AALS Visiting Faculty Register and Lateral Movement

I'm heard some discussion of late that one way to explore a lateral move is to sign up with the AALS Visiting Faculty Register.  This register lists experienced faculty members interested in visiting for a semester or two  in the next academic year.  Associate deans and hiring chairs often check the register, I am told, to fill their curricular holes, especially at this time of year.  Moreover, I've heard people say that being on this list may signal to hiring committees a willingness to relocate.  And of course visiting is a great way to get to know a new school and extend one's network of friends and colleagues.  Please note that you must have at least three years of full-time law teaching to register and be a full-time faculty member at an AALS Member or Fee-paid school.  Here is the description of the registry from the AALS' website:

Since 1971, the AALS has offered to full-time law teachers at member and fee-paid schools an opportunity to be listed in the Visiting Faculty Register. This register, which is sent to deans and is made available to appointments committees, lists information such as the subjects a visitor is interested in teaching, as well as time period and location preferences. It is a service available to those interested in considering invitations to visit for all or part of an academic year, but does not apply to summer visiting positions. The Visiting Faculty Register is published online.

This register includes only full-time and emeriti tenure-track or equivalent (meaning long-term contract) law faculty who are currently (or were within the last two academic years) permanently associated with an AALS member or fee-paid law school. Visiting positions do not qualify. To be listed in the visiting faculty register, a person must have completed three years of full-time law teaching. Individuals with three years of law teaching experience who are not currently or who have not been permanently associated with an AALS member or fee-paid law school within the last two academic years may register for the visiting faculty register for a cost of $450.  Please be aware that once the form has been completed online, eligibility must be verified before the entry can be manually uploaded, which may take 1-2 weeks.

Email visitingfaculty@aals.org with any further questions.  As of 2012, the Retiring Faculty Register has been combined with the Visiting Faculty Register.  

Here is a link to the registration form.  The register is now distributed on-line, so there is no longer a deadline.  However, early registration is suggested so that schools know about potential visitors as soon as possible.

I also just realized that the AALS has a foreign visiting facutly registry, which I did not know about.  I've mentioned this resource before to folks thinking about a lateral move.  I'd be interested in hearing the experiences of people who've used it.  Has this been a useful experience for candidates and schools?

Comments

[Trussell]

Al,

AALS's Associate Director, Prof. Linda Jellum, has made some improvements to the visiting register of late including sending those of us on the list a query as to whether we'd taken a position.

As you know, I'm visiting in Ireland this year. Since I leased my Denver house out for two years, I decided to add my name to the visiting register and see if a school needs a Torts or Contracts professor, particularly for evening students. (I'd never count on getting a Legal History class.) This might presage an effort on my part to go back to California, where my parents live and where my son is now a freshman. ;-)

Tom Russell