Brian Leiter's Law School Reports

The Mechanics of Submitting Articles to Law Reviews

A useful guide here.

Hiring Chairs for 2009-10 Can Identify Themselves...

...here.

Using the AALS Process & "Meat Market" for a Lateral Move?

A reader, a tenured professor, writes:

What is your opinion on a midlevel, tenured faculty at a 3^rd tier law school registering for the “Meat Market” in an effort to lateral to another school?  I have received mixed opinions from friends and colleagues (and my wife) and am debating the pros and cons – among others, the possible appearance of desperation and having your colleagues and dean find out your desire to leave, versus greater exposure and making it easier for law schools to interview you. I read recently Paul Secunda’s “Tales of a Law Professor Lateral Nothing” where he seems to suggest that the benefits outweigh the harms. But I would greatly appreciate your advice on this matter.

I'm not sure what I think--the candidate is probably in the best position to assess the local costs (i.e., how colleague and Deans will react etc.).  It is certainly the easiest way to communicate very widely one's openness to a new position.  What do readers think?  Comments are open; post only once, comments may take awhile to appear.  Signed comments strongly preferred; at a minimum, you must include your actual e-mail address (which will not appear).

Where to get information about last-minute visiting positions?

A reader writes:

 I am coming to the end of a VAP position.  At this historically inopportune moment, I did not secure a tenure-track position for next year...  Circa March, I contacted a number of schools in the Northeast about the possibility of a visit, but was consistently told that they did not expect to have any budget for visitors for next year.   

[A colleague] believes that there is a possibility of some "late hiring" of visitors as some schools come to realize that they have unexpected needs or more 1Ls than they feared (apparently there was a late surge in law school applicants nationally).  The problem is the difficulty in obtaining information about which schools have late-arising positions.  Might you have any insights in this regard?

I don't, but perhaps some readers do.  Comments are open.  Post only once, comments may take awhile to appear.

Antitrust: A "Hot" Academic Subject Again?

Joshua Wright (George Mason) comments on recent developments, in both the academy and the subject.

Is there an on-line guide explaining how the law review submission process works?

I get this question again and again from recent law school graduates thinking about teaching careers.  Is there a blog post or on-line document somewhere that explains the whole process:  the two submission windows (March and August), the on-line submission services like Expresso, the process of 'bargaining' up a publication offer, etc.?  Please post links or references in the comment section.

Tax Planning for Visiting Professors and Faculty on Sabbatical

Good information here.

The Best Academic Publishers in Law?

Which academic presses are the "best" in legal scholarship, i.e., which publish the highest quality new legal scholarship?  A new poll here.  This obviously excludes publishers who mainly produce casebooks and textbooks.

UPDATE:  A reader points out that MIT Press probably should have been included; they don't publish a lot in law, but they do have some prominent authors, and while it seems unlikely that they would have outperformed the top five, it would have been good to have them in the mix.  So it goes with blog polls...

The "Top 20" Legal Journals

So I've closed the survey, and, with 265 votes, the results for "the top 20" are below.  I think it tells us not a lot about "quality," though a fair bit about "perceptions," which certainly isn't irrelevant for younger scholars.  But based just on the first issue, Journal of Legal Analysis is better than just about every journal in the top ten, though they failed to make the top 20 here.  Of course, JLA may not sustain its quality or, more likely I think, perceptions will adjust with time.

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

2. Yale Law Journal  loses to Harvard Law Review by 112–66

3. Columbia Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 155–43, loses to Yale Law Journal by 153–45

4. Journal of Legal Studies  loses to Harvard Law Review by 135–66, loses to Columbia Law Review by 109–92

5. Stanford Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 167–27, loses to Journal of Legal Studies by 100–99

6. University of Chicago Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 166–31, loses to Stanford Law Review by 106–79

7. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies  loses to Harvard Law Review by 129–65, loses to University of Chicago Law Review by 94–83

8. Michigan Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 178–21, loses to Oxford Journal of Legal Studies by 89–85

9. New York University Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 177–23, loses to Michigan Law Review by 101–71

10. Tied: Journal of Law & Economics  loses to Harvard Law Review by 142–56, loses to New York University Law Review by 92–85 Virginia Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 177–20, loses to New York University Law Review by 95–74

12. California Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 179–20, loses to Virginia Law Review by 88–85

13. University of Pennsylvania Law Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 180–21, loses to California Law Review by 96–77

14. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies  loses to Harvard Law Review by 152–37, loses to University of Pennsylvania Law Review by 89–78

15. Supreme Court Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 156–37, loses to Journal of Empirical Legal Studies by 82–71

16. American Law & Economics Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 142–46, loses to University of Pennsylvania Law Review by 87–73

17. Constitutional Commentary  loses to Harvard Law Review by 151–31, loses to American Law & Economics Review by 82–56

18. Journal of Law, Economics & Organization  loses to Harvard Law Review by 142–40, loses to Constitutional Commentary by 71–60

19. Law & Contemporary Problems  loses to Harvard Law Review by 167–25, loses to Journal of Law, Economics & Organization by 76–58

20. Law & Society Review  loses to Harvard Law Review by 156–32, loses to Law & Contemporary Problems by 74–59

Which are the highest quality legal journals?

This poll may provide some useful advice for younger scholars wondering where to submit their work.  Do not participate unless you are actually a legal scholar! 

UPDATE:  So the results so far, after about fifty votes, are pretty surprising, and lead me to suspect that students are voting.  So let me open comments and ask:  is there really any legal academic who thinks the quality of articles in, say, the Harvard Law Review is really higher than the quality of articles in Journal of Legal Studies or Oxford Journal  of Legal Studies or almost any of the faculty-edited journals?  I find that quite hard to believe, but I am open to being persuaded otherwise.  Signed comments only; post only once.