# Law Teachers, Postsecondary

US SOC code 25-1112. Markdown version of https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/25-1112

Also called: Law professor, Law faculty, Law school professor, Law teacher, Law lecturer.

## In brief

In May 2025, [BLS](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip) counted **20,060** US postsecondary law teachers, with median pay of **$128,500** a year. Of the BLS counts since 2003, the highest was **22,800**, in May 2024. The earliest figure here is [an estimate](https://www.aals.org/about/history/) of **1,200** from 1900, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for postsecondary law teachers: Learning management systems + video lecture, 2007 to 2022.

## What the sources say

### Official outlook

BLS projects employment to grow 2.6% from 2025 to 2035. Source: [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1112&ioType=o).

### AI exposure studies

- **58.8%** of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. [Eloundou and others, 2023](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv)

Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend. In May 2021 BLS changed how it estimates these counts (a model-based method using three years of survey data) and moved fully to the 2018 occupation codes, so part of a change across 2021 can come from the method rather than the work.

## Law Teachers, Postsecondary employment and pay by year

- On record since: 1774
- Latest US employment: 20,060 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [5]
- Latest US median pay: $128,500 (May 2025). Source: BLS OEWS May 2025 [9]
- Outlook: +2.6% by 2035. Source: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 [21]

### All 28 years of cited US data

| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1900 | 1,200 (estimate) | n/a | Est., AALS [1] |
| 1950 | 4,000 (estimate) | n/a | Est., Marquette University Law School [2] |
| 1956 | n/a | $6,800 (estimate) | Est., Higher Ed Data Stories [6] |
| 1975 | 8,500 (estimate) | $26,000 (estimate) | Est., LawHub (employment) [3]; Est., AHA Perspectives (pay) [7] |
| 2000 | 9,400 (estimate) | $75,190 | Est., Derived estimate of full-time law… (employment) [4]; BLS OEWS 2000 (pay) [8] |
| 2003 | 11,470 | $82,740 | BLS OEWS May 2003 [5] |
| 2004 | 12,580 | $87,290 | BLS OEWS May 2004 [5] |
| 2005 | 13,560 | $89,790 | BLS OEWS May 2005 [5] |
| 2006 | 11,870 | $87,240 | BLS OEWS May 2006 [5] |
| 2007 | 12,610 | $87,730 | BLS OEWS May 2007 [5] |
| 2008 | 12,490 | $93,210 | BLS OEWS May 2008 [5] |
| 2009 | 12,690 | $99,040 | BLS OEWS May 2009 [5] |
| 2010 | 14,620 | $94,260 | BLS OEWS May 2010 [5] |
| 2011 | 14,980 | $93,330 | BLS OEWS May 2011 [5] |
| 2012 | 15,260 | $99,950 | BLS OEWS May 2012 [5] |
| 2013 | 15,600 | $105,080 | BLS OEWS May 2013 [5] |
| 2014 | 15,990 | $109,980 | BLS OEWS May 2014 [5] |
| 2015 | 16,430 | $105,250 | BLS OEWS May 2015 [5] |
| 2016 | 16,010 | $111,210 | BLS OEWS May 2016 [5] |
| 2017 | 16,900 | $104,910 | BLS OEWS May 2017 [5] |
| 2018 | 16,990 | $111,140 | BLS OEWS May 2018 [5] |
| 2019 | 16,180 | $113,530 | BLS OEWS May 2019 [5] |
| 2020 | 14,930 | $116,430 | BLS OEWS May 2020 [5] |
| 2021 | 14,110 | $123,470 | BLS OEWS May 2021 [5] |
| 2022 | 14,830 | $108,860 | BLS OEWS May 2022 [5] |
| 2023 | 14,570 | $127,360 | BLS OEWS May 2023 [5] |
| 2024 | 22,800 | $126,650 | BLS OEWS May 2024 [5] |
| 2025 | 20,060 | $128,500 | BLS OEWS May 2025 [5] |

