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How Does an American Get a Job Teaching in a Canadian Law School?

Brian Leiter

UPDATED AND MOVED TO THE FRONT 5/26: I realize I don’t have many Canadian law faculty readers, but I’m moving this to the front in the hopes that we get some more responses. Thanks.

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An assistant professor at a U.S. law school (and with a U.S. law degree) writes with the following questions:

“(1) How is the law faculty hiring process different in Canada from the U.S.?
“(2) How does a U.S. professor get a faculty position in Canada, and vice versa? And how is such movement affected by experience or familiarity with their different legal education systems and bodies of law?”

The U.S. hiring process–at least at the junior level–is described here. In the lateral market–i.e., hiring of those already in teaching positions–my impression is that Canada is not much different from the U.S.: faculty are recruited based on their scholarly record and the area needs of the hiring school. Of course, salaries are generally higher in American law schools than in Canadian ones, so most of the movement is south rather than north (though Michael Byers [international law] recently went from Duke to British Columbia to take up a lucrative Canada Research Chair). It also strikes me that most, but not all, of the cross-border faculty movement is by faculty in fields less bounded by national law: e.g., international and comparative law, jurisprudence, law and economics.

I’ve opened comments, and invite those knowledgeable about the Canadian law teaching market to offer their insight and advice. The usual rule applies: NO ANONYMOUS POSTINGS.

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10 responses to “How Does an American Get a Job Teaching in a Canadian Law School?”

  1. Chris Blakley

    You might have posted on this before, perhaps I missed it. But, what advice do you (and others) have for getting jobs in philosophy in Canada or elsewhere outside the US?

    Reply
  2. I.G. Cohen

    Let me also broaden the question to apply not only to lateral hires but also to entry level hires.
    One thing I have heard repeatedly about the Candian job market is that it is very hard to get hired without a PH.D, S.J.D., LL.M or M.A. (i.e.: a J.D. degree alone will not cut it).
    I'm curious to know if others have had the same experience, and also whether relevant work experience (say as an appellate litigator or working for the U.S. DOJ) can replace the extra degree requirement.

    Reply
  3. Ethesis

    Well, I post under Ethesis, but that's a coined word which will take you back to me (Steve Marsh), with pictures and a web site with over 60k hits a week.

    I was involved briefly with rating ADR programs, keeping track of a number of things, and forwarding faculty searches. One thing that was pointed out to me is that up north, they have to hire their own residents first, which makes some placement decisions hard, all other things being equal.

    That was a while back, but I suspect that the immigration rules are still the same.

    Reply
  4. G.L. Powell

    As well as having the appropriate qualifications, a US applicant will have to (basically – it's more complex than this in practice) be a better candidate, in the sense of fitting in with the new department, lustre of research and writing, luminousity of countenance etc., than any comparable Canadian candidate. Immigration law in this country demands this. Effectively this gives the hiring institute some wriggle-room if forced to justify the hiring of a foreigner over a suitable native; the issue was just dealt with at some length by the Globe and Mail, but their web site seems to have deep-sixed the main article, so I can't cite it here.

    Reply
  5. Brian Leiter

    I was under the impression, perhaps erroneous, that in the last few years, the immigration restrictions have eased significantly, with the result that it is far easier now than it was a decade ago for non-Canadian (and non-Commonwealth) citizens to be hired by Canadian universities. I'll check on this, but perhaps someone else will post in the interim with an authoritative answer.

    Reply
  6. Martin Lin

    Brian is correct. It is now much easier for non-Canadian citizens to be hired by a Canadian university. I am an American citizen teaching in Canada. I have served on search committees at my institution, the University of Toronto. The following is my understanding of how the system works based on my experience. The letter of the law in Canada states that a Canadian university (of any other employer) can only hire a foreigner if it can demonstrate that there is no competent Canadian candidate. I believe that immigration law in the US is the same. What differs is how the law is interpreted/implemented. The tendency in the US is to interpret competency very loosely so that the minimum qualification is being the best candidate. Canadian schools tend to interpret it more strictly. The practical upshot at the U of T is that we cannot rank a foreigner over a Canadian and then offer the job to the Canadian if the foreign candidate turns us down. However, it used to be the case that we could search internationally only after conducting a domestic search and failing to make a hire. Now we run our domestic and internationally searches simultaneously. Here is evidence that it is not that hard for a foreign candidate to get hired at the U of T these days: since I joined the faculty in 2001 we have made offers to at least ten candidates who were not Canadian citizens.

    Reply
  7. C.J.Colucci

    How receptive are Canadian law schools to visiting appointments of U.S. lawyers, not necessarily as previews for full-time employment?

    Reply
  8. Ethesis

    Five-ten years ago Canadian graduate schools were very willing to answer questions like this if you wrote them. At least when I wrote them with specific questions about ADR programs I got excellent answers back.

    Has someone thought of writing the law schools in question and asking and posting the result here?

    Reply
  9. Les Green

    It is indeed easier than it once was for Americans to be hired in Canadian universities, though it is true that there is still variation among schools. Even in the height of what Americans would regard as the dark days, some Canadian universities managed to circumvent the regulations. (McGill was a well-known example; in some departments it seemed near-impossible for *Canadians* to get hired.)

    Here are my impressions of the most salient differences as things now stand:

    1. The hiring cycle is a bit different, and it is not unusual for Canadian universities to be seriously looking much later in the year.

    2. The JD or LLB (the Canadian equivalent) will not get you a teaching job on its own. Most Canadian universities do not consider the JD a graduate degree at all; the first *graduate* degree in law in Canada is the LLM. The second is the SJD or PhD. (The JD/LLB in Canada is a second entry degree, just as it is in the US, but no one who had just done a JD would say that he had been to 'graduate school'. In Canada, graduate school means just that.)

    3. It is very common for applicants to have done graduate work (MA, PhD) in other fields: economics, history, sociology, political science, and philosophy seem to dominate.

    4. Making law review means nothing in Canada.

    5. Clerkships are not held in as high esteem as they are in the US. They count, but it is better to have done graduate work.

    6. There are many fewer lateral appointments, and fewer look-see visiting appointments.

    7. Even at the best Canadian law schools, practically everyone who gets a tenure-track offer gets tenure. The gatekeeping is mostly done at the front end.

    8. Individual salaries are lower. For instance, at my law school (Osgoode Hall), the entry level salary is C$100,000, the highest salaries around C$200,000.

    9. The social wage is higher. Law professors do not need private health insurance; they mostly send their children to public schools (which are good and safe); college education at elite Canadian universities is still much cheaper than non-elite US state schools; large cities are by US standards clean and safe. There are no foreign countries under Canadian military occupation.

    10. What you regard as middle-of-the-road political views are in Canada mostly seen as crazy right-wing lunatic views. This will affect how people read what you say in interviews.

    11. If you get an interview, try to find out something about Canada first. An American candidate for the *deanship* at a prestigious Canadian law school asked in his interview whether it was a private or a public school. He did not get appointed. (There are no private schools in Canada.)

    Reply
  10. Peter Tillers

    People who are considering teaching in Canada might want to consider the possibiity that they will face compulsory retirement when they reach a certain age. (A prediction: you too will get older — over time.) For example, a few years ago the University of British Columbia had a fixed compulsory retirement age — and had made but one exception, for a Nobel Prize winner.) Perhaps UBC still does adhere to this besotted policy. (I believe that the provinces rather than the national government are competent to legislate about retirement policies by employers such as universities. But I may be quite wrong about this.)

    Reply

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