PATHS TO LAW TEACHING | TEXAS ALUMI IN ACADEMIA | THE MECHANICS OF THE ACADEMIC JOB MARKET IN LAW | RANKING LAW SCHOOLS | UPWARD MOBILITY | Appendix A | Appendix B

I.  PATHS TO LAW TEACHING  
            There are three well-trodden paths to a career in law teaching; the great majority of law teachers--though not all--entered law teaching by one of these paths:
            Path A:  The Classical Path starts with an exceptional academic performance in law school (e.g., ranking in the top 5% of one's class), service on the law review, preferably in a senior editorial position (e.g., "Articles Editor," "Editor-in-Chief," etc.), followed by a prestigious judicial clerkship, at least on a U.S. Court of Appeals and, if possible, on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Because of the fierce competition for academic positions in law, this Classical Path is no longer a guaranteed ticket to a good law-school teaching position; also, in the last ten years, more and more legal academics have developed doubts about whether these are really the credentials to look for in aspiring law teachers and legal scholars.  The turn to interdisciplinary scholarship at many schools--from law & economics to critical race theory--has also made the Classical Path less relevant.  These qualifications aside, the Classical Path is surely, statistically, the best bet for an aspiring law teacher.
            Path B:   The Modified Classical Path is a somewhat less demanding approximation of the Classical Path:  e.g., a strong academic performance, but perhaps not exceptional; some work on a journal, or some substantial writing experience, but perhaps not via law review; some practical experience, either in practice or some sort of clerkship, if not a U.S. Court of Appeals.  (Sometimes these credentials alone, plus strong interviews, will get you a teaching job at a school where hiring is less competitive, but the reality is that hiring is becoming more competitive almost everywhere.)  The key to the Modified Classical Path is usually the pursuit of a graduate law degree (an LL.M. or S.J.D.) at a law school that is conventionally regarded as more prestigious than Texas.  Of course, the degree is really just a proxy for the real key, which is to complete some publishable scholarly work while pursuing the degree, and at the same time suitably impress the faculty at the LLM/SJD school that they will join your former Texas professors in recommending you for jobs.
            The best choices for pursuit of a graduate law degree are Yale and Harvard, but Chicago also admits "Bigelow Fellows" each year, who teach legal research and writing while doing their own work.  Other schools to consider for some additional graduate work for students with specialized interests would be:  Columbia for corporate law; NYU for tax; Penn for criminal law; Wisconsin for sociology of law.  Stanford has had a very strong record in training and placing minority students from its LL.M. and S.J.D. programs in law teaching.
            Path C:  The Interdisciplinary Path is often combined with Paths A and B, though it need not be if the work in the other discipline is of sufficient quality and distinction to attract the attention of law schools.  Here the candidate also pursues graduate studies in another area of relevance to law--e.g., history, economics,  philosophy, sociology, political science--earning at least an M.A. or, better, a Ph.D.  A number of UT faculty can offer advice on appropriate Ph.D. programs:  for economics, talk to Professor Richard Markovits; for philosophy, Professor Leiter; for history, Professor Forbath; for political science, Professors Levinson or Perry; for sociology, Professor Sullivan.  Students might also consult the National Research Council report on graduate education, published in 1995.
            One important caveat about these three paths to law teaching.  Most law schools are, more than anything else, looking for potential scholars.  All of the paths described are thought to be good proxies for identifying those with scholarly potential.  But the best way to establish scholarly potential is by, in fact, publishing scholarly work before looking for a job.  Indeed, it would be fair to say that the single best ticket to a job in law teaching is to have published at least one article since graduating law school.   One Texas alum told me the story of how the first year on the teaching market, he got relatively little attention; by the next year, he had published an article in Wisconsin Law Review, and now had a dozen interviews, and ended up with a tenure-track job at a good state law school.   Publications increasingly make and break candidacies.
            You should think about work you have done in law school--a seminar paper, an independent study, or the like--that might be revised and submitted for publication to law reviews.  Don't publish something just for the sake of getting something published however--publishing a piece of shoddy work will hurt more than help.  On the other hand, a work you publish does not have to be the single best thing ever written on the subject!  Part of the value of having publications to your credit is that it shows you are serious about a career in scholarship.
            Another very important factor for pursuing a career in law teaching is to establish a substantial relationship with one or more faculty members who might later serve as references.  Securing a job teaching law depends very heavily on having prominent faculty in your corner, who will write letters, make phone calls, send e-mails and the like.  One thing you should do is get to know our faculty here at Texas:  find out who is doing work that interests you, and make a point of taking their courses and seminars, or perhaps even doing an independent study.  It is also advisable to take the "Legal Scholarship" course which has been offered in recent years at the Law School.  This will both expose you to different genres of legal scholarship, as well as provide an opportunity to get to know different UT faculty, who participate in the course each year.
