This detailed study of the lived experience of legal academics explores not only the culture of legal academia and the professional identities of law teachers, but also addresses some of the most pressing issues currently facing the discipline of law. How do legal academics 'embody' themselves as law teachers, and how does this affect the nature of the law they teach and study? In the context of the RAE, the QAA and all the other pressures facing universities, legal academics discuss the realities of contemporary legal academia in the UK. -AT