Several years ago, I wrote an article arguing that law schools should have more adjunct professors so that law students can learn legal subjects from professors who actively practice law. As a law student, I had excellent adjunct professors, and law schools might even save money if they rely more on part-time professors rather than hire additional full-time educators. Recently, I was speaking with a colleague about our favorite law school professors, and this colleague conveyed that adjunct professors often had significant limitations. This reminded me of my own experiences with law school adjunct professors, and law schools likely cannot rely intensely on adjuncts in order to fill their professor ranks.
Nearly all of the adjunct professors I know have full-time jobs elsewhere. It is well-known that adjunct professors earn low compensation from their teaching, and most of their income comes from their full-time jobs. As a result, adjunct professors often do not prioritize teaching over other career obligations. This is especially true when an adjunct professor runs into conflicts that make it difficult to complete tasks associated with being an adjunct and a practicing lawyer at the same time.
For instance, while I was in law school, I had an adjunct professor who was a partner at a top law firm. During the class, the adjunct professor told us that he had to begin a trial and that his attention would be focused more on the trial until the matter resolved. During that time, the professor was much harder to reach, and a few times, classes needed to be rescheduled to accommodate his trial schedule. The case eventually resolved, and the adjunct was much more present thereafter, but our learning experience was impacted for weeks while he juggled his responsibilities as trial counsel with his responsibilities as an adjunct professor.
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Adjunct professors might also be more difficult to reach for office hours or other outside-the-classroom reasons. This might be due to the fact that adjunct professors do not always have offices on campus like other professors and may not be required to keep regular office hours as is often the policy of full-time professors. Adjunct law professors might also simply just have less free time to interact with students since they need to handle work responsibilities as well as teaching duties.
When I was a law student, one of my favorite adjunct professors lived in a different city and commuted once a week to the law school to teach our class. The professor did a great job teaching, but due to the distance the professor traveled to get to class, I rarely interacted with this professor outside of class as I commonly did with full-time professors. When law students do not have the ability to interact with professors outside of the classroom, it is more difficult to seek out letters of recommendation, career advice, or leads on job opportunities.
Don’t get me wrong, I also had adjunct professors that did such a good job you would never believe they had a full-time job outside of teaching. For instance, I had one adjunct law professor who spent as much time as possible on campus, responded to student inquiries in a timely fashion, and graded final exams before even my full-time professors had the chance to upload their grades. However, adjunct professors might not be able to provide the same level of attention as full-time professors can. As a result, law schools need to have a balanced roster and vet adjunct professors to ensure that they have the least chance possible of letting their full-time pursuits interfere with their teaching duties.
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Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at [email protected].