I have one observation about this blog post by Professor Baude.

NOTE: This isn't an attack on him. It's an attack on the law professor hiring game. Which is rigged.

It isn't his fault I'm annoyed.

#lawtwitter #academictwitter #AcademicChatter
#TheGameIsRigged #meritocracy https://twitter.com/WilliamBaude/status/1273243859670220800

Professor Baude states: "Go to a law school that produces law professors."

There is monopoly power here. No, it doesn't have to do with training. It has to do with flooding the market with profs who then turn and hire more of the same from the same schools.

Speaking of entry barriers, more candidates are also getting Ph.D.s to go with their law degrees. That requires money, which some folks do not have the luxury of investing. Not everyone can take out $$$,$$$.$$ in student loan debt for two advanced degrees.

And you better get your Ph.D. from an elite school! Law professors aren't the only ones that have that unhealthy mix of elitism!

So if the elite school graduates get hired and then refuse to hire any people from any other place than one of those few schools, that's....

Pop quiz, #antitrust folks: What might you call that?

And because Adam Feldman and @espinsegall show that the LSAT is the big barrier, if you don't do what Professor Baude suggests and go to an "Elite" law school, there's no need to talk about any next steps.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3279878

Those are the big entry barriers, and the signals of quality (earned or not) that follow.

#TheGameIsRigged. And that is why we lack any diversity in law school academia. It's not meritocracy, it is elitism.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3339527

But the next steps again reinforce the entry barriers already existing in the system. Get a great clerkship! Get a Supreme Court Clerkship! Look at the diversity of SCOTUS clerks for a moment and tell me that isn't problematic.

Heck, this may come as a shock, but a lot of law students don't have a parent who teaches at an elite school and who will write an op ed in support of a future Justice. As Professor Baude writes, "Get to know your professors."

After all that comes the next steps. If you don't hail from an elite institution, you likely won't teach at one. And that will affect article placement, citation counts and the like.

Which means you'll be treated a bit differently at the lower echelons of the hierarchy.

I haven't forgotten about you, clinical law professors, law librarians, and legal writing professors. You are treated as equals at law schools. That's why you get the bulk of committee assignments. It's why your articles are treated with respect when you submit them to journals.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step in solving it.

Legal Academia isn't on the first step yet.

We talk about it, then go back to feeding the hierarchy.
That's denial.

Oh, and THIS is why when law schools put out statements in support of #BlackLivesMatter , I look at faculty profiles and law student admission data for the school.

That tells me something about how serious you might be.