An Adjunct Law Professor: To Be or Not to Be

For young attorneys, being an adjunct law professor has been a traditional option though neglected due to poor pay. However, as more and more law schools increase their priority on exposing law students to skills of actual lawyering, the demand and pay for adjunct law professors may rise. While the pay does matter to most, to many, the job of an adjunct law professor also holds out the prospect of interacting with students, and for students it has immense benefits to find a teacher actually practicing in the field. The option of being an adjunct law professor has traditionally been confined to a large part to solo practitioners, because the pressures of private law firms rarely provide such time and opportunity. But in recent times there are more reports of law firm attorneys moonlighting as adjunct professors than ever before.
 

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More solos are trying for the job of adjunct professors

On Aug.1 the ABA Journal published an article titled “To Teach or Not to Teach: Adjunct Work Can Come with a Hefty Price.” The article claimed “more solos appear to be considering adjunct teaching jobs as a means to supplement their income and test an alternative career path.” According to Michael Kaufman, the associate dean for academic affairs at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, more people are viewing adjunct teaching as an entry point to “teaching generally.” Considering that the average pay for adjunct professors was about $1000 per credit hour or about $3000 for a single course during a semester, the pay is insufficient for most lawyers attending firms. Kaufman however stresses that adjunct work does not usually lead to a full-time job as a teacher.

The John Marshall Law School