Ten Worst Things for a Law Prof Put on a CV

LSAT

Eh. I think some of that can be fine. Things like hobbies can help to facilitate conversation at an interview, particularly a call back interview. I think blog postings can count as scholarship, and I don't see why someone who has made a number of lengthy blog posts shouldn't put that on their CV. (For example, should Doug Berman really not list his blog on his CV? That seems silly.)

I think it is completely appropriate to list on a CV that one blogs regularly at x or y. For both regular bloggers and infrequent contributors, I still think it would be weird to list by name non-substantive or minor posts (and, for sure, I've written plenty of those myself).

I think gaps on law professors' CVs are curious. I routinely see CVs where, for example, a professor earned his or her undergraduate degree in 1985 and law degree in 1990, but there is no mention on the person's CV of interim employment or activities between, I would presume, 1985-87. I guess the thinking must be that activities or employment unrelated to the law are unimportant, but I find this semingly widespread practice to be odd. Candidates for business or law firm positions with resume gaps would certainly draw related questions.

It's probably not a good idea to list appearances on "Hoarders", "My Strange Addiction", or "America's Most Wanted".

When I began my career in academia I really hated seeing these things on a vita – now, after having sorted through many large stacks of vitas while on recruiting committees I welcome them as a wonderful distraction 🙂 My favorites are the high school accomplishments and activities.

– Articles that cite your work

SAT

eagle scouts are cool..see e.g. Jay Feinman and Karl Okamoto..r

Boy Scout Leader

Why not religious affiliation or membership?

Or, for that matter, political affiliation?

I put both the fact that I have several small children, including a set of twins, and the fact that I'm a sub-3:00 marathoner, in a short, two line "outside interests" section at the very end of my resume (at two full pages, I refuse to call it a "CV" yet). I've spent substantial time at virtually every interview I've had since I started doing that talking about those things. People seem really interested in them. Not sure if that's good or bad, though.

Registered sex offender

OK, sincere question: If I have actually written on the study of "Law & Literature," doesn't it then become appropriate to list fiction or poetry publications as well as law review publications? (It's not fanfic, but I understand it would probably look strange for anyone who doesn't write on L&L)

Anon@ 01:03 PM– I agree with you that listing other articles citing your work seem tedious and unnecessary (given the sheer number articles out there, everyone's going to get cited somewhere), but what if your work is cited by a court or popular textbook? I note those cites in my CV.

Not unless it is the Supreme Court, or the court adopts your theory after discussing it.

Marital status. (And this one I've actually seen done.)

As an Eagle Scout, I will keep it on my resume.

I don't see a problem with "Hobbies," assuming it's one line and last. I don't do it myself though.

My impression is that "Marital status and names of kids" is something a previous generation put regularly on academic CVs that has faded away.

Following up on Eric Fink's comment, how about "Featured on TV's 'I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant.'"

Law school class rank. Especially putting that you finished in the top 11% of your law school class. Smacks of bitterness. Put top 15% if you put it at all. You're a law professor, everyone knows you've either done very well academically or went to Harvard/Yale/Stanford.

Anything that makes the CV over two pages. When I was on a recruiting committee last year, all I really wanted to know about a candidate was:

1. Teaching experience- Has he/she taught (and if so, where- law school or other)?
2. Subject matter fit- What has he/she taught? Is it what we need?
3. Publications- Does he/she publish (and in particular, publish in law reviews or a reasonable fascimile thereof)?

The rest is just clutter.

I never felt like I needed extra stuff to keep interviews going, especially since we had a pretty large committee.

Lateral offers declined. (I have actually seen this one.)

Harvard

* Maury Povich Show, "You are NOT the Father" (repeated appearances) (stipend received)

Seriously: what about "lead article" with respect to one's scholarship?

Honest question from a Girl Scout Gold Award recipient: does the Gold Award/Silver Award in Girl Scouts have the same stigma attached to it as the Eagle Scout Award? It's not on my resume but never thought it was stigmatized…

Substantive legal experience in a practice field relevant to real-world practice.

