10 Tips for Law Students Who Want to Pursue Law Professor Careers

10 Tips for Law Students Who Want to Pursue Careers in Legal Academia, by Daniel J. Solove (George Washington):

One of the reasons that Yale, Harvard, and a few other schools have so much success [in placing their graduates in tenure-track law faculty jobs] is because they train students to do the things they’re supposed to do to be successful on the teaching market. Not only do they provide a lot of advice about the teaching market and hiring process, but they have their students start doing the two things key to becoming a strong law professor applicant -- read and write legal scholarship. ...

Here's my advice in a nutshell to law students who desire to be law professors:

[Dan provides 10 tips. Al Brophy adds an 11th:  get a Ph.D (the importance of which is empasized at Northwestern.]

Although only a few law schools account for most of the law professors hired, it is possible for graduates of other law schools to be successful. Note that many Yale and Harvard graduates did not end up with law professor jobs whereas some students from schools outside the US News Top 20 did. Strong teaching candidates can come from anywhere. The key is to publish a lot of good stuff. Do this, and the general hiring success percentages in my statistics will not apply to you. You'll be much more likely to be successful.