July 12, 2007

Not Retire and Publish

by PG

Through sometime co-blogger Jeff Lipshaw, Prof. Garnett expresses his frustration with practitioners who talk about how nice it would be to "retire and teach." At least in Garnett's summary, Lipshaw seems to have confused teaching with scholarship. They are not precisely the same thing, though I certainly recognize the tremendous benefits that scholars afford their students, and sometimes complain about my school's use of non-tenured teachers. Nonetheless, the majority of students I know from Columbia Law was taught evidence by practitioners, and taught quite competently (it was the one class I never missed). Two classes sure to be oversubscribed this fall will be taught by federal judges who were once full time faculty members.

I agree that people who think they can jump easily from practice to scholarship sound silly and uninformed about how difficult getting a full time faculty position is. However, I think practitioners can make wonderful teachers, and hope that those who aspire to supplement their retirement incomes by teaching Trusts & Estates will hie themselves to Morningside Heights so we can have more than one section of it per year.

July 12, 2007 09:04 PM | TrackBack
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