Assistant Professor of Legal Practice for Legal Writing/Academic Success Program (00020028)

This position is located at NIU Law’s new Naperville campus and will primarily focus on teaching in the Part-Time J.D. Program. This position will be expected to coordinate with and work in a collaborative relationship with the legal writing faculty at the DeKalb campus.

Two Campuses, One Law School

Although the PTJD Program will be located in Naperville, it will operate as one law school along with NIU Law’s DeKalb location.

Faculty at the PTJD Program are full members of the NIU Law community and will have service commitments that integrate with faculty in DeKalb. Travel to DeKalb for some service commitments, such as attending faculty meetings, is required.

This position may also need to travel to DeKalb to meet with legal writing faculty at the full-time program.

The Assistant Professor of Legal Practice will teach Legal Writing and Advocacy (LWA) I and II. Each two-credit course is required for first-year students. LWA I focuses primarily on objective writing, while LWA II centers on persuasive writing and oral advocacy.

In addition to, and in conjunction with the Legal Writing Program, NIU Law assists law students in achieving their greatest potential through the Academic Success Program (ASP). There are numerous components to ASP throughout the course of the students’ academic career at NIU Law that the Legal Writing/ASP professors are responsible for delivering. As part of ASP, select incoming 1L students are required to participate in a Jump Start Orientation program the week prior to the 1L Orientation. These students are instructed in basic analytical and rule development skills during a week of writing-intensive course work taught and implemented by the Legal Writing/ASP professors.

The Legal Writing/ASP professors, together with the Director of Legal Writing and the Director of Academic Success, are responsible for the delivery of the legal writing and academic success programs at NIU Law. The Academic Success and Legal Writing programs are intentionally linked to reflect the College of Law's commitment to integrated student support, ensuring that academic skill-building and legal writing instruction reinforce one another throughout a student's development. Accordingly, this position reports directly to the Director of Legal Writing and coordinates programmatically with the Assistant Dean for Academic Success. This is a ten-month position within the University.

Methods of Teaching and Schedule

The PTJD Program’s class schedule is built around its students’ professional lives. Class formats include:

Professors will be expected to engage in and master in-person, online synchronous, and online asynchronous teaching methods.

Faculty teaching in the PTJD Program are expected to be physically present on the Naperville campus on at least three days per week during the academic year. This is not a remote position.

NIU Law values faculty members who understand and embrace the distinctive needs of non-traditional law students. Teaching effectiveness, accessibility to students, and a commitment to in-person engagement are central expectations of this role.

In addition to teaching in Naperville, faculty members are expected to attend institutional events and contribute to the broader NIU Law community, which includes Fall Orientation, Spring Commencement in DeKalb, and other key law school events.

Candidates should have a demonstrated experience with or express a willingness to master synchronous and asynchronous online legal instruction. Professors should also have a commitment to staying current on distance education best practices and emerging instructional technologies.

Preferred candidates will have either a demonstrated capacity for or expressed willingness to master the following:

The ability and willingness to remain proficient and up to date on best practices in distance education is an ongoing expectation of this position, not merely a hiring preference.