Almost Everything You Need to Know About Law Teaching
Almost Everything You Need to Know About Law Teaching
ALMOST EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LAW SCHOOL TEACHING
In the fall, the Columbia Law School Program on Careers in Law Teaching offers advice and guidance to Columbians seeking entry-level positions as legal academics. In the spring, we host a series of weekly lunch workshops for current students contemplating the possibility of an academic career at some point following the completion of their studies. This document covers points that should be relevant both to current and potential seekers of law teaching positions.
I. Do I want to be a law professor?
To answer that question requires some familiarity with what law professors do. Life as a law professor typically consists of three kinds of activities: research, teaching, and service. The main research work in law involves the publication of articles in law reviews, although many professors write books and edit casebooks as well. Law schools also require their faculty to teach. The teaching load is usually three to four courses, depending on the school, and typically involves a balance of “service” courses (for example, first-year required courses) and upper-level courses related to the faculty member’s scholarly interests. Like other academics, law professors are required to serve on committees both within their department and elsewhere on campus. They are also expected to make useful contributions to the profession; this can be accomplished in any number of ways, for example by doing pro bono work, legislative work, consulting, participating in scholarly organizations, writing amicus briefs, or working with professional organizations such as the American Bar Association and American Law Institute.
Although each of these activities is important, most law schools, particularly the most prestigious institutions, treat accomplishment in research as crucial. Such accomplishment is measured by quality and quantity of scholarly publication. Therefore, when considering a career in legal academia it is important to think carefully about your commitment to being a scholar. Successful legal scholars are excited by ideas, and willing to persevere through the many drafts and revisions it takes to give those ideas form and argument. If you like writing and enjoy coming up with your own ideas for papers and research projects, this is a life with considerable appeal. On the other hand, doing academic research is often a solitary occupation (though faculty sometimes collaborate with colleagues or students); the rewards often lie in the pleasure of the process itself, rather than the feeling that you have tangibly made a difference to someone’s life. If you value the opportunity to make a difference in that way, you can certainly find it as a law professor, but you will likely find such opportunities in greater abundance in other career paths, such as public defender.
In addition to tenure-track classroom teaching positions on a law faculty, there are increasing numbers of positions in clinical teaching. Clinical teaching, for many, involves the best of both worlds—the intellectual excitement of a university setting, close work with committed and energetic students, plus the chance to do real-world work with clients and contribute to the practical and ethical education of students. The activities and responsibilities of clinical faculty members vary from school to school. At some law schools, clinical faculty members also teach substantive subject-matter courses; at many schools, they teach only in the clinical program. Some schools seek to hire clinical faculty who also produce legal scholarship. It can be quite demanding to write academic articles while, at the same time, supervising students in law practice. Thus, some schools do not require clinical faculty to write academic articles, or may permit clinical faculty to produce scholarship of a different type or at a slower pace. The status of clinical faculty also varies from school to school. Some law schools afford tenure to clinical faculty members. At many schools, however, clinical teachers do not receive tenure, and may not be entitled to the full privileges of “classroom” teachers. These other schools may provide a different form of tenure, such as “clinical tenure,” or seek to hire faculty on long or short-term contracts.
II. How do I make myself a good candidate for a teaching job?
What factors make a candidate for a teaching position attractive to the hiring or appointments committee? Traditionally, getting excellent grades at a distinguished law school, being a law review member or (preferably) officer, and having a prestigious clerkship after graduation have been the most important factors, especially at the top schools. In recent years, however, scholarly achievement—not just potential—is increasingly required. By the time you are applying for tenure-track teaching jobs, you should have at least one polished piece of work ready to be submitted to prospective employers and used as a “job talk.” A paper already in the publication pipeline can serve these purposes well. Better yet is to have something published already, and a second project suitable for presentation to schools. Most law faculties still value candidates who have practiced law, so a few years of experience (particularly if you have been able to write as well) can be useful.