Anything that demonstrates a concern for your students, or a queasiness about using fraudulent job placement statistics to trick them into destroying their lives with debt, so that you can earn a six figure salary by working 10 hours a week.

I don't see any problem with posting one's "religious affiliation or membership."

Federalist Society — Chapter President.

Semi Finalist, Buncombe County Corn Queen Pageant.

I'm with Dave – "lead article" always strikes me as being a little self-inflated and overblown. Okay, so you were the first to ask that journal to be the lead article – or perhaps you're actually one of the better articles being published by that journal in that issue or volume. So what? To me it signals hardly anything meaningful – except that the person (mistakenly) thinks this is a great accomplishment. And you actually see this from lots of more senior colleagues. Maybe I'm missing something.

Eagle Scout is a difficult accomplishment, and is something to be proud of. It shows dedication at an early age, a wide array of skills, and self modivation and determination. All are good skills in a job performance. I will continue to list my Eagle Scout accomplishment. I will also encourage my boys (both my own three, and the many boys in my scout troop) to proudly list Eagle Scout on as one of their greatest accomplishments. I have interviewed many people in my career. I have hired many Eagle Scouts. I have never been disappointed with the job performance of one of the Eagle Scouts that I have hired or with whom I have had the pleasure of working.

Sincerely,
An Eagle Scout, and Dedicated Scout Leader

Lance:

Is there such a thing as substantive legal experience in a practice field that is irrelevant to real-world practice?

I would think blog work on your CV would depend on the blog. Posting at Volokh Conspiracy? Cool. Posting at "I Think There's an Underpants Conspiracy?" Not so cool.

Class rank: Top 80%
(I've actually seen this.)

When I was at a large firm, I saw a resume, from a very good applicant, which noted that she had won the swimsuit contest in her state beauty pageant.

Percentage of your students who are now working as practicing lawyers – totally irrelevant to working as a law school prof.

I've seen MENSA membership on one before….

(Cross-posting my comment from Prawfs, elaborating on what I meant in saying that a law prof should not list religious affiliation or membership on an academic CV.)

For whatever it's worth, here is what I intended. I don't think it is ok to explicitly list one's marital status, race, religion, birthdate, or parenting status ("2 children: Jack and Jill") on one's academic CV. Or as Paul explained more clearly, I think it is inappropriate to "list one's religion as, say, a separate line on the resume under the heading of 'Religion,' just as one wouldn't have an entry for 'Marital Status' or 'Race.'" (Thanks, Paul!) As to listing activities/involvements/affiliations that tend to indicate any of those, I have no objection.

Bruce, as a member of the previous generation, I can attest that I was surprised to see marital status and names of kids on the list. If it offends Gens X and Y, I'll take them off.

I would think that someone who is smart enough to be in Mensa wouldn't list Mensa.

It depends a lot on what use you're making of your CV. A CV for getting an academic job should have different things on it than a law prof's CV for consulting or non-academic legal work, or his CV for info he'd like his fellow scholars to know about.

I put lots of things on my vitae that are usually left off but which I wish other people would put. See
http://www.rasmusen.org/vita.htm. For example:
how to pronounce my name, how to write it in Japanese, a link to a map to my office, a photo, and– yes– my LSAT and high school. The latter two are a bit uncomfortable, because they're boasting, but so is most of what we put on CV's, and their point is to convey information some reader would like to know about without obscuring information other readers want to know about (or, perhaps we might limit that to "favorable information", which gets into other questions). I'm bothering to write this comment because I hope other people will follow me in this. I'd like to know whether you're a chess grandmaster and whether you've climbed Mount Everest too– those are informative about your likely academic career.

If I did a lot of consulting, I'd put that on a separate vitae aimed at consulting clients. If I were on the job market, I'd worry a lot more about whether I want to signal that I'm unconventional and potentially obnoxious. (I think I'm not, so the question is whether I could get to the interview stage and demonstrate my demeanor.)

What's wrong with putting down you're an eagle scout? That is a pretty impressive accomplishment that most scouts don't achieve. It demonstrates determination, leadership, concern for others, etc.