Some Reflections On The Lateral Hiring Market

Every year, professors move from lower-ranked institutions to higher-ranked institutions. But for the lateral market to sustain itself, schools have to continue to play the game: recruit laterals, hoping they improve the school's standing before they move onto greener pastures.

One way to measure this market is to analyze the track record of a new school that built its faculty from scratch. Over the past quarter century, the American Bar Association has granted provisional accreditation to about 20 law schools. Only three of those institutions have cracked the top 100 U.S. News rankings. Last year, FIU was at #77 and Drexel was at #82. U.C. Irvine, founded in 2007, is the outlier. The new state school has hovered between #20 and #40 over the past decade. A lot of the credit should go to Founding Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. But even after Chemerinsky departed for Berkeley in 2017, the rankings have stayed fairly consistent.

Starting from a blank slate, Irvine was able to build a faculty from the ground up, using both entry-level hires as well as laterals. I thought it might be worthwhile to analyze lateral hires and departures from Irvine over the past two decades. Here, I owe a debt to Brian Leiter and Dan Filler, who have charted these moves since 2006. Many of the posts on the Faculty Lounge, Concurring Opinions, and Leiter Reports can now be found on the Internet Archive.

I include the raw results below the jump. Here, I will offer some broader observations about the lateral hiring market. I don't think these patterns are limited to Irvine, but that institution is a useful measuring stick because it started so recently. All of my counts here are tentative. Please let me know if there are any errors.

By my count, between 2008 and 2026, at Irvine there were a total of about 40 lateral hires (including two deans).

Between 2008 and 2026, sixteen of these forty lateral hires later departed. Here, I will note the year they were hired and the year they departed.

1. Erwin Chemerinsky (Hired in 2008, lateraled to Berkeley in 2017)
2. Catherine Fisk (Hired in 2008, lateraled to Berkeley in 2017)
3. Jennifer Chacon (Hired in 2009, lateraled to UCLA in 2018)
4. Christopher Tomlins (Hired in 2009, lateraled to Berkeley in 2018)
5. Olufunmilayo Arewa (Hired in 2009, lateraled to Temple University in 2014)
6. Rick Hasen (Hired in 2011, lateraled to UCLA in 2022)
7. Douglas NeJaime (Hired in 2013, lateraled to UCLA in 2015)
8. Michele B. Goodwin (Hired in 2014, lateraled to Georgetown in 2023)
9. Gregory Shaffer (Hired in 2014, lateraled to Georgetown in 2023)
10. Sarah Lawsky (Hired in 2010, lateraled to Northwestern in 2016)
11. Alexandra Natapoff (Hired in 2017, lateraled to Harvard in 2020)
12. David S. Law (Hired in 2019, lateraled to Virginia in 2020)
13. Rachel Moran (Hired in 2019, lateraled to Texas A&M in 2023)
14. Aziza Ahmed (Hired in 2021, lateraled to Boston University in 2022)
15. Jamelia Morgan (Hired in 2021, lateraled to Northwestern in 2022)
16. Courtney Cahill (Hired in 2022, lateraled to USC in 2026).

In most of these moves, the professor transferred to a higher-ranked school. The average duration of a lateral hire who departed was about six years.

I exclude in this count two professors (L. Song Richardson and Mario Barnes) who departed for administrative positions, but then returned to Irvine. I also exclude Katie Porter who left teaching to serve in the House, but then returned to the faculty. Those aren't exactly laterals in the traditional sense of the term.

At least four of the lateral hires seem to have taken emeritus status: Bryant Garth, Kaaryn Gustafson, Robert Solomon, and Grace Tonner. As best as I can tell, sixteen recruited laterals are still teaching in a full-time status at Irvine: Christopher Leslie, Tony Reese, Mario Barnes, Katherine Porter, Sameer Ashar, Kenneth W. Simons, Victor Fleischer, Ji Li, Austen Parrish (Dean), Veena Dubal, Kevin Haeberle, Ari Waldman, Robert S. Chang, Andrew Gold, Trevor G. Reed, and Charles Tyler.

