Discuss
How hard is the law school market?
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^JD/PhD from HYP? Maybe. Otherwise enjoy your new role as 'pre-law' advisor in the polisci dept at Western Kentucky
That would be terrible!!
I know! Why would a person who studied law and politics, earned a PhD in political science emphasizing judicial politics and public law ever want to wind up at a university teaching students and advising a pre-law program??
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No matter where you come from you're going to need to publish a lot in law reviews and journals. Your peer reviewed stuff might make for nice decoration, but unless it's law related won't count for much - and even if it is, won't count for nearly as much as law reviews.
This is a problem because both the law and other academic markets are sufficiently bad right now that you're going to need to publish a ton in both/all fields you want to compete in to have a chance in either. So it's like twice the work.
Also, connections and prestige count for significantly more in law world. You need references that schools know, people picking up the phone for you etc.
Increasingly, you also need at least one major, well known law related fellowship to get your foot in the door as well. No, it's not enough to have done 10 years of graduate school, you will need to do another 1-3 years in a postdoc-like purgatory, likely teaching legal writing courses that won't really help you build experience teaching subject-oriented classes.
Oh yeah, and it would really help to do a couple years of high-prestige clerkships as well.
No, almost no one is becoming a law professor before their late 30s anymore.
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^JD/PhD from HYP? Maybe. Otherwise enjoy your new role as 'pre-law' advisor in the polisci dept at Western Kentucky
Not really. You need a JD from Yale or Harvard, **maybe** Chicago, Stanford, or Berkeley. MAYBE.
Beyond that, law schools generally don't care that much about differences between PhD programs. Anything from a well regarded university is fine.
So, H/Y JD + top ~15 PhD = very good law school job. There are several placed in law schools recently who have done exactly this.
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So, H/Y JD + top ~15 PhD = very good law school job. There are several placed in law schools recently who have done exactly this.
Lol you don't know how the law market has been since about ~2014. Definitely no guarantee like this anymore. Lots of people with similar credentials hitting the hiring conference multiple years in a row. Also a lot more dependent on your subfield.
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Not really. You need a JD from Yale or Harvard, **maybe** Chicago, Stanford, or Berkeley. MAYBE.
Beyond that, law schools generally don't care that much about differences between PhD programs. Anything from a well regarded university is fine.
So, H/Y JD + top ~15 PhD = very good law school job. There are several placed in law schools recently who have done exactly this.I'm going to agree with Alma on this one. Law school market gets more competitive every year (not much different than polisci in that sense but there's a hundred law schools and thousands of unis that have polisci profs). Also more and more people have JDs and PhDs. Lots of JDs find they hate it or get crap jobs (50k for 60+ hours a week) and get PhDs, and lots of PhDs get crap jobs and try to get JDs. It's ridiculous that they think that's the answer but it's true. Also, it's not just polisci PhDs, many JD/PhDs have PhDs in philosophy, history, econ, or something else.
So yes it's *possible* but it makes no more sense to shoot for a JD/PhD to get a law school job than it is to get a PhD to get a t20 R1 job and wouldn't take anything lower. It's possible, not likely. Get a JD if you want to practice law, get a PhD if you want to be a prof in your field. Maybe you chance your mind after starting one of the other but then plan on getting the job your degree will get you.
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Have a JD from a top 10 law school but ideally Yale or Stanford. Also have either an Ivy League PhD or an elite clerkship but ideally both. Publish your job talk paper in a top 50 flagship law review but ideally top 14. Get job.
Source: Spouse is law prof and was a job market superstar (25+ interviews) a few years ago. Spouse did not fulfill all of the ideal criteria but checked important boxes (e.g. JD/PhD, high article placement)
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Have a JD from a top 10 law school but ideally Yale or Stanford. Also have either an Ivy League PhD or an elite clerkship but ideally both. Publish your job talk paper in a top 50 flagship law review but ideally top 14. Get job.
Source: Spouse is law prof and was a job market superstar (25+ interviews) a few years ago. Spouse did not fulfill all of the ideal criteria but checked important boxes (e.g. JD/PhD, high article placement)Minority female?