I only have experience at one law school, so I can't say what adjuncts typically make. At my law school, the pay rate is $2,500 per credit hour. It's hard to make a living as an adjunct. The only reason it is feasible for me is that I also teach at the business school and in the biology department at my university. And I run a business on the side.Manali wrote:How much do adjuncts usually make per class/semester? What sorts of qualifications are needed to become an adjunct--do rank/grades matter as much as for tenure track positions?JazzOne wrote:I'm an adjunct at a T1. I am trying to get a tenure-track position, but I will probably have to move down to a T2 when that happens.Manali wrote:You're a law professor?JazzOne wrote:I would agree with this to some extent. but judging from conversations I have had with my coworkers (i.e., law school faculty), I also think that there is an attitude of superiority at highly ranked schools. Many law school professors feel like it is beneath them to teach bar prep. I do not share their mentality. I think it is the duty of a professional program to prepare its students for licensure.skeenbr0 wrote:Those probably aren't the schools that need to improve their bar passage rates. If you look at passage rates, there are a few regional exceptions, but the schools with the top pass rates tend to be places that are high on the national rankings as well.Manali wrote:It seems like higher ranked schools tend not to offer these sorts of courses.
It's hard to say what the qualifications are to be an adjunct. Most adjuncts have a significant amount of experience practicing law (10+ years). A majority of legal academics seem to come from HYS or Chicago. I don't get the sense that grades or class rank are hiring considerations, but law review and clerkships are pretty standard among legal academics, so grades and class rank have an indirect effect on hiring. I honestly don't even get the sense that grades are an important factor for tenure-track positions. I think the tenure-track hiring committees are more concerned with teaching experience (at the law school level), publication record, law school prestige, and clerkship prestige.
The reason I wanted to know what law school you attend is that I have more than 10 years of experience teaching test prep. I am interested in reaching out to law schools that hire bar prep instructors, but I am only interested in professor-rank positions, whereas some law schools employ bar prep instructors in administrative positions. And then there are law schools like mine that will not teach bar prep even though the #2 and #3 law schools in the state are beating the flagship law school in bar passage rates according to recently-published data.
