What options are available for attorneys looking to enter the world of legal academics? What logistical steps should you take to if you’re interested in becoming a professor? The Legal Career Transitions Committee has compiled resources to help as you transition into academia.
Legal Academics Career Transition Video Series
View the videos below to hear from attorneys who have transitioned into a career in academia:
Grace Wankiiri Orsatti, Professor of Law, Duquesne University
Grace Wankiiri Orsatti, JD, is Director of the Wills and Healthcare Directives Clinic and Pro Bono Program, and Assistant Clinical Professor at Duquesne Kline School of Law. Her work is centered on advancing elder justice through pro bono, interdisciplinary, and experiential learning initiatives. Her scholarship examines legal and ethical aspects of end-of-life planning, aging and the law, and health justice. She publishes and speaks regularly on matters concerning aging, law and bioethics. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Advisory Council on Elder Justice in the Courts and the Pennsylvania Bar Association Elder Law Section Council. She is currently completing a Master of Science in Bioethics degree at Harvard Medical School. In in Fall 2025, she will transition to an Associate Professor position at Syracuse University College of Law where she will continue her scholarship and teaching in bioethics, health law, and estate and incapacity planning. Find Grace on LinkedIn!
Katherine C. Pearson, Professor of Law, Penn State Dickinson Law
Katherine C. Pearson is a Professor of Law and the Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her scholarship focuses on laws and policies connected to aging and she has frequently included age-related issues in her teaching of courses on contract law, conflicts of law and nonprofit organizations law. She is the author of articles and chapters on access to justice, long-term care, continuing care communities, financing and filial obligations, and is the co-author of a treatise, The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation (Bisel 2011). She authored chapters for the Research Handbook on Law, Society and Ageing, published in 2024 as part of a series on law and society handbooks offered by international publisher Edward Elgar. She is a 2024-2025 Fulbright Scholar in Canada and was in residence at the University of Ottawa in the Fall of 2024 as the Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics. Her earlier experience as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar (based at the Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, and working in Ireland, Portugal, and the U.K. in 2009-10), resulted in publications, including an article with an international, historical perspective on ethical concerns for attorneys representing older adults, entitled “The Lesson of the Irish Family Pub,” published by Stetson Law Review.
Other Resources
PBA Legal Academics Committee