var googletag = googletag || {}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.pubads().disableInitialLoad(); });
device = device.default;
//this function refreshes [adhesion] ad slot every 60 second and makes prebid bid on it every 60 seconds // Set timer to refresh slot every 60 seconds function setIntervalMobile() { if (!device.mobile()) return if (adhesion) setInterval(function(){ googletag.pubads().refresh([adhesion]); }, 60000); } if(device.desktop()) { googletag.cmd.push(function() { leaderboard_top = googletag.defineSlot('/22018898626/LC_Article_detail_page', [728, 90], 'div-gpt-ad-1591620860846-0').setTargeting('pos', ['1']).setTargeting('div_id', ['leaderboard_top']).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); }); } else if(device.tablet()) { googletag.cmd.push(function() { leaderboard_top = googletag.defineSlot('/22018898626/LC_Article_detail_page', [320, 50], 'div-gpt-ad-1591620860846-0').setTargeting('pos', ['1']).setTargeting('div_id', ['leaderboard_top']).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); }); } else if(device.mobile()) { googletag.cmd.push(function() { leaderboard_top = googletag.defineSlot('/22018898626/LC_Article_detail_page', [320, 50], 'div-gpt-ad-1591620860846-0').setTargeting('pos', ['1']).setTargeting('div_id', ['leaderboard_top']).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); }); } googletag.cmd.push(function() { // Enable lazy loading with... googletag.pubads().enableLazyLoad({ // Fetch slots within 5 viewports. // fetchMarginPercent: 500, fetchMarginPercent: 100, // Render slots within 2 viewports. // renderMarginPercent: 200, renderMarginPercent: 100, // Double the above values on mobile, where viewports are smaller // and users tend to scroll faster. mobileScaling: 2.0 }); });
Download App | FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
 Upload Your Resume   Employers / Post Jobs 

How the University of Texas' Emerging Scholars Program is Part of a Growing Law School Trend

published April 16, 2023

Published By
( 115 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.
Summary

The University of Texas School of Law has started a new program, the Emerging Scholars Program, in order to help bring top lawyers of the future into its ranks. This program is part of a larger trend among law schools across the nation to provide exceptional and diverse students with access to an education.


The Emerging Scholars Program at the University of Texas is designed to provide students of underrepresented backgrounds with an education in law and the opportunity to participate in internships and networking activities that can help open the doors to a successful legal career. The program is open to students who have not completed a four-year degree, but have instead earned a two-year associate's degree or completed some college credits.

Applicants to the program must demonstrate qualities of leadership and motivation, demonstrate financial need, and have a commitment to the greater good. The program also strongly encourages applicants to have a history of involvement with volunteer or extracurricular organizations, which will demonstrate commitment and active engagement in their communities.
Students accepted into the program will receive a scholarship that covers the cost of tuition, fees, room and board, and books. Additionally, they will have access to internships and networking opportunities as part of the program.

The University of Texas School of Law is not alone in offering such programs. Law schools across the US are recognizing a need to increase diversity among students and are providing similar scholarship and networking programs. These programs are an important part of ensuring that the legal profession is open to a wide range of people and backgrounds.

The Emerging Scholars Program at the University of Texas School of Law is an example of a growing trend of diversity initiatives among law schools. These programs aim to create greater access to legal education for underrepresented students, and provide them with the tools and resources to pursue a successful legal career. The scholarship opportunities, internships, and networking activities that emerge from such programs can be invaluable in the development of the next generation of lawyers.
 

Emerging Scholars Program At The University Of Texas

In 2004, the University of Texas School of Law (UT) launched an Emerging Scholars Program to increase diversity in the legal profession. The program was established to increase the number of underrepresented minorities at the University of Texas School of Law (UT), while also providing a quality legal education. The Emerging Scholars Program aims to provide a supportive environment for incoming minority students and to foster an environment of academic success and professional development.
 

Goal of the Emerging Scholars Program

The goal of the program is to recruit and retain students from underrepresented minority groups at UT. The program provides a unique opportunity for students to build relationships with faculty and staff, engage in meaningful activities that will help them develop their professional skills and network with other students and alumni. The Emerging Scholars Program focuses on creating an intellectual and social environment that is welcoming and supportive of all students.
 

Why the Program Is Necessary

The program was created to promote diversity in the legal profession and to ensure that all students have access to an excellent legal education. The program is designed to increase the number of underrepresented minorities at the University of Texas School of Law, while providing a quality legal education.
 

