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So You Want to Be a Law Professor

So You Want to Be a Law Professor: An Unofficial and Incomplete Guide to Pursuing a Law Teaching Career

By Tiffany C. Li

Last Updated: August 7, 2024

You’ve reached this guide because you are interested in becoming a law professor. Below are some resources I’ve collected over the years with tips and information.

All career paths are unique, and nothing on this page should be considered the definitive guide on how to become a law professor. I am a law professor at a U.S. law school, and I have gone through various phases of the U.S. legal academic job market, from practitioner writing on the side, to research fellow, to VAP, to entry-level candidate, to lateral candidate. I graduated with a U.S. J.D. and practiced for a few years before starting the academic track. All of the above are factors that shaped my candidacy on the job market/s, and my advice is solely based on what I know, from my personal experiences and those of friends I know in the field.

It is my hope that highlighting these resources and tips can clear up some of the mystery around the hiring process, particularly for those who are less well-connected and who may not know the “hidden curriculum” of legal academia.

I do not regularly check whether the information in these links is up-to-date, so use at your own discretion. As always, YMMV.

General Info and Tips

Critical Perspectives

Hiring Reports and Data

On Scholarship and Law Reviews
The following are links on the law review process, including tips on writing and submitting.

Law Prof Chatter

Law profs like to talk! And blog, sometimes. There are many law prof blogs and communities. Here are just a few:

Additional Tips From Me, a Random Law Professor (Results Not Guaranteed)

  • Talk to People!
    • If you have no network, build one. Talk to your old law school professors. Reach out to scholars in your field. Pursuing additional graduate studies in law, a fellowship, or a VAP can give you some time and opportunity to do this, but it is not necessary.
    • Ask law professors for advice. Send cold or warm emails. Show up at conferences, works-in-progress workshops, and events. Many professors are friendly and willing to help junior folks. Do not be offended if you send an email and don’t get a reply, or if, instead of a personal reply, you receive a link to a well-crafted page of resources 🙂 People want to help, but everyone has limitations on time.
    • Ask mentors and friends to review your job talk paper, your CV, and your other assorted materials. Ask if any professors would be willing to help arrange a job talk moot (practice) for you.
    • Tell your mentors where you’re applying, where you’re interviewing, and so on. They may know people they can send a quick note to or may have some inside knowledge they can share with you.
  • WRITE.
    • You MUST publish to get a job, if you want a tenure-track, doctrinal faculty position. What should you be writing? Solo-authored, full law review articles, ideally published in main (not specialty) journals, at as high-ranked a journal as you can get.
      • Shorter essays and symposium pieces, non-US law pieces, non-law pieces, articles in specialty journals or online supplements, book chapters, and co-authored articles are all nice and may help your application, but they are not the main thing people will judge you on.
      • Non-academic writing, including policy reports, whitepapers, blog posts, op-eds, general audience writing, trade publications, law firm blog posts, and so on, generally will not help or hurt you on the job market.
    • Conventional wisdom says you should have at least one published article + one job talk paper that’s not-yet-published, the latter to present and talk about when you’re on the market. (Nowadays, many have more publications!)
    • Your job talk paper is the one you’ll be presenting at every school, to a faculty full of law profs from a variety of fields. If your paper is highly specific to your subject area, you may have to do some extra work to make your paper interesting to your audience.
    • At many schools, the first and main thing (often, the only thing) a hiring committee will look at is your scholarship. Polish your job talk paper as much as possible.
  • Gain Experience (Maybe)
    • Does teaching experience matter on the entry-level market?
      • Maybe. It depends on the hiring school. Teaching-focused schools may look favorably upon candidates that already have experience teaching, especially in curricular need areas. But, even at the most teaching-focused institutions, you will encounter faculty who care deeply about the quality (and quantity) of your scholarship. So: WRITE.
    • Does prior legal experience (including clerkships) matter?
      • Maybe. It depends on the hiring school. At most schools … not really. But prestigious positions always look nice on a C.V. If you can work your prior legal experience into a career trajectory that makes sense, that’s nice too. [Note: This does not apply to clinical positions, where practical experience in the field of your desired clinic is critically important.]
    • Should you do an additional graduate degree or a fellowship/VAP (Visiting Assistant Professorship)?
      • Statistically, many successful candidates on the law teaching market nowadays have one or more of the above. But whether to pursue one or more of these roles is a complex decision that will depend on many factors, including your personal/family situation as well as your financial situation. Most fellowships and VAPs pay very little, compared to attorney salaries. Some will require you to move across the country for a year or two, potentially leaving your family (and your finances) in disarray.
      • Mostly what these experiences will give you are: time to write, opportunities to network, and an additional line on your C.V. Also teaching experience, but see above re: how important that is.
      • Note that not all VAPs/fellowships are the same, and not all are geared towards preparing you for the law teaching market. If the fellowship does not give you enough time to write, it may be of limited use to you as a job candidate. (This may be the case with fellowships that overload you with teaching or management responsibilities.)
      • A PhD is usually seen as an asset on the market. A Master’s degree may be a plus, but not always, depending on the degree and your particular candidate profile. As always, the more prestigious the institution for the degree, the more this line on your CV will help you.
      • If your J.D. was from a “non-elite” institution, a strong graduate degree/fellowship/VAP from an “elite” institution might help get you past the first stage of screening.
      • If your law degree is from a non-U.S. institution, and you have no other U.S. degrees, a U.S.-based law degree, fellowship, or VAP will likely be helpful in getting past the first stage of screening.
  • The Hiring Process
    • Be nice! People may forget the subject of your job talk, but they will remember if you were rude to administrative staff during your visit.
    • Don’t get too disheartened during the job search process. It’s not always about you. Hiring committees act based on many factors totally out of your control. You may be the best Health Law candidate on the market, but the hiring school may suddenly decide to de-emphasize its health law program midway through the hiring process. Things happen. Do the best you can, and let the rest of it go.
    • Law school hiring doesn’t all happen in one season. Some people get offers in the summer, before the AALS FAR process even begins. Some schools will continue to hire even into April or May (for positions beginning that fall). It’s not over until it’s over. And even then, you can just try again next year.
    • You do not have to be the “perfect” candidate to get a law teaching job. You do not need to have a YLS J.D./PhD + SCOTUS clerkship + Bigelow Fellowship + 10 publications to get a job. You do not necessarily need to have an “elite” J.D. or fellowship at all, especially if you are flexible with which schools you are interested in joining as a professor. 
  • On Law School Hiring Advice, in General
    • Take all advice with a grain of salt. Conventional wisdom is not always correct. People often advise based on their own experiences, which may not align with yours. There are many paths to a career in law teaching, and you can chart your own.