Faculty Hiring: Suffolk

From an email that I received yesterday:

SUFFOLK UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL in Boston invites applications for a tenure-track position starting in the 2014-2015 academic year.  We seek entry-level and pre-tenure laterals with strong academic records and a demonstrated commitment to excellence in teaching and scholarship. Our search will focus on candidates with expertise or developing interest in business law, including but not limited to business entities, corporate finance, banking law, or securities regulation. Candidates’ teaching and research areas may also include advanced business topics in business planning or similar transactionally-oriented business subjects. Candidates may also be asked to teach a first year course. Suffolk University is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from women, persons of color, sexual orientation minorities and others who will contribute to the diversity of the faculty.  Interested candidates should contact Professors Jessica Silbey and Robert Smith, Co-Chairs, Faculty Appointments Committee, at jsilbey@suffolk.edu and rsmith@suffolk.edu, with a copy to bmello@suffolk.edu, or mail their materials to Co-Chairs of the Appointments Committee, c/o Babs Mello, at Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108-4677.

Comments

[Robert]

Tim, a question from someone who, after years as an adjunct, is beginning to work toward a transition from practice to full-time academics:

I've submitted all the necessary items to the AALS FAR process and hope to see a some interviews coming in DC. And, of course, I'm meeting with the right folks at all my local schools. But looking through the AALS Bulletin and some posts here raises a process question for me. Say there's a school that has posted an opening in the AALS. "Interested applicants should contact Dean So-and-so and send thus-and-such." If one is already pursuing the AALS hiring event, is it also considered proper to send CVs, transcripts and whatever may be sought directly to schools in which one has interest?

The question seems a little fraught to me. On the one had, the folks doing the hiring may consider it an annoyance to be inundated with materials they are already free to review via the AALS clearing house. On the other hand, my reflex is to take the direct approach, since I don't really know who is or isn't looking at the AALS resource, and better belt plus suspenders.

It may be I'm over-thinking the entire question. But given the intricacies of academic etiquette, and the importance some put on punctilious attendance to it, it seemed a question worth asking.