A law school faculty member primarily focused on teaching — typically in non-tenure-track positions including legal writing instructors, clinical instructors, lecturers, or skills faculty. Distinct from tenure-track law professors who balance teaching with scholarship.
Most days tend to involve teaching course preparation and delivery, student conferences and feedback, grading written work, and the curriculum and skills work that defines non-tenure-track law teaching. You'll often teach legal writing, research, professional skills, or specialized practice-oriented courses, provide intensive feedback on student writing or skills exercises, and participate in faculty committee work.
The variance between roles is real — legal writing instructors typically have one- to three-year contracts with promotion paths to senior or director roles; clinical instructors run live-client clinics with student practitioners; doctrinal lecturers teach larger classes without research expectations; bar prep instructors focus on bar-exam preparation; LLM and graduate-program instructors serve specialized populations. Status and security vary substantially across non-tenure-track positions.
People who tend to thrive here are comfortable focusing on teaching craft over scholarship, capable of intensive student feedback work, and patient with the often-precarious nature of non-tenure-track positions. JD plus practice or strong legal writing background anchors most paths. The work tends to offer the satisfaction of teaching-focused work and mentoring law students closely, with the trade-off being modest pay relative to tenure-track or private practice and the limited research and conference engagement — for those drawn to teaching law, the role offers meaningful work.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
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