            One thing to keep in mind is that candidates for law teaching in certain areas--e.g., constitutional law, jurisprudence--are in over-supply, while candidates in other areas--e.g., real estate law, commercial law, property, intellectual property, alternative dispute resolution, trusts & estates--are often in short supply.  You should think about what areas of law you might cultivate as areas of expertise which would make you especially attractive as a candidate for a law teaching position. Return to Top
II.  TEXAS ALUMI IN ACADEMIA
            A significant advantage Texas J.D.'s have in looking for jobs in academia is that Texas has a distinguished tradition of producing legal scholars and teachers.   Texas alumni are teaching or have taught in the law schools at Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Texas, Michigan, Penn, Berkeley, Northwestern, and Cornell, as well as almost all the leading state law schools.  Graduates of the school include such giants of the law and legal scholarship as Leon Green '15, a major figure in American Legal Realism who revolutionized 20th-century tort law while teaching at Texas, Yale, and Northwestern (where he was Dean in that school's glory days mid-century); W. Page Keeton '31, long-time Dean at Texas and another giant of 20th-century tort law; Covey Oliver '36, a leading authority in international law, who taught at Texas, Berkeley, and Penn; Robert Keeton '41, a Harvard professor who is now a federal judge, and the nation's leading insurance law authority; Judge Joseph T. Sneed '49, formerly on the Texas faculty, then the Stanford faculty, and now a distinguished judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit; Charles J. Meyers '49, a leading authority in natural resources law and former Dean of Stanford; Charles Wolfram '62, author of perhaps the leading treatise in legal ethics, and now emeritus at Cornell; Judge Diane Wood '75 of the 7th Circuit, and the first woman to hold an endowed chair in law at the University of Chicago; Herbert Hovenkamp '78, the nation's leading authority on antitrust law, and also a distinguished legal historian, who remains at the University of Iowa (though has declined offers from many top schools, including Columbia, Michigan, etc.); Ronald J. Mann ’85, one of the leading commercial law scholars of his generation, currently at the University of Michigan.   Other distinguished academic alumni include the former Dean of the law school at the University of Illinois (Thomas Mengler '81); the current Dean at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Gene Nichol, Jr. '76); David Epstein '66, a distinguished commercial lawyer, former Dean at Emory, faculty member at Texas and North Carolina, partner at King & Spalding, and visiting professor at Michigan, Chicago, and many other schools; William Allen '72, former Chancellor of the Court of Chancery in Delaware, former visiting professor at Yale and Stanford, and now a professor and Director of the Center for Law & Business at NYU; as well as many members of the current UT faculty, such as David Anderson '71, John Dzienkowski '83, Thomas McGarity '74, and Jay L. Westbrook '68.
            During the 1990s, Texas alumni were hired in to non-clinical tenure-track positions in the law schools at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Arizona in Tucson, the University of Florida at Gainseville (two), the University of Mississippi, the University of Cincinnati, Southern Methodist University, Case Western Reserve University, The Ohio State University, the University of Memphis, and South Texas College of Law, among other places.  This year (2002-03), Texas graduates on the law teaching market are, at the time of this writing, being interviewed by Columbia, Texas, Cornell, Tulane, Wisconsin, NYU, Temple, DePaul, Southern Illinois, Houston, Fordham, and Florida, among many other places.  We expect our strong placement record to improve in the years ahead, since the Law School only began providing systematic institutional support and help to our most promising graduates in 1997.
            For a complete list of living Texas alumni in legal academia, see Appendix A at the end. Return to Top
III.  THE MECHANICS OF THE ACADEMIC JOB MARKET IN LAW
            Most jobs teaching in law schools are secured through participation in the Association of American Law Schools annual hiring conference and directories.  You should contact the AALS  in mid-to-late July of the year you plan to be on the market (one academic year prior to when you hope to start teaching law) at:  1201 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20036-2605; (202) 296-8851; www.aals.org.  Tell them you are interested in entering law teaching and that you want to be listed in the coming academic year's job registry.   The one-page "resumé"--yes, it is only one page--is now filled out on line, and then included in binders that the AALS mails out to all member law schools at intervals during the year (the first is in late August).  Law school hiring committees look through these binders, identifying candidates they want to interview at the hiring convention held in mid-to-late October (sometimes early November) each year.  If a school wants to interview you for a possible teaching position, you will hear from them some time between late September and a week or so before the hiring convention.  Interviews at the convention are conducted in hotel rooms retained by the interviewing school, and last about 30 minutes typically, though some schools interview for an hour.  I'll have more to say about interviews below.
            A few words on the one-page resumés you will be asked to fill out.  Remember that the goal on this one page is to make yourself as attractive as possible as a potential law teacher.  That means:  don't list any (or many) geographic restrictions on where you would be willing to teach; provide a generous (but realistic) list of subjects you would be willing to teach; be sure to list any legitimate publications you have to your credit, including student notes.  (Some people list works "in progress" under publications:  if that is all you have, it is advisable to list at least that.)  Where the sheet asks for "references" is where it is key to have some "big" "eye-catching" names to list.  (Of course, you must check in advance with any reference to see that he or she is willing to serve; it will be a disaster to list someone who, in fact, is not keen on recommending you.)  So, e.g., you might list:

Some job candidates list additional references in the "Comments" section, in the following abridged format:  e.g., Professor Sanford Levinson, University of Texas School of Law, 512-471-5151; etc..  Other good references to list are any judge for whom you have clerked (though you will list this under employment, and most law schools will call that judge anyway), a senior partner at a major law firm, or a professor in a related discipline with whom you have worked.  If you list only three references, two really should be reputable legal academics who know you firsthand.  Regardless of how many references you list, the vast majority should be legal academics; references from philosophy professors, history professors, etc., are less meaningful to law schools.            
            In addition to other references, the "Comments" section might also be used to list other publications, a serious work in progress (i.e., a work you could provide to hiring schools), or other relevant professional accomplishments/awards that did not fit elsewhere.  Do not use the comments section to offer your own evaluation of yourself:  no one cares.  I've seen too many otherwise good one-page resumes undermined by "Comments" like:  "I believe that my varied experience and educational background will make me a successful law teacher."  You don't list yourself as a reference; don't write a reference for yourself.  It looks silly.
            At the law-school hiring convention in November, try to attend the session (usually scheduled at the beginning of the conference) on interviewing:  it may have useful advice.  The typical interview proceeds as follows:  (1)  a couple of minutes of chit-chat when you enter (e.g. "Did you have Doug Laycock?" "So, how was it working for Vinson & Elkins in Houston?"); (2) a question either about (a) something you have written (e.g., a student note) or (b) a more open-ended question about your scholarly interests, plans, or research; depending on how effectively you respond, the ensuing discussion can last for the next 10-15 minutes; (3) perhaps some questions about what you would like to teach/what you are able to teach; and (4) "Do you have any questions for us?"  Some good questions to ask are:  Is there a writing requirement for students at your school?  Are there opportunities for faculty to work with students on independent studies?  What sort of research support is available to faculty?  Is there summer research support?  Are there summer teaching opportunities?  How often do you have colloquia with faculty from other schools?  What are your school's goals over the next five years?  What is the length of the tenure-track, and what are the expectations? 
            For the better schools, question (2) is the make-or-break moment in the interview.  If you can talk intelligently and clearly for 10-15 minutes about a research project or a scholarly interest, you will quickly become a standout candidate.  (Usually, candidates present an outline or "precis" of a project or thesis that they plan to develop in a job talk, if they are invited back to the school for further interviews.  Be prepared to defend your "precis" in some depth.)  Far too many job candidates arrive at interviews having never thought seriously about scholarly issues related to law, and thus are completely unable to speak about any when asked.  This is your moment to shine:  you show the interviewers that you're serious about scholarship and a scholarly career (that you're not just tired of long hours at your law firm, and that you're not just looking for a "cushy" academic post to retire into); you impress them with your clarity of thought and expression; you demonstrate your potential as a teacher by your effective communication of ideas and arguments.  Ideally, you should rehearse this part of your job interview with faculty advisors prior to the hiring convention (though don't over-rehearse, or you're likely to sound wooden).
            After the convention, you will (hopefully) start to hear from schools that want to invite you back to campus for further interviews.  You will start to hear from schools as early as the week after the convention, and as late as January—though by then it gets less likely that you are still under consideration at schools you’ve not heard from.  The "fly-backs" are usually scheduled between December and March.  A standard part of every "fly-back" is a 20-30 minute presentation to the faculty, followed by questions for another 20-30 minutes.  The rest of the time is generally spent in office interviews with faculty, administrators, and sometimes students.  We should discuss this on an individual basis when the time comes.  (Schools that want to fly you back will typically ask you to send along a complete resumé or curriculum vitae--something more substantial than the one page you filled out for the AALS registry.  For a model, see Appendix B.)
            A couple of miscellaneous final points about what to expect. 
            First:  if you have a half-dozen scheduled interviews going into the hiring convention, you are doing great.  The job market has been very difficult for the past few years, so competition is fierce right now.  Be prepared for disappointment.  When you get calls requesting interviews, do the following:  (1) express your delight and pleasure; (2) ask how long the interview will be; (3) ask if they know what faculty members will be at the interview; (4) ask that they send you information about the school (which they will probably do anyway); and (5) schedule the interviews strategically--e.g., put a school you're perhaps less interested in very early on, so that you'll get practice interviewing; try to schedule the schools you're most interested in either in the early mornings or right after lunch, when interviewers are typically freshest.
