The Harvard Law Record has a very interesting report on remarks Harvard lawprof Daryl Levinson recently gave to Harvard law students about how to become a law professor. I thought this comment was particularly amusing if it was reported accurately:

[P]ractical legal experience is not a good predictor of scholarly ability, and, Levinson noted, "is pretty nearly disqualifying." Levinson pointed out that today's younger professors have no significant practical experience, and that if they tried to become involved in the world, "the world would probably recoil in horror."

Also note the Q&A at the bottom of the story; Levinson makes a number of worthwhile points.

  UPDATE: Professor Levinson writes in with a clarification:

For what it's worth, the Record's summary is a bit misleading. The quote they used was taken from my parodic description of hiring trends at HLS in particular—where it is true that most (though not all) of the entry-levels hired over the past few years are PhDs without significant practice experience. This was in the broader context of my describing the general trend in legal academia away from the profession and towards the academy, and the concomitant decline in the number of entry-level hires who come with high-level practice experience (i.e., more than a few years in practice)—obviously not to zero. I actually expressed some doubt about whether this trend has been good for legal education. That's certainly a point worth debating.