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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Fellowships For Aspiring Law Professors (2011 Edition)

For practitioners and others contemplating joining the law professor ranks, many law schools offer wonderful opportunities to transition into the legal academy with one- or two-year fellowships which allow you to enter the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference (the "meat market") with published scholarship (and in many cases teaching experience) under your belt (spreadsheet here):

For more information on becoming a law professor, including a discussion of the advantages of these fellowship programs, see:

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2011/02/fellowships-for-aspiring-law-professors-2010-11-edition.html

Fellowships & VAPs, Legal Education, Tax Prof Jobs | Permalink

Comments

These are all great programs, but there have come to be so many of them, I'm not sure even the people who complete them can get full-time teaching jobs. I feel a ranking of VAP programs coming on . . .

Posted by: mike livingston | Feb 16, 2011 3:17:59 AM

The old fashioned method still works. Attend a top ten law school and graduate in the top 5%.

Posted by: 30yearProf | Feb 16, 2011 10:45:05 AM

Seems as though the formal deadline for most of these programs has long passed. Any idea if any are still open to receiving applications?

Posted by: me | Feb 16, 2011 4:25:14 PM

In addition to the Marks VAP, GW has the following fellowships:
o Friedman Fellowships
o Environmental Law Fellowship
o International Law Fellowship
o Public Interest Fellowship
o Experiential Learning Program Fellowship
o Gruber Family Foundation International Court of Justice Fellowship

Posted by: Edward Swaine | Feb 16, 2011 7:42:22 PM

We have a program like this at Kentucky. Our graduates can apply to visit for a year or two years I think. It seems like a good idea.

Posted by: Rick Underwood | Feb 17, 2011 4:49:15 AM

Fellowships and VAPs are like Tax Colloquia -- everybody has one, so why shouldn't we. (The tax colloquium circuit almost being like a junket merely to travel around the country instead of just to NYU like in the old days.)

And even if fellowships and VAPs had not proliferated, just like the private sector (law firms/Big 4) and public sector (IRS/Treasury/DoJ), the stream of candidates to become profs seems to have steadily increased (hey, there are no jobs anywhere else, so why not teach) while the number of positions have not, and many law schools face budgetary pressures (see a couple of posts above about buyer's remorse by law students and schools slashing and burning everyone and everything to stay afloat).

Posted by: tax guy | Feb 17, 2011 6:39:04 PM

The original list omits American University Washington College of Law, where our Practitioner-in-Residence program (usually three years) provides teaching experience (both clinical and classroom) and the opportunity to write. Our program has produced numerous tenure-track faculty members.

Posted by: Nancy Polikoff | Feb 20, 2011 8:33:41 AM