Derek Muller: Law Schools Producing Most Law Professors Identified

• Professor Derek Muller of Notre Dame Law School analyzed which law schools produced the most law professors over the past decade.
• The study utilized hiring data compiled by Illinois Law professor Sarah Lawsky, covering appointments made between 2017 and 2026.
• Muller's methodology compared raw hiring totals with average graduating class sizes from 2020, 2021, and 2022 to provide a nuanced view.
• A total of twenty-nine law schools successfully placed at least five graduates into academic positions during the decade studied.
• The findings offer strategic insights for law students and lawyers considering a career in legal academia.

This analysis offers data-driven insights for lawyers or law students aspiring to enter legal academia, providing a strategic guide for selecting institutions with a strong record of placing graduates in professorial roles.

The institution where one earns a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree can significantly influence the trajectory of a legal career, particularly for those aspiring to enter the demanding field of legal academia. A recent comprehensive analysis, spearheaded by Professor Derek Muller of Notre Dame Law School, sheds light on this critical connection. His research, disseminated through his Substack platform, Law School Docket, meticulously investigates the institutional origins of legal educators.

The primary objective of Muller's extensive study was to identify which law schools have demonstrated the most consistent and effective track record in placing their alumni into professorial roles across the United States. This in-depth investigation leveraged a robust dataset of hiring information, which was originally compiled by Illinois Law professor Sarah Lawsky. The data encompassed all new faculty appointments made within the timeframe of 2017 to 2026.

A key finding from this research highlights that a notable number of institutions—specifically, twenty-nine different law schools—successfully launched at least five of their graduates into legal academia within the decade under scrutiny. This initial overview provides a foundational understanding of the landscape concerning law professor production and the role of specific institutions in fostering academic careers.

To truly understand a law school's impact on its graduates' academic careers, a simple count of professors produced is insufficient. Professor Muller's methodology recognized this crucial nuance, moving beyond mere raw hiring totals to offer a more insightful and equitable comparison of institutional effectiveness.

His analysis did not solely focus on the absolute number of alumni who successfully secured academic roles. Instead, it critically evaluated these figures in relation to each institution's overall size. To achieve this, Muller incorporated the average graduating class sizes for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 into his calculations.

This crucial adjustment allowed for a normalized perspective, ensuring that larger schools were not disproportionately favored simply due to their greater student populations. By contextualizing the number of academic placements against the pool of potential candidates from each school, the study offers a more accurate and equitable representation of which institutions are truly effective at fostering a legal academia career path among their graduates. This refined approach provides a clearer picture of institutional efficacy in professor placement.

For current law students or practicing attorneys contemplating a transition into legal academia, the findings from this comprehensive study offer invaluable strategic guidance. The choice of where to pursue a Juris Doctor degree can indeed be a pivotal factor in one's ultimate success in securing a professorial role within the competitive landscape of legal education.

This analysis offers data-driven insights for lawyers or law students aspiring to enter legal academia, providing a strategic guide for selecting institutions with a strong record of placing graduates in professorial roles. Understanding which institutions consistently produce a significant number of law professors, especially when accounting for class size, allows prospective academics to make more informed decisions about their educational trajectory and potential career path.

The research underscores that while individual merit, scholarly output, and networking are undoubtedly paramount, the institutional environment and the connections fostered during one's JD program can significantly influence opportunities within the legal academy. Therefore, for those with aspirations of becoming a law professor, examining these trends and the specific schools highlighted in Muller's work becomes an essential step in planning their professional journey.

This analysis offers data-driven insights for lawyers or law students aspiring to enter legal academia, providing a strategic guide for selecting institutions with a strong record of placing graduates in professorial roles.

Source: Original reporting via Law School Docket