Photo: Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0)
Job description
Beyond leading and moderating classroom discussions, law professors prepare syllabi, homework, and other course materials, grade assignments and presentations, and keep detailed attendance and grading records. Staying current in the field means reading new legal literature, talking with colleagues, and attending conferences, and some positions blend teaching with active legal research and publishing. The role runs at a steady, moderately paced, indoor schedule with real independent judgment over course design, and typically requires a Juris Doctor, often paired with an additional LLM or SJD for research-focused positions.
Pros
- High pay ceiling (up to $288k) for those who reach senior faculty positions
- Substantial autonomy over course design, research focus, and classroom approach
- Standard, capped hours (40-45) compared to many other high-paying fields
Cons
- A relatively small number of positions nationwide, making tenure-track jobs especially competitive
- Slower than average projected job growth (2.2%)
- Requires a JD and often an additional LLM or SJD, a long educational runway
A typical day
The 9am class is Contracts, taught Socratic-style: a student is on call to state the facts of the case, and the professor's questions tighten like a spiral — change one fact, does the outcome change? The performance requires total command of the material and a poker face when the right answer surfaces early. Office hours follow, half doctrine and half mentoring — a 2L weighing clerkship applications, a 1L drowning and needing honest technique advice. The afternoon belongs to scholarship: the professor's law review article on algorithmic contract formation is due to editors Friday, and today's task is answering a devastating critique from a peer reviewer with a better argument. A faculty workshop at 4 — colleagues sharpening each other's drafts — and admissions committee reading end the day. The job is threefold and permanent: teach the law, critique the law, and occasionally, through the right article at the right time, change it.
Tasks at the job
- Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
- Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, papers, and oral presentations.
- Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
- Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
- Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
- Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. The work is highly structured, following set procedures.
Education necessary or common
Juris Doctor (JD), often with an additional graduate law degree (LLM or SJD) for research-focused positions
Common college majors
Licenses & certifications
- Juris Doctor (JD) from a top program — the practical requirement
- Bar admission
- Federal clerkship and law review credentials — the traditional gateway
- LLM/SJD or fellowship for the research path
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- AP English Language and Literature — the profession is reading and writing at its most demanding
- AP US Government — constitutional structure and legal institutions
- AP US History — the law's development in context
- Debate at the highest level available — Socratic teaching is structured argument
- AP Statistics — empirical legal scholarship is a growing field
- Philosophy or Latin if offered
Clubs, activities & competitions
- Mock Trial and Debate — both, seriously
- Model Congress or Youth in Government
- School newspaper or journal editing — the law review path starts with editing instincts
- Peer tutoring — teaching aptitude shows early
- Academic competition of any rigorous kind
First steps you can take now
- Read one famous law review article summary and one judicial opinion on the same topic — notice the different jobs they do
- Watch a law school class (many schools post sample Socratic sessions online)
- Build an exceptional academic record — law teaching selects from the top of the top, honestly
- Ask a lawyer which professor changed how they think, and why
