biglaw required for academia?

[zomginternets]

I feel like this question has been answered before, but I searched for it and couldn't find it. Is biglaw a "requirement" for academia? Is one looked down upon if they worked for a mid-sized firm post law school?

Assume all other relevant factors are equal (law school attended, law school gpa, published, etc.).

[kahechsof]

explain

[tww909]

only requirement is publications/publishable scholarship and plans to make more of it.

/thread

[Anonymous User]

It depends. The classical entry level candidate will have the following credentials: Good grades from Yale or great grades from Harvard, Stanford or Chicago; LR editor; published note/comment; COA clerkship, preferably on the 2nd, 9th or DC Circuits; good relationships with two faculty members; one or two post-law school LR publications; and 2-3 years of practice experience. For these candidates, the quality of the firm they practice with will have some impact, but probably very, very little in the grand scheme of things.

The non-classical entry level candidate will not have all of these things (or will have been out of school for more like 5-10 years), but he or she will have more extensive practice experience to allow him or her to teach a specialized subject. This could be a PD who wants to teach criminal law, or a bankrupcty attorney who wants to teach, well, bankruptcy, or an IP lawyer who wants to teach that. For these candidates, the "firm quality" or its equivalent probably does matter quite a bit. For example, someone who wants to teach M&A would have a tremendous advantage coming from Wachtel vis a vis some midsized law firm. (Similarly, an ADA from Manhattan would be much better situated to go after a crim law position than one from Topeka, Kansas.)

[20121109]

I know HYS professors who never practiced a day in their life. Granted they graduated from Yale, but I wouldn't think that biglaw is a prerequisite for academia. Clerkships, maybe....but not big law.

[Zabini]

only requirement is publications/publishable scholarship and plans to make more of it.

/thread

This. Just a 1L but of my four professors, only two have any practice experience at all and only one worked for a big firm (the other did prestigious PI work). Like the poster above said, I'm sure that if you're trying to be a professor without the "traditional" qualifications (HYS, CoA clerk, etc) having worked for a prominent firm will likely be more beneficial than not, but biglaw is certainly not a prerequisite for academia.