Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

The MOOCs are coming...

...and it doesn't bode well for law schools.  Bar review courses have long been done via what were essentially "MOOCs," it would not be surprising were many law schools to start to incorporate them into core classes.  Of course, the so-called "Socratic" method of instruction is not feasible with a MOOC.

Rookie hiring summary courtesy of UCI's Sarah Lawsky...

...here.  As a percentage of candidates on the market, here's how the schools fared in terms of tenure-track placement of their alumni (Lawsky's numbers are a bit different, at least in part due to a failure to count tenure-stream jobs in non-US law schools; I list only schools that had at least five candidates on the market):

1.  University of Chicago (58%)

2.  University of Virginia (57%)

3.  Yale University (49%)

4.  Duke University (39%)

4.  New York University (39%)

6.  University of Michigan (31%)

7.  Harvard University (30%)

8.  University of California, Los Angeles (25%)

9.  Cornell University (21%)

9.  Northwestern University (21%)

11. University of Texas, Austin (18%)

12. Georgetown University (17%)

13. Stanford University (15%)

13. University of California, Berkeley (15%)

15. Columbia University (11%)

The Stanford and Columbia performances seem anomalously low--maybe due to underreporting, and maybe due to a fluke this year.

Professor Lawsky's numbers, even allowing for the limits of self-reporting, also clearly show the steep drop-off in hiring this year, on the order of almost one-third fewer hires than in recent years.

UPDATE:  Professor Lawsky's percentage chart, but just for US tenure-track hires.

Law faculty salaries 2012-13

Blog Emperor Caron breaks out the latest SALT data.

Decline in lateral hiring of faculty

The evidence.  Not surprising.

Law schools with JD Alumni on the Teaching Market

MOVING TO FRONT FROM SEPTEMBER 13, 2012--AS HIRING SEASON NEARS ITS END, AND PRAWFS COMPILES HIRING DATA, THIS INFO IS TIMELY AGAIN (candidates who accepted offers, please submit your info at the Prawfs site--I knnow the information there is not complete as it presently stands)

UPDATED AND CORRECTED

This is from the first FAR distribution, which is the most important one, and typically includes the most viable candidates (meaning also the candidates the school knew about!).  The school name is followed by the number of graduates on the market this year, the average recent class size, and then two ranks:  how the school ranks over a long period of time in per capita placement in law teaching; and how the school ranks more recently in placement of graduates at leading law schools.

1.  Harvard (57 candidates; average class size circa 550) (#2, #2)

2.  Yale (37 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#1, #1)

3.  NYU (31 candidates; average class size circa 450) (#9, #9)

4.  UC Berkeley (20 candidates; average class size circa 250) (#7, #5)

5.  Columbia (18 candidates; average class size circa 400) (#5, #6)

5.  Georgetown (18 candidates; average class size circa 600) (#14, #14) 

7.  Cornell (14 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#10, outside top 15)

7.  Northwestern (14 candidates; average class size circa 250) (#10, #11)

9.  Duke (13 candidates; average class size circa 250) (#10, #9)

9.  Michigan (13 candidates; average class size circa 350) (#5, #6)

9.  Stanford (13 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#4, #3)

12. Chicago (12 candidates; average class size circa 200) (#3, #4)

13. Texas (11 candidates; average class size circa 425) (#14, outside top 15)

Among the elite law schools, others had smaller number of alumni in the first FAR this year:  for example, there were eight from UCLA, seven from Virginia, four from Southern California, and three each from Penn and Vanderbilt.  Other major law schools with comparable numbers include George Washington (7) and Wisconsin (5).

ADDENDUM:  It is striking how weak the correlation is between the total numbers on the teaching market compared to past success in placement.

Academic freedom (and due process) under threat at Brooklyn Law School?

Details here.

So which areas of law deserve more attention in the legal academy?

The results of our earlier poll, with over 200 votes cast:

1. Consumer Law  (Condorcet winner: wins contests with all other choices)

2. Energy Law/Natural Resources Law/Water Law  loses to Consumer Law by 109–73

3. Employment Law  loses to Consumer Law by 115–73, loses to Energy Law/Natural Resources Law/Water Law by 91–85

4. Alternative Dispute Resolution  loses to Consumer Law by 106–80, loses to Employment Law by 89–83

5. Immigration Law  loses to Consumer Law by 118–67, loses to Alternative Dispute Resolution by 87–86

6. Family Law  loses to Consumer Law by 123–61, loses to Immigration Law by 99–72

7. Insurance Law  loses to Consumer Law by 130–53, loses to Family Law by 100–77

8. Comparative Law  loses to Consumer Law by 117–68, loses to Insurance Law by 91–87

9. Elder Law  loses to Consumer Law by 135–47, loses to Comparative Law by 88–80

10. Wills, Trusts & Estates  loses to Consumer Law by 126–58, loses to Elder Law by 88–79

Thoughts from readers?  Signed comments only:  full name and valid e-mail address. 

Submitting to law reviews

Updated for Spring 2013.  Co-author Nancy Levit (Missouri/Kansas City) writes:   

The highlights from this round of revisions include the following:  First, there has been movement toward Scholastica and we have tried to track which law reviews prefer Scholastica or exclusively accept through that channel.  Second, the chart now includes, where available, information about whenjournals are open to receive articles—i.e. the opening date for the submission season.

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Law school applications likely to hit an all-time low this year since records were kept (going back to 1983)

Details here. 

This essentially guarantees that next year's job market for law teachers will be even more difficult than this year's.  Until enrollments stabilize (or increase), the majority of schools have to put off or limit full-time faculty hiring.

Yale Law School's New Fake "PhD in Law" Program...

...got only 82 applicants, which is surprising.  I would have expected higher demand for a three-year paid Fellowship for aspiring law teachers!  (The linked article, bizarrely, thinks this is an impressive tally, yet I can't imagine any other "PhD program" at Yale has so few applicants.  On why the program is a fake qua PhD program, see the earlier discussion.)