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.
Law Instructor pay typically runs $85K–$174K at this level, and jobs in this field are projected to grow 2% through 2034.
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.
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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.
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.
Median pay for a Law Instructor is about $127K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $58K to $208K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Speaking, Active Listening, Learning Strategies, Reading Comprehension, and Instructing.
Most people in this role hold a doctoral degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 2.2% through 2034, with roughly 22,800 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Environmental Law Professor, Law Adjunct Professor, and Labor Law Professor.
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