Law School Hiring, Both Entry-Level and Lateral:
Initial round-ups of faculty hiring at U.S. law schools came online today. Legal Theory Blog has the scoop on entry-level hires, and Concurring Opinions has posted the initial reports of law school faculty lateral moves. Some of the info at CO has appeared at Leiter's Law School Reports over the last few months, but some of it is new.
As I recall, there are many more applicants seeking positions through the AALS process every year than there are open positions. But I don't have hard numbers available offhand, and I don't know if anyone has ever tried to quantify how much hiring goes on outside the AALS process.
Of course, that does not necessarily imply there is an "overproduction" in the humanities sense. A JD, of course, has many other professional uses, and this may be just one option among many for the AALS applicants. In contrast, humanities PhDs often have limited utility if you cannot get a job as a professor.
A potential law professor is just a smart lawyer who has written a few articles. Given that, potential law professors aren't really "produced," they just apply. And if they don't get a job, they just stick with their preexisting job in legal practice.