            Second:  starting salaries at law schools typically range anywhere from $60,000 to $130,000 depending on the caliber of the school and the location.  (Schools in the New York City area tend to pay the highest salaries, unsurprisingly.)  Many law schools also offer summer research grants on top of the base salary:  these can range anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000, depending on the school and its salary structure.  Most law schools also offer financial support for research, including student research assistants ($1,000-3,500 is the typical range) and discretionary funds for travel to conferences, purchase of books, and the like ($1,000-3,000 is again the range).  Some schools commit these monies up front in specific dollar terms; some schools leave it discretionary but assure you that it is available for productive people who need it.  Some discretionary schemes are quite reliable; however, you might ask faculty at the school how it works in practice.
            Third:  Some schools will phone your references prior to interviewing you at the hiring convention; others will phone them after the hiring convention if they're now interested in you.  Note, however, that your references typically won't have to write formal letters of recommendation for you until fairly late in the process (e.g., January or February), when a school is thinking of possibly making you an offer, and needs to put together a file on you for its central administration.  (Sometimes, though, having an unsolicited letter sent to a school can move your candidacy forward.  This is a strategic matter, that you should discuss with the potential reference.)
            Fourth:  It is appropriate and common for job candidates to write directly to the hiring chairs at schools in their area or that they are especially interested in.  Those letters should be sent by late August.  If you are in Houston, and would like to stay there, you might call up the University of Houston Law Center, find out who their hiring chair is, and write that person a letter:  "Dear Professor Smith:  I am a 1992 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, where I was Articles Editor of the Texas Law Review, and am now practicing with Vinson & Elkins.  I am planning on entering law teaching, and am especially interested in teaching at Houston.  I enclose a current resume for your consideration."  You might go on to mention some of your teaching and research interests, some of your strengths or distinctions, and perhaps some references.  Such letters don't often yield results, but sometimes they do:  e.g., Houston may invite you in right away for "lunch" with the hiring committee.  It can't hurt for schools in your area to know you're available locally.
            Fifth:  There are other resources available to job candidates that you should know about.  The law library has a videotape of a conference at St. Mary's on "Becoming a Law Professor:  A Program for Minority Lawyers and Law Students."  The videotape, in fact, has useful information for all job candidates, minorities and non-minorities, but it should be of special value to minority students.  Each year, the AALS, in conjunction with West & Foundation, publishes a "Directory of Law Teachers."  You can use that to find out something about the background of faculty who may be interviewing you from various schools.  Again, the library has a copy.  The web site “Teachlaw” (http://teachlaw.law.uc.edu/) has a good deal of useful information and perspectives.  Of course, throughout the process, you should seek advice from faculty here at Texas; it is certainly within the scope of our "duties" as faculty members to provide counsel and guidance to those students interested in entering law teaching.  Take advantage of the rich repository of information about the profession that the faculty has to offer.
            Sixth:  Throughout the process, remember that the great German sociologist Max Weber remarked nearly one hundred years ago that he knew of no career in which "chance" played such a great role as the academic career.  It will often be utterly mysterious what is going on within the Black Box of some school's hiring committee; you must learn to live with that.  You simply have no control over the animosities, biases, internal faculty politics, or laziness that may be affecting a particular school's job search in a given year.  Hopefully, luck will be on your side. Return to Top
IV.  RANKING LAW SCHOOLS
            When you look for academic jobs, you will no doubt start wondering about the "quality" of different schools.  What people think about "quality" or "reputation" of different schools is often various and controversial, reflecting regional and intellectual biases, as well as sometimes ignorance.  When the time comes, you should consider talking to faculty here for their impressions.  There are some general resources available as well.  Although the annual U.S. News rankings are produced using an indefensible methodology (as even the consultants U.S. News hired told them in 1997!), U.S. News does (as part of its overall ranking) conduct "academic reputation" surveys, and the results of that will give you some rough indication of the national standing of various schools.  These rankings come out mid-March each year.  You may also want to look at my Educational Quality Rankings, which will give you an idea of how productive and influential various faculties are, how the numerical credentials of their students stack up, and so forth.  See http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/bleiter/rankings/index.html.

