joste8

Didn't think it was possible, but came across this individual (link below) who appears to hold both positions concurrently. Am I missing something or is this more common than I might have guessed?

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

zoosermom

I have known multiple partners who were also "professors." I use the quotes because I don't know if they had tenure or were "full" professors, but the act of teaching at a law school by partners in law firms isn't that uncommon.

Quinn Emanuel is known to be a cutting-edge, flexible firm, so it doesn't surprise me one bit.

joste8

It seems that usually when a professor has the title "John Doe Professor of Law (or whatever subject)", they are tenured, or at least full-time. So, unless I'm missing something, this person is full-time partner and full-time prof. How is that possible?

zoosermom

She is a celebrity. She doesn't actually practice law in the traditional sense. Many prestigious firms have celebrity partners who have the perks and benefits of partnership but don't actually do the day-to-day practice of law. Some will work on very specialized, high profile cases, some mainly do whatever they did to become a celebrity, just lending their names to the firm for the purpose of rainmaking and are compensated accordingly.

jonri

Yep, she was the first female prez of the Harvard law review. Wrote a book about rape...and described how she was raped herself. Was the dean of a law school...if my memory isn't paying games with me, at USC.

zoosermom

Yes and she is now also a television personality and political figure. Her name on the website is a rainmaker all by itself.

alwaysamom

Many practitioners teach at law schools, almost always in their area of expertise.

joste, you are correct. It would be impossible to teach full-time and to also have a busy practice as a partner at a firm. If she is doing everything that is listed on her bio, she clearly isn't a practicing partner in the typical sense.

Greybeard

I had a professor at Berkeley who taught a course in secured land transactions. He had an endowed chair, but only had a half-time teaching load, and worked as a partner in a law firm the other half of the time. He had been one of the counsel in most of the recent landmark decisions in the field. The California Supreme Court had used the phrase in one of their opinions, "To quote the persuasive analysis of Professor Hetland..."

By contrast, most of other professors had barely practiced law.