Career Research: Becoming a Law Professor

One way to practice being on a law school faculty is to participate in a one or two year pre-faculty fellowship where you will teach classes, conduct scholarly research, receive mentoring, participate in committee work, shadow career faculty members, and learn teaching methods.  Here is a list of Fellowships for Aspiring Law Professors.

Join the professional organization for US law professors: the American Association of Law Schools.  This is the group that coordinates the primary system for hiring law faculty members, a.k.a. “the meat market."  Its curriculum innovations, its journal, and its workshops for new law teachers are all helpful resources for future professors.

The American Bar Association’s Section on Legal Education hosts legal education e-mail discussions, publishes an Adjunct Faculty Handbook, maintains standards for law schools, and has other resources to help you become informed about the law school as a workplace.

Find time to do scholarly research and writing before you apply for faculty jobs.  That way, you can develop your own systems and preferences for doing that creative and independent component of faculty work and you will have some good anecdotes and examples to discuss in interviews for faculty jobs.

Law Review Submission Guide

List of Law Reviews

BE Press Expresso - Industry standard inexpesive system for submitting manuscripts to law journals

The Social Science Research Network lists professional opportunities to publish writings and participate in conferences and it lists academic job opportunities

Job ads are also posted on the Faculty Lounge blog