Legal careers: Academia
Almost all professors in law schools have law degrees. Traditionally, this was the only academic credential necessary for teaching in law schools, but a growing percentage of law professors are expected to have PhDs in addition to or instead of JDs—close to 40% of all new tenure-track teaching positions in law schools in 2026 went to applicants with doctorates. Nearly half of all tenure-track hires in 2026 got their law degrees at one of just six law schools — Harvard, Yale, NYU, Columbia, Stanford, and Chicago — making academia the most “pedigree-sensitive” niche of law world, by a wide margin.
For teaching law in four-year undergraduate liberal arts institutions, however, a JD is generally insufficient. Almost all such professors have PhDs, most often in the social sciences. Among professors in law-related pre-professional programs (such as paralegal certification programs) or in community colleges, JDs (without a PhD) are more common.