## Sources (94)

### Employment series

1. [AALS -- "History" (32 of 108 law schools became charter members at founding in 1900)](https://www.aals.org/about/history/), Association of American Law Schools
2. [Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog -- "Looking at the Increase in the Number of Law Schools and Law Students, 1950-2010" (July 2012)](https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2012/07/looking-at-the-increase-in-the-number-of-law-schools-and-law-students-1950-2010/), Marquette University Law School
3. [LawHub -- "Law School Enrollment Trends, 1963-2025" (LSAC historical data: 234% enrollment increase 1960-1980)](https://www.lawhub.org/trends/enrollment), Law School Admission Council
4. [Derived estimate of full-time law faculty circa 2000, reconstructed from ABA annual law-school faculty reports (~180 ABA-accredited schools) and ABA gender-diversity studies (32.5% female full-time faculty). Not a BLS OEWS table figure.](https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/how-many-tenured-law-professors-are-black-public-data-does-not-say), Derived from American Bar Association faculty data (ABA Journal)
5. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2024](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)

### Wage series

6. [Higher Ed Data Stories -- "Changes in Faculty Salaries Over Time" (AAUP historical salary trend data; faculty salaries 1970-72 to 1980-81 lagged inflation by a cumulative margin)](https://www.highereddatastories.com/2014/07/changes-in-faculty-salaries-over-time.html), Higher Ed Data Stories / AAUP sources
7. [AHA Perspectives -- "Faculty Salaries Decline in 1990-91" (historical context: 1972-81 period of below-inflation salary growth affecting law faculty)](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/faculty-salaries-decline-in-1990-91/), American Historical Association
8. [BLS OES 2000 national estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oes00nat.zip), Bureau of Labor Statistics
9. BLS OEWS, national cross-industry estimates (flat file), Bureau of Labor Statistics. Editions: [2003](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm03nat.zip), [2004](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm04nat.zip), [2005](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm05nat.zip), [2006](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm06nat.zip), [2007](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm07nat.zip), [2008](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm08nat.zip), [2009](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm09nat.zip), [2010](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm10nat.zip), [2011](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm11nat.zip), [2012](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm12nat.zip), [2013](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm13nat.zip), [2014](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm14nat.zip), [2015](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm15nat.zip), [2016](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm16nat.zip), [2017](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm17nat.zip), [2018](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm18nat.zip), [2019](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm19nat.zip), [2020](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm20nat.zip), [2021](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm21nat.zip), [2022](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm22nat.zip), [2023](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm23nat.zip), [2025](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm25nat.zip)
10. [BLS OEWS May 2024, national cross-industry estimates (flat file)](https://www.bls.gov/oes/special-requests/oesm24nat.zip), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

### Tool eras

11. [Litchfield Historical Society -- "Tapping Reeve House and Litchfield Law School" (history of the school, lecture-note method)](https://www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/museums/tapping-reeve-house-and-law-school/), Litchfield Historical Society
12. [Wikipedia -- Litchfield Law School (history, Tapping Reeve, James Gould, 1774-1833)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litchfield_Law_School), Wikipedia
13. [Britannica -- Christopher Columbus Langdell (1870 appointment, invention of case method, first casebook 1871)](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Columbus-Langdell), Encyclopaedia Britannica
14. [Harvard Gazette -- "From Law School to Business School -- evolution of the case method" (Langdell method and spread across institutions)](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/04/from-law-school-to-business-school-evolution-of-the-case-method/), Harvard Gazette
15. [Best Practices for Legal Education -- "Clinical Legal Education by the Numbers" (CLEPR history; clinical faculty growth)](https://bestpracticeslegaled.com/2022/01/05/clinical-legal-education-by-the-numbers/), Best Practices for Legal Education
16. [LawHub -- "Law School Enrollment Trends, 1963-2025" (enrollment and faculty growth context 1960-1990)](https://www.lawhub.org/trends/enrollment), Law School Admission Council
17. [Wikipedia -- Westlaw (history of computerized legal research database, 1975 launch)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westlaw), Wikipedia
18. [ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence -- Year 2 Report: AI as infrastructure in legal education; pandemic accelerated digital adoption (Dec 2025)](https://www.lawnext.com/2025/12/aba-task-force-ai-has-moved-from-experiment-to-infrastructure-for-the-legal-profession.html), ABA / LawNext
19. [Harvey -- Law School Alliance Program: 40+ partner schools including Stanford, NYU, Michigan, UCLA (Aug 2025)](https://www.harvey.ai/blog/harvey-launches-academic-program-with-law-schools), Harvey
20. [ABA Formal Opinion 512 -- Duty of competence for lawyer use of generative AI (Jul 2024)](https://library.law.unc.edu/2025/02/aba-formal-opinion-512-the-paradigm-for-generative-ai-in-legal-practice/), American Bar Association

