Vincent Buccola, ’08, will never forget his first experience at the Law School as a visitor, observing a class.

Sitting in on a torts class taught by Professor Saul Levmore, then dean of the Law School, Buccola listened intently. Then an undergraduate, Buccola loved reading legal decisions, finding the writing and reasoning fascinating, but was still a legal novice. Buccola snapped to attention when Levmore called on him to answer a question.

“I’m just visiting,” Buccola said. Levmore told him he knew. “You’re supposed to be smart, so you shouldn’t have to have read the material to answer the question,” Buccola recalled hearing. 

“I came away thinking it was so awesome and exactly the environment I wanted to be in,” Buccola said. “The dean is teaching the first years, knows who a random visitor is, and wants to engage and push him intellectually.”

After graduating from the Law School, Buccola didn’t know exactly what path he wanted to take. He clerked for Judge Frank Easterbrook, formerly a lecturer at the Law School, then worked for the firm Bartlit Beck for several years. Although these were great experiences, he realized that he didn’t want to spend his career traveling, being a trial lawyer, or even having clients. Still, he loved the law. 

During a lunch, Douglas Baird, the Harry A. Bigelow Distinguished Service Professor of Law, suggested that Buccola apply to be a Bigelow Fellow. There was one spot left, though it was nearing the end of the process. Buccola applied and was accepted. The writing, the research, and the teaching in the fellowship were everything he found thrilling about the law.

After a stint at The Wharton School and a visiting professorship at the NYU School of Law, Buccola is back at the Law School, now a professor. He teaches courses such as business organization and bankruptcy restructuring while researching related topics, and helps oversee the Bigelow Fellowship program. One project he’s now working on is understanding how parties go from a blank slate to a completed contract, finding that contracts often have precedents like legal cases.

Looking back on his path, Buccola feels grateful for finding a career he loves deeply. He’s glad to be back in the environment where he first felt so drawn into the law. 

Buccola's Advice to Aspiring Academics:

"Become an expert. To be a legal academic, you must know a subject well. What are the biggest issues in your niche? What are the hardest questions? Know these things and keep adding to your knowledge base."

This story is part of a series about Law School alumni in academia. View the full series here.