Returning to Virginia

After twenty-four years, my time in Ohio comes to an end.

Twenty-four years ago, I left my home in Virginia and moved to Ohio to join the faculty at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Several years later, I was tenured, became the inaugural holder of the Johan Verheij Memorial Professorship, and then the founding Director of the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law.

I have now moved back to Virginia as I am joining the faculty at the William & Mary Law School as the Tazewell Taylor Professor of Law. I am grateful to those who supported and enriched my academic career at CWRU, and to those at W&M who have given me this next opportunity. I am excited to begin this next chapter.

Comments

[MaddogEngineer]

Congratulations! I hope returning home to Virginia is a blessing for you.

[mulched]

Congrats, Prof. Adler!

[santamonica811]

To the extent you want to; talk about the process of moving from one law school to another. You are obviously moving from one tenured position to another tenured position. Is that common or unusual? Does that usually come from schools hunting professors, or, from professors (who want a change) contacting schools? If the latter; is it considered good form to get in advance the blessing of one's original school, before starting a search for a new gig?

We all know that Eugene moved from UCLA professor to a different type of position in northern California. Is that sort of lateral move common for law professors? We get that Eugene is rather special, so maybe I should ask instead: how unusual is this different sort of lateral move, if you know? 🙂

Anyway; congrats on Career Ver 2. Greener pastures and all that.

[Please, Daivd, Seek Help]

(Non-law academic).

Colleges hiring people who are already tenured elsewhere is fairly common. In fact many professors, immediately after getting tenure, will return to the job market because they can do no worse than where they are now, and they may be able to do better. A number of universities are also set up so having an outside option is a necessity when negotiating a raise, so often people go on the market just to prove their value.

Some positions, which departments call "lines" or "hiring lines", specify a particular substantive focus (in law, I would guess the main sub-fields are things like contracts, torts, constitutional law, criminal law, empirical legal studies) or sometimes even more narrowly a topic (1A, 2A, etc.). Sometimes they specify a rank (that the department is only considering junior hires or is open to mid-career hires or only wants a senior hire)

Why switch schools? Preference for location, preference for better students (Jonathan is jumping ~50-70 spots in the law school ranking, so the average calibre of student will be much higher), better support for research, push factors like not liking one's colleagues or the culture fit at the source institution, looking to move to a bigger or smaller institution, salary, etc. In this sense I would say it's not a lateral move but a big jump for Jonathan.

The hiring process sometimes involves outreach by the school. Occasionally if someone is giving an invited talk and they click well with the department, the department might give them a bit of a heads up. For very senior hires, the hiring process might be almost entirely waved. But more commonly the professor interested in moving applies for an open hiring process just like everyone else. You don't normally explicitly get the blessing of your current school, but it is generally understood who in the department is looking to change things up and who is happy where they are. The hiring process typically takes a year (it occurs in the fall to begin the next summer or fall) so there's a fair amount of runway and departments are rarely shocked.

Mid-career hires often preserve tenure, even when moving up the rankings.

Eugene's situation is a little different. UCLA is already a top 15 law school and his position at Stanford is a research-focused position affiliated with the Hoover Institution, which is basically a conservative (libertarian, market oriented, democracy oriented) think tank that's attached to Stanford. Hoover has excellent support for its its fellows and is a great place to do research. I suspect in Eugene's case it's a mix of being a little later in his career, being something of an odd cultural fit at UCLA. (Full disclosure: I did my PhD at UCLA in a non-law field and really loved it; I did a postdoc at [other famous university] and my supervisor there was an affiliate at Hoover on his sabbatical years), and wanting to focus on research and public engagement more than teaching. Of course I have no insider insight, just saying that this kind of trajectory is fairly common in academia.

Big congrats to Jonathan!!

[Martinned]

Congratulations!

[Brett Bellmore]

Moving from Ohio to Virginia is certainly trading up, enjoy!

[Bob from Ohio]

Virginia is just DC West these days.

One day it might even have a major pro sports franchise! Ohio has 6.

[shg]

Congratulations! Welcome back home.

[Swede425]

Congratulations!

[Malika the Maiz]

Congrats Professor Adler, they’re lucky to have you!

[Stephen Lathrop]

Whether you consider exodus from Ohio in the abstract, or with an eye to state-by-state comparisons, those motivated to alleviate suffering will likely approve almost any alternative. Virginia ranks high in either case.

[Longtobefree]

I wish you well. But know that the Virginia you return to is not the Virginia you left.

[David Nieporent]

Congrats, and good luck.

[tuphat]

See you at triathlon next year!