Careers in Law Teaching Program | Columbia Law School
2011 Workshops
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Wednesday, January 19, 12:10: "Introductory Session" (Room: JGH 105)
Speakers: Christina Duffy Burnett, Jamal Greene and Peter Strauss
The Introductory Session is intended to introduce Columbia students to the ins and outs, ups and downs, and whys and wherefores of an academic career. It is the first of a series of weekly lunch workshops held throughout the semester on the subject of academic careers. At this session, Professors Burnett, Greene and Strauss will provide an overview of the mechanics of going on the market as well as a discussion of what teaching is like, why we do it, and why you might want to consider it too. All students who are interested in teaching, or students who think they might be in the future, are encouraged to attend. There will be plenty of time for questions.
Wednesday, January 26, 12:10: From Public Interest Practice to Teaching (Room: JGH 940)
Speakers: Suzanne Goldberg and Olati Johnson
Learn from people who have made the transition from public interest law to law teaching for a discussion of questions such as these: How does practice differ from teaching? Why might one prefer to teach? What steps should one think about and begin to take to get ready to go on the teaching market while still in practice? How does one plan a scholarly agenda from the trenches of practice?
Wednesday, February 2, 12:10: Exploring Law Librarianship: An Alternative Academic Career (Room 940)
Speakers: Jody Armstrong, Kent McKeever and Beth Williams
Do you enjoy legal research, teaching students, and working with faculty? Come learn how law librarianship can be a fulfilling and challenging career. Law librarians who enter the profession come from a wide variety of law-related backgrounds. Join Columbia’s Law Library Director Kent McKeever, Associate Director Jody Armstrong ’83, and Head of Public Services Beth Williams in a discussion about what librarianship entails and its benefits as a career option.
Wednesday February 9, 12:10: Developing a Research Agenda (Room JGH 940)
Speakers: Vince Blasi and Elizabeth Emens
Long ago, law schools filled entry-level faculty positions based on credentials such as law school grades, journal experience, and other badges of accomplishment. Although formal credentials remain important, increasingly in recent years appointments committees have sought candidates with a scholarly track record that shows promise of blossoming into a full-scale set of research projects. If and when you try to obtain a law teaching job, you will be expected to have a "scholarly agenda," i.e., a set of themes or topics that connects your initial and future projects in a way that will, if all goes according to plan, establish you as a legal scholar with a distinctive voice and something to say. This session will focus on how you develop a scholarly agenda, or at least how to think about having one, before you have had a sustained opportunity to work as a legal scholar.
Wednesday February 16, 12:10: From Private Practice to Teaching (Room: JGH 940)
Speakers: Michael Gerrard, Jeffrey Gordon and Alex Raskolnikov
Learn from professors who have made the transition from private practice to law teaching for a discussion of questions such as these: How does practice differ from teaching? Why might one prefer to teach? What steps should one think about and begin to take to get ready to go on the teaching market while still in practice? How does one plan a scholarly agenda from the trenches of practice?
Wednesday, February 23, 12:10: The Psychology of Being a Legal Academic (Room: JGH 940)
Speakers: Bert Huang, Jody Kraus and Peter Strauss
The point of this panel is to explore the tension between succeeding according to the external standards of the legal academy and preserving a secure sense of your own academic identity, especially at the beginnning of a legal academic career. As you begin your career, you will be aware of the norms your students and colleagues will use in assessing your teaching and writing. But how do you preserve your own professional and personal values from capture by these external norms, important as they are? "Achievement" is not the measure of a successful and satisfying academic career; it would be a mistake to sacrifice your own sense of important questions, professional mission, and self-worth to the external norms and judgments of our profession. Doing so risks transforming a career of intellectual self-discovery into an empty, purely instrumental exercise. We hope to offer a healthy alternative that, sensitive to your need for external success, may help you maintain an internally independent sense of mission, scholarly values, and self-worth—a sense that, in our judgment, is in fact more likely to secure your success in the world's eyes as well as your own. We will also consider both how you can explore your academic self-conception through initial writing projects (such as notes or comments), and how you might handle the stresses and changes that experienced lawyers can face in moving from practice to the legal academy.
Wednesday, March 2, 12:10: Newbies Speak: What I Wished I Had Known or Thought Harder About Before I Went on the Market (Room JGH 940)
Speakers: Jessica Clarke, Anthony O’Rourke and Maya Steinitz
Join three current Law School fellows who have recently been through the teaching market for an informal discussion of steps aspiring professors should take while in law school, practice, or fellowships, such as: developing a research agenda, forming relationships with recommenders, developing contacts with schools, and mentally preparing for what can be an exhausting process.
Wednesday March 9, 12:10: Teaching at Law Schools Other Than Full-time Faculty Positions (Room: JGH 940)
Speakers: Ellen Chapnick, Risa Kaufman, Susan Kraham and Ryan A. McLeod
Want to teach at law school while practicing law? Don't want to write law review articles? Want to teach outside of the formal classroom? Then come hear from Columbia Law School faculty and staff who have taken creative paths to law school teaching.
March 16: Spring Break, no workshop.
Wednesday, March 23, 12:10: Teaching Abroad Or in the U.S. With a Foreign Law Degree (Room: JGH 940)
Speakers: Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Rebecca Giblin, Horatia Muir Watt, Jennifer Payne, and Katharina Pistor
The idea of this panel is to provide information about teaching in countries in which one may not have obtained a law degree or other qualifications. The first question is, whether this is possible at all, and if not, whether there are other opportunities in academics, such as research, Ph.D. programs, or visiting fellowships. The next question is what the qualifying standards are, and third, how to get access to information about any job postings.
Wednesday, March 30, 12:10: Beyond Law School: Clerkships and Ph.D.'s (Room: JGH 940)
Speakers: Ariela Dubler, Scott Hemphill, Bert Huang, Ed Morrison, and Nate Persily
Are clerkships the ticket to a teaching job? Can getting a Ph.D. before, during, or after Law School help? Other graduate degrees? Come learn about these things and more.
**Tuesday, April 5, 12:10: Paths to Legal Academia: VAPs, Fellowships, PhDs and Publishing! (Room JGH 940)
Speakers: Michael Kavey, Nicholas Stephanopoulos, and Irene Ten Cate
Is practicing law necessary or helpful for entering legal academy, or for developing a research agenda? Is it possible to publish while practicing? How can fellowships and Visiting Assistant Professor programs help you transition into academia? Are there important differences among the different fellowship and VAP opportunities? Come learn about these things and more.
Wednesday, April 13, 12:10: Careers in Government and the Legal Academy: Can You Get There from Here? (Room JGH 940)
Speakers: Abbe Gluck, James Liebman and Matthew Waxman
Members of the panel will discuss their work in federal, state and local government and the prospects and process for moving from there to careers in the legal academy (and back).
Wednesday, April 20, 12:10: Getting Into Clinical Law Teaching (Room: JGH 940)
Speakers: Carol Liebman and Mary Zulack
The discussion will focus on the ways one might prepare for a career in clinical teaching and how this is similar to and different from other types of teaching careers. We will also talk about the various types of clinical teaching positions that are available.