To prepare themselves for an academic career in this increasingly competitive market, some students take an additional graduate degree in a law-related discipline. Post-J.D. fellowship programs aimed at bringing law graduates into teaching have also begun to appear. One established example is Columbia’s Associates in Law program, in which emerging scholars teach legal research and writing during the first semester and are free to develop their scholarship in the second semester and during the summer. Similar programs exist at other top schools, and admission is not confined to graduates of these respective schools. The Program also has limited fellowship funding for Columbia graduates to spend one to six months in residence while working on their writing. Check the fellowships page for an up-to-date list.
Meanwhile, if you are a current student, there are several ways you can develop a record of scholarly achievement while still in law school. You can select courses, especially seminars, that require writing papers rather than taking an exam, in order to help you develop your research interests and produce publishable work. Consider working as a research assistant for a professor whose specialization interests you. This experience will enhance your research skills and your familiarity with the subject matter; it will provide you with a close view of the scholarly world (and ideally some mentoring); and it should also provide you with a valuable reference later on. Seek out opportunities to present papers in seminars and at conferences; the practice will be valuable and you may also make helpful contacts. Above all, let your professors know that you are interested in a teaching career. Even faculty members with whom you have not taken a class or who do not share your research interests may have useful suggestions and ideas.
For students interested in clinical teaching, practice experience is especially important. While many law schools look to some of the same criteria that measure candidates for traditional classroom teaching, prospective clinical teachers must also demonstrate the ability or the potential to supervise students with real cases or projects. Schools often hire clinical faculty from the world of practice; many clinical teachers come from law firms, government agencies and non-profits. Some students gain both practice and clinical teaching experience through clinical fellowships. Georgetown University, for example, has a two-year fellowship program in which fellows supervise J.D. students in practice and earn an L.L.M. degree. Such fellowships provide an established route to a clinical teaching career.
Because the requirements for clinical teaching positions vary dramatically from school to school, you should think carefully about the type of position you would like to obtain. You might consider, for example, whether you would enjoy a teaching position at a school that requires clinicians to produce academic scholarship. If you would like to obtain a tenure-track clinical teaching position, or one that requires scholarship, you should follow the same advice usually given to non-clinical teachers: have a paper or project ready to discuss. To get a better sense of the role of a clinical teacher, and of the variety of positions in the clinical teaching market, you should regularly read the newsletters of two professional groups. These organizations are the Clinical Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), and the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA). The CLEA’s newsletters are on the web at: http://clinic.law.cuny.edu/clea/clea.html.
III. How do I apply for a teaching job?
The hiring process for entry-level tenure-track teaching jobs typically begins over a year before the jobs do. The process is largely conducted through the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), which distributes candidates’ standardized resumes to appointments committees and sponsors a Faculty Recruitment Conference (commonly known as the “meat market”) in the fall, in Washington, D.C. If you wish to apply for entry-level tenure-track teaching jobs, you should familiarize yourself with the application process well before it starts. (Most candidates start their preparations in the spring of the calendar year in which they will be applying). The AALS website includes a very informative Faculty Recruitment Services portion (http://www.aals.org/frs/index.html).
In the year in which you choose to participate in the AALS recruiting process, be sure to fill out the application in time to have your material included in the first distribution. Many schools fill up their interview slots based on this first set and don’t look at candidates whose material comes in later.
At the Faculty Recruitment Conference, faculty appointments committees (usually a group of two to five faculty, often including the dean) conduct initial screening interviews. You should plan to attend the conference, and expect to pay your own way. (It is generally well worth your while to stay at the conference hotel, as the 30-minute interviews are often scheduled back to back.) Columbia Law School hosts a hospitality suite for its candidates at the conference. This is a great place to have a snack, get advice, swap war stories, leave your coat, or just unwind between interviews.
