Legal Commentary

Over at Co-op, Deven Desai has a good post on filling out the FAR.  Those readers going on the market should read both the post and the comments.  The discussion reminded me of some comments that I made in response to a post here at Prawfs by Orin Kerr three (gasp!) years ago.  Orin's post was about the role of specialization in law school hiring.   Orin noted that:

In my experience, specialization matters -- a lot.    Believe it or not, most law schools feel it is important to offer students a wide range of courses staffed by knowledgeable full-time professors.   Achieving that goal imposes a subject matter diversity requirement on faculties; every school tries to have a particular number of contracts professors, tax professors, international law professors, property professors, etc.  Professors come and go every year, which means that a school's subject matter needs can change on an annual basis.  Schools often look to the  entry-level market to fill these gaps.  This means that a candidate's chances of getting hired at a particular school are heavily contingent on that school's particular needs in that particular year.

The rest of his post (read the whole thing) gave some advice on how entry level candidates can market themselves in a specialization.  I had these comments in response:

(1) The "top line" on the AALS form (your top three teaching choices) is very important. The truth is that most schools are hiring to fill a specific need. If the school wants to hire, say, a property person, that school will choose to interview someone who has property in their first three choices over someone who has listed property as something they would be willing to teach if asked. My top two slots were property (what I write about) and corporations (I worked at a big firm). All of my interview schools were looking for either property or corporations. And, surprise, I now teach property AND corporations.

(2) Most schools looking to fill a specialized slot will probably be looking for someone who is truly a credible expert in the area. If you have some tangential experience in a hot area, it might not hurt to list it, but in most cases I doubt it will help a lot.

(3) Your freedom w/r/t the courses you list depends a lot on your credentials. If your resume glows in the dark, by all means list things like con law, law and econ, jurisprudence, etc. (Consistent with Orin's view, pretty much all of the people I've met at new teachers events who were hired to teach jurisprudence have PhDs). If you just have a really strong resume (like pretty much everyone on the teaching market) give some real thought to supply and demand. First year courses and core upper level are always a good bet.

(4) Look hard at your experience and think about how you can best market yourself. I've been stunned at the number of big firm associates who go on the market wanting to teach con law. How about corporations, contracts, secured transactions, sec regs, bankruptcy, UCC etc.? Sure, everyone really wants to teach con law. But this is a _really_ good job. People who really want to be law professors have a better chance of getting a job than people who only want to teach con law.

(5) Crim law/crim pro is an okay market, but not super strong. The issue here (as elsewhere) is supply and demand. There are a lot of prosecutors/crim defense lawyers hitting the market every year, and the demand is static. If you fit this profile, also think about adding evidence to your package.

In response, Orin commented that "I'm with Ben Barros -- I agree with him on all fronts."  I've been hoping to have the chance to use this out of context for the past few years.  Maybe this guest stint at Prawfs will give me the opportunity.   Orin also noted, with respect to my point (5), "if you're a crim law/ crim pro person, how about adding a cool new subject like computer crime law instead of something boring like evidence? I hear there is a casebook coming out soon, hint, hint."

The only point I'd add now is that it is a good idea to get someone who is currently a law professor (preferably one who is or has recently been on the hiring committee) to take a look at your FAR before you submit it.  There are a lot of candidates who make basic mistakes that could be corrected with a little advice.

Ben Barros