Lecturer and Clinical Instructor, BU Law Appellate Clinic, Clinical and Experiential Programs, School of Law

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW (“BU Law”), a top‐tier law school with an international reputation, is a community of leading legal scholars, teachers, students, and alumni, dedicated to providing one of the finest legal educations in the world. Since our doors opened in 1872, we have admitted and enrolled accomplished students to our program regardless of their race, gender, and religion. The breadth and depth of our curriculum and scholarship as well as our innovative spirit are distinctive in legal education in the United States.

BU Law invites applications from candidates for a temporary full‐time Lecturer and Clinical Instructor to serve in its Appellate Clinic. Working closely with the other experiential faculty, the Lecturer and Clinical Instructor will teach and supervise law students engaged in direct representation of clients in appellate matters. This search is for a six-month temporary, non-tenure track, non-voting Lecturer and Clinical Instructor position without the possibility of renewal. The projected start date is January 20, 2025. Projected salary for the position is $8,333 per month.

The Appellate Clinic is part of BU Law’s Civil Litigation and Justice Program, which is home to three other clinics: the Access to Justice Clinic, the Civil Litigation Clinic, and the Community Economic Justice Clinic (CEJC). In each clinic, students engage in individual representation of clients facing barriers to accessing justice. 

The Appellate Clinic is a full-year, 12-credit clinic in which students take the lead, under the Clinic director’s supervision, in researching and writing complex appellate briefs for public interest cases in an intensive, collaborative learning environment. Appellate Clinic clients are individuals and entities otherwise unlikely to obtain quality representation either because they are indigent and can’t afford a lawyer or because their case is unlikely to generate substantial profit even though it’s important. For example, we represent civil-rights plaintiffs, employees fighting for fair workplaces, consumers, tenants, immigrants, and criminal defendants. We occasionally represent amici as well.

Student teams work under the close supervision of the Clinic’s director through multiple drafts of outlines and briefs. Every aspect of appellate advocacy—argument choice, argument ordering, use of authority, writing style and tone, and word choice, to name a few—are discussed and debated within the student team and with the clinic’s director. Our clients’ causes are worthy ones, and we have the time and resources to file briefs of the highest possible quality on their behalf.

Because of the Clinic’s year-length commitment, students will typically get to see an appeal through multiple stages. For example, students may work on an opening brief and a reply brief or other major litigation project like an appellate mediation, petition for certiorari, certiorari opposition, amicus brief, or oral argument. Students are also likely to gain experience working on cases involving different public-interest issues because the Clinic’s focus is on appellate skills, rather than any one particular area of the law.

Students participate in a weekly two-hour seminar that complements their casework. The Clinic uses seminar to conduct rounds, workshops, and moots, which all provide opportunities for students to engage not only on “their” principally assigned case but also with the other cases on the Clinic’s docket. We also use seminar for deep dives on legal doctrine arising in our cases, to further develop litigation skills like how to review a summary-judgment record or prepare for an appellate mediation, to discuss potential new cases, or to host special guests such as appellate litigators and judges.

The School of Law believes that the cultural and social diversity of our faculty, staff, and students is vitally important to the distinction and excellence of our academic programs. To that end, we are especially eager to hear from applicants who support our institutional commitment to BU as an inclusive, equitable, and diverse community.

The ideal candidate for this position is either an existing member of the Massachusetts bar or a member of another state’s bar who can waive into the Massachusetts bar or practice under Massachusetts Rule 3:04, which permits limited practice by attorneys from other jurisdictions who are providing legal assistance to indigent clients. Also, the ideal candidate possesses at least three years of appellate experience, including preferably experience as lead counsel in court of appeals cases that have been orally argued, experience with appellate motion practice, and experience with en banc and certiorari-stage decision making. Candidates with fewer years’ experience may be considered.

The hired faculty member will be responsible for teaching in the clinic’s seminar on topics related to effective lawyering skills and appellate law, providing supervision to law students on a broad range of related topics, engaging with broader policy issues in the field of appellate practice; and participating actively in the administration of the Clinic’s law practice. Candidates should have proven experience and strong research and writing skills and should work well as part of a team. Important qualities include outstanding interpersonal skills, adept management of a client docket with varying needs and issues, and a passion for work with public-interest clients. The ability to work sensitively with a diverse population of clients, students, and staff is essential. The hired faculty member may also be required to argue cases before federal courts of appeals and/or to prepare students to do the same.

Experience working with academics, non-profits, and advocacy organizations is a plus for consideration. Experience with clinical pedagogy is also preferred. Teaching and supervision experience are not required, though they may be given great value in the process.

Boston University School of Law is dedicated to building a just, inclusive, and engaged community of faculty and students. We recognize we have more work to do to achieve this vision. Boston University School of Law is committed not only to the ideals of faculty diversity and inclusion but also to the work of creating and implementing practices that combat exclusion and inequity by race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, religion, socioeconomic class, and other identities subject to historical subordination. We also strive to foster a more inclusive intellectual culture that represents and encourages a broad range of intellectual traditions and approaches to the law. We welcome expressions of interest from applicants of all identities, intellectual traditions, and perspectives.

How to Apply

DO NOT APPLY USING THIS WEBSITE. APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS ARE BELOW.

Applicants should send a letter of interest, a resume, and a recent legal writing sample to Madeline Meth, Director and Clinical Associate Professor, Boston University School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215. E-mail applications are encouraged and should be sent to mmeth@bu.edu. The writing sample should not be a collaborative work or significantly edited by someone else. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, starting soon after the position opens. To receive the most serious consideration of one’s application, a candidate should send their application before August 15, 2025. All open faculty positions are pending budgetary approval.

To learn more about the law school, visit our website at www.bu.edu/law.

BU conducts a background check on all final candidates for certain faculty and staff positions. The background check includes contacting the final candidate’s current and previous employer(s) to ask whether, in the last seven years, there has been a substantiated finding of misconduct violating that employer’s applicable sexual misconduct policies. To implement this process, the University requires a final candidate to complete and sign the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” after execution of an offer letter.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.