An interesting discussion has been bouncing around the blogosphere recently about what law schools students should attend if they want to become law professors. To get up to speed on the discussion, check out these posts by Chris Geidner, Brian Leiter, Christine Hurt, and Larry Solum (and Larry again 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 Yale, Tennessee, or 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 seem 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 have a pretty good chance of having someone let them in.
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