Top Law Schools

Is a strong GPA or being published / placing in a competition more important?

In order:

(1) Strong grades

(2) Being published

(3) Placing in a competition

If you're targeting litigation firms that do extensive trial practice, (2) and (3) could swap. Grades always trumps everything.

For most forms of employment, grades will be the most important thing.

Trying to slide by on writing the note can actually be a decent strategy for getting published, depending on the school. You should look into the grading process for notes on your law review. For us, Bluebooking and mechanics took up a not insignificant portion of the grade. Finding a topic that you can easily Bluebook the cites for could be a big help, both in terms of getting published and getting finished with less effort. Which note will be easiest to write and will require the least time to get a little polished - a circuit split where you're citing federal cases and journals throughout or a discussion of Rwandan human rights violations where you're citing Rwandan law & cases, international laws & cases, and strange internet sources?

The subject matter can also make a difference in your ability to quickly move through the material, how well you can actually analyze it, and whether your graders will understand what you're saying (to be fair, that could be a positive or a negative). If you pick some kind of torts topic, then it'll be pretty easy to know the area of law, understand the cases/articles, and analyze the topic. If you pick some strange bankruptcy provision to write your note on, congratulations - you now have to essentially teach yourself bankruptcy before you can even get started.

I'm not saying to pick a crappy topic, just that you should consider the topic from certain perspectives. And the same topic selection strategy can both help you get through the experience with less effort and possibly increase your likelihood of getting published. This will vary based on the school and the journal, so I'm not saying one size fits all here.

If you get biglaw after 2L OCI and don't care about clerking/academia/LR board, then just do the minimum work necessary to get the credit.