Want to become a law professor in the United States?
Curious as to the steps you need to take to be considered for the job?
Today I describe the most common path for becoming a law professor,
and a few less traveled roads.
Hi, this is Professor Beau Baez.
Becoming a law professor is a long and arduous path, beginning with the application process
and then, for some, becoming a full professor with tenure.
What I am going to share is based on my experience as a candidate and also my service on the
faculty hiring committee at two law schools.
First, let’s discuss the AALS hiring process, which is how most people become a law professor.
The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) is the organization that publishes the Faculty
Appointments Register, Placement Bulletin, and administers the Faculty Recruitment Conference.
From start to finish, there are seven steps in their process.
One: Application.
Each summer, the AALS collects faculty resume information through
the Faculty Appointments Register (FAR).
The FAR, or far, is a uniform application, which law school hiring teams use in deciding who they
will interview at the Faculty Recruitment Conference.
Candidates pay a fee to apply and must complete the FAR by the end of July.
Tthere are two additional opportunities to apply, though most faculty hiring teams only use
the information submitted by July 31st.
In early August, faculty hiring teams get access to the FAR data, they then sort based
on their internal hiring criteria.
Two: Selection Process.
Each law school will decide who they want to interview at the Faculty Recruitment Conference
that Fall.
They'll look at where you graduated from law school, advanced degrees, law review
experience, clerkships, teaching experience, and minority status.
Each law school has different hiring priorities, and each member of the faculty hiring committee
has their own bias.
Generally, the higher ranked law schools will place a premium on your JD alma mater, law
review membership, and clerkship experience as they tend to look for
potential scholarly impact.
The lower ranked law schools will also examine teaching ability, as they are more often concerned
with bar passage rates.
In my case, I had some teaching experience, which helped me
land my first full time law school job.
Three: Placement Bulletin.
Most law schools post their faculty openings in the Placement Bulletin, which is published
on August 1st and then a few more times during the recruitment season.
After applying through the FAR, you might want to send a letter of interest to those
law schools where you believe you would be a good fit, noting that you applied through
the FAR—this might get your application noticed by the law school.
Four: Faculty Recruitment Conference.
Each year in the Fall, the AALS holds the annual Faculty Recruitment Conference (FRC)
in Washington, DC—affectionally referred to as the “meet market.” M-E-E-T
Beginning in August, law schools reach out to candidates and start setting up interview times
at the FRC.
Law schools that are hiring through that process will send one or more hiring teams to DC,
where they interview candidates over two days.
The interviews last 20 to 25 minutes, which provides candidates with a five minute run
to their next interview.
Think of this event as speed dating, with the hiring committee looking for three to
five candidates to invite back to campus for each opening.
Top prospects have interviews almost at every time slot, but if you only get one or two
invitations you probably should consider not even going to the conference.
When I went through the process, I interviewed with five law schools.
Five: Campus Interview Selection.
The faculty hiring committee will rank candidates for the coveted on-campus interview
with the entire faculty.
The top candidates, will hear back within a few days as law schools are vying to get them to their
schools early in the process.
But realistically, don’t expect to hear back from a law school right away—it might
take a couple of weeks.
Six: Campus Interview.
The campus interview usually begins with a meal the night before the on-campus interview.
Though informal, the faculty members at the dinner are assessing you.
Though rare, one candidate I had dinner with failed the dinner interview by acting like a complete
jerk, yelling at the waitress when she brought out the wrong order.
The next day will be a series of interviews with faculty, maybe staff, sometimes with students,
and usually ending with a one-on-one meeting with the Dean.
In addition to the interviews, you'll need to conduct a job-talk.
The vast majority of law schools will want you to discuss a topic that
demonstrates scholarly potential.
For example, my job talk dealt with the dormant commerce clause issues in
sales and use tax collection. Exciting, right.
The faculty will then ask questions, either during or after the talk,
probing your intellectual abilities.
A few law schools might ask for a teaching demonstration instead.
The interview process is usually completed by the beginning of December.
Seven: Faculty Recommendation.
The faculty then meets to discuss the candidates and give their recommendations to the Dean,
who makes the ultimate decision.
The faculty usually can’t meet till the middle of January, once they are back from
the Christmas break.
The faculty will rank the acceptable candidates, thereby giving the Dean some flexibility.
By the way, the Dean doesn’t have a lot of flexibility in the amount of pay, which
can be a sticking point for those coming from private practice.
Most people take a significant pay cut when they join a law school faculty.
For me, I took a 40% pay cut, and that was moving out of government into teaching.
Though this is the normal process for most, there are dozens of different ways to become
a law professor.
Here are a few I'm familiar with.
One, some great adjunct professors are able to make the jump to tenure track professor.
Two, demonstrated willingness to work at a law school that has problems attracting and
retaining faculty.
This might include law schools in small towns, very cold parts of the country,
or some faith-based law schools.
A letter of interest to the faculty hiring chair at these schools might get your foot
in the door.
Three, a personal connection with the Dean.
A law school Dean can make temporary visiting appointments to the law school, providing
that person with experience that they can leverage for a full time position
at that school or another law school.
If you have questions on becoming a law professor, leave me a comment below and I'll try to
answer it for you.
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