dropping law review Forum

[matty]

What are the disadvantages, if any, of quitting law review? I literally have no free time because of LR (finishing up my fourth weekend in a row of working pretty much straight through Friday afternoon til Sunday night on it, and that's not even taking into account all the time I spend on it during the week). I hate it more than any job I've ever had. It's gonna end up killing my grades too. I already have a summer position from a Vault 50 firm, and getting it had little to do with LR as far as I know (it didn't even come up in the interview). My only concern is that it will negatively affect my prospects for clerkships or academia, which are paths I'm sorta considering. Any thoughts?

[minuit]

don't do it... don't do it!!!! maybe you can find some other people who are on LR and talk with them about it.... bitch-fest together may make you feel better

[Aberzombie1892]

1. What school?
2. Did you grade on or write on?

If you go to the right school, it won't matter. If you graded on, it likely won't matter.

Any other situation - I would suggest staying on.

[matty]

don't do it... don't do it!!!! maybe you can find some other people who are on LR and talk with them about it.... bitch-fest together may make you feel better

Yeah, I did this the other day. One girl said she cries all the time because it's so much work (I know all LRs require a lot of work, but I seriously think we have more than others. Right now I have a 15 page fully footnoted case comment due, plus an article edit, plus a source collection, plus some training sessions to attend. As soon as these are all done this week, I have 2 weeks to choose and research a note topic and then I have to start writing it). On the one hand, the bitching made me feel a little better. ON the other hand....why the fuck are we doing this to ourselves? I will already have no life when I'm at a big firm after LS, is it really worth it to have no life while in LS either (1L, in comparison to this year, was a breeze and nothing but free time most of the year)

[matty]

1. What school?
2. Did you grade on or write on?

If you go to the right school, it won't matter. If you graded on, it likely won't matter.

Any other situation - I would suggest staying on.

Top 30 school, so I'm not gonna get by on school reputation alone (in fact, I think one of the reasons they're working us so hard and making us do extra assingnments like the case comment, which was never assigned before, is our LR ranking dropped out of the Top 30. I would seriously like to shower the building where all these stupid rankings are compiled with anthrax).

Technically wrote on, but grades are in the top 3-4% of the class.

[JG Hall]

at my school, if you quit (or get kicked off of) any journal, the school notifies your (future) employer. it doesn't look good, even if they don't revoke your offer.

[Bumi]

Top 30 school

...

our LR ranking dropped out of the Top 30.

Yikes. I am hoping to go there.

[spondee]

My only concern is that it will negatively affect my prospects for clerkships or academia, which are paths I'm sorta considering. Any thoughts?

If you're serious about these interests - and considering your school isn't HYS - then, yeah, you should stick it out.

[ZXCVBNM]

so many would rob, cheat and steal to be in your situation. i don't mean to be a jerk but if you can't hack this then maybe you should drop lr and if the firm drops you then it might be for the best b/c firm life is much worse. or....suck it up and take care of business. you'll regret dropping it forever most likely.

[king3780]

so many would rob, cheat and steal to be in your situation. i don't mean to be a jerk but if you can't hack this then maybe you should drop lr and if the firm drops you then it might be for the best b/c firm life is much worse. or....suck it up and take care of business. you'll regret dropping it forever most likely.

I agree that he may regret it later, but I hate the "other people would love the be in your shoes" argument. Are you the same guy who when he hears someone complain that work is miserable because the boss piles on work and uses the economy as an excuse not to hire more people so he can increase profits, says "at least you have a job." Just because someone else is worse off, doesn't mean the OP isn't in a crappy spot. You say other other law students would rob, cheat and steal to be on law review. Well, some people would rob, cheat and steal just to be in law school. Other people would do anything just to get a bachelor's degree. Others would love to just finish high school. Etc, etc. There's always someone worse off than you, that doesn't mean you don't have the right to lament your current state.

[Oban]

just slack on LR to minimum not to be asked to leave/kicked off.

[20160810]

I had no idea that notifying future employers was required if you change around your journal status. Huh.

I was going to encourage you to quit, but I guess tough it out. I don't see why you couldn't quit after 2L though.

[sk95]

doesn't it look bad if you go from getting A's to getting C's because of law review?

[Renzo]

I had no idea that notifying future employers was required if you change around your journal status. Huh.

I was going to encourage you to quit, but I guess tough it out. I don't see why you couldn't quit after 2L though.

Law reviews would all die in their cribs if it didn't. Seriously, who would do the work after everyone has jobs? (ok, one or two uber-gunners, but they couldn't do it alone). That's also why they front-load all the work into 2L; everyone knows the non-board 3L's aren't doing jack.

[BobSacamano]

LR has taken more time than I thought it would, but not so much that I need to put in the hours that you describe. What's the point of your 15-page case comment? Do you have to do a note on top of that?

Also, I would be verrrrrrrrrry careful with your assumption that your SA firm didn't care that much about you being on law review. They're hiring you at least partly because your credentials look nice on your web bio (and obviously to future clients). They may have given very little weight to that factor but it was still a factor.

[matty]

Thanks for the responses, guys. It would seem a bit more serious of a decision than I thought, so I'll need to give it more thought.

so many would rob, cheat and steal to be in your situation. i don't mean to be a jerk but if you can't hack this then maybe you should drop lr and if the firm drops you then it might be for the best b/c firm life is much worse. or....suck it up and take care of business. you'll regret dropping it forever most likely.

I see what you're saying, but *you* try working from basically 9AM til 1 AM every day, then take away going out at night on weekends, then take away watching college football on Saturdays (yes, important to me), then take away watching NFL on Sundays, then see how you feel. I think having no leisure or social time is something I legitimately have a right to be upset about it.

I'm in the middle of basically exactly what you've described. Is it really that bad? I mean.. yeah I have to work some weekends, and it sucks, but idk.. it doesn't see that bad.

You have to do the case comment and write a note, while doing edits and source collections too? Seriously asking, I want to know if this much work is normal. And it was also exacerbated by the fact that I was traveling very frequently for interviews. It should get a little better now that that's done with, hopefully.

What's the point of your 15-page case comment? Do you have to do a note on top of that?

Yes -- as I said, we have two weeks basically from the time our case comment is due to submit a note topic. Then we start writing, with preliminary drafts being due shortly after that in intervals. The case comment, as far as I can tell, is just more shit to publish to make the journal look more productive. I suppose its also to acclimate us to note writing -- but they could have chosen something much less intensive. Mine is going to end up being the better part of 20 pages, with almost a couple hundred footnotes from over 20 sources. Not ungodly work-intensive, but certainly way too much to dump on us--in addition to our note and other LR responsibilities--right in the middle of interview season.

[Danteshek]

If you are not enjoying writing your note (it shouldn't feel like work), then you picked the wrong topic

[worldtraveler]

This thread is making me very glad I'm not on law review.

[matty]

If you are not enjoying writing your note (it shouldn't feel like work), then you picked the wrong topic

uh, the problem is that I've already poured countless hours--many times over what I've spent on any class despite the fact I only get 1.5 credits for LR--into this bullshit and I haven't even started writing my note yet.

This thread is making me very glad I'm not on law review.

Glad I could help. I swear to god if they ask me to do any of the info sessions with 1ls I will tell them to run away from LR as fast as they can if they're fairly positive they won't need it on their resume. And I will seriously mean it, having wished I'd done that very thing.

But for right now, I'm quitting for an hour to watch Dexter. The LR can go f itself if it thinks its cutting into my Dexter time.