Bankers, Lawyers, Executives Jockey to Teach a University Class, Play Professor

[sonomak]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521800478591046.html

The Ultimate Power Hobby
Bankers, Lawyers, Executives Jockey to Teach a University Class, Play Professor
By KATHERINE ROSMAN

Robert S. Cohen, a divorce attorney who has represented Christie Brinkley and James Gandolfini, says his favorite trophy isn't his country home or his soon-to-be-renovated Manhattan apartment. It's the title "professor." Every Monday in the fall semester, Mr. Cohen rides the 2 pm Amtrak Acela train from New York City to Philadelphia, where he is an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Earlier this week, a driver shuttled him the few blocks to Gittis Hall on campus, where he grabbed coffee in the faculty lounge, chit-chatted with students and stopped by the dean's office.

At 4:30, with the jacket of his pinstriped suit off and a microphone clipped to his tie, Mr. Cohen welcomed the 33 students to his class, Anatomy of a Divorce. By 6:30, class had adjourned, and he headed to the White Dog Cafe, where he treated five students to what he called "a tablecloth dinner." He hopped into a waiting town car at 9 and was back in Manhattan by 11.

In a time of inconspicuous consumption, an adjunct-professorship at a prestigious university is a coveted token of success among finance, law and media professionals. Adjuncts lead college and graduate-level classes but aren't tenured or tenure-track faculty. The gigs are increasingly tough to land. Film producer Joe Pichirallo ("The Secret Life of Bees"), an adjunct at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles who teaches classes on the business of filmmaking, says agents and studio executives are approaching him in restaurants to ask if they can guest-lecture. "It's definitely become cool," Mr. Pichirallo says. "Who knows if I could get this job today."

At New York University School of Law, "several hundred" attorneys typically apply for the handful of adjunct slots available each year, says Dean Richard L. Revesz. Most offers end up going to judges, attorneys and public officials the Law School has reached out to....

[damntexdem]

1. Hired guns are important in academia, especially in applied disciplines.

Students get their discipline basics from their professors (or from grad students); but it helps to take some classes from actual practitioners.

[arbusto_baboso]

2. They know they are intellectually bankrupt, so they seek out the title to validate themselves.

Yes, it's that simple.

Once had a boss who taught economics classes part time at the local JC. He was so incompetent he was removed in the middle of the term.

That still doesn't stop him from running for the Community College District Board at every election. He desperately wants some acknowledgment of his intellect. In truth, he couldn't think his way out of a wet paper sack.