### Forecasts and exposure studies

21. [BLS Employment Projections 2025-35, National Employment Matrix: 25-1112 Law teachers, postsecondary (2025: 25.8 thousand; 2035: 26.5 thousand; +2.6%)](https://data.bls.gov/projections/nationalMatrix?queryParams=25-1112&ioType=o), Bureau of Labor Statistics
22. [Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), "GPTs are GPTs", occupation-level exposure data occ\_level.csv (O\*NET-SOC 25-1112.00, human-rated β 0.588)](https://github.com/openai/GPTs-are-GPTs/blob/main/data/occ_level.csv), OpenAI

### Historical notes

23. [Wikipedia -- Litchfield Law School (history, Tapping Reeve, 1774-1833, 1,100+ alumni)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litchfield_Law_School), Wikipedia
24. [Harvard Law School -- "Looking back at the founding of Harvard Law School"](https://hls.harvard.edu/today/looking-back-founding-harvard-law-school/), Harvard Law School
25. [Britannica -- Christopher Columbus Langdell (1870 Harvard appointment, case method invention)](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Christopher-Columbus-Langdell), Encyclopaedia Britannica
26. [AALS -- "History" (founding in 1900; 32 charter members of 108 law schools)](https://www.aals.org/about/history/), Association of American Law Schools
27. [Best Practices for Legal Education -- "Clinical Legal Education by the Numbers" (CLEPR history; Ford Foundation 1968 launch)](https://bestpracticeslegaled.com/2022/01/05/clinical-legal-education-by-the-numbers/), Best Practices for Legal Education
28. [AHA Perspectives -- "Faculty Salaries Decline in 1990-91" (eight-year 1972-81 period of below-inflation faculty salary growth)](https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/faculty-salaries-decline-in-1990-91/), American Historical Association
29. [LawHub -- "Law School Enrollment Trends, 1963-2025" (LSAC data: 52,000 first-year peak 2010, trough ~37,000 by 2014)](https://www.lawhub.org/trends/enrollment), Law School Admission Council
30. [Excess of Democracy: law schools have shed 7% of their full-time faculty in the last five years (ABA required disclosures, 2017 and 2022)](https://excessofdemocracy.com/blog/2023/11/law-schools-have-shed-7-of-their-full-time-faculty-in-the-last-five-years), Excess of Democracy (ABA required disclosures data)
31. [ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence -- Year 2 Report: AI as infrastructure in legal education; 55% of schools offer AI courses (Dec 2025)](https://www.lawnext.com/2025/12/aba-task-force-ai-has-moved-from-experiment-to-infrastructure-for-the-legal-profession.html), ABA / LawNext

### Predecessors & successors

32. [Harvard Law School -- "Harvard Law's First Century" (Harvard professors in early decades drew from practicing bar)](https://hls.harvard.edu/today/harvard-laws-first-century/), Harvard Law School
33. [AALS -- "The American Law School Faculty Study" (professional background of law faculty; clerkship as standard pre-academic credential)](https://www.aals.org/research/faculty-study/), Association of American Law Schools

