Posted by Orin Kerr:
The Long Road to Being a Law Professor:
An interesting discussion has been bouncing around the blogosphere
recently about what law schools students should attend if they want to
be a law professor; to get up to speed on the discussion, check out
these posts by [1]Chris Geidner, [2]Brian Leiter, [3]Christine Hurt,
and [4]Larry Solum (and Larry again [5]here). This is a very good
discussion, and I agree with much of what has been posted. I have a
few additional thoughts that I hope will be useful.
Much of the discussion has focused on how much easier or harder it
is to be a law professor based on what school you attend for your J.D.
I think it's worth adding that, no matter what law school you go to,
the road to becoming a law professor tends to be long and difficult.
Rare exceptions exist, but most successful candidates get a law
teaching job only after putting in a tremendous amount of work over a
period of several years to prepare themselves for the teaching market.
It probably starts with applying to schools; then turns to getting
high grades; getting to know professors; applying for clerkships; and
then -- and this probably is the hardest part -- writing, placing, and
publishing multiple scholarly articles. The law school you attend is
part of the picture, but only part of the picture.
Second, almost all candidates encounter lots of uncertainty along
the way. Persistence in the face of that uncertainty is key regardless
of whether you went to law school at [6]Yale, [7]Tennessee, or
[8]Capital University. You might not get into the school you want, or
may not get the clerkship you want; you may not place your article in
a journal you want, or make law review. A few lucky souls encounter
fantastic success at each and every one of these stages. But most
don't; most people succeed at some of these stages and flop at others.
The uncertainty continues to the very end: I know a number of very
well-qualified candidates who didn't get a teaching position the first
time they applied, and had to go on the market a second time to get a
job.
Finally, my relatively limited experience suggests that there is a
wide gap between the success rates of candidates who are committed to
getting a teaching job and those who are less committed to it. Some
people express a wish to teach tempered by a number of caveats:
they'll do it only if they can get a job at a top school, or only if
they can be in a particular city or region. Most people who impose
these sorts of restrictions give up along the way. At the same time,
those who are willing to work really hard, write up a storm, and are
flexible about what jobs they'll take usually end up with something
eventually. Of course, it's hard to generalize on a point like this. I
don't want to make it seems like anyone can be a law professor if they
try hard enough; that's not true. But in my admittedly limited
experience, my sense is that those who keep knocking on the door
usually find that someone will let them in.
References
1. http://www.chrisgeidner.com/blog/archive/003083.html
2. http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2005/03/where_to_go_to_.html
3. http://www.theconglomerate.org/2005/03/jumping_into_th.html
4.
http://lsolum.blogspot.com/archives/2005_03_01_lsolum_archive.html#110995068787514907
5.
http://lsolum.blogspot.com/archives/2005_03_01_lsolum_archive.html#110997730700296921
6. http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste/
7. http://cumberland.samford.edu/cumberland_people.asp?ID=420
8. http://lawwww.cwru.edu/faculty/faculty_detail.asp?adj=0&id=139
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