Law schools may be described as falling into one of basically four tiers:

The First Tier includes the top 15 "national" law schools--recognized for many years nationwide as the leaders in legal education--as well as a number of other distinguished law schools of "almost national" reputation.  This Tier has held steady for decades now, and always includes:  Berkeley, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, NYU, Penn, Stanford, Texas, Virginia, Yale. 

The Second Tier includes excellent schools that are generally thought to be less distinguished than the First Tier schools and which also tend to be somewhat more regional, and less national, in both stature and in terms of where their students come from (and where they end up practicing).  This Tier is typically thought to include schools like Vanderbilt, Emory, Colorado, Arizona, Washington/Seattle, and North Carolina.

The Third Tier schools are quite regional in both stature and student bodies; many of these schools, however, have strong student bodies if they enjoy a local regional dominance.  What distinguishes the Third Tier schools is that they maintain a serious commitment to legal scholarship, akin to that found in the schools in the Second and First Tier.  This Tier is typically thought to include schools like Cardozo, San Diego, Rutgers (both Camden and Newark), Fordham, George Mason, and Chicago-Kent, among many others.

The Fourth Tier includes all those regional law schools that are more likely to approach the teaching and study of law more like a "profession" and less like an academic or scholarly enterprise.  For job candidates who are more interested in teaching law, rather than doing legal scholarship, these schools may prove a more attractive setting.  I hasten to add that many of the schools conventionally placed in this Tier also have accomplished legal scholars on their faculties.

