Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog

News and views about philosophy, the academic profession, academic freedom, intellectual culture, and other topics. The world’s most popular philosophy blog, since 2003.

  1. Bert Lazerow's avatar
  3. Justin Khoo's avatar
  4. Gino Zaccaria's avatar
  5. Andre Santos Campos's avatar
  6. Scott Wisdom's avatar
  7. Jonathan Cohen's avatar

The collapse of the lateral market in law schools during 2025-26

Brian Leiter

This year, the laterals list has about thirty moves, while last year there were more than 100! I assume this is an effect of the Trump war on universities, and the funding uncertainties it created, so that there was less money for hires. Professor Lawsky’s spreadsheet shows about 50 rookie hires as of now, but it is probably not complete. Still, that is also way down from recent years, when there were typically around 120 rookie hires.

Curious to hear from faculty what they think explains the decline in lateral hiring in particular. If you want to discuss a particular school, please include a valid university email address (it will not appear).

Leave a Reply to Decrease in Lateral Hiring at Law Schools • TaxProf Blog Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 responses to “The collapse of the lateral market in law schools during 2025-26”

  1. Decrease in Lateral Hiring at Law Schools • TaxProf Blog

    […] Leiter, The Collapse of the Lateral Market in Law Schools During 2025-26, Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog, April 30, 2026. See also Sarah Lawsky, Lawsky Entry Level […]

    Reply
  2. Bert Lazerow

    Brian,
    Not sure that you can say much about year-to-year changes in lateral hiring without looking at longer range statistics, say a 5-year average. Each school’s experience is likely to be idiosyncratic. For instance, at the University of San Diego, we hired one lateral each to start in 2004, 2022, and 2025; two in 2005, and three in 2013. We have made numerous other lateral offers over the years that were not accepted. (Forgive them; they know not what they do.) We have hired one lateral to begin next fall and another to begin fall 2027.
    The real change has been in visitorships. Before 2018, we regularly had two or three visiting professors here each year. Since then, we have had no sabbatical replacement visitors and no look-see visitors. That time period coincides with a reduction in the number of people going to law school, a reduction in the size of our entering class, and an increase in our discount rate.
    Bert

    Reply

Designed with WordPress