Teaching outside of law school with a JD?

[financeguy]

I'd be curious to hear from those who are doing this or have hired others with a JD to fit a specific niche.

[mamselle]

Teaching what, exactly?

Brain surgery?

Or logic in a philosophy department?

The first--I don't think so.

The second, especially where something like jurisprudence, or some aspect of legal ethics, or the history of civil society, or something else where a knowledge of the law or some aspect of it is pertinent, might be possible.

But the JD degree isn't a Ph. D. equivalent so you'd be up against all those folks with doctorates in the field itself, it seems to me.

Others in legal studies fields may have a more informed response, this is just how it seems to me.

M.

[Caracal]

Teaching what, exactly?

Brain surgery?

Or logic in a philosophy department?

The first--I don't think so.

The second, especially where something like jurisprudence, or some aspect of legal ethics, or the history of civil society, or something else where a knowledge of the law or some aspect of it is pertinent, might be possible.

But the JD degree isn't a Ph. D. equivalent so you'd be up against all those folks with doctorates in the field itself, it seems to me.

Others in legal studies fields may have a more informed response, this is just how it seems to me.

M.

A guy who adjuncts a history of constitutional law class in my department who has a JD. There's not really anybody who is a legal historian of the US in the department, so it seems ok for an undergrad class.

[polly_mer]

Criminal justice departments will sometimes hire a JD with relevant experience, especially CJ departments where most faculty have a master's degree and relevant experience.

Super Dinky used JDs as professional fellows in CJ.

[ciao_yall]

I'd be curious to hear from those who are doing this or have hired others with a JD to fit a specific niche.

At my CC, we have people with JD's teaching...

Business law
Criminal justice
Political science
Paralegal programs
Real estate

What was your bachelor's degree in? Some disciplines allow for a bachelor's degree in that subject as long as the person has an advanced degree.

[secundem_artem]

Professional degree programs like engineering, pharmacy & probably others usually have a required "Engineering Law" or similar course.  We have used adjuncts with JDs to teach those courses at Artem U since the number of PhDs whose background (or desire) makes them suitable to teach that material is quite small.

Then again, an engineer friend of mine once summarized engineering law as "Never guarantee a bridge."

[DrSomebody]

At my PhD institution, a land grant R1, I was a senior lecturer for a while, and a fellow senior lecturer was full time, 3/3 was a JD, teaching English, mostly composition. They considered it a terminal degree. At my current institution, a teaching regional, we have a JD who is a full time instructor, 5/5 teaching composition, who also has a JD, so n=2, but I have seen JDs do composition, so somehow it qualifies. We are obsessed with being HLC compliant, so I assume because of the rhetoric, argument, etc, it fits perfectly into all the boxes. Note: At the R1, my colleague was considered to have a terminal degree with it. Here, it doesn't matter because all instructors, terminal degrees or not, are ranked as such and have a 5/5. I have a 4/4 as a tenured professor, by the way.

[AmLitHist]

For a long time, I had a JD teaching Comp I and II in my CC department. He was particularly good in Comp II. His syllabi routinely ran to 20 pages, though (not joking).

[Aster]

I used to see JD's teaching at community colleges in courses that had nothing to do with law.

Biology. Chemistry. Education.

In these cases, these professors were only required to have an advanced degree to be employed. It didn't seem to matter whether or not the advanced degree was relevant or not. It was not viewed well by other faculty and there were questions as to how it was allowed.

[AmLitHist]

CCs usually require at least a Master's, with at least 18 grad hours in the subject taught.  That's HLC guidelines, I think, and probably the same for most disciplines/professional organizations. 

So, I've seen and supervised people, with a Master's in theater, communications, education/teaching (usually HS English teachers), foreign languages, and probably a couple of others that I'm not thinking of, in addition to my JD, who worked as adjuncts and FT faculty in our department. My own MA is English, but my PhD work is American Studies; two colleagues' PhDs are American Studies, but they both tenured here (and served as Chairs) in history. 

In a couple of departments here when I first started, they had people teaching without the requisite 18 discipline hours; they were quickly removed after the next HLC visit.  So no, you can't just "teach anything with any old Master's degree" at any CC that I know of.

[polly_mer]

In about 2012, the HLC started cracking down on qualifications for teaching.  It's still possible to teach without 18 graduate credits in the relevant field, but that means the institution has to have some mechanism for providing alternate qualifications per https://www.hlcommission.org/Policies/assumed-practices.html B.2.a.  That alternative is usually not worth it for courses where sufficient people exist who will have a master's degree or 18 graduate credits.

Super Dinky had a JD teaching freshman comp and they non-renewed him when gearing up for an HLC visit as people started going through the faculty files to ensure compliance with Assumed Practice B.

[Aster]

Yeah, maybe 5-6 years back there was a big shakeup at Big Urban College where dozens of professors were abruptly de-credentialed from their courses.

Several of these professors picked up an EdD or one of those "leadership" doctorates and got their courses back. I'm not sure how either of these other types of non-relevant doctorates would have been any improvement over a JD.

[Vkw10]

We have a couple of people with JD who teach education law, business law, sports law, etc., as adjuncts. We have at least two tenured JDs, in criminal justice and political science. The one in CJ has background as prosecutor and teaches criminal law courses. The one in political science directs and teaches in paralegal program.

[Katrina Gulliver]

people with a JD and a PhD are common in some departments, such as philosophy. You'll find quite a few in history too.

[Parasaurolophus]

Teaching what, exactly?

Brain surgery?

Or logic in a philosophy department?

The first--I don't think so.

The second, especially where something like jurisprudence, or some aspect of legal ethics, or the history of civil society, or something else where a knowledge of the law or some aspect of it is pertinent, might be possible.

But the JD degree isn't a Ph. D. equivalent so you'd be up against all those folks with doctorates in the field itself, it seems to me.

Others in legal studies fields may have a more informed response, this is just how it seems to me.

M.

Not logic, but philosophy of law, political philosophy, and ethics would be possible, perhaps even some specialized subset of the history of philosophy. Unless the JD-holder is a famous legal scholar, though, they'd also have to have a PhD in philosophy to get a primary appointment in a philosophy department.

There are basically no jobs out there for those specializing in philosophy of law, however (that is: no philosophy jobs; the situation in law schools is better). And lots of philosophers have both a PhD and a JD, so they're the ones who are in contention when such a job is advertised. Lots of departments (especially, but not exclusively, at R1s and R2s) have a philosophy of law course, but they will take a philosophy PhD over a JD every time because it's easier for the philosopher to stretch to a single course in philosophy of law than it is for a JD to stretch to all of the other philosophy course offerings. Also because philosophers generally don't recognize anyone else as being able to participate in the field.

At my university (which is more like a CC), however, a JD could teach in the School of Legal Studies (which isn't a law school). You'd be teaching students looking for a Bachelor of Legal Studies degree, or certificates in contract law, legal administrative assistantship, or paralegal-ness.