I am sure, even if the thought may have crossed your mind, you knew you had no chance, for you are just a plain good lawyer, an attorney, who knows how to practice law, and not how to teach it, and you don't have a doctorate, or degrees in education or heaps of published papers of questionable value.
So, you thought, even if it is a good dream, the odds are stacked against you to ever be considered eligible as a person to teach law. Well, the good news is things have changed.
The brutality of the recession and questioned-on marketing tactics of law schools have forced them to reassess their positions and think maybe, rather than acting as a safe haven for the academic types, may be it's time to go for the working types as teachers.
After all, students and academicians all around, including the hateful and hurtful media are continuously complaining that teaching to “think like a lawyer” is insufficient, but what is needed is teaching how “to work like a lawyer,” and that's where you, as a practicing attorney, is suddenly in demand at law schools.
Over the last years, following the ruckus about law school employment data misleading students, and creating students who do not come ready to practice the law out-of-the box, many law schools are into recruiting practicing, attorneys, and some are actually head hunting for the best.
Last week we heard that Robert Bauer, the Perkins Coie partner who was general counsel to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is returning to New York University School of Law as a teacher. For Bauer, it may be not unexpected, but just before that news, we heard Daniel F. Attridge, the managing partner of Kirkland & Ellis's Washington D.C. office was joining Columbus School of Law as its new dean.
Given that Attridge is a highly-established attorney, one that has made few missteps in professional life, and someone good enough to be recognized by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, by The Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers. And given that Attridge has also been rated “AV” – the highest level of professional excellence, by Martindale-Hubbell, may be going back to law school as a teacher has its merits after all.
Law schools are starting to recognize that hiring practicing attorneys as teachers is wise. As John Garvey, the president of Catholic University said on Attridge's appointment, “I know it is rare (and in these times, wise) to recruit a highly-experienced practitioner …”
So law schools are waking up to the new reality, what with falling numbers of new law school entrants, and more students than ever reluctant to sit for the LSAT. Practicing attorneys are now trophies for law schools trying to woo back their revenue – and on the part of practicing attorneys, it is a chance to take a break, a long vacation from billable hours, and a chance to contribute, without at all losing touch with the world of law.
What can be better?
You can have an idea of recent law school salaries by extrapolating from the data at saltlaw.org