If, after your screening interview, you are invited by a school for an on-campus interview, the school will pay the costs of the trip. On-campus interviews begin as early as the week after the AALS conference and may extend into late February. In general, the on-campus interview will consist of a dinner with several faculty members, a series of interviews with other faculty members, your job talk, a meeting with students, and a meeting with the dean. The dinner may take place the evening before the rest of your schedule, or it may take place after your interviews and job talk. You should make sure to get the details of the school’s expectations before you visit so you are not surprised on arrival. Usually (but ask!) the job talk is a 15-30 minute presentation to the school’s entire faculty, often with visual aids but not read from a prepared text, on your current work, followed by about 40-60 minutes of questions. In most cases, the chair or another member of the appointments committee will shepherd you through the process. The timing of decisions about offers will vary from one school to another and depend on a particular school’s procedures.
Most schools will permit you to wait until you have heard from all the other schools at which you had on-campus interviews before requiring you to accept or reject their offer. However, a (growing) number of schools give fixed deadlines, with the result that their offer may expire before you know whether you will be receiving offers from other schools. The schools that make such “exploding” offers do so because they worry that if they wait too long on their first choice candidate, their second, third and fourth choice candidates may accept other offers. They also count on the risk aversion of candidates as a method of ensnaring candidates they would otherwise lose to higher-ranked institutions. There is no standard answer to the question of what to do if you receive an exploding offer from a school that is acceptable to you but less desirable than a school at which you remain in the running. As in other contexts, such as clerkships and law review offers of publication, you have to make a judgment based upon the relative merits, your estimate of the likelihood that you will receive additional offers, and your taste for risk.
Many law schools hire clinical faculty members through the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference, but there are other established mechanisms as well. Many schools advertise clinical teaching positions in the CLEA newsletter (http://clinic.law.cuny.edu/clea/clea.html) and these schools welcome applications made directly to the school’s Appointments Committee or to the director of the clinical program. Law schools will typically invite clinical faculty candidates to on-campus interviews. Many clinical faculty on-campus interviews will require job talks, but many will not. Be sure to ask the school about the format of your visit.
On-campus interviews are arduous. Remember that you are potentially being evaluated by everyone you encounter, from the librarian to the Dean’s secretary, to the head of the Appointments committee. Be particularly wary of invitations to badmouth colleagues, former teachers, or other schools; this will almost always reflect badly on you. At the same time, remember that if you have been invited by the appointments committee for an on-campus interview, you must have made a very favorable impression, and the faculty are trying to impress you as much as you are trying to impress them.
The academic job market is extremely competitive and if your personal situation permits, you therefore should try not to limit your applications to a small number of schools or a particular geographical area. You are only applying for your first job, not a position for life, and law faculty often move around. Even if your heart is set on living in the New York area, for example, the best way to get a job here may involve going somewhere else first. If you can only imagine yourself teaching at a few elite schools, it may be prudent for you to revisit the question whether you are sufficiently motivated to take up an academic career. You should anticipate that, wherever you find a teaching job, you will in the early years of your academic career be required to “pay your dues,” as you juggle teaching and administrative responsibilities with scholarly projects.
In addition to registering with the AALS Faculty Appointments Register, you may also want to apply independently to schools in which you are especially interested. Your application should include a cover letter, resume, transcript and scholarly writing sample. The cover letter should state a plausible explanation for why you especially want to be at that law school, such as proximity to family or a specialized program in your area of expertise. The package should be sent to the dean of the law school or the chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee.
Whether or not you apply separately, the AALS now permits you to upload a resume along with your AALS form. Most schools will not look at your resume until they have first screened your AALS form so you should be as complete as possible with the AALS form. However, because it lacks the severe space limitations, a resume can provide more information. If you have publications, your resume should certainly include a prominent section listing them. Forthcoming publications should also be listed, as well as works in progress. (Be sure not to list as a work in progress a title that is only an idea or rough outline, as you may be asked to produce it. Include only drafts that you expect to be able to share when you start receiving phone calls for interviews.) You should also include a section giving the names and contact information of your references, and a section stating your research and teaching interests. Ideally, these should be related to one another.
