r/LawTeaching

I am an entry level law scholar/teacher looking to transition to law tenure track at some point. I have a PhD in another field in which coauthorship is not only expected and common, but you are seen as a jerk if you are stingy with it (I have historically prided myself as being gracious on this front because it helps junior scholars and shows you are a team player).

I have had law faculty disparagingly refer to my peer reviewed, published empirical work - co-authored with others but often in a first author position - as "team projects". How common is this thinking among law faculty? It matters not because I am thin-skinned but because I have to decide how to handle future research and collaboration given professional goals.

I hope to continue publishing in both law and my original field (because I genuinely believe that the work has broader impact if it's not in law reviews and I like doing broader work that involves PhD students, teams, etc.). I know I need solo authored law review pieces for the law professor market (am taking care of it), but will all of my work in the other field always be seen as irrelevant and marginal by law profs? Will I always be discouraged from collaborating with people in fields where coauthorship is expected? I am surprised by the resistance to doing collaborative work and the assumption that it's "not really yours." It seems so antithetical to the idea of scholarship and intellectual give and take that legal scholarship supposedly prides itself on. I have law students working with me on a current piece, for example, and in the other field I would unquestionably consider giving them co-authorship, but in law it seems like it is expected that they be happy with an appreciative sentence in a footnote.

I don't really want to give up on my fruitful relationships with scholars in another field just to appease petty law faculty, but it would be good to get a gut check for how prevalent the view is and any justification for it (and maybe good to decide that legal academia isn't really the place for me long-term if they hate teamwork so much). If I were to do a joint study with scholars in related fields is it really assumed that while I am a co-author on all THEIR publications, they just fall off my law publications? That seems so silly and counterproductive to interdisciplinary work.

1st year associate with the above credentials, and hopefully a big bankruptcy clerkship (SDTX, SDNY, DEL) soon. Also polishing off an article to submit in the fall with hopefully one more that I’d submit the next year. Is it possible to get into a VAP program? It seems like having 1-3 publications is the main requirement, but I’m wondering if the rest of my profile is still competitive especially given that I have a niche transactional focus.

Hi all! I have been going through the hiring process for a tenure track faculty position at a public law school. I was verbally told that the Dean would be contacting me to provide me with the official offer, as per the law school's policy only the Dean could make an offer. That was about 6 weeks ago. I have checked in with the head of the hiring committee a couple times but he says he's in the dark about why it's taking so long. Does this timeline seem normal? Do you think this is a "the Dean is busy with graduation and finals" issue or does this sound more like a "we tried to hire someone without actually getting the funding approval for the position" issue? Any insight is appreciated! Thanks!

I was surprised to learn that a number of colleagues don’t do a review, either as the last class or as an additional session. Are they outliers or is this more common than I imagined it would be? Why not do one?

Do podium law professors tend to keep their bar admission active while teaching? Does it make sense to get licensed in the state of your school when you start a TT position?