### Present-day analysis

- [O\*NET 30.3 — Law Teachers, Postsecondary (25-1112.00)](https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/25-1112.00), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Eloundou et al. 2024 — GPTs are GPTs (Science)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Harvey — Law School Alliance Program: 40+ partner schools, Stanford, NYU, Michigan, UCLA, UT, Notre Dame (Aug 2025)](https://www.harvey.ai/blog/harvey-launches-academic-program-with-law-schools), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Harvey Academy — "Preparing for Legal Work" free course for law students at partner schools (Aug 2025)](https://www.harvey.ai/blog/harvey-academy-law-schools-course), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Suffolk Law — Required AI curriculum via Hotshot for all 1Ls (2025-26 academic year)](https://www.suffolk.edu/news-features/news/2025/05/31/21/26/suffolk-law-partners-with-hotshot-for-required-ai-course), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Thomson Reuters × Hotshot — 120,000+ law students access Transactional Practice and AI Foundations tracks (2025)](https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/innovation/thomson-reuters-and-hotshot-partner-to-close-the-gap-between-law-school-and-legal-practice/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence — Year 2 Report: AI has moved from experiment to infrastructure (Dec 2025)](https://www.lawnext.com/2025/12/aba-task-force-ai-has-moved-from-experiment-to-infrastructure-for-the-legal-profession.html), accessed 2026-05-24
- [ABA Formal Opinion 512 — Duty of competence for lawyer use of generative AI (Jul 2024)](https://library.law.unc.edu/2025/02/aba-formal-opinion-512-the-paradigm-for-generative-ai-in-legal-practice/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Magesh et al., Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (2025) — Hallucination-Free? Assessing the Reliability of Leading AI Legal Research Tools (Lexis+ AI ~17%, Westlaw AI ~33%)](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jels.12413), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Thomson Reuters — AI case study for law professors: MootMentorAI, Socratic simulation tools built on ChatGPT/Claude in 1-2 hours without coding](https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/legal/ai-law-professors/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Postsecondary Teachers: 7% growth 2024-2034, median wage $83,980 May 2024](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/postsecondary-teachers.htm), accessed 2026-05-24
- [National Jurist — AI enters the classroom as law schools prep students for a tech-driven practice (2025)](https://nationaljurist.com/ai-enters-the-classroom-as-law-schools-prep-students-for-a-tech-driven-practice/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [LexisNexis — Lexis+ with Protégé Faculty Instructor Guide and Teaching Toolkit for law schools (Feb 2026)](https://www.lawnext.com/2026/02/lexisnexis-launches-lexis-with-protege-replacing-lexis-ai-with-an-end-to-end-workflow-platform.html), accessed 2026-05-24
- [ABA Task Force on Law and AI — 2024 law school survey: 55% of schools offering AI courses; demand for qualified faculty growing (Dec 2025)](https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/12/aba-ai-task-force-report-examines-opportunities-challenges/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Turnitin — AI writing detection: signal not verdict; false-positive risk for non-native English speakers (2025)](https://www.turnitin.com/solutions/topics/ai-writing/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Gradescope — AI-assisted answer grouping: 30-50% grading time reduction; 3,000+ institutions (2025)](https://www.gradescope.com/), accessed 2026-05-24
- [OpenAI — ChatGPT Edu: CSU system-wide deployment (460k+ students, 63k+ faculty across 23 campuses, Feb 2025)](https://campustechnology.com/articles/2025/02/05/california-state-university-launches-systemwide-chatgpt-edu-deployment.aspx), accessed 2026-05-24
- [Thomson Reuters CoCounsel Legal with Deep Research — multi-step legal research using Westlaw + Practical Law in parallel (Aug 2025)](https://www.lawnext.com/2025/08/thomson-reuters-launches-cocounsel-legal-with-agentic-ai-and-deep-research-capabilities-along-with-a-new-and-final-version-of-westlaw.html), accessed 2026-05-24

How to read these figures: https://futurehistory.earth/methodology. Every figure links to its own source; gaps stay gaps.