Imposter Syndrome & The Non-Traditional Law Professor

Abstract

As members of the lower ranks of the hierarchical law school caste system, professors of legal skills courses are often branded as “others” in legal academia. This status is reinforced through weaker job security, less respect, and lower pay than received by their doctrinal colleagues. Given this inequality, imposter syndrome plays a pervasive role in the lives and careers of these “non-traditional” law professors. Relying on qualitative and associative data obtained from a survey of teaching faculty and staff at ABA accredited and approved law schools nationwide, this article analyzes how the law school hierarchy manifests as imposter syndrome in professors of legal skills courses and detrimentally impacts their relationships with colleagues; teaching; relationships with students; publication and promotion of scholarship; and personal health and wellbeing. Based on these findings, the article argues that the impacts of imposter syndrome on skills professors—many of which have gendered and racial implications—promote a recurring cycle of classism and discrimination within legal academia. Imposter syndrome is an institutionalized, rather than an individualized, problem and therefore must be addressed as such. Thus, this article concludes that the only way to reduce the insidious presence of imposter syndrome in legal academia is to dismantle the law school caste system and work towards equality.