CBA Record March-April 2025

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

Law Professor By James F. Tierney

C areers in law often take unex pected turns. For me, that journey led to nine years in practice— clerking, as a big law associate, and on the staff at a federal agency general counsel’s office—before returning to teach classes in business law, corporate finance, and administrative law. Reflecting on my path to a faculty position, I realize how much the pathway for aspiring law professors has changed over the years. I have been on both sides of the hiring table for these jobs, so this article is a reflection on my experiences and an attempt to offer advice to newer lawyers who might be consider ing a similar path. When I graduated from law school, I followed what was then the traditional route for those aspiring to teach: I came into law school with a master’s degree, served as an editor on law review, clerked after graduation, and wrote for seminars. However, the financial crisis of 2008– 2009 changed everything. The legal job market contracted, and the demand for law school graduates—and by exten sion, law professors—dried up. Aca demia began to place greater emphasis on research productivity and intellectual curiosity and less emphasis on the tradi tional path into the profession. Faced with these shifting dynamics, I pivoted my career plans. I had been practicing appellate, critical motions, and regulatory law at Mayer Brown in Wash ington, DC. Coming out of the financial crisis, some of my cases involved securities litigation. Though I enjoyed the work, I realized I was not cut out for a long-term career as a big law litigator. Around that time, my work had caught the attention of someone at the SEC, and I was offered a position at their General Counsel’s office. I moved to this government job for many reasons, including better work-life

balance and the chance to focus on sub stantive regulatory work. But even at the SEC, I found myself wrestling with ideas and questions about the areas of law I was practicing—questions I wanted to explore in greater depth but couldn’t fully address within the constraints of my role. This curiosity ultimately reignited my interest in academia. I started exploring teaching in areas such as contracts and securities law, where there is a consistent demand for faculty. I wrote an article, planned follow-ups, attended conferences, and started building relationships in the academic community. Those efforts even tually led to a tenure-track faculty position at the University of Nebraska, a visiting instructorship at Rutgers, and my current position at Chicago-Kent School of Law. A common misconception is that being a law professor is mostly about teaching. There are several models for teaching in law, including “podium” or doctrinal classes like mine, as well as courses teach ing legal skills, clinical work, and legal research and writing, each emphasizing different workflows and areas of instruc tor interest. I spend a great deal of time preparing and teaching classes and work ing with students, but this constitutes only about 40% of how I spend my time. Tenure-track roles are increasingly defined by research and scholarship. Law schools look for candidates with a dem onstrated commitment to scholarship, without regard to whether it comes at the expense of practical experience—a shift

that is relevant not only to earlier- but also later-career attorneys considering a jump to academia. The consequence is that tenure-track doctrinal positions in legal academia often go to lawyers who are not only passionate about teaching but are also motivated to produce legal scholarship. Note, too, that much of your career will involve producing scholarly articles, engaging with your and others’ research at workshops and conferences, and contrib uting to public discourse in your area of expertise. If reading and writing law jour nal articles feels like a chore, or if the idea of unstructured time to pursue research doesn’t appeal to you, this might not real istically be the right career path. Another reality is that those commit ted to obtaining a full-time, tenure-track teaching position may find themselves moving away from friends and family. I am lucky to have ended up with a job near family, but this is atypical. Success in this job market typically involves relocation to wherever the offering school may be. For those who don’t want to uproot and still want to teach, consider reaching out to local law schools about teaching part time in an adjunct capacity.

James F. Tierney is an Assistant Professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he teaches business law, corporate finance, and administrative law.

CBA RECORD 29