taught both in the US and abroad and will offer comparative insights. The session may be of particular interest to LLM students.
Monday, April 13, 12:10: "Why You Should (or Shouldn't) Become a Law Professor" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: Bob Scott & Susan Sturm
Professors Scott and Sturm believe that they have the best jobs in the entire world. But at the same time, they recognize that not everyone has the quirks of personality that make for fulfilled life in legal academia. Figuring out if you are such a person requires both self-knowledge and an accurate picture of what law professors spend their time doing, including realistic understanding of the adversities as well as the rewards. Professors Scott and Sturm will speak about the need for passion about the material with which one works, the need for self-motivation and the ability to work mostly alone for long periods of time, and the need to appreciate powerful criticism without losing sight of the value of one's own project.
Monday, April 20, 12:10: " Balancing Career and Family" (Room: JGH 940) Speakers: Risa Goluboff & Richard Schragger (rescheduled from April 6)
Two married law professors with children will talk about the pleasures and complexities of managing career and family.
