A JD turns out not to be very good preparation for academia, even legal academia. It's primarily a professional degree, so you end up with ideas about the legal system and the judiciary from an insider's perspective. Reading the opinions of courts on what the powers of courts ought to be is a fun way to spend three years and $150k, but if you want to actually understand the thing, you need some other kind of advanced training, at least in my opinion.
I was hoping not to have to do that.