A couple of weeks ago, I noted that George Mason had so far hired eight new tenured or tenure track faculty members this hiring season. The hiring season has now ended, and the tally is up to nine, with the addition of tax scholar Rachelle Holmes. Our new additions increase our faculty by 30%, and with eight of the nine new hires untenured, and none a higher rank than associate professor, I think it's fair to say that the "class of 2008" represents the future of George Mason Law School.

The law school's press release, with bios of these new hires, (plus another great addition, senior lecturer Robert W. Woolridge), can be found here.

As an aside, it's very interesting to note that all but one of GMU's seven new assistant professors had a research fellowship or visiting assistant professorship before they went on the market--and the seventh has two law degrees, one from Australia and one from the U.S. A quick check of Larry Solum's compilation of law school hiring suggests that most new hires have post-J.D. academic experience, especially, but not exclusively, at the higher-ranked schools. The traditional academic route of "law review to clerkship to big firm to tenure-track job" seems to be going the way of the dodo.