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Recent grad. My plan has been to work in PSLF-eligible employment (and write/publish in my spare time) for ten years, get loan forgiveness, then go on the market. But I've heard that that's too late; after eight years of practice (and two years of clerking), I'll be considered for adjunct or clinical positions, but likely not tenure-track positions. Is this true? If so, would the answer change if I go the VAP/fellowship route, or the LLM/PhD route?

Have you considered that almost all academic jobs are going to be PSLF-eligible? (If a state university I think they count as state government organizations, but whether state or public they're going to be 501(c)(3) tax-exempt institutions.)

And my understanding is that yes, you will find it harder to get a tenure-track position (rather than adjunct) with that much time in practice. Some of it will depend on what you do in those 10 years - if you publish great stuff in highly-ranked law reviews and do other academic-y things like present at conferences that will help. The question is whether you'll be able to do that on top of practice - unless you're in a very policy/academic-y type of position I think it will be very difficult.

Not sure what you're asking will change if you do a VAP/fellowship or LLM/PhD?

Many thanks for the response. I can't believe it never occurred to me that academic jobs would be PSLF-eligible. But that does make sense, and solves my problem. Thanks!