            Note that many schools are prominently associated with various movements in legal scholarship.  Schools, for example, that have a particularly strong law & economics presence include Yale, Chicago, Virginia, Southern California, Emory, George Mason, and San Diego.  Schools that have highly visible contingents of scholars in Critical Legal Studies, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Legal Theory and Postmodern Legal Theory include Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, Georgetown, UCLA, Miami, Rutgers-Newark, Rutgers-Camden, SUNY-Buffalo, Brooklyn, Syracuse, Temple, New Mexico, American, Cardozo, and Northeastern.  Schools that have reputations as politically conservative include Chicago, Virginia, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Brigham Young, George Mason, and San Diego.  Schools that have reputations as bastions of more traditional "doctrinal" scholarship include Texas, Minnesota, George Washington, UC Hastings, Illinois, North Carolina, Washington/Seattle, and UC Davis.  Schools that are especially prominent in constitutional law and constitutional theory include Yale, Harvard, Chicago, Columbia, Stanford, Texas, and Georgetown.  Schools with strong commitments to empirical research in law include Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin (especially sociology), and Nebraska (especially psychology).   No doubt I have missed many schools that fall into each of these categories.
            As a prospective law teacher, however, there is much more to consider than simply the national academic reputation of the school.  The following factors are ones you may want to take into account:
            (1)  Opportunities for Scholarship:  Does the school encourage scholarship?  Is the teaching load reasonable (2 courses per term is the norm; 1 course each year is usually a seminar)?  Is there adequate research support?  What is the sabbatical policy of the school?  Is scholarship an important part of getting tenure?  If a school is committed to scholarship, then regardless of its "national" standing, you will have the satisfaction of being able to pursue research and writing, and thereby perhaps also create other professional opportunities for yourself down the line.
            (2)  Quality of the Student Body:  Quality of student body does not always track national reputation.  The median LSAT of students at the University of Iowa--often regarded as one of the top 20 law schools--is about the same as for students at the University of San Diego--a strong regional school, usually ranked in the top third of America's roughly 180 accredited law schools.  The reason is simple:  USD is the leading law school in San Diego, the nation's sixth largest metropolitan area, plus San Diego is an attractive place for students to spend time.  Thus, factors having nothing to do with national reputation conspire to produce a fairly good student body.
            Almost all state law schools, whatever their reputation, will have some outstanding students, lured there by the bargain cost of a legal education.  Schools with a special identity--e.g., religious institutions like Notre Dame or Brigham Young or Baylor--will often attract excellent students who want to study law in that environment.  In short, you can find satisfying teaching opportunities at numerous schools throughout the country.  As a crude measure, schools with median LSAT's around 158-160 and median GPA's around 3.0-3.3 are the best bets for having a certain number of quite strong students.
            (3)  Teaching Environment:  What is the student-faculty ratio like?  How big are the classes (first-year, upper-level electives, seminars)?  How much flexibility will you have in deciding what courses to teach and in designing courses or seminars?  Are students encouraged to work with faculty on independent research projects?  Does the faculty take teaching seriously?  Teaching is an enormous pleasure, as well as a wonderful learning experience; if you don't think you'll enjoy teaching, you probably want to re-think whether you want to pursue an academic career. 
            (4)  Institutional Resources:  How good is the law library?  Does the library provide good service to the faculty (ask faculty!)?  Does the law library have special collections of value or interest to you?  Does the school have up-to-date computer facilities--for faculty use, for research, etc.?  Does the school provide each faculty member with a personal computer?  If this is a law school that is part of a full-scale university, what are the strengths of the university?  Are there particularly good departments of interest to you?  How is the general university library?  All these factors can make a difference in the quality of intellectual life and your ability to pursue research efficiently.
            (5)  Special Strengths:  Many law schools, though not nationally ranked, have special areas of distinction.  I began my career at the University of San Diego, where there was a strong commitment to jurisprudence and law and philosophy:  there were several faculty with interests in that area, as well as regular outside speakers and conferences on jurisprudential topics; the library, though not especially large, had an exceptional collection of philosophical materials.  The University of Houston is known nationally for its program in Health Law.  The University of Nebraska has an excellent program in law and psychology.  There are many other examples of this sort.
            (6)  Collegiality:  Relations among the faculty members are an important part of your quality of life as an academic.  Do members of the faculty get along with each other?  Do they interact professionally and/or socially?  Are there "factions" and acrimony?  Do faculty help their colleagues with their work:  e.g. reading drafts, discussing ideas, etc.?  Are faculty around the school, in their offices, or do they teach their classes and leave?  Are the faculty committed to being academics, or do many of them spend lots of time practicing law "on the side"? Return to Top
V.  UPWARD MOBILITY--STORIES TO KEEP IN MIND
            Where you start your academic career may not be where you spend it.    Even if you begin teaching at a second- or third-choice school, from your standpoint, it's worth keeping in mind that, through scholarly productivity, you may have other professional options later on.  Some examples:

Kenneth Abraham (Virginia) started his career at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Ronald Allen (Northwestern) started his career at the State University of New York, Buffalo.
C. Edwin Baker (Penn) started his career at the University of Toledo.
Jack Balkin (Yale) started his career at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Lillian BeVier (Virginia) started her career at Santa Clara University.
Paul Carrington (Duke) started his career at the University of Wyoming.
Michael Dorf (Columbia) started his career at Rutgers University, Camden.
Lawrence Friedman (Stanford) started his career at Saint Louis University.
Richard Friedman (Michigan) started his career at Cardozo Law School.
George Fletcher (Columbia) started his career at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard) started her career at Boston College.
Robert Gordon (Yale) started his career at the State University of New York, Buffalo.
Jason Johnston (Penn) started his career at Vermont Law School.
Jerry Mashaw (Yale) started his career at Tulane University.
William Ian Miller (Michigan) started his career at the University of Houston.
Linda Mullenix (Texas) started her career at Catholic University.
George Priest (Yale) started his career at the University of Puget Sound (now Seattle University).
Margaret Jane Radin (Stanford) started her career at the University of Oregon.
David Richards (NYU) started his career at Fordham University.
Mark Roe (Columbia) started his career at Rutgers University, Newark.
Frederick Schauer (Harvard) started his career at West Virginia University.
Robert Scott (Virginia) started his career at the College of William & Mary.
Robert Summers (Cornell) started his career at the University of Oregon.
Gerald Torres (Texas) started his career at the University of Pittsburgh.
William van Alstyne (Duke) started his career at Ohio State University.
Elizabeth Warren (Harvard) started her career at the University of Houston.
Robin West (Georgetown) started her career at Cleveland State University.
Patricia Williams (Columbia) started her career at Golden Gate University. Return to Top

