Fall 2003

Defending Freedom from the Ivory Tower

How—and Why—to Pursue a Career in Legal Academia

By Adam Mossoff

For anyone interested in the intellectual life of the law, a law degree provides numerous opportunities, from a full-time public interest career to pro bono work through the Human Action Network to policy analyst or a government position. There is, however, another avenue for lawyers seeking to participate more directly in the theoretical debates that help define our legal institutions and rights: law professor.

How does one become a law professor? There are two types of professors in every law school—full-time, tenure-track professors and adjunct professors. The latter are full-time lawyers who teach a course or two each year as a supplement to their work as attorneys. All law schools use adjuncts to some degree. If you wish to remain active in the practice of law, but would like to engage students and professors in rigorous intellectual exchange, then becoming an adjunct is ideal.

The best approach to obtaining an adjunct position is to send your resume and a letter expressing your interest in teaching to the Dean of Academic Affairs at the law schools in your area. You should also consider contacting the law school from which you graduated, as it is common for law schools to hire their graduates as adjuncts.

If, however, you are interested in changing your career from full-time lawyer to full-time legal academic, then there is a structured hiring process run by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). For those seriously interested in pursuing this avenue, the Institute for Humane Studies has published a pamphlet to assist people with the process, called Law School and Beyond: The IHS Guide to Careers in Legal Academia (available online at: http://www.theihs.org/libertyguide/article.php/91.html), with advice from prominent academics, such as Eugene Volokh, Todd Zywicki, David Bernstein and Richard Epstein. But the most important activity that one can do to prepare for entering the academic job market is publishing articles in law reviews, and the higher ranked the journal, the better. Of course, many lawyers who are billing 2300+ hours a year do not have the time to research and write scholarly articles in their “free” time. Thus, there are a couple of academic programs that assist lawyers in a transition from practitioner to academic.

First, many law schools use 1L research and writing positions as opportunities to train future legal academics. The Bigelow Fellows at the University of Chicago Law School and the Forrester Fellows at Tulane University School of Law are just two examples. These fellowships provide up to two years of experience in teaching and academic research and writing—valuable skills to develop before one officially enters the academic job market in search of a tenure-track position.

Second, there are stand-alone fellowships, such as the John M. Olin Fellow in Law Program. I was very lucky to have been chosen as a John M. Olin Fellow in Law for the 2001-2002 school year; I received a very reasonable salary for the sole purpose of researching and writing for an entire academic year. This fellowship is an amazing opportunity to prepare for a career in the legal academy, and I highly recommend it. For further information, visit http://www.fed-soc.org/Seeking/Olin.htm.

Following my Olin Fellowship and a federal clerkship during the 2002-2003 court term, I successfully navigated the academic hiring process last year. I am extremely satisfied with the start of my academic career this year as an Assistant Professor of Law at Michigan State University—DCL College of Law. I am teaching the courses I want to teach, and I have amazing research support, including summer stipends, research assistants, a library staff that is all too happy to find an obscure document or book, and subsidies for attending conferences. My colleagues are also very congenial and I enjoy spending time with them, both professionally and personally.

It is possible to become directly involved in the intellectual life of the law, and even to do so while remaining a practitioner. For HAN members, working as an adjunct or in a tenure-track position brings with it an additional reward: opportunities to engage in the academic policy debates that ultimately impact how the legislature and the courts protect our basic rights to life, liberty and property. Thus, one can be an academic—or even a part-time adjunct—and still achieve real-world results impacting important real-world issues. All it takes is a J.D.

Adam Mossoff (LSC 99) is Assistant Professor of Law at Michigan State University—DCL College of Law.