Post-AALS FRC Arbitrage Opportunities?

Corporate law prof spots are often difficult to fill.  I think one of the reasons for this has nothing to do with supply but instead that faculties are self replicating and existing law school faculties are heavily into public law.  However, if I am wrong (or even if I am right), it seems that there is plenty of new supply in potential corporate professors that will hit the market by January.  The combination of a recession with a change in administration means that lots of highly qualified people in enforcement agencies and private practice might be available for entry level and VAP positions. 

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Comments

[TJ]

Daniel, you really think that corporate law appointments are harder to get than public law appointments? That seems to go against the conventional wisdom, in so far as relatively few people want to teach corporate law and everybody wants to teach con law.

[D. Daniel Sokol]

TJ,

I think that you assume that hiring slots are based on needs in the sense that faculties hire based on what students will practice. I think that if you look at Larry Solum's list of entry level hires, you find more people hired based on the focus of their work and the teaching slots in various parts of public law than you do in private law. To a certain extent, this means more movement in the lateral market for private law. I am not as a value judgment questioning the criteria that faculties use to choose candidates. More modestly, I suggest what I believe to be a trend in hiring such as that best athlete candidates tend to be more on the public law side .

[TJ]

Daniel, I agree that more people are hired in public law than in private law, especially best athlete hires. But you need to consider both demand and supply. It seems to me that the supply of people who want to teach public law far outstrips the supply of people who want to teach private law, so even though there are more slots available, it is still harder to get in one because the competition is so much greater.