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I've worked in international business for a number of years (Finance). I've touched on various aspects of international law as related to this . Would it be worth pursuing this in an academic setting? NYU and Georgetown look good. I am really interested in this.

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I feel like the last thing you want to do is get even more specific than "International Law." Bottom line, there's probably only a handful of people who do these jobs. They're probably boomers, so they might retire soon. So hey, anything's possible.

To answer your question more specifically... at a place like GULC or NYU, you'll need to be in the top 5% or higher of your class to stand a chance at academia at all. Good news is you'd know whether that's possible before 2L even starts...

Can you theoretically? Sure.

andre douglas pond cummings made a career out of hip hop constitutional law out of Howard Law, so anything is possible. But is it realistic? Hardly.

If you want to shoot for the moon (which academia+international law from non-HYS is), go ahead. But be prepared to fail, as the odds are solidly against you.

Please go for it if that's what you want. But if that would be the only law career you would be happy with, don't go to law school. Make sure you are okay with the more likely alternatives.

Go the best school you can get into, but not if that's anything below a T6 if you want a reasonable (read: >5%) shot at academia.

Just do top-5 poli sci/IR Ph.D., bro. It's cheaper.

Retake the LSAT. You have a 4+ GPA.

Sit out a cycle. Retake. Enjoy H.

nothingtosee wrote:Retake the LSAT. You have a 4+ GPA.

Sit out a cycle. Retake. Enjoy H.

Forgot ab that. Well hell yes, if you want academia and you have over a 4 GPA, then you need to retake until you hit 170s, go to H, and now you have a realistic shot.

If you want to be a real academic go get a PhD.

Going forward there are going to be about 50 jobs per year for law professors of all kinds, with an average of maybe one of those jobs slated for an international public law slot, and that person will probably have a PhD as well as a law degree.

I'm not being hyperbolic. There will be average of about one job opening per year (in America) for what you want to do.

Paul Campos wrote:If you want to be a real academic go get a PhD.

Going forward there are going to be about 50 jobs per year for law professors of all kinds, with an average of maybe one of those jobs slated for an international public law slot, and that person will probably have a PhD as well as a law degree.

I'm not being hyperbolic. There will be average of about one job opening per year (in America) for what you want to do.

... so you're saying there's a chance?

Everyone here is right - if you want to go into academia, there's no reason to get a JD - go get a PhD instead. It takes longer, but it will be paid for, and it will do a much better job of preparing you actually to be a scholar. Law school really does not teach you how to be a scholar at all. If the length of the PhD is putting you off, I don't think you'd find academia very congenial, honestly. And if you want to teach in a law school - well, first, why? You will be teaching law students and the whole pedagogical model of law school is fairly pathetic. And second, you too can compete for one of those 50 jobs a year with a PhD. Or you could get a job in a political science department and cross-teach in a law school. Or, you know, you, like the majority of PhDs, could not, but you wouldn't have $250K of debt. If you want to teach in a law school because it pays more than a regular university - again, I don't think you're going to find academia very congenial.

I'm not that convinced that having the JD as a "backup" with the idea that you can practice if academia doesn't work out is a very good plan, but that might just be me.

Paul Campos wrote:If you want to be a real academic go get a PhD.

Going forward there are going to be about 50 jobs per year for law professors of all kinds, with an average of maybe one of those jobs slated for an international public law slot, and that person will probably have a PhD as well as a law degree.

I'm not being hyperbolic. There will be average of about one job opening per year (in America) for what you want to do.

Maybe he's saying that he wants to teach undergraduates? Like some kind of seminar on treaties or something? Don't get me wrong, it's still a super small niche, but if the goal is just "education with some kind of international law flavor" it's a LITTLE more broad than teaching at a law school.

But yeah, if you want to be an academic, going to law school is kind of an inefficient, overly expensive way to get there.

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TheSpanishMain wrote:

Paul Campos wrote:If you want to be a real academic go get a PhD.

Going forward there are going to be about 50 jobs per year for law professors of all kinds, with an average of maybe one of those jobs slated for an international public law slot, and that person will probably have a PhD as well as a law degree.

I'm not being hyperbolic. There will be average of about one job opening per year (in America) for what you want to do.

Maybe he's saying that he wants to teach undergraduates? Like some kind of seminar on treaties or something? Don't get me wrong, it's still a super small niche, but if the goal is just "education with some kind of international law flavor" it's a LITTLE more broad than teaching at a law school.

But yeah, if you want to be an academic, going to law school is kind of an inefficient, overly expensive way to get there.

Non-law schools (like poli sci departments and whatnot) generally have 100+ applicants from candidates with PhDs for each position. They don't need to settle for a JD-only, and they won't. (The JD is not seen as equivalent to a PhD.)

A. Nony Mouse wrote: Non-law schools (like poli sci departments and whatnot) generally have 100+ applicants from candidates with PhDs for each position. They don't need to settle for a JD-only, and they won't. (The JD is not seen as equivalent to a PhD.)

Oh, totally agree it's still a really, really unlikely outcome.

You should look into something more likely to net you a career, like space law.

cron1834 wrote:You should look into something more likely to net you a career, like space law.

TCR is neuro-law. Why go macro when you can go micro.

Fair enough. Presuming one isn't gunning for academia...