A spreadsheet for candidates to track information about VAPs or similar fellowships (for example, the Climenko and Bigelow) for the 2026-2027 hiring cycle is now available. In the spreadsheet, you can enter information regarding screeners, callbacks, offers, and so forth. You can also write more general comments.
The tabs on the spreadsheet marked “Comments” and “Q&A” will, I hope, serve as substitutes for comment threads. If people have questions about the process, please post them on the Q&A tab, and everyone — including current professors and fellows — please chime in and answer!
Anyone can edit the spreadsheet; I will not be generally editing it or monitoring it.
As of August 31, 2026, there are 131 unique schools represented in the hiring committees sheet. (If your committee is not represented on the spreadsheet, please fill out the Google form or send me an email!) Many, though not all, of these schools expressed interest in particular subject or subjects for hiring. Of course, that a school expresses interest in a particular area does not mean that the school will hire in that area. And schools may hire in areas that they do not list. Nonetheless, to see in what areas schools expressed interest, I classified all the topics listed to general classifications, and then counted the numbers of times each general classification was mentioned.
Business Law: 44, Multiple/Undetermined: 37, Criminal Law/Criminal Procedure: 36, Property: 31, Contracts: 27, Legal Writing and Reasoning: 26, Civil Procedure: 26, Constitutional Law: 23, Evidence: 23, Commercial Law: 22, Family Law: 20, Torts: 19, Clinical: 18, IP: 18, Tax Law: 17, Trusts and Estates: 16, Ethics: 14, Energy/Environmental: 13, Labor and Employment Law: 12, Health Law: 10, Law and Technology: 9, Bankruptcy Law: 8, Administrative Law: 7, Finance/Accounting: 7, Workplace Law: 7, Academic Success: 6, International Law: 6, 1L Classes: 6, Other: 73
The graph shows only areas where more than five schools expressed interest. “Other” captures all of the topics where five or fewer schools expressed an interest. In “Other,” there was no subject in which five schools expressed interest. Five schools expressed interest in each of American Indian Law/Indigenous Law, Dispute Resolution, Immigration/Asylum, Real Estate Law, and Trial Practice. Four schools expressed interest in each of Remedies and Statutes and Regulations. Three schools expressed interest in each of Antitrust, Appellate Advocacy, Comparative Law, Compliance, Entertainment Law, Law and Inequality, and Veterans Law. Two schools expressed interest in each of Animal Law, Civil Rights, Disability Law, Insurance Law, Private Law, and Sports Law. One school expressed interest in each of Banking Law, Elder Law, Experiential Learning, Library, Privacy Law, Public Interest, and Public Law.
Every subject mentioned was classified to a general topic; you can see the full list of classifications, which are the same as those I use for the tool to sort and filter the spreadsheet. For example, “Business Organizations,” “Corporations,” and “Business/Commercial Law” are all “Business Law.”
A given topic can be classified in up to three areas. Thus “Business/Commercial Law” is classified not only as “Business Law” but also as “Commercial Law,” and this would show up as two separate data points on the graph.
If a single school mentioned 10 topics in non-overlapping areas, that would show up as 10 different data points on the graph.
If a single school mentioned five Business Law topics, that shows up as “Business Law” just one time.
If a school said they were interested in all areas, or did not state an area in which they were interested, that was classified as “Multiple/Undetermined.” Some schools said “all” and also listed specific areas; that listing would be counted as one for “Multiple/Undetermined” and also one for each of the other topics mentioned.
If people have questions about the teaching market or process, please post them on the tab on the spreadsheet marked “Q&A” and everyone — including current professors — please chime in and answer!
Anyone can edit the spreadsheet; I will not be generally editing it or monitoring it.
On August 13, 2025, AALS will release the first distribution of FAR forms to schools. If/when anyone publicly posts the number of FAR forms, I will post Number of FAR Forms in First Distribution Over Time (last year’s FAR Forms Over Time post).
I am collecting information about (1) whether a particular school plans to hire in 2026-2027, and (2) if so, information about the school’s hiring committee and hiring interests.
Please fill out a Google form or email me to provide information about your school’s hiring committee and hiring interests for 2026-2027 (scroll down for the list of specific information I’m hoping to collect). Any responses to the Google form can be viewed by anyone.
I will aggregate cleaned, standardized information submitted through the form, emailed to me, or gathered from other sources (such as public hiring ads, posts on the web, social media, etc.) in a downloadable, sortable spreadsheet. You cannot edit this spreadsheet directly. To provide this information, fill out the Google form or email me.
Use a web tool available on the Lawsky Projects website to filter the information in the spreadsheet by subject area, location, and lateral/entry level. All that the tool on the Lawsky Projects website does is sort and filter what is in the spreadsheet; it is therefore only as useful as the spreadsheet is complete.
Here is the specific information I’m hoping to collect. You can submit this information through the Google form or by emailing me:
First:
(a) your school;
(b) whether your school is pursuing entry-level hiring in 2026-2027;
(c) whether your school is pursuing lateral hiring in 2026-2027.
If your school does plan on pursuing hiring in 2026-2027:
(d) the chair of your hiring committee (please note if you have different chairs for entry level and lateral candidates–I hope that this information will be useful for both entry level and lateral candidates);
(e) other members of your hiring committee (again, please note if there is a distinction between entry level and lateral committees); and
(f) any particular subject areas in which your school is looking to hire.
Additionally, if you would like to share the following information, candidates might find it helpful to know:
(g) whether you are open to direct applications/individualized expressions of interest (affirmatively want to receive them, affirmatively don’t want to receive them, or don’t care one way or the other);
(h) your committee’s preferred way to be contacted;
(i) the website, if any, that candidates should use to obtain information about the position or to apply; and
(j) the number of available faculty positions at your school.
The form also provides a space to provide additional information, such as pasting in a hiring ad.
