To Teach or Not to Teach

This essay, one of various symposium essays by law deans on legal education, addresses the significant trend among deans toward doing little or no teaching. The essay identifies various reasons, ranging from financial to symbolic to personal, why deans should teach. It then considers the weightiness of those reasons compared to that of the one truly formidable reason against deans teaching - too many things to do and too little time to do them. After noting some possible ways of structuring one's teaching to keep the time commitment within reasonable bounds, the essay suggests that on balance the trend away from deans teaching is one best reversed