A friend of mine is 30 years old and just completed a PhD in biochemistry. She is interested...?

Question

... in pursuing a law degree specifically with the intent to teach at a law school.

What are the requirements for teaching in a law school? Would a JD be sufficient or is an LLM or even a PhD necessary? If a PhD is usually required, would *she* be able to get away with an LLM only since she already has a PhD in one field - even though not law?

Thanks all.

Answer 1

A JD is generally sufficient. A PhD is never required, and in fact, most law professors do not have PhDs. While an LLM would not be required, it probably wouldn't hurt. Getting an LLM only takes about a year. . .in addition to the 3 years of law school.

Answer 2

If she wants to teach at a law school, there are probably three suggestions I can make. One, go to a prestigious law school (like Yale, Harvard, Standford, University of Michigan, etc), two, get a top level law clerking job out of school or go to work for a while with a very prestigious law firm, and three PUBLISH, PUBLISH, PUBLISH. When hiring professors, these all are very important considerations.

Answer 3

she may go ahead