In law, unlike other fields, your references will not generally send unsolicited letters of recommendation; rather, they will wait to be contacted by interested schools for their opinions. You should ask permission before listing someone as a reference and make sure each academic reference is familiar with your scholarly work. If, after you submit your application, you have an article accepted for publication (or some other relevant and important change occurs in your circumstances, enhancing your qualifications), you should notify your references and update your application with a letter of explanation and any other applicable materials. Keep your references informed about your schedule of on-campus interviews and about any offers you may receive—that way, they can pass on this information strategically to their contacts; an interview at one good school can generate interest at others.
IV. How do I prepare for the interviews?
You should be ready to discuss your teaching interests. Keep in mind that schools will often have teaching needs at the first-year level. Prepare and rehearse specific answers about which courses you would like to teach and what your approach to them would be.
Even more importantly, you should be ready to discuss your publications and research projects. You should be able to state the thesis of a piece of work concisely. Developing a concise yet interesting statement of a thesis takes practice. Make sure that, when asked this sort of question in an interview, you will neither flounder nor digress. You should also practice answering questions about ideas for future work or your “research agenda.” You want to leave the impression with your interviewers that, given the opportunity to pursue your scholarly interests, you will be a productive addition to the school. When you are asked what questions you have for your interviewers, do not ask about salary and benefits; those questions can wait until you’re offered the job. Instead think of questions that will reveal your scholarly interests, such as opportunities to organize conferences and workshops. If you are applying for a clinical teaching position, you should be prepared to discuss why you are highly qualified to supervise students in the types of cases or projects that the clinics may handle.
When you are preparing for an on-campus interview, you should try to familiarize yourself with the work of faculty members, particularly those whose work is related to yours. Your job talk should not ignore faculty publications on the same topic. At the same time, you shouldn’t pander to your audience by invoking their work where it is not relevant. Find out how long you are expected to speak and whether the protocol at the school is to let you finish the talk or be interrupted with questions right away, as with an oral argument in court. Practice and time your job talk. Ideally, practice it in front of an audience that can ask probing questions: colleagues (if you are being open with them about seeking a new line of work); law school classmates (if they are available); your spouse or partner (if he or she is game); or (as a last resort), the mirror.
Remember that you are more expert on the particular subject of your paper than most of your audience. Many in the audience will not be in your field, but some will, so you have to balance providing enough background for the non-specialists against spending too much of your time on basics. If you are interested in and enthusiastic about your topic, the talk should go well.
Try to anticipate hard questions and to have responses. It’s okay to pause to think about a hard question. You are being evaluated on the quality of your mind rather than the speed of your answers. Most questioners want you to feel comfortable and are not out to trip you up. If you don’t understand a question, it’s okay to ask for a clarification, and if you don’t know the answer, it’s okay to say something like “I want to give that some more thought. Thanks for the suggestion.” (Just don’t answer every question this way!) Above all, be responsive to questions and respectful of all questioners.
Throughout your time on campus, show enthusiasm for the school and its location: think of ways to show that you have some acquaintance with the history of the school, and ask questions about it. Demonstrate your intellectual curiosity by asking faculty members about their work, as well as discussing yours. In your meeting with the dean, convey that you enjoyed meeting the faculty and are impressed with the school, the students, the building, the curriculum—whatever is plausible.
The process as a whole is difficult, and can be at times dispiriting. Patience is necessary, in some cases across several years; many candidates have gotten outstanding jobs in their second (or successive) year of applying, usually after writing a bit more. In addition, many schools hire according to their substantive area needs. They may not be looking broadly at all promising entry-level candidates but are focusing on candidates with a genuine interest or actual experience in a particular field. These needs and school budgets change year by year and so you may be attractive in a subsequent year simply because your field is now the object of a search. Hang in there!
