For practitioners and others contemplating joining the law professor ranks, many law schools offer wonderful opportunities to transition into the legal academy with one- or two-year fellowships which allow you to enter the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference (the "meat market") with published scholarship (and in many cases teaching experience) under your belt. Here are the schools with public information about their VAP programs:
- Alabama: Hugo Black Fellowship Program (for Supreme Court clerks)
- Arizona: Law Library Fellows Program
- Arizona State: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Boston University:
- Brooklyn: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- California Western: Legal Scholars Teaching Fellowship Program
- Chicago:
- Chicago-Kent: Visiting Assistant Professor Program and IP Fellowship Program
- Columbia:
- Connecticut: Visiting Assistant Professor Program (email)
- Cornell: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Denver:
- Duke: Visiting Assistant Professor Program and Center for Public Genomics (CpG) Fellowship
- Federalist Society: Olin/Searle/Smith Fellows in Law Program
- Florida: Visiting Assistant Professor Program (Tax)
- George Washington:
- Georgetown:
- Appellate Litigation Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Center for Applied Legal Studies Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Center for the Constitution Fellowships
- Community Justice Project Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Criminal Defense & Prisoner Advocacy Clinic Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Criminal Justice Clinic Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Domestic Violence Clinic Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Environmental Law Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Federal Legislation & Administrative Clinic Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Harrison Institute for Housing Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Institute for Public Representation Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- International Women's Human Rights Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Juvenile Justice Clinic Graduate Teaching Fellowships
-
Social Enterprise and Nonprofit Law Clinic
Graduate Teaching Fellowships - State and Local Taxation Graduate Tax Fellowships
- Street Law Graduate Teaching Fellowships
- Harvard:
- Byse Fellowships
- Climenko Fellowship
- Kauffman Legal Fellowship (for Harvard Law alumni)
- Reginald F. Lewis Fellowship for Law Teaching
- Petrie-Flom Fellowships in Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics
- Post-Graduate Fellowship in International Law (for Harvard Law alumni)
- Post-Graduate Fellowship in Public Law (for Harvard Law alumni)
- Post-Graduate Research Fellowship Program (for Harvard Law alumni)
- Program on Negotiation Research Fellowships
- Raoul Berger Visiting Fellowship in Legal History
- Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Houston: Energy Law Scholar Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Illinois: Academic Fellowship Program
- Loyola-Chicago: Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies Research Fellowship
- Loyola-L.A.: Visiting Assistant Professor (Tax)
- Loyola-New Orleans: Westerfield Fellows Program
- LSU: Future Law Teachers Fellowship Program
- Memphis: Tennessee Board of Regents Access and Diversity Assistant Professorship
- New York University:
- Northwestern:
- Pennsylvania:
- Penn State: Shughart Fellowship Program
- Princeton: Law and Public Affairs Fellowship
- Seattle:
- Stanford:
- Center for Ethics in Society
- Center for Internet & Society Teaching Fellowship Program
- Center for Internet & Society and Constitutional Law Center Joint Fellowship
- Center for Law and the Biosciences Fellowship Program
- Center on the Legal Profession
- Clinical Teaching Fellowship Program
- CodeX: Center for Computers and Law
- Constitutional Law Center
- Criminal Justice Center
- Environmental and Natural Resources Policy Program
- Legal Research & Writing Teaching Fellowship Program
- Rock Center for Corporate Governance
- Stetson: Bruce R. Jacob Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Temple: Abraham L. Freedman Graduate Teaching Fellowship Program
- Tennessee: Clayton Center for Entrepreneurial Law Visiting Professor of Business Law
- Texas: Emerging Scholars Program
- Thomas Jefferson: Legal Research and Writing Teaching Fellowship
- Tulane:
- UC-Berkeley: Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, Microsoft Research Fellowship
- UCLA:
- Binder Clinical Teaching Fellowship
- Critical Race Studies Law Teaching Fellowship
- Evan Frankel Environmental Law and Policy Fellowship
- Law and Philosophy Program Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Lowell Milken Institute Law Teaching Fellowship
- Williams Institute Law Teaching Fellowships — Sexual Orientation Law
- Wake Forest: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- University of Washington: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Washington University: Visiting Faculty Fellows Program
- University of Windsor: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Wisconsin:
- Windsor: Visiting Assistant Professor Program
- Yale: Fellowship Home Page (for Yale grads)
- Robert L. Bernstein Fellowships in International Human Rights
- Robert M. Cover Fellowship
- Robert M. Cover-Allard K. Lowenstein Fellowship in International Human Rights Law
- Heyman Federal Public Service Fellowship Program
- Howard M. Holtzmann Fellowships in International Dispute Resolution
- Information Society Project (law and technology)
- International Court of Justice Internship/Clerkship
- Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellowship
- Mary A. McCarthy Fellowships in Public Interest Law
- Irving S. Ribicoff Fellowship Program
- Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fellowship Program
- Oscar M. Ruebhausen South Asia Fellowship Program
- San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project Fellowship
- YLS Fellowship at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (The Hague)
For more information on becoming a law professor, including a discussion of the advantages of these fellowship programs, see:
- Jack Chin (Arizona) & Denise Morgan (New York Law School),Breaking Into the Academy: The 2002-2004 Michigan Journal of Race & Law Guide for Aspiring Law Professors, 7 Mich. J. Race & L. 457 (2002)
- Debra R. Cohen (UMass), Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match: An Insider's Guide to the Faculty Hiring Process
- Glenn Cohen (Harvard):
- Why Not/Do a Fellowship
- So You Are a Fellow, What Exactly Does That Mean?
- Job Market Timetable
- Recommenders and the Entry-Level Job Market
- The Meat Market Is Like … The Meat Market
- Asking Questions on the Job Market – Part 1: Before the Offer
- Asking Questions on the Job Market – Part II: About the Offer
- Cornell, Careers in Law School Teaching
- Brannon P. Denning (Cumberland), Marcia L. McCormick (Saint Louis), Jeffrey M. Lipshaw (Suffolk), Becoming a Law Professor: A Candidate's Guide (ABA, 2010)
- James D. Gordon III (BYU), An Insider's Guide to the Faculty Recruitment Conference, 43 J. Legal Educ. 301 (1993)
- Eric Goldman (Santa Clara), Careers in Law Teaching
- Law Crossing, Becoming a Law Professor: Part 1 and Part 2
- Brian Leiter (Texas), Information and Advice for Persons Interested in Teaching Law
- Kevin Maillard (Syracuse), Visiting Assistant Professor List (VAP) 2009-2010
- Dan Markel (Florida State), Why The Rule Against VAPs?
- National Law Journal, New Law School Programs Give Attorneys a Shot at Visiting Assistant Professorships
- Rick Swedloff (Temple VAP), The Fellowship of the (Hi)Ring
- Brad Wendel (Cornell), The Big Rock Candy Mountain: How to Get a Job in Law Teaching
- David Zaring (Washington & Lee), Whether a Fellow or a Visitor Be
- Don Zillman (Maine), Marina Angel (Temple), Jan Laitos (Denver), George Pring (Denver) & Joseph Tomain (Cincinnati), Uncloaking Law School Hiring: A Recruit's Guide to the Faculty Recruitment Conference, 39 J. Legal Educ. 345 (1988)
