Last week we received an email from our law school alumni office with the subject heading “Yale Law School Job Opportunities for Alumni.” It directed our attention to this web page, which currently lists four job openings: Deans’ Fellow; Director of Recruitment; Director of Public Interest Programs; and Executive Director, Law and Media Program. Some of these posts sound quite interesting, and all list a law degree as a preferred or required credential.

Inspired by this email, we bring you our latest post about a career alternative for attorneys — a job open to JDs who can’t get, or don’t want, to work as a law firm associate or contract attorney (the two most obvious options for law school graduates). Today’s topic: working as a law school administrator.

A tipster who used to work in the financial aid office of a top law school writes:

[A] good topic for your career alternatives series would be careers in Law School Administration. This does not cover tenure-track academia, which is typically out of reach for 99% of law graduates, as you know.

Yes, that’s right. If you want to be THE dean of a law school, you should first land a tenure-track job as a law professor (which is no easy feat). But landing a position as an assistant or associate dean with a specific portfolio may be more attainable. Our tipster continues:

With about 200 accredited law schools, there is not only a huge need for gullible students to fill all of those seats, but also administrators to care for them and listen to their complaints. Schools are frequently expanding their administrator ranks to deal with the younger generation of law students who have high expectations and need a great deal of hand holding about everything from stress to career options to how to deal with that C+ in Contracts. Recently it seems schools are giving more preference for a JD for many positions, and amazingly enough there are lots of lawyers eager to jump back into the school they complained about so much for 3 years.

In addition, the field of law school administration attracts a high number of hotties. See our Law School Dean Hotties contest: male contestants here, female contestants here, winners here.

For those of you interested in the field of law school administration, more information — an overview of different subject areas, salary data, etc. — appears after the jump.

Our tipster offers a helpful survey of the different areas within administration:

Student Services: Includes dean of students, academic counseling, registrar, academic affairs, student affairs, international programs, diversity affairs. Most focused on students’ daily life, dealing with everything from sickness to cheating to study abroad to volunteer community service. You should have a thick skin and enjoy counseling students day in and day out, since they increasingly expect around-the-clock availability via email and even IM. Often a very ‘political’ position in that you have to appeal to different student constituencies as well as faculty, university and administration priorities.

Admissions: A big priority at many schools as US News puts a premium on students with top academic credentials, so competition can be fierce. Involves nationwide recruiting travel in the fall, file reading in the winter, and then ‘yield’ events throughout the spring and early summer. Very social position, lots of schmoozing but very repetitive. Can be a career black hole, since the skills are not terribly relevant to non-admissions jobs. Many former admissions folks go into $$$ admissions consulting or write books about ‘how to get into law school’ (see, e.g. Anna Ivey, Joyce Curll).

Career Services:You find the jobs, tell students about the jobs, tell students about what jobs they would like, watch students chase the $$$. At top schools, lots of schmoozing with firms; at bottom schools, lots of hiding from angry bottom 75%. Decent career options as you can go work at a firm’s recruiting department, as a headhunter, or another career-related field.

Development / fundraising: Barrage your alumni with letters, emails, magazines, phone calls, etc. for $$$. Solicit ‘major gifts’ from older alumni who have struck it rich. Organize events around the country and at the school for alumni. Very schmooze-intensive, and you must be comfortable asking people for money and sucking up to some big egos. Can involve a fair amount of travel. Typically is the highest paying administrative position, since it is ostensibly self-funding. Lots of great exit options to nonprofits, other schools, foundations, etc. as fundraising skills are viewed as applicable to any field. Law School/university fundraising is considered easier since your alumni is a built in audience of donor candidates, whereas at a museum or the opera you have to look a lot harder for loyal donors.

Lots of options to choose from with law school administration. What about the pay scale?

Salaries / Benefits: Entry level salaries, even for JDs, start around $40K-$70K, but salaries at the senior levels can be in the low six figures, with some folks making a very nice living. Benefits are good, work/life balance is great, very reasonable hours and predictable slow times every year depending on what department you are in.

Check out the salaries at the University of Michigan Law School (Excel spreadsheet for download; salaries below $40,000 omitted):

University of Michigan Law School Salaries

[S]ome of these are quite high considering they live in Ann Arbor, MI. Interestingly, most big-city schools seem to pay the same as the rural schools despite COL, perhaps because there are far more lawyers in NY or DC or LA looking to make a switch (with a spouse able to support it) than there are in Charlottesville or Bloomington.

Okay, you’re sold. So how do you land a position as a law school administrator?

How to get the job: There are almost always assistant/associate director positions available on university employment websites. A great place to start is contacting the people you knew from your alma mater, since they can be a great reference or can keep an eye out if anything comes along. All things being equal, I think law schools prefer to hire their own graduates, especially in development or admissions. A willingness to relocate periodically is also very helpful since there is usually very low turnover at the senior positions, so to progress you must sometimes go to where there are openings.

Great stuff. We thank our tipster for this very helpful and comprehensive write-up.

YLS Employment & Fellowship Opportunities > Current Jobs [Yale Law School]

Earlier: Career Alternatives posts about working for an accounting firm, as a law librarian, as a law firm recruiting coordinator / director, for a public relations firm, and as a conflicts analyst.