Supporting Junior Faculty Members
Mercer Law School is known for its small, tight-knit community with a long tradition of producing lawyers who are ready to practice and committed to serve. The school has earned a reputation as an excellent provider of legal education with an intense focus on student and faculty interaction. For more than 150 years, caring, accomplished, critical thinking professors have brought a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to Mercer Law School classrooms and to the legal profession. Many students and alumni report that the caring, supportive faculty is the best thing about Mercer Law. They share their time, knowledge, and resources, equipping legal professionals to practice with purpose.
What some might not know is that the Law School’s nationally and internationally renowned professors offer each other the same support and mentorship they offer students.
In the last two years, several new faculty members have joined the Law School. In an effort to help integrate junior faculty – defined as pre-tenure tenure-track faculty – into the existing Mercer Law community, a support group called the Junior Faculty Consortium (JFC) was created spring semester 2023.
The JFC was informal at first, but the group quickly realized they wanted to do something to capture the naturally collaborative spirit of the current pre-tenure faculty in a way that sets future faculty members up for similar success. In that sense the consortium is not just a learning community, it is a method of culture preservation which will help welcome and support new faculty as they join the Mercer Law community in the future. This will continue to help elevate faculty teaching skills, scholarly work, and community contributions for years to come.
Currently the group includes Assistant Professors of Law Meagan Hurley, ’19, Kaleb Byars, Margie Alsbrook, all of whom joined the faculty in 2023, and Sarah Klim, who began in 2025, and Associate Professor of Law Bonnie Carlson, who came to Mercer Law in 2021.
Professor Carlson, who spearheaded the JFC, said, “We wanted to create a group that could answer any and all questions for new faculty and provide support and community through the pre-tenure process. We have also made it clear that we are all available to one another to provide feedback on our scholarship. Several of us have exchanged draft journal articles to get feedback from one another and that has been very helpful.”
The group meets three times a semester and usually invites a guest speaker. For example, in the fall, Law Professor Daisy Floyd spoke about teaching techniques, Dean Karen Sneddon spoke about the role of the administration, Professor Carlson spoke about the contract and promotion process, and Professor Byars spoke about journal submission.
Professor Alsbrook said, “Next to our amazing students, the JFC is one of my favorite things about teaching at Mercer Law. We have a very collegial faculty, but the JFC is proactively helpful and supportive in a way that is rare in legal academia. Whether we are discussing scholarship, teaching techniques, or the deadlines of the job, we have open doors and open minds to each other’s questions – and we also gently push each other to get better. That uplifting attitude is a reflection of the positive community that we cultivate every day at Mercer Law.”
Professor Hurley said, “The JFC is one of the many distinguishing features of Mercer Law. A helpful hand or a listening ear is never more than a few doors down. As a newer law professor, I can’t begin to describe how grateful I’ve been for the community and support the JFC has provided me. I am so proud to be an inaugural member of this cohort, and I hope this organization will endure for many future generations of junior faculty to come.”
