ADJUNCTS AND FULL-TIME FACULTY

A generation ago, when few law professors considered ethics to be their principal field of emphasis, ethics courses were often underemphasized.. That meant that these classes were often taught by adjunct professors, recruited from among local practitioners and loyal alumni.

In the years since, teaching ethics has moved much closer a core academic approach expected in other key courses. AALS section workshops have focused on how better to teach the subject, while individual law schools, some funded by foundations such as the Keck Foundation in the 1990's, have presented conferences on teaching ethics. Legal ethics centers were founded at several law schools.

While there are more full-time professors who now teach ethics in their regular course rotation, there still remain many schools that largely rely on adjunct professors to teach this important subject.

Is this a vestige of the past, or is there an advantage to having adjuncts teaching this material, once they are properly trained and informed? Many see the continued heavy presence of adjuncts as a sign that not much has changed. Others, such as we at USF, (LINK to who we are page under subhead "Other ethics faculty") see the use of adjuncts as a way of exposing students to practical, current, and accessible course instruction.

MAKING CHOICES

At most law schools, the reality is that those who want to bring ethics or professional responsibility classes into the fold as full-fledged parts of the core curriculum have work yet to do. They will have choices to make-between adding a unit of credit and decreasing class size, using new faculty or giving incentives for experienced professors to prepare a new class, and whether and how to use adjunct professors.

Choices also have to be made about how the course should be taught-and realistic decisions about the cost of various alternatives-undoubtedly will be part of the equation.

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