MEMORANDUM 01-20

Faculty Appointments Register. Table 1* discloses registrations in the current Faculty Appointments Register (FAR) by gender, and race and ethnic background. Table 2* provides these data for the last ten years. There were 769 registrants in the 2000-2001 Faculty Appointments Register. Two hundred twenty seven (227) of those reporting gender identified themselves as women, and 529 of those reporting gender identified themselves as men. Thirteen (13) registrants did not identify gender on the FAR form. One hundred forty seven (147) of registrants identified themselves as belonging to ethnic groups as follows: American Indian or Alaskan Native, 6; Asian or Pacific Islander, 24; Black, 53; Chicano, 4; Puerto Rican, 4; Other Hispanic Americans, 14; and Other Minority, 42. Five hundred seventy six (576) registrants identified themselves as white; 46 registrants did not report ethnic origin.

In 2000-2001, 30.0% of the registrants who reported gender are women, and 20.3% of the registrants who reported ethnic origin belong to minority groups. Compared to ten years earlier, this is less than the 30.7% who identified themselves as women in the 1990-91 FAR, but more than the 14.9% who identified themselves as belonging to minority groups in the 1990-91 FAR.

Faculty Recruitment Conference. The Faculty Recruitment Conference was held at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, November 2-4, 2000, in Washington, D.C. This conference provides an opportunity for those interested in law teaching to interview faculty appointments personnel from law schools. Table 3* discloses the number of people interested in faculty positions participating in the conference and number of law schools interviewing since 1978.

News Release. Attached as Appendix A [not available on website] is a copy of the news release we issued last July. It describes the Association's faculty recruitment services--the Faculty Appointments Register, Faculty Recruitment Conference, and the Placement Bulletin. The press release expressly calls attention to the interest of law schools in recruiting as faculty those who will further the schools' commitment to diversity. The Association sent the press release to about 500 publications listed in an American Bar Association mailing list that includes bar and legal trade journals, student bar newspapers, law school journals, minority newspapers and major U.S. newspapers with circulations of 100,000 or more. The news release was also distributed to deans of member and fee-paid schools with the request that the deans assist in having the announcement and news release published in bar journals of local and statewide circulation and in local newspapers. Our experience suggests that the information was carried in a number of publications, but we have no precise number available.

Workshops to Encourage Minority Attorneys to Consider a Career in Law Teaching. Since the spring of 1990, the AALS has participated in or assisted law schools in developing a number of regional programs to inform minority attorneys about opportunities in law teaching and to encourage them to consider law teaching careers. To date, at least nine such programs have been presented; many of them have been attended by between 25 and 100 minority attorneys.

The Association believes that these programs have been effective vehicles for informing minority attorneys about the opportunities in law teaching, and we note the substantial increase in both number and percentage of minority registrants in the Faculty Appointments Register since 1990-91. We encourage law schools in other major metropolitan areas to consider co-sponsoring similar programs for minority attorneys, and we would be pleased to provide information concerning arranging such programs. In fact, the Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Minority Law Faculty presented a program at the 1999 Annual Meeting designed to help schools plan such programs.

Identifying Recent Minority Graduates as Faculty Prospects. Since 1985, the Association's President has regularly written the deans of member and ABA-approved schools to seek their help in identifying their recent minority graduates who would be good prospects for law teaching. The Association sends information about the AALS faculty recruitment process to those identified by deans. Please let the Association know of your ideas for encouraging minority lawyers to consider law teaching.

* Note: Tables are available from this website as PDF files. View Tables

Enclosure: News release [not included on website]

cc:
Carl C. Monk
Executive Committee

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