Legal Commentary

On the occasion of our fifth year anniversary, coinciding with Leiter?s 2010 faculty impact report, I am raising my head above water. First off, mazal tov Dan ? you are the best! The Leiter report got me thinking again (how banal of me) about rankings and placement and the job market and well, the legal academy. A lot of us think about the ?what ifs? if we would have ended up at a different school out of the entry level market. Some wish they were better understood the first time around; others wish they could have taken the offer they most wanted but for various family/personal limits. Not a lot of us recognize enough the advantages of not ending up, at least initially, at the highest ranked or most prestigious place you coulda/shoulda/woulda gone to.

 There are several ways in which going to the lower ranked school can be advantageous to one?s career. First off, your new colleagues are really happy you came. If you gave up some higher ranked places, your institution feels lucky, you feel valued, and everyone is rooting for you. Second, in several different ways, you feel more liberated. Perhaps there are lesser pressures to conform with a particular academic MO or a particular style of thinking and doing research or with your own specific promise for your five year research agenda [which you were asked about at the meat market!]. Perhaps its the distance from the mentors one had as a student which allows you the freedom to find your own voice. Or perhaps it?s a behavioral thing ? reminiscent of the studies that show that children who are praised end up doing worse than those who get some critical feedback. Perhaps you don?t end up resting on laurels or driving yourself into a writer paralysis because of the anxiety to perform. Food for thought for us not-so-raw-anymore prawfs! Thanks y?all for being my academic family from the start. This is also my fifth year in teaching ? so blog and me are the same age.