If my math is right, out of a total of forty laterals, twenty-four remained and sixteen departed. The departure rate of hired laterals is about 40%. Or, you might say the retention rate is 60%, but that number is harder to rely on because some professors took emeritus status or retired, so were not really on the move.

Moreover, based on my count, there are four professors that Irvine hired on the entry-level market who lateraled out of Irvine: Alejandro Camacho (UCLA), Seth Davis (Berkeley), Jonathan Glater (Berkeley), and Leah Litman (Michigan). If you factor in these departures, the retention rate is even lower.

In an ideal world, the number of lateral hires should far exceed the number of lateral departures. Schools that recruit scholars should be able to retain them. But the world is far from ideal. Professors who lateral to one school will often be recruited elsewhere. Indeed, I think it is a positive that a school recruits and develops scholars who go onto other institutions. More realistically, the number of lateral hires should roughly match the number of lateral departures to keep the faculty at parity: for every lateral that departs another lateral should be hired. At least at Irvine, the number of lateral hires that remained is fairly close to the number of lateral hires that depart. I don't know how Irvine's retention rate compares to other schools. This is something I might compute in the future.

Still, with all of those caveats, to keep a law school's reputation at parity, the rate of lateral departures needs to approximate the rate of lateral hires. If more scholars depart, and cannot be replaced, a school's standing might drop. Indeed, the public might wonder why so many scholars are heading for the door. One might reply that new scholars can be recruited through entry-level hiring. The entry-level market can be unpredictable, and junior scholars can take many years to develop. And again, those entry-level hires who make a name for themselves are likely to be recruited by a higher-ranked institution. It's hard to keep home-grown talent, unless the school either pays up, or the professor has some personal reason to stay.

Another premise is that laterals are expensive. It often takes a lot of money to persuade a professor to move their family from a place they built a strong reputation. Very often professors will sign a retention bonus to promise they will stay at a new law school for a few years. But once those contractual terms lapse, the professor can move up to another school that will pay a greater sum. This happens all the time.

I welcome comments, feedback, and corrections.

***

 

