Faculty Standards

This site gathers the standards law schools use when determining whether to promote or retain legal writing faculty. The purpose for gathering these standards is to provide a resource to any school that is considering implementing or revising its own standards.

Standards for Granting Tenure

The links below lead to standards schools use for granting tenure.

• Mercer University School of Law (Posted 5/1/07)

• South Illiniois School of Law (Posted 5/25/07)

• University of South Carolina (Posted 11/16/09)

Standards for Promotion or Granting or Renewing Contracts (other than for tenure)

The links below lead to standards school use to determine promotion or contract renewal for legal writing faculty who are not on tenure track.

• Albany Law School (Posted 5/25/07)

• Cleveland-Marshall College of Law (Posted 5/29/07)

• DePaul University College of Law (Posted 5/1/07)

• Hofstra University School of Law (Posted 5/1/07)

• Santa Clara University School of Law (Posted 5/1/07)

• Southern Illinois University School of Law (Posted 5/1/07)

• Temple University Beasley School of Law (Posted 5/1/07)

• Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center (Posted 5/1/07)

• University of Oregon School of Law (Updated 2/15/11)

• University of South Carolina School of Law (Posted 11/12/09) – The director of South Carolina’s legal writing program is a tenured professor. She was subject to the same tenure and promotion standards as the rest of the law faculty.

• Villanova University School of Law (Posted 5/1/07)

Additional Resources

The links below lead to additional resources that may help legal writing faculty prepare for annual, promotion, and tenure reviews.

• Melissa Weresh, Form and Substance: Standards for Promotion and Retention of Legal Writing Faculty on Clinical Tenure Track, 37 Golden Gate U. L. Rev. 281 (Winter 2007). The article provides a thorough discussion about the standards schools use to determine whether to promote or retain legal writing faculty. The article also contains an appendix with a list of standards from seventeen schools.

• Suggestions for Reviewing an LRW Class (Posted 5/1/07) - These guidelines, which were developed at the University of Oregon School of Law, are intended to show non-LRW faculty how to appreciate an excellent LRW class. The ideas in these guidelines should be helpful to LRW faculty in preparing for a classroom visit, an important part of the review process for promotion and contract renewal.

If you have materials that you would like added to this page, please contact Prof. Lucy Jewelle at ljewel@johnmarshall.edu.