Fewer entry-level law profs hired for tenure-track jobs this year, according to self-reported data
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law tax professor Sarah Lawsky.
Entry-level law school hiring for tenure-track positions appears to be at its lowest point since Northwestern Pritzker School of Law tax professor Sarah Lawsky started compiling this data in 2006. Lawsky received reports of only 62 tenure-track hires at U.S. law schools this year, down from a peak of 167 such reported hires in 2008, PrawfsBlawg reports.
The information is self-reported, Lawsky told the ABA Journal, and she received it through through emails or blog comments.
Based on the information Lawsky received:
• 52 percent of this year’s new entry-level, tenure-track faculty hires were women.
• 42 law schools hired entry-level tenure-track faculty in 2017.
• Comparatively, 99 law schools hired entry-level tenure-track faculty in 2011.
The law schools at New York University, Harvard University and Yale University each had nine graduates hired as entry-level tenure-track faculty in 2017, according to reports to Lawsky. Columbia University Law School and Michigan School of Law each had three graduates hired, and Northwestern Law had four.
Out of all the entry-level hires reported, 45 percent have been out of law school for between five and nine years.
