The University of Iowa College of Law is seeking a full-time faculty member to direct the College's Field Placement Program, including teaching and administrative responsibilities. Iowa’s Field Placement Program offers quality educational experiences that immerse students in the performance of legal work in government or non-profit agencies, criminal prosecution or defense offices, state and federal judges’ chambers, and international law offices and agencies, as well as in a newly approved in-house corporate setting. In addition to earning credit for their field work, students in field placements participate in faculty-taught classes designed to maximize students’ learning.
The Director’s teaching responsibilities are multifaceted. These responsibilities include teaching students enrolled in a field placement class, as well as teaching on-site supervisors and law faculty supervisors how to use experiential pedagogy to translate students’ field experiences into substantive, reflective, and engaged learning.
The Director’s administrative responsibilities include developing and managing relationships with legal service providers who partner with the law school to provide quality field placements. In addition to cultivating existing relationships and to identifying and developing new relationships with legal service providers, the Director will take the lead in advising students on complying with new experiential learning admission requirements for various states’ bars. The Director will also assist in developing appropriate law school responses to the ABA’s experiential learning standards. The Director is expected to substantively engage in national dialogues regarding field placements and other experiential education.
Required qualifications include a professional portfolio that demonstrates the effective teaching of law students or other adult learners and a background in experiential learning pedagogy. Candidates must hold a J.D. degree, have a strong academic record, and have at least five years of law-related professional experience after law school. Candidates must possess strong communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills. The successful candidate must have been admitted to a state bar and, if not already a member of the Iowa bar, become so within 12 months of accepting the appointment. (Before applying for the position, out of state candidates should review Iowa Court Rules 31.12 and 31.13.) The Director will be eligible for a clinical faculty position or other non-tenured/non-tenure-track form of faculty status, to be negotiated commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Confidential review of applications will begin immediately and continue until an appointment is made. To ensure full consideration, applications should be received by 10 September 2015 but applications will be considered thereafter until the position is filled.
Please apply by submitting a cover letter, resume, and the names and addresses of at least three professional references to: Faculty Appointments Committee, College of Law, The University of Iowa, Iowa City IA 52242-1113.
THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment free from discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, religion, associational preference, status as a qualified individual with a disability, or status as a protected veteran.