The American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice (the Section) is pleased to announce the establishment of the ABA Administrative Law Fellowship. The fellowship aims to diversify the cohort of legal academics in administrative law and regulatory practice by positioning lawyers currently in practice to be successful job candidates in the academic market. The fellowship is a two-year program that pairs fellows with mentors in the legal academy and provides other support for entry into legal teaching.

Fellowship Details. The core of the two-year fellowship program is matching each fellow with one primary mentor and two secondary mentors in the legal academy. The goal of the mentoring match is to assist fellows with developing a research agenda, job-talk paper, and other application materials for the legal academic job market (doctrinal and clinical). The program will also provide some general training on research methods and strategy. The program seeks to affiliate fellows with a law school to provide access to online research and publication resources. Fellows will have the opportunity to present their work in connection with the Section’s annual Fall Conference. The fellowship will provide up to $1,500 a year to defer the costs of travel and accommodations for participation in the Section’s Fall Conference and hiring conferences, as well as membership in the ABA and the Section.

Application Information. The Selection Committee is charged with identifying “lawyers with scholarly promise and a strong interest in teaching who would contribute to the diversity of the legal academy in the fields of administrative law and/or regulatory practice.” Fellows are expected to be employed full-time in legal practice. Application materials should include:

1. a cover letter that explains the candidate’s interest in the fellowship and how the candidate fits the fellowship criteria, including a diversity statement, and addresses why the candidate believes this fellowship opportunity is better suited to their circumstances than a full-time law school-run fellowship or Visiting Assistant Professor position, and identifies at least two references;
2. a resume; and
3. a writing sample, which may be material produced for legal practice, a blog, an article, a report, or other written work.

Applications are due on or before September 15, 2021, and should be sent via e-mail with attachments in pdf format to anne.kiefer@americanbar.org. The Selection Committee aims to select four fellows for the inaugural class of the fellowship.

Questions. If you have questions about the fellowship or the application, please direct them to Professor Kevin Stack, Chair of the ABA’s Program for Prospective Administrative Law Scholars, at kevin.stack@vanderbilt.edu.