Back to School

Sort of.

I had a part-time (leading to full-time in a few semesters) non tenure track teaching position at an undergraduate university for the fall lined up. My plan was to stay there a few years to get some experience and then go on the market for a tenure track position at a law school. Unfortunately, the job fell through.

So, my plans have been accelerated. I hadn't planned on going on the market this year, but through a series of improbable events, about which I may blog later, things have fallen into place for me to go on the market. I'll be going to a conference in Phoenix next month designed for aspiring law professors, and I'm hoping I get some useful advice there.

I'm not the typical law prof candidate. The typical candidate went to Yale (I went to Santa Clara) graduated at the top of the class (I was somewhere other than the top), and was on law review (I was on a law journal, but not the law review). Additionally, the typical candidate is a few years out of school (I just graduated) and clerked for a federal appellate judge (I couldn't even manage to land an interview with a district court judge, despite sending out hundreds of applications). So, I have an uphill battle here.

But, there is one aspect of the process over which I have some control. The typical candidate also has a record of publication of law review articles. I can't out-Yale the competition, I can't out-GPA them, and I can't out-clerk them, but I can out-write them. This is where the back to school aspect comes in.

I have trouble getting work done at home. So, I'm going to spend my free time hanging out in Heafey (SCU's law library) taking advantage of the fact that alumni who haven't passed the bar yet get free access. (Come November, when bar results are released, I'll have to start paying. Hope springs eternal.) So, go to work all day, go to school all evening. Just like I never graduated. Except that I'll have to shepardize my cases using the books since I don't have Lexis or Westlaw.

It's way better than going back to school, though. I don't have to pay tuition, and I get to spend my time writing about things I find interesting instead of sitting in classes about subjects that I'll never need to know about again now that I've taken the bar exam. Seriously, if I need a will, I won't do it myself. I'll do the prudent thing and go get a lawyer.

So, if you're one of the people I left behind when I graduated, stop by and say hi. Apparently Heafey is like the Hotel California.