Academic

Solove's Advice for Entering the Teaching Market

By propertyprof

Well, I'm in the office on memorial day packing.  I'm adding to my series "this is why", a new one: "this is why it's so difficult to recruit laterals."  (No one who's moved recently will ever want to go through it again!)  The disruption of moving is, well, extraordinary.

So, taking a little break from packing... over at co-op Dan Solove (author of books that people read on subways!) has ten pieces of advice for people who're thinking about law teaching.  I think it all characteristically very sound--and even for those of us who've been in the business a while. 

I don't want to restart the great phd war of 2005, but I would like to add one piece of advice: think very seriously about a phd in a discipline allied to law (such as economics, sociology, psychology, philosophy, history) or perhaps an MBA.

Of course law teaching jobs are always going to be hard to come by.  There are what, 180 or so law schools.  Even if each one hires two people a year, that's not a huge number of openings.  And in many years, many schools hire no one.  So I often encourage people to think about what it is that they like about the idea of teaching.  If it's the teaching part, look in places beyond law schools--like business schools and even community colleges.  If you enjoy teaching (or think you would), there are a ton of teaching opportunities out there.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on May 26, 2008 (boomark / email).