So You Want To Be A Law Professor?
Posted by Josh Wright on October 26, 2007
The Harvard Law Record report on Daryl Levinson’s presentation on the entry-level market is must read material. HT to Orin Kerr who pointed out the article and was amused by Levinson’s comment that practical legal experience is “is pretty nearly disqualifying.” I agree that comment might well shock some prospective law profs out there, but here’s the exchange would most likely catch the attention of academics in other departments:
Q: What’s hardest: getting the entry-level job, getting the next job, or getting tenure?
A: Tenure is relatively easy – presumptively everyone gets it, and those who don’t are the exception, not the rule. In the schools with the strictest requirements, about one out of every four professors don’t get tenure.
I don’t know where he is getting the data from (if there are data) but a tenure rate of >75% is consistent with casual empiricism and anectodal evidence I’ve heard.
2 Responses to “So You Want To Be A Law Professor?”
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Law & Business said
Why be a Law Professor? And How to Become One
Harvard Law professor Daryl Levinson: noted that job satisfaction among academics is much higher than among legal practitioners or even faculty in the Arts and Sciences. Academia gives lawyers time, space, and flexibility to think about the topics they…
Stephen Bainbridge said
I once heard a former Chancellor of the University of Illinois complain that law professors regard tenure as a birthright.