If you are desperate to leave where you are and don’t care where you land, maybe the FAR is better, since you can rack up more interviews (and by definition you probably don’t care how ticked off your home Dean will be).

On the other hand, if you want to move for geographic reasons, there are probably very few schools you would prefer to the status quo. So in that case the FAR is a waste of time, since you will be (a) creating difficulty for yourself at the home school and (b) not materially enhancing your chances of getting what you really want.

And these I agree with. Sometimes you don’t have a choice but to go through the FAR process, but then you’re in difficult circumstances anyway.

So, for instance, when I was on the market, I actually had some good reasons for moving. My father-in-law was sick and the family and I were trying to get closer to Pittsburgh and a Jewish community. In short, a lot of people move for reasons unrelated to being unhappy at their current school. People leave for religious, geographical, family, and spouse job reasons, among others.

Another point, and I point this out in my lateral piece, during my time on the Ole Miss appointments committee, we hired two people who were laterals who submitted FAR forms and/or contacted us directly. We didn’t think they were desperate and they were excellent additions to our faculty.

Finally, I think if you are coming from a low tier law school, it is sometimes hard to get to conferences, symposiums, or even have “well-respected friends at other schools.” Indeed, with the lack of travel money for many schools in this economic environment, the old “get known” strategy outside of FAR and letters, might be that much harder.

In short, I still recommend keeping all options open and consider explaining your reasons for wanting to move during the interview process.