June 2007

Demystifying the Academic Track

by Carla C. Lee and Cynthia B. Jones

Position Yourself for Law Teaching
If you want an academic career, the first pearl of wisdom, according to Dean Kellye Testy of Seattle University School of Law, is to educate yourself to the process. To begin with, in most cases, five years of some kind of practice is the requisite period before a would-be law professor enters the world of academia. However, after five years of practice, you may run the risk of a common perception by recruiters that your goal is to hibernate in legal academia using it as an early retirement plan. This is not the always the case, nonetheless, law faculty recruiters typically look for highly credentialed candidates with a minimum of five years of practice experience, and who have demonstrated scholarly as well as teaching objectives. This article will cover some of the basics you need to know for the purpose of demystifying the academic track, including the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) interview process, why publishing scholarly work is important, and what counts as scholarship.

Where to Start?
If you want to be a law professor, the first thing you need to know about is the AALS’s Faculty Recruitment Conference, a formalized process that recruits and hires law school faculty across the country. Every year the AALS holds a Faculty Recruitment Conference (Conference) at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington DC where law schools from around the country congregate to interview potential candidates to fill teaching spots at their respective law schools. The Conference offers law faculty recruiters and lawyers an opportunity to meet and engage in a short interview process. Dean Testy has attended the Conference, and describes the Wardman Hotel as maze-like and disorienting, and the short AALS 30 minute interview as more exhausting than the three day Washington State Bar exam. Preparation for the interview is key.

The Interview
The interview process is a 30 minute discussion where the registrant stands before a panel of law professors, law faculty recruiters, and law school administrators. The registrant is expected to engage a panel of faculty in pithy, scholarly conversation. One tip from Dean Testy: arrive a day early and familiarize yourself with the hotel. When interviews are scheduled, not much time is scheduled in between for the registrant to move from room to room, interview to interview. Consequently, if you arrive a day early, you can know the layout of the hotel and focus your energy on your interviews rather than wasting precious time trying to find out where your interviews are located.

Another past Conference attendee, Richard Mitchell, Counsel to Governor Christine Gregoire and former adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law recalls his AALS interview, and likens it to a scene from the famous law school movie, The Paper Chase where a contracts professor (Professor Kingsfield) puts an unprepared first year Harvard law student (Mr. Hart) through the Socratic gauntlet on the first day of class. “. . . on your feet Mr. Hart and fill this room with your intelligence.”

During the interview, it is common for the panel members to engage in sidebar discussions. For example, during Richard’s interview, members of the distinguished panel engaged in an academic discussion. Admitting he was a little overwhelmed, Richard recalls just envisioning himself as a professor, and treating those panelists as if they were his students in a classroom. Preparation for the interview is crucial, and just as important, if you want to land that interview, you need to be published.

What Counts as Scholarship?
A scholarly publication can focus on the doctrinal or non-doctrinal; however, the doctrinal article will increase the chance of receiving an AALS interview. Many law schools look at whether the applicant’s scholarly agenda fits within the school’s curriculum. If you know where you want to teach, you must pay particular attention to the school’s curriculum objectives. You want to make sure your scholarly agenda is consistent or at least compatible with their current curriculum needs. Dean Testy says it is common to find the perfect candidate, however, their scholarly project and interest does not fit into the law school’s current curriculum needs.

If your interest is in teaching non-doctrinal subjects such as legal writing, you might want to focus on the second tier law schools because most Ivy League Institutions do not view legal writing as a scholarly objective. In addition, if you are hired as a legal writing professor, it may be difficult to leap into a doctrinal teaching position.

More importantly, because the competition is stiff, it is critical for you to distinguish yourself from the 850 to 1000 applicants looking for law teaching positions. A doctrinal scholarly objective will allow you to distinguish yourself from the hundreds of applicants. Ideally, during the interview you should emphasize your core scholarly area first and then explain your specialty area. Keep in mind that your scholarly objectives do not have to match your teaching objectives. For instance, you might want to focus on critical race theory and the law as your specialty scholarly work but teach contract law and/or civil procedures. While more emphasis is on the scholarly objectives, the teaching objectives are important as well.

Dean Testy suggests mock practice as essential to preparing for any teaching position and especially for law teaching. You can get the mock practice you’ll need through mentorship and coaching. The ability to mentor and coach students who are unfamiliar with the area of scholarship you want to specialize in is essential to being a good professor. In addition to connecting with students, a law professor must be comfortable with public speaking.

Once you have positioned yourself for a law teaching position by meeting the elements outlined above, you are ready to contact the AALS to learn more about the process.

General Information About AALS
For a small fee the AALS will initiate the formalized process allowing you time to focus on the interview presentation. To thoroughly prepare for this rigid formalized process, it might be a good idea to enlist your law school professors into a mock interview. This will give you an opportunity to anticipate questions and get prepared to “share your intelligence” with the distinguished panel.

Further, by having AALS initiate the process for you, AALS will list your name in the Faculty Appointment Register, send copies of its Placement Bulletin, and invite you to the Faculty Recruitment Conference. AALS will ask you to submit your information about your educational background, your teaching experience, the subjects you want to teach, your employment history, a list of any publications, and a list of your bar admissions. They will also ask for a list of references. Be sure that these references are people who support your application to teach. Your references must be your personal advocates and believe in your ability to teach law. The most crucial part of the application process is the short one page form, which will determine whether you get a 30 minute interview. After the 30 minute interview, you may or may not receive a call back and then hopefully an offer.

Contact the AALS to Learn More
For more information, you can visit www.aals.org or write to them at: Association of American Law Schools, 1201 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036-2605, 202-296-8851.

Carla C. Lee is a solo practitioner of the Law Office of Carla C. Lee in Seattle, WA. She can be reached at 206-261-4632, or carlaclee@comcast.net.

Cynthia B. Jones is a law clerk to Justice Charles W. Johnson at the Washington State Supreme Court and current Associate Editor of De Novo. She can be reached at 206-972-4943 or jones.cynthiab@gmail.com