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Last week, Larry Solum posted a first draft of his annual entry level law professor hiring survey. As in the past, Yale and Harvard were the big winners among feeder schools.  The number of new hires out of VAP and fellowship programs also remains high.  I find this survey extremely useful, in part because it provides insight into which fields of law are "hot" in hiring, and which ones are "not."

This year, the big winners in terms of subject matter appeared to be business law and criminal law / procedure.   Of the just over 100 entries reported in the first draft of the survey, most candidates have at least one identified subject.  Fourteen listed business associations, corporate law, or securities.  Twelve listed criminal law or criminal procedure.  International law (in some form) had nine and con law and civil rights had eight.  Other "hot" subjects include IP/tech/cyberlaw (seven), commercial law (six), tax law (six), and health law (six).

Business, commercial, and tax law aren't surprising to find on the list -- they are generally viewed as "technical" fields that require at a minimum some real demonstrated interest as a preparation for effective teaching.  Crim law and procedure may also be a field in which real world experience is viewed as particularly valuable.  I'm a bit surprised to see such high numbers for IP, and for health law.  My sense is that many schools hired IP folks about a decade ago during the dot-com years, and that the subject has been less "hot" of late.  But perhaps IP folks are now at the point where they are transitioning to a second teaching job, opening the door for entry level hires.  Health Law is also an interesting subject, in part because of its somewhat amorphous boundaries.  For example, is someone who teaches and writes in medical malpractice a "health law" scholar?  Someone who knows about the medicare anti-fraud laws or the antitrust aspects of hospital mergers?  Or are we looking for bioethicists, HIPAA privacy gurus, and the like?  Certainly, it seems odd that only one person listed "torts" as a primary subject area, given that every law school teaches that class, whereas six times as many are identified as "Health" law experts.  In her fabulous piece, "The Bulls and Bears of Law Teaching," Sara Stadler identified health law as a "strong buy": "The fundamentals make health law look even stronger in the long run."  This year's preliminary data seems to bear that out.

  

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