Becoming a Legal Scholar

Authors

Samuel W. Buell, Duke Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

2012

Keywords

law professors, legal scholarship, job market

Abstract

There is now a literature on how to become a law professor. The first book-length treatment of the subject, Becoming A Law Professor, displays a common fault of this literature in directing candidates’ focus on process at the expense of substance. The present body of material on the market for new legal academics does not persuade candidates of the necessity of locating their agendas and voices as scholars, much less does it show them how to go about that vital search. It also risks contributing to a tendency of credentialing processes to standardize resumes without improving outcomes. A second-generation literature is needed: on how to become a legal scholar. This Review explains the need for that literature and suggests some directions for it.

Citation

Samuel W. Buell, Becoming a Legal Scholar, 110 Michigan Law Review 1175-1190 (2012) (reviewing Brannon P. Denning et al., Becoming a Law Professor: A Candidates Guide (ABA, 2010)