Sections are chapters within the Association of American Law Schools. There are more than 100 free sections for law school faculty, administrators, and staff that are organized around various academic disciplines, affinity groups, and areas of professional interest. New law faculty are encouraged to join one or more sections and connect with colleagues across the country.

Sections engage their membership throughout the year through a variety of efforts. Most sections host email discussion groups where members have conversations about latest developments and scholarship in their field. Section leaders also keep members informed through newsletters and organize webinars on timely topics. Many sections also host annual awards, offer mentorship programs for early career faculty, produce works-in-progress programs, and compile teaching resources, among other activities. Sections also plan most of the programs at the Annual Meeting.

To join any section, you must be associated with an AALS Member or Fee-Paid School. If you are not associated with an AALS Member or Fee-Paid School, please fill out this form to request Section memberships. AALS staff will get back to you.

To join, please sign in HERE and select all sections that you would like to be a member of from the list and click save at the bottom. Please note that sections are free and the only fee-paid section is the Section on Clinical Legal Education, which requires you to purchase the membership HERE.

The following information is from the AALS Executive Committee Regulations. Please reach out to sections@aals.org to receive the necessary documents.

Upon receiving a petition signed by at least 50 full-time faculty members or professional staff from at least 25 member schools, AALS’s Executive Committee may provisionally establish a Section. The petition should include: (1) the Section’s proposed name, (2) subject area(s) that will be the Section’s concern, (3) proposed programs and activities of the Section, (4) the names of the initial officers and executive committee members of the Section (who will serve until the first Annual Meeting of AALS after the Section is granted provisional status), and (5) the Section’s proposed bylaws (which will become the initial bylaws of the Section, if provisional status is granted).

The Executive Committee may grant provisional status to the proposed Section if it finds that: (i) the petition and the proposed bylaws conform to the requirements of this chapter, (ii) the proposed subject area(s) do not materially duplicate that of another Section, and (iii) establishing the Section serves the interests of AALS.

Each Section’s bylaws (whether having full or provisional status) should provide for an executive committee of at least five persons including a Chair, a Chair-Elect, and any other officers the Section determines. Section officers should file proposed amendments to a Section’s bylaws with the Executive Director who should review them for conformity with the Bylaws and Regulations of AALS. If a proposed amendment to the Section’s bylaws does not comply with AALS’s Bylaws or these Regulations, the Executive Director or the Executive Director’s designee should notify the Section Chair and work with the Section to ensure that the proposed amendments are consistent with AALS Bylaws and these Regulations.

Two years after receiving provisional status, a Section may petition the Executive Committee for full status. A Section has up to three years from receiving provisional status to file the petition. The petition should (i) describe the Section’s activities during the period of provisional status, including all programs presented, (ii) state the estimated attendance for each program, (iii) attach copies of newsletters and other publications and (iv) provide funding details. The petition must be signed by the Chair and the Chair-Elect of the Section. If the Executive Committee finds that the Section has served the interests of AALS during its provisional status and that it will continue to do so, it may grant full status to the Section.

Failure to petition for full status on or before the third anniversary of the grant of provisional status will automatically dissolve the Section unless the period of provisional status is extended by the Executive Committee. A Section with provisional status will automatically dissolve upon failure to apply for full status at the end of any extension period granted by the Executive Committee.

Section’s will post about open positions on their discussion list. The section will either meet in person at the Annual Meeting or prior to it, to fill open positions. If you would like to express interest, please reach out to the leadership found on each section’s page.

You can view the details of AALS Committees HERE. Every spring the president-elect begins work on committee appointments for the subsequent year and appoints members of the standing committees for three-year terms and then the special committees and planning committees for one-year terms.

Sign in HERE and uncheck the sections you would like to be removed from and click save at the bottom.

View the description of positions here: Description-of-Section-Leadership-Positions-and-Regulations.pdf

There are three ways to post to a section discussion board:

1. By sending an email to a Section’s unique email address. You can find a list of those address HERE.
2. Creating a post to the discussion list. Find the relevant discussion list by logging in to https://aalschools.connectedcommunity.org/home with your AALS credentials. Click on the create button in the top right and discussion thread to create a post. This will post and send an email to the members of the section or “group” you select. In these posts you can add files that will end up in the Discussion List Library.
3. Replying to the discussion email thread received in your inbox. When you reply, make sure to double check if you want to reply all or just to the sender.

• If you receive a message that your post failed, please make sure you are logged in to the correct email address that AALS has for you.
• If you forget your password, you can select forgot my password HERE.
• Your drafts can be found when logged in by clicking on your circle profile icon in the top right > profile (redirected to your profile) > My Contributions dropdown > My list of contributions > your draft post will be listed in there to post.

To access the section’s homepage and discussion through the section website, you will need to be a member of the section and have your AALS account username and password. This should be the same as your email and password with your institution. If you do not know your log in contact sections@aals.org.

You can access all your communities by visiting https://aalschools.connectedcommunity.org/home. Or navigate directly to your section’s webpage under Sections https://stg-aalsmultisite-staging.kinsta.cloud/sections/. Click your section’s page and then click on the “Section Members” button. Log in with your username and password.

In addition to the section discussion board, you will also find the section library and announcements page there. If you have any difficulty logging in or posting to discussion lists, feel free to reach out to AALS Sections Support at any time.

Follow this link: updating discussion list notification preferences.

Full info on having a webinar with AALS is here: Guide on Section Webinars and Discussions | Association of American Law Schools.

All previous webinars that have been recorded can be found HERE.

A specific section’s past programming can be found on its webpage, which are linked on the section’s page.

Each section’s webpage has a list of its resources including section leadership, bylaws, past newsletters, webinars, and more. These pages can be accessed through the list of sections HERE.

If you are a section leader, your resources are HERE.

Your page has to be updated by AALS Staff. You can submit to have changes and attach documents HERE or you can email us at sections@aals.org.

To find a section’s past programming, navigate to the section’s page. Past programs can be found for each section under the Annual Meeting Programs dropdown.

AALS does not reimburse or discount hotel or travel for Section Officers who attend the Annual Meeting. We do provide up to $900 reimbursement for non-law speakers and $100 for section award plaques. We do not provide any honorariums for section speakers.

Joint programs are planned cooperatively between 2 or more Sections, and Sections participating in a joint program do not typically plan a separate independent program.

Sponsored programs lend only a Section’s support of a program. Sections do not have any involvement in the planning process of a program they are co-sponsoring. Keep in mind AALS tries not to schedule your section’s programs at times when your section is also sponsoring. We recommend sponsoring only a maximum of 2 programs to avoid overlap and conflicts.