The New York Times recently wrote about the declining relevance of law reviews, with the main argument being that the primary sources of legal scholarship should not be left in the hands of students.
In fact, in the article, Adam Liptak included quotes from sources like Chief Justice John Roberts maligning the significance of what was once a prestigious honor among law students.
Law Review Membership for Law Students
For those who are unaware, most, if not all, law schools have at least one scholarly publication that is published semi-annually. These periodicals include musings on the law from among the best and brightest in the legal field, including professors and practitioners. The topics of the articles can span many legal topics, from as broad an area as Constitutional law to the most niche practice group in a boutique law firm. These articles are submitted to student-run law reviews for publication.
This sounds elementary, but membership to your school’s law review is among the greatest honors a law student can receive. In these economic times of more lawyers and fewer legal jobs, a staff editor position continues to set students apart from their contemporaries. To obtain membership to these publications, schools have competitions between students during their first year, with varying entry-qualifications. At some schools, students with a certain first-year GPA are automatically offered admission to the review; other schools only permit entry to those who are in a certain percentile of their class.
In the world of legal education, membership to a journal or review can open doors that may otherwise be closed to the general student body. There are extra receptions, forums, and meet-and-greets with notable people in the law. In addition, during on-campus interview season, many of the top firms mandate membership on either a journal or moot court for serious consideration to join their ranks.
Law reviews are so important that many schools have other specialized reviews for students to join. Harvard Law School has 17 scholarly journals; Georgetown University Law Center has 11; Boston College Law, five; Howard Law, two; and UVA has 10. These secondary publications are also an important tool in establishing one’s legal career. Often if a student enters law school with the professional goal of working in intellectual property and patents, they are more likely to write on an IP-specific journal as opposed to the main journal. That way, the student is guaranteed to broaden his or her knowledge in that field of the law and have more networking opportunities with IP professionals. This is especially important, because networking leads to jobs, jobs leads to success, and success leads to happiness.
Post-law school impressions of Law Reviews
Liptak’s article is full of lines that would deter students from seeking membership into the elite world of law review membership. Sentences like, “student editors are mostly bright and work hard, but they are young, part-time amateurs who know little about the law…” are hardly encouraging. This is especially insulting when you consider the all-important “real world” aspect of law review work. Unlike doing well in a classroom full of hypotheticals or made-up legal writing scenarios, staff editors of law reviews are fixing the work of real legal scholars, which is an important part of the learning process.
Ask any law student who has ever had to do a source collect, or check the (often incorrect) citations submitted by legal scholars, and they will tell you that the work is tedious but it always gets done on time. When dealing with matters of import, these “part-time amateurs” always step up to the plate. Working on a law review gives students an impetus to work harder, because it is a rare time in law school, aside from internships and clinics, where the people involved are not hypothetical characters in a fact pattern.
Additionally, to every full-time attorney who had something disheartening to say to the students editing their work: you were not always an expert. Perhaps you fail to realize that twenty years ago, you were just another “mostly bright” law student editing an article that “no one relies on.”
Interestingly, Tyler Rosenbaum, the Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Law Review, made an astute observation in a New York Times letter to the editor: “…it is not the fault of students or of our law reviews that the grown-ups haven’t made [a solution].” This is especially true because law review membership follows lawyers throughout their careers. Good luck finding law professors who weren’t members while they were in school. As for the comment about law professors “[dumping] their lesser work onto their school’s students,” that’s a requirement for tenure-seeking professors. Publication in varied journals over a span of years is necessary for job security.
Perhaps it is because I am newly out of law school that I’m so incensed by this article’s point of view, or perhaps because I was one of those students who spent hours critiquing the work of professionals. More than that, though, is the hypocrisy of these legal scholars who are essentially biting the hand that fed them throughout their careers that really grinds my gears. And do not even get me started on talking about incompetence and lack of experience — heads up, you cannot get experience if no one gives you work.
[New York Times] [New York Times Op-Ed]
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Peter Davidson is a recent graduate of law school who rants about news & politics and raves over the ups & downs of FUNemployment in the current legal economy.
Featured image courtesy of [Tracie Hall via Flickr]