Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Best Athlete or Curricular Need?

In a post that’s mainly about which specialties are most in demand, Brian Leiter opines that:

Bear in mind that while the top 15-20 law schools, plus a few others (e.g., George Mason, San Diego etc.), generally do “best athlete” hiring (sometimes with an eye, of course, to curricular needs), the vast majority of law schools do curricular-driven hiring.

My experience at both UCLA and Illinois was to the contrary. While it’s true that UCLA sometimes has done a least one best athlete available hire over the last 10+ years (e.g., when they hired me ), for the most part at both schools hiring has been driven, say, 70% by curricular need rather than raw talent/credentials. Add in, say, 30% for the old boy and new boy/girl networks, and pure best athlete available hires have been few and far between.