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Law Professors
A law professor is a lawyer, teacher and scholar who works at a law school. Law professors focus their teaching and writing on particular areas of law, such as Contracts, Torts, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Property, Constitutional Law or countless others. They are experts in their fields of law.
As in other fields, law professors typically use a syllabus to structure their courses. Course topics are arranged logically, with students expected to complete lengthy assigned readings in advance of each class session and to come to class prepared for rigorous questioning about the assigned readings and the legal principles they illustrate.
The central text in a law school courses is the casebook: a print textbook consisting mainly of court decisions - aka "cases." Law professors typically select a commercially published casebook for each course they teach. Commercial casebooks usually are authored by other law professors and edited, printed and promoted by the publishers.
Law professors assign the casebook to their students, who must purchase them, often at $200-$300 per casebook.
Law professors often supplement their chosen casebook with other materials, sometimes to update outdated casebooks or to expose students to perspectives missing from the casebook. These supplemental materials take the form of printed "packets" or online materials made accessible through a course website.
Law professors usually require their students to take exams at the end of each course. These exams present students with elaborate hypothetical fact patterns. Professors grade the exams based on how the students analyze the fact patterns in light of the legal principles taught during the course. Exams require exhaustive study of the casebook and notes from in-class lectures and discussions about the materials in the casebook.
Many law professors insist on print materials. Some law professors prohibit laptops and other electronic devices in class.
Law professors are heavily invested in their students' experience in their courses.
Law professors want their students to have easy access to assigned readings and other course materials. They want their students to be prepared for class and to engage actively with the course materials before, during and after class. They do not want their students to encounter friction in accessing the course materials.
Law professors produce many papers, presentations, printed books, blogs and other forms of scholarship. Publishing is critical to a law professor's career progression. It heavily influences law schools' decisions about academic appointments and tenure.
Law professors care about their professional reputation. Attribution and credit is very important to them, and rightly so. Intellectual property rights are important to them, although many are eager to share their work under broad, permissive licenses.
Law professors have little time and lots going on. Like most people, they expect things to work well. They don't have patience for confusing interfaces, broken software or ugly content. They want to trust that their work will be accurately presented and will represent them well. They don't want to deal with complaints from students about course materials. Many are not interested in the technical aspects of the software they use. Many may not be familiar with common UI / UX patterns that modern developers and designers may take for granted. Many may not be familiar with software development processes, and many will not want to be first adopters or beta users.
Some law professors will be skeptical that technology can improve on traditional practices that have served them well since their own days as law students. Picking a traditional casebook is relatively easy. Creating your own casebook is hard, even with reliable, familiar software like Microsoft Word.
Some law professors are fortunate to have help. Many delegate administrative work to a faculty assistant. Some rely on student researchers for more routine aspects of producing scholarship or selecting and preparing course materials.
- When in their careers do professors select casebooks?
- How do they select casebooks?
- When do they change their casebooks? Why?
- Is it common for law professors to change the assigned readings in a course from semester to semester?
- Are there teacher's manuals, and if so how do law professors use them?
- How many different courses to law professors teach?
- Do law professors use casebooks differently in core 1L courses and in upper-level electives?
- What complaints do law professors hear from students about casebooks?
- How common is it for law professors to prepare their own casebooks?