Appendix A: 

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SCHOOL OF LAW ALUMNI IN LAW TEACHING, 2002-2003

This list excludes legal research & writing instructors.  It also excludes the many Texas JDs who teach in university departments other than law schools.  Texas has one of the largest contingents of alumni in law teaching of any national law school, with more than 130 alumni on the faculty at more than 75 law schools around the nation.

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Appendix B:
A Model Resumé for On-Campus Interviews

CYNTHIA L. SMITH

Work:                                                                                                             Home:
Cravath, Swaine & Moore                                                                          1685 York Avenue #32D
757 Seventh Avenue                                                                                    New York, N.Y. 10018
New York, N.Y. 10021                                                                              (212) 425-1234
(212) 353-1000

Education:

            University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TX, 1989-1992.
                        J.D., cum laude, 1992 (no class rank computed).
                        Graduated Order of the Coif.

            University of Texas, Austin, 1990-1992.
                        M.A. (Psychology), 1992.

            Rice University, Houston, TX, 1986-1990.
                        B.A., magna cum laude, 1990.
                        Major:  Psychology.

Academic Honors, Awards, and Activities:

            At the University of Texas School of Law:
                        Editor-in-Chief, Texas International Law Journal, 1991-1992.
                        Associate Editor, Texas International Law Journal, 1990-1991.
                        Dean's Achievement Awards (highest grade in class):  Contracts, International Law,
                                    Antitrust.
                        Endowed Presidential Scholarship, 1989-1990.

            At the University of Texas, Austin (Department of Psychology):
                        University Fellowship, 1990-1992.

            At Rice University:
                        President, International Affairs Society.

Areas of Research & Teaching Interest:

            International Law, International Business Transactions, Corporations, Mental Health Law

Other Areas of Teaching Interest:

            Property, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Antitrust

Judicial Clerkship:

            Clerk, Judge Patrick Higginbotham, U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit,
                        Dallas, TX, 1992-1993.

Other Professional Experience:

            Corporate Associate, Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, New York, N.Y., 1993-present.
                        Extensive drafting and negotiating work for a variety of international corporations;
                        worked on merger of major French and American companies; prepared research
                        memoranda on antitrust implications of international mergers.

            Volunteer Attorney, New York Advocates for the Mentally Ill, New York, N.Y. 1994-present.
                        Pro bono representation of mentally ill clients in civil commitment proceedings.

Publications:

            "The Antitrust Implications of International Mergers:  A Case Study," 18 Northwestern
                        Journal of International Law 345 (1995).

            "Corporate Identity and Choice of Law in International Litigation," 25 Texas International
                        Law Journal 115 (1992).

Professional Memberships:

            Member, New York Bar, since 1994.
            Member, Texas Bar, since 1993.
            American Bar Association (including International Law Section)
            New York City Bar Association

Languages:

            Fluent in French.

References:

            [same as for the AALS resumé, though you may list more than three here]

Please remember that this is only a model:  you may include more information, or less, and you should feel free to alter the organization (the first page should definitely, however, include your educational background). For example, if you have a number of impressive publications, you might include that information sooner than, e.g., professional experiences or even the research & teaching interests.  Feel free to share a draft of your resumé with me or with your faculty advisors. Return to Top

*Field was a member of the Texas Law Review, before transferring and completing her JD at Chicago.

Contact: Brian Leiter at bleiter@mail.law.utexas.edu
Return to Brian Leiter's Home Page | UT School of Law | University of Texas
updated 11/26/02