What Is the Cost of a Law Review Article by a Top Prof? Estimate Is $100K
Top law professors make big bucks—money that supports law review articles that can cost as much as $100,000 each in salaries and other costs, according to an estimate made at a conference on the future of legal education.
The cost can range from $100,000 for an article by a well-paid tenured professor at a top school to $25,000 for an article by an assistant professor at a lower-paying school, says Hofstra University law professor Richard Neumann. He made his estimate at a Future Ed conference in New York last weekend, the National Law Journal reports.
Neumann’s estimate assumes the professor spends up to 50 percent of his or her time on scholarship and writes one article a year. The figure is based on salary, benefits, possible research grants, and the cost of research assistants.
Neumann argued that expensive research doesn’t necessarily benefit students who end up paying for the articles through their tuition, the story says. He cited research suggesting that 43 percent of law review articles are never cited elsewhere. “At least a third of these things have no value,” he said. “Who is paying for that? Students who will graduate with six figures of debt.”
