NLJ: Law School Lateral Hiring Frenzy

Interesting article in next week's National Law Journal:  More Job Hopping at Schools; Harvard, Columbia to Boost Faculties, by Leigh Jones:

Harvard's strategy of reducing faculty-to-student ratios and of replacing aging faculty members who have retired has created a trickle-down movement, say observers, that has resulted in a flood of job changes among professors at other top schools. The school's plan, combined with one by another giant, Columbia Law School, to sharply boost its faculty size, has intensified the cutthroat competition, with law schools finding the need to watch their backs more than ever. "There's a sucking sound from the top," said Brian Leiter, a professor at University of Texas School of Law who tracks faculty moves on his blog, Leiter's Law School Reports. ...

The majority of the 196 law schools in the country accredited by the ABA generally appoint from within by hiring budding professors who gain experience and credibility at their schools, said Texas' Leiter. But among the top 15 or so schools, rampant raiding for tenured faculty is under way, with the schools ranked the highest by U.S. News & World Report — often the same group with gargantuan endowments — feeding on those below them. Moreover, shuffling is more frequent among professors at the very top schools as they trade places between Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and NYU. ...

Money usually is not the driving force in appointments and departures, said [Northwestern's Dean]Van Zandt. The challenge is to create a place that makes professors want to stay, he said. "What we're trying to do has been to make it clear to them that we have the kind of environment where their work will thrive, where they have colleagues who contribute to that work by approaching problems in a similar way," he said. ...

Salaries for full professors at the most elite law schools can range from $250,000 to $300,000 annually, Leiter said. In Miller's case, the move from Harvard Law School, his alma mater and where he had taught since 1971, was prompted, in part, by the retirement of many of his colleagues and friends. "It's hard to find anyone who teaches at Harvard who shaves," he said.