{"id":607,"date":"2007-12-24T09:14:12","date_gmt":"2007-12-24T14:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adam.rosi-kessel.org\/weblog\/2007\/12\/24\/jason%e2%80%99s-lesson%e2%80%99s-learned-about-the-legal-academy-and-getting-in"},"modified":"2007-12-24T11:07:08","modified_gmt":"2007-12-24T16:07:08","slug":"jason%e2%80%99s-lesson%e2%80%99s-learned-about-the-legal-academy-and-getting-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adam.rosi-kessel.org\/weblog\/2007\/12\/24\/jason%e2%80%99s-lesson%e2%80%99s-learned-about-the-legal-academy-and-getting-in","title":{"rendered":"Jason\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lesson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Learned About the Legal Academy and Getting In"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pelican has decided to abandon his efforts to scale the walls of the legal academy<\/a> and proposes this simple eight-step program for others who would follow in his footsteps:<\/p>\n

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  1. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do interdisciplinary work. The legal academy doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what to make of it unless it is economics.<\/li>\n
  2. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go to a school without a law review or grades. I did and it was a huge problem.<\/li>\n
  3. Get on law review, clerk, write.<\/li>\n
  4. Check the faculty listings at most law schools. Go to the most often listed schools: Harvard, Yale, etc. It does matter as law faculty select their own, usually. I was told by a faculty member as a 1L expressing interest in the academy that I should transfer immediately to Harvard if possible. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/li>\n
  5. If you think<\/em> you want to be a legal academic, look at what is on the FAR form in your first or second year. Orient your academic career to produce a good looking FAR.<\/li>\n
  6. Remarkably, the legal academy does not care about your ability to raise research money or bring in grants.<\/li>\n
  7. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t publish in interdisciplinary journals. Publish only in law reviews writing only dense and impenetrable texts.<\/li>\n
  8. Demonstrated impact of your work in policy or law is not relevant.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    This critique could be extended broadly to much of the academy (not just law schools). I had once thought I might like to teach law, but now I can only really see myself as a clinician.<\/p>\n

    Two contradictory academic trends:<\/p>\n