The Uneasy Integration of Adjunct Teachers into American Legal Education

Journal of Legal Education

Volumn 47, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 83-89

  Popper, Andrew F ^a  

^a AMERICAN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 2342482556     PISSN: 00222208     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (11)

1. Law School Training: The Key to Trial Advocacy, 65 A.B.A. J. 1800, 1802 (1979).
2. Robert A. Stein noted that some law school deans predict "greater use of adjunct faculty to teach lawyering skills, possibly in team teaching arrangements with permanent faculty." The Future of Legal Education, 75 Minn. L. Rev. 945, 955 (1991).
3. American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, Legal Education and Professional Development - An Educational Continuum, Report of the Task Force on Law Schools and the Profession: Narrowing the Gap (Chicago, 1992).
4. As for displacement of full-time faculty, I would only point out that adjuncts are hired because full-time faculty want to have a diversified curriculum and also want to have lower teaching loads. Any time a member of the full-time faculty expresses concern that a particular course is being taught by an adjunct, I recommend this reply: "I will be happy to assign the course to you instead."
5. The necessity of taking an aggressive approach in training adjuncts is barely debatable. "Adjunct instructors are difficult to supervise. It is also difficult to keep quality adjunct faculty in these courses. The teaching ability, diligence and dedication of adjuncts is uneven." Lewis D. Solomon, Perspectives on Curriculum Reform in Law Schools: A Critical Assessment, 24 U. Tol. L. Rev. 1, 21-22 (1992) (discussing adjuncts in writing and advocacy programs).
6. It takes a huge amount of time and energy to make the "faculty meeting" concept work. By the time I left my position in the dean's office, I found myself convening these meetings irregularly at best.
7. See Ken Myers, Velvel: Count More Adjuncts as Profs to Keep Class Size Low, Nat'l L.J., Mar. 25, 1996, at A16; Pedro E. Ponce, Accreditation Action; Adjunct Law Profs Up for Status Boost, Legal Times, Feb. 12, 1996, at 15.
8. See Ken Myers, Velvel: Count More Adjuncts as Profs to Keep Class Size Low, Nat'l L.J., Mar. 25, 1996, at A16; Pedro E. Ponce, Accreditation Action; Adjunct Law Profs Up for Status Boost, Legal Times, Feb. 12, 1996, at 15.
9. It is naive to think there is some mysterious anomaly in the world of adjuncts which voids the usual relationship between proper compensation and the work product. As with all employment, people who arc paid fairly and appropriately do better work than people who are not.
10. My colleague Janet Spragens attributed this to Floyd Abrams.
11. At many law schools, there are three ranks of adjuncts: lecturer, professorial lecturer, and "full" adjunct professor. Each rank should have a permissible pay range, and the terms for promotion between ranks should be clear. See James N. Baron, The Structure of Opportunity: How Promotion Ladders Vary Within and Among Organizations, 31 Admin. Sci. Q. 248 (1986).