Paul L. Caron
Dean





Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Law Faculty Salaries, 2012-13

The Society of American Law Teachers has released the results of its 2012-13 Salary Survey, reporting the median faculty salaries and summer stipends at 68 of the 200 American law schools (132 law schools either refused to participate or did not respond to the survey). Here are the median faculty salaries and summer stipends of the responding law schools in the Top 102 of the latest U.S. News law school rankings:

U.S. News

Law School                  

Assistant

Professor 

Tenured

Professor 

Summer             Stipend

26  Iowa n/a 184,800 15,000
31 North Carolina 115,826 174,417 15,000
33 Georgia 121,400 180,765 27,500
36 Ohio State 118,320
159,216 12,500
46 Florida 111,240 158,000 26,757
48 UC-Hastings 112,942 187,221 10,000
58 Kentucky 107,134 123,221 12,000
61 Nebraska 101,178 150,720 11,000
61 Tennessee n/a 122,316 17,000
64 Denver 107,620 140,922 9,000
64  New Mexico 87,159 121,909 16,250
68 Arkansas-Fay. 89,100 139,300 17,500
68 Loyola-L.A. 114,268 174,673 15,000
68 Oklahoma 95,000 126,080 10,000
68 San Diego n/a 173,400 15,000
68 UNLV n/a 147,002 17,000
76 LSU 104,000 145,170 18,000
80 Michigan State 115,825 146,832 12,000
86 Kansas
112,560 143,250 12,000
86 Northeastern 109,306 179,362 7,500
86 Rutgers-Newark 133,599 186,000 10,000
91 Rutgers-Camden 121,251 171,508 10,187
91 West Virginia n/a 139,629 10,000
94 Oregon
105,000 135,578 5,832
98 Indiana-Indy n/a 127,047 14,000
98 South Carolina 114,860 140,080 20,250
102 Mississippi 105,000 141,359 9,000
102 St. Louis 96,600 128,000 13,000

See here for individual law faculty salaries at twenty public law schools (Arizona State, Florida, George Mason, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri-Columbia, North Carolina, Ohio State, Rutgers-Camden, Rutgers-Newark, SUNY-Buffalo, Texas, Texas Tech, UC-Berkeley, UC-Davis, UC-Irvine, UCLA, Virginia, William & Mary, and Wisconsin). 

Update:  Above the Law has blogged individual law faculty salaries at these Top 20 public law schools:

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2013/05/law-faculty.html

Legal Education | Permalink

TrackBack URL for this entry:

https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c4eab53ef019101dfa59d970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Law Faculty Salaries, 2012-13:

Comments

Elizabeth Warren reportedly was paid $349K by Harvard Law School in 2009 & that was for teaching one course. However, that may have been when she was still claiming to be a Native American.

Posted by: onesius | May 10, 2013 8:55:57 AM

Any,

Law firms, government jobs, and corporate employers offer health insurance, retirement plans, and miscellaneous benefits as well.

The benefits at most universities are less generous than the benefits at corporate law firms faculty left to enter academe, and are generally not as efficiently administered.

TIAA CREF, the provider of pensions to most universities, is abysmal--all high fee actively managed funds and variable annuities with hidden fees and surrender charges. And terrible reporting.

Real retirement fund companies that are used in the corporate world, like Fidelity and Vanguard, offer low cost indexed mutual funds and would never do something as bone-headed as putting a variable annuity into a tax-advantaged retirement account (paying twice for the same tax benefit).

There are a whole lot more professors than there are case books, i.e., most professors don't write their own casebooks, and most casebooks are assigned by a professor who did not write the book.

If you're so unhappy with casebooks, write your own, and see if anyone thinks its good enough to use.

Posted by: Anon | May 9, 2013 2:00:22 AM

TS -- You're incorrect about that. This survey (click the link) is sent to the deans of each law school; the data comes from the school, not from individual faculty members.

Only a minority of law schools responded to the survey, with none of the U.S. News' top 20 responding. So that is certainly a bias. But you are off base in suggesting that this shows the salaries of "SALT members and friends." It's school-wide data, as reported by deans.

Posted by: anon | May 8, 2013 5:11:17 PM

Benefits
The rich benefits package offered by UC Hastings College of the Law is an important part of our overall compensation.

Health Care

Hastings provides a variety of insurance plans to meet every employee's needs. Medical plans have reasonable premium co-payments and dental and vision coverages are premium free for both employees and dependents.

Medical Plans
Dental Plans
Vision Plan
Flexible Spending Accounts

Allows tax savings for dependent care expenses and non-covered medical expenses.

Health Care Reimbursement Account (HCRA)
Dependent Care Reimbursement Account (DepCare)
Retirement

Planning ahead for a comfortable retirement is easy with our defined benefit plan and our voluntary pre-tax plans.

University of California Retirement Plan
UC Retirement Savings Program
Life Insurance

Ensure that loved ones are provided for in the event of your death.

Employer Paid Plan, Employee Paid Plans for Employees and Dependents
Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance
Disability/Income Protection Plan

Have peace of mind knowing that alternative income is available should you be unable to work due to a disability.

Disability Insurance
Legal Insurance Plan

Legal services without the high cost of attorney's fees.

Employee Paid Legal Insurance
Vacation

Time away from the job to ensure a balanced lifestyle.

Vacation Accrual Rates
Sick Leave

Paid time off for illness for oneself or family members.

Sick Leave Accrual Rate
Holidays

Paid time off to recognize significant events and occasions. Employees receive fifteen paid holidays per year.

2013 Pay Period and Holiday Schedule
Other Benefits

Additional miscellaneous benefits.

Scholar Share College Savings Plan
Sittercity Program
Employee Assistance Program
Golden One Credit Union
Pre-Tax Transportation Program
Auto and Homeowner's Insurance
Employee PERKS (password protected)
Note: These benefits are our benefits package in its totality. Other benefits may be available to University of California employees on other campuses.

Posted by: any | May 8, 2013 3:27:08 PM

Salaries? How about total compensation, including healthcare and FAT pensions, especially in the University of California system. To this, let's add the royalties from forcing students to purchase textbooks the professors "authored" at 200-300/ pop.

To this, let's add that professors grade one paper per semester, light teaching loads generally, and reap other perks.

Then let's call it the "rip off report" and be done with it.

Posted by: any | May 8, 2013 3:19:48 PM

Of course, this data isn't very systematic as it depends on self reporting (due to the lack of publicly reported data) and will most typically reflect the salaries of SALT members and friends at the law schools.

Posted by: TS | May 8, 2013 10:17:29 AM

Who says Rutgers isn't an elite law school?

Posted by: michael livingston | May 8, 2013 4:24:43 AM

It seems a couple of the least transparent institutions as far as professor salary is concerned are Washington University of St. Louis and the University of Colorado, which employ Professors Tamanaha and Campos, respectively.

Transparency does not begin at home, apparently.

Posted by: Bigguy | May 7, 2013 2:42:05 PM