It also helps give you credibility with the students and with your faculty colleagues. Somehow, I think, it seems comforting to know that the Dean is slogging through a stack of bluebooks as the grading deadline approaches. Second, I m happy I taught Civil Procedure because teaching has always been my favorite part of the job. It would ve been alien for me to spend a year in a Law School without teaching any students. Now, my point is not to argue that every dean should teach in the first year.
Institutions have different customs and deans have different preferences.
But don t give up the things you like and do well. Neither you nor your institution will be better for it. If you think about all of the challenges that face law schools from admissions to fundraising, from building projects to information technology issues nobody could know all of this stuff. Sometimes it s easy to get the impression that you re supposed to, and probably some people will even have the unrealistic impression that you do. Fortunately, you have help.