Requirements for the Program

In order to qualify for the Emerging Scholars Program, students must demonstrate a commitment to their academic success by maintaining a minimum overall GPA of 3.3. Students must also demonstrate their commitment to diversity and community service by participating in a variety of service-learning activities. Additionally, applicants must also be able to demonstrate financial need.
 

Program Benefits & Opportunities

The Emerging Scholars Program provides a variety of benefits and opportunities to its members. Participants are provided with funding and academic support to help them succeed in law school. The program also offers leadership development activities, alternative lecture series, peer mentorship, a variety of pro bono and volunteer opportunities, support for summer internships, and a wide range of other resources.

Texas' Emerging Scholars Program (ESP) is a two-year fellowship paying $60,000 per year, in which the fellow teaches a half load of courses at the law school and works on his or her scholarship and pursues publication. ESP is similar to other visiting assistant professorships at other law schools, with one key difference: Texas' program is twice the length of most others.

Having a two-year (instead of a one-year) program "is critical for us," says program chair and Professor Mitchell Berman. "We want people to be immersed here for a while," says Berman. With a primary goal of allowing the fellows to build up their scholarship, having a two-year program is central to that goal because of the way in which law professors are hired.

Like a casting call for a large Broadway musical, new law professors are hired through a centralized mass-hiring process that starts every August, explains Berman. Interested candidates submit materials to the American Association of Law Schools. A first cut is made, and then candidates flock to Washington, DC, in late October or November for interviews. Then there are "fly-backs," or second interviews, and hiring decisions are made.

If a recent J.D. finds a position as a visiting assistant professor, but it is a one-year gig, then he/she is spending her first semester on the job scrambling to get his/her teaching legs under him/her and applying for permanent jobs at the same time, notes Berman. And even though part of the point of a visiting assistant professorship is to develop written materials expressing the person's advanced legal scholarship, the one-year positions put candidates out on the market before they have had a chance to do any writing. So they do not benefit the candidate's pursuit of scholarly publication.

Aside from temporary positions in teaching legal writing, Texas' ESP may be the only two-year temporary professorship out there right now, says Berman. The program has started off with one fellow, who is now in his second semester. The ESP will start with hiring two fellows per year and possibly expand as the program continues. A 10-member committee reviews applications, including a candidate's work so far, and references. Texas recently made offers to two more fellows to start in the fall. Both Texas alumni and graduates of other schools are encouraged to apply, says Berman.

Recent growth in visiting assistant professor and similar positions stems from a fundamental change in legal academia, says Berman. It is "well nigh impossible" to get a tenure-track teaching job at a law school without having published written scholarship, says Berman; but it did not used to be this way.

A generation ago, getting hired as a law professor was a matter of academic background and success adhering to a pretty basic formula. Attend a top law school (Harvard, Yale); have an excellent academic record, including law review; clerk for a judge for a year after receiving the law degree, preferably for the Supreme Court, but another appellate court would do; apply to teach; and get the job. Law teachers were hired based on "evidence of smarts," says Berman.

Now, standards for hiring law professors are more like those for hiring professors in other academic disciplines. Gradually, more and more academics in history, English, economics, and other areas of study started to get J.D.'s while they were pursuing their Ph.D.'s. These academics would go on the job market, and some would pursue law teaching jobs. With the writing and publishing clout behind them, these Ph.D.'s had a leg up on J.D.'s, who did not have the same kind of paper trail.

Seeking more information and academic work backing up their new professors, law schools started to look for scholarship when they vetted teaching candidates, says Berman. Traditional applicants—those just out of law school or coming out of years of law practice—found themselves at a disadvantage to those with publications to back them up.

Plus, at law schools, as opposed to other areas of study at colleges and universities, Berman says, tenure track leads to tenure in a more direct way. Tenure is more of a sure thing for law professors than for those teaching in other fields, who might get a tenure-track job, but find themselves denied tenure nonetheless. At a law school, says Berman, getting a tenure-track job is very close to just getting tenure itself, so job offers on that tenure track are becoming harder to get at the outset.

All this leads to the visiting assistant professor trend. The school gets a teacher to whom it does not have to offer any permanent guarantees up front, and the teacher gets paid to teach, but also to produce scholarship and pursue publication that could lead to a tenure-track job down the line.

Learn the 10 Factors That Matter to Big Firms More Than Where You Went to Law School

published April 16, 2023

( 115 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
What do you think about this article? Rate it using the stars above and let us know what you think in the comments below.