Adjunct Associate Professor, Online J.D. Program
Southwestern Law School invites applications for multiple Adjunct Associate Professors to teach in our new mainly asynchronous Online J.D. Program, which will launch in August 2024 with both full-time and part-time options for students. Founded more than 110 years ago, Southwestern Law School has developed a reputation for graduating lawyers who are well-rounded, entrepreneurial, and prepared to succeed. In Fall 2024, Southwestern’s ABA-accredited Online J.D. Program will welcome its first class of students. The program will offer a flexible and convenient way for aspiring law students from across the country to become skilled attorneys. The classes are offered mainly asynchronously, with several optional Zoom sessions within each course.
Southwestern seeks adjunct faculty to create and teach select elective courses in the Online J.D. Program. Possible areas of immediate and long-term need include IP Law and Practice, Civil Pretrial Practice, Practical Lawyering Skills, Trial Advocacy, Cybersecurity Law, Immigration, Mergers & Acquisitions, Securities Law, Mass Media Law, Motion Picture Law, Products Liability, Small Practice Management, Medical Malpractice, Estate Planning, and Taxation. Elective courses are offered in the fall, spring, or summer terms, with the first teaching opportunity in Summer 2025.
This part-time position involves creating an asynchronous online J.D. course. Adjunct faculty will develop the course curriculum, learning objectives and outcomes, syllabus, reading and learning assignments, video lectures, assessments (e.g., quizzes, papers, projects, exams), problem sets, discussion questions, and other learning activities. Adjunct faculty will meet regularly with an experienced instructional designer over several months. Instructional designers support adjunct faculty by assisting with course design and facilitating the design of learning activities, and course content. Meetings with the instructional designers will be scheduled at mutually convenient times, which may include evenings and some weekends. Faculty who live in the Los Angeles area will be able to record videos in Southwestern’s on-campus studio. Those who live outside of L.A. will be able to create videos from their home office. All adjunct faculty will work closely with members of our media production team to create engaging, high-quality videos. The completed course will go through a review process before it is finalized to ensure classes meet all standards of the law school, the online education team, and the American Bar Association.
Faculty will initiate work on their course at least 6 to 8 months before the course begins to ensure sufficient time for course development and review. We anticipate that the course development process will take 6 months to complete and require approximately 3 to 9 hours of work per week. The time commitment varies based on the number of units in the course and whether the instructor has taught the course previously. The course development process also includes times when our instructional designers and video production team are working on aspects of the course and when program leadership reviews the materials.
Once the course begins, adjunct faculty are responsible for “regular and substantive interaction” with the students. Adjunct faculty will grade assessments and exams, provide feedback on student work, interact throughout the week with online students, facilitate robust online discussions, periodically hold optional synchronous (Zoom) sessions and regular virtual office hours, and may oversee teaching assistants depending on the nature of the course and the size of the enrollments. Adjunct faculty will also monitor students’ progress throughout the course with the assistance of the Online J.D. Program staff and create additional videos and announcements to facilitate learning as the course progresses. Adjunct faculty continue to have access to instructional design support throughout the implementation and delivery of their course and will have staff support to monitor their students’ progress.
Southwestern seeks candidates who are passionate about teaching, have excellent written and oral communication skills, are highly organized, have a proven track record of meeting deadlines and producing deliverables on time, enjoy creating educational materials and recorded lectures, are committed to working with a wide range of students and working professionals, and are comfortable working in a remote and online environment and using a variety of technology. Candidates should be able to commit to teaching the online course for a minimum of four years.
Compensation: One-time $3,000 per credit for course development (e.g., the compensation to develop a 3-unit course would be $9,000) during an approximately a 4-to-6-month process. Compensation to teach the course will be $3,000-$4,500 per credit, depending on actual class size. Most classes will have an enrollment cap of 40 or fewer students.
To apply: Send your CV, letter of interest, professional references, and preferred areas of teaching via email to academicadmin@swlaw.edu and put “Adjunct Faculty Application – Online J.D. Program” in the email subject line. Review of applications will be ongoing beginning in March 2024. Interviews will be held via Zoom. Southwestern’s current course list is accessible at https://www.swlaw.edu/curriculum/courses.
Southwestern is an ABA-accredited, independent law school located in the center of Los Angeles. Our mission includes educating lawyers ready to serve clients, the profession, and our society with excellence, empowering students to reach their potential, cultivating inclusion and belonging, and shaping the law and public policy through teaching, scholarship, and service. Southwestern’s Mission and Core Values can be found here.
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis now and in the future.
This posting is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for performing the job. It is not a contract or employment agreement and should not be construed as an exhaustive statement of all functions, responsibilities, or requirements an adjunct faculty member may be required to perform. Also, Southwestern reserves the right to revise the job description at any time.