	Lateral Hires	Lateral Departures
2008	Erwin Chemerinsky from Duke (to be dean) Catherine Fisk from Duke Dan Burk from Minnesota Grace Tonner from Michigan
2009	Christopher Leslie from Chicago-Kent R. Anthony Reese from Texas Jennifer Chacon from UC Davis Christopher Tomlins from American Bar Foundation Mario Barnes from University of Miami
2010	Sarah Lawsky from George Washington
2011	Katherine Porter (Iowa) Robert Solomon (Yale) Olufunmilayo Arewa (Northwestern) Sameer Ashar (CUNY) Rick Hasen (Loyola – LA)
2012	Bryant Garth (legal profession, civil procedure) from Southwestern Law School to the University of California, Irvine.
2013	Douglas NeJaime (family law, law & sexuality, legal ethics) from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles to the University of California, Irvine. Benjamin van Rooij (Chinese law and regulation, comparative law) from the University of Amsterdam to the University of California, Irvine.
2014	Kaaryn Gustafson (law & inequality, poverty law, criminal procedure) from the University of Connecticut to the University of California, Irvine. Michele B. Goodwin (law & technology, bioethics, constitutional law) from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities to the University of California, Irvine. *Gregory Shaffer (international law, international trade) from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities to the University of California, Irvine.	*L. Song Richardson (criminal law & procedure) from the University of Iowa to the University of California, Irvine. *Christopher Tomlins (legal history) from University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Berkeley.
2015	*Kenneth Simons (torts, criminal law, law & philosophy) from Boston University to the University of California, Irvine.	*Douglas NeJaime (family law, law & sexuality, constitutional law) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Los Angeles.
2016		*Sarah Lawsky (tax, law & philosophy) from the University of California, Irvine to Northwestern University.
2017	*Alexandra Natapoff (criminal law & procedure) from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles to University of California, Irvine.	*Erwin Chemerinsky (constitutional law, civil procedure) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Berkeley (to become Dean). *Catherine Fisk (labor & employment law, intellectual property, legal history, civil rights) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Berkeley.
2018	*Victor Fleischer (tax, corporate law) from the University of San Diego to the University of California, Irvine. *Dalié Jiménez (bankruptcy, consumer law) from the University of Connecticut to the University of California, Irvine. *Joshua Blank (tax) from a professor of practice position at New York University to the University of California, Irvine.	*Olufunmilayo Arewa (intellectual property, international trade, entrepreneurship, law & technology) from the University of California, Irvine to Temple University. *Mario Barnes (constitutional law, criminal law, national security law, race & the law) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of Washington (to become Dean). *Jennifer Chacon (immimgration law, constitutional law, criminal law & procedure) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Los Angeles. *Seth Davis (administrative law, federal courts, federal Indian law, fiduciary law) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Berkeley.
2019	*Mehrsa Baradaran (banking law, bankruptcy) from the University of Georgia to the University of California, Irvine. *David S. Law (comparative constitutional law, law & social science) from Washington University, St. Louis to the University of California, Irvine. *Ji Li (Chinese law and politics) from Rutgers University to the University of California, Irvine. *Rachel Moran (education law, civil rights, race & the law) from the University of California, Los Angeles to the University of California, Irvine.	*Leah Litman (constitutional law, federal courts) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (untenured lateral).
2020		*Jonathan Glater (higher education law) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Los Angeles. *David S. Law (comparative constitutional law, law & social science) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of Virginia (effective fall 2021). *Alexandra Natapoff (criminal law & procedure) from the University of California, Irvine to Harvard University.
2021	*Aziza Ahmed (health law, constitutional law, gender/race & law) from Northeastern University to the University of California, Irvine. *Jamelia Morgan (criminal law, Critical Race Theory, disability law) from the University of Connecticut to the University of California, Irvine (untenured lateral).	*David S. Law (comparative constitutional law, law & social science) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of Virginia. *L. Song Richardson (criminal law & procedure, law & social science) from the University of California, Irvine (where she is Dean) to Colorado College (to become President of the College).
2022	*Mario Barnes (constitutional law, criminal law, national security law, race & the law) from the University of Washington, Seattle (where he is Dean) back to the University of California, Irvine (effective January 2022). *Courtney Cahill (constitutional law, law & sexuality) from Florida State University to the University of California, Irvine *Austen Parrish (transnational law, international law) from Indiana University, Bloomington (where he is currently Dean) to the University of California, Irvine (to become Dean).	*Richard Hasen (election law, voting rights) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Los Angeles. *Jamelia Morgan (criminal law, disability law) from the University of California, Irvine to Northwestern University. *Aziza Ahmed (health law, constitutional law, law & gender, law & race) from the University of California, Irvine to Boston University.
2023	*Veena Dubal (employment law, Critical Race Theory) from the University of California College of Law, San Francisco to the University of California, Irvine. *Kevin Haeberle (securities regulation, corporate) from the College of William & Mary to the University of California, Irvine.* Ari Ezra Waldman (law & technology, privacy) from Northeastern University to the University of California, Irvine.	*Michele Goodwin (health law, constitutional law) from the University of California, Irvine to Georgetown University. *Rachel Moran (education law, civil rights, race & the law) from the University of California, Irvine to Texas A&M University. *Gregory Shaffer (international law, international trade) from the University of California, Irvine to Georgetown University.
2024	*Robert Chang (Critical Race Theory; race, ethnicity & law) from Seattle University to the University of California, Irvine. *Andrew Gold (corporate, torts, private law theory) from Brooklyn Law School to the University of California, Irvine. *L. Song Richardson (criminal law & procedure; law & social science) from Colorado College (where she is President) back to the University of California, Irvine.
2025	*Trevor Reed (Federal Indian law, intellectual property) from Arizona State University to the University of California, Irvine. *Charles Tyler (federal courts, constitutional law, civil procedure) from George Washington University to the University of California, Irvine (effective January 2025).
2026		*Courtney Cahill (constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, family law) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of Southern California. *Alejandro Camacho (environmental law, natural resources law) from the University of California, Irvine to the University of California, Los Angeles (effective January 2026).