Law Review & Secondary Journal
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Law Review & Secondary Journal
Am I really setting myself back if I don't do law review or a journal?
Last edited by ineptimusprime on Fri Mar 08, 2013 1:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
- jrf12886
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
No one "wants" to do Law Review. I would suggest attempting the write-on.
- homestyle28
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
jrf12886 wrote:No one "wants" to do Law Review. I would suggest attempting the write-on.
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Secondary journals are a pretty minimal time commitment (although the image you have is exactly what you do). If you scout them out right and get one without much work, you could easily spend <20 hours over the next two years on journals. That's worth the line on the resume. Just do the tryout.
- kalvano
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Unless you're at a highly ranked school, suck it up, buttercup.
- kapital98
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
dixon02 wrote:Secondary journals are a pretty minimal time commitment (although the image you have is exactly what you do). If you scout them out right and get one without much work, you could easily spend <20 hours over the next two years on journals. That's worth the line on the resume. Just do the tryout.
This. I'm almost done with all my journal duties this year and the footnote editing only took 5-7 hours. The note is what you make of it. It could take you 3 hours or 20 depending on the quality you wish to submit.
On the bright side, once you go into practice at a small firm citations won't really matter. Most trial judges give a considerable amount of discretion. They may find your citations annoying but, as long as they are coherent, they won't damn you. (For the record: I'm not suggesting you don't learn how to cite. I'm just saying it's not crucial.)
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Additional question:
The packet of reading materials is ~300 pages. Is this standard? The few people at other schools I've talked to said their material wasn't nearly as long (around 100 pages). I don't mean to bitch too much, but 300 additional pages of reading smack dab in the middle of the semester seems pretty extreme.
The packet of reading materials is ~300 pages. Is this standard? The few people at other schools I've talked to said their material wasn't nearly as long (around 100 pages). I don't mean to bitch too much, but 300 additional pages of reading smack dab in the middle of the semester seems pretty extreme.
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
If you suck at LWR and hate bluebook, I wouldn't even bother doing the write on. You won't get it. If you are planning on doing moot court, I'd just opt out of journal.
- A. Nony Mouse
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
ineptimusprime wrote:Additional question:
The packet of reading materials is ~300 pages. Is this standard? The few people at other schools I've talked to said their material wasn't nearly as long (around 100 pages). I don't mean to bitch too much, but 300 additional pages of reading smack dab in the middle of the semester seems pretty extreme.
Ours was 800 (though not during the semester; immediately after finals).
- Richie Tenenbaum
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
If you are reading the entire packet, you're probably doing it wrong.
- jess
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
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Last edited by jess on Fri Oct 27, 2017 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Well, luckily I haven't started yet or I probably would have done it wrong.
It sounds like I should do it, but half ass it since my odds aren't great anyway.
It sounds like I should do it, but half ass it since my odds aren't great anyway.
- Robert Paulson
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
ineptimusprime wrote:Well, luckily I haven't started yet or I probably would have done it wrong.
It sounds like I should do it, but half ass it since my odds aren't great anyway.
This sounds like a really dumb idea.
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Robert Paulson wrote:ineptimusprime wrote:Well, luckily I haven't started yet or I probably would have done it wrong.
It sounds like I should do it, but half ass it since my odds aren't great anyway.
This sounds like a really dumb idea.
Depends on if he wants a secondary J, and how hard those secondary J's are.
At northwestern, if you aren't going to gun the shit out of write on, half assing is fine.
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
ineptimusprime wrote:That said, I can't imagine paying dues for an unpaid part-time job which basically consists of X-treme bluebooking
Paying law review dues?! As in, you give the law review money?? I've never heard of this, and I hope to God this isn't standard practice at other schools..
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
zomginternets wrote:ineptimusprime wrote:That said, I can't imagine paying dues for an unpaid part-time job which basically consists of X-treme bluebooking
Paying law review dues?! As in, you give the law review money?? I've never heard of this, and I hope to God this isn't standard practice at other schools..
Yea that is crazy. I've never heard of that.
My journal pays me in dominoes and "borrowed" office supplies.
- ilovesf
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
zomginternets wrote:ineptimusprime wrote:That said, I can't imagine paying dues for an unpaid part-time job which basically consists of X-treme bluebooking
Paying law review dues?! As in, you give the law review money?? I've never heard of this, and I hope to God this isn't standard practice at other schools..
We had to pay something like $100. I only found out about that after accepting. Not cool at all.

- A. Nony Mouse
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
We totally had dues. (They paid for our snacks and our banquet at the end of the year, not operating expenses.) State school where the state now provides something like 8% of the money needed to run the place, yo.
And I definitely didn't read 800 pp of stuff - probably at least 150 was a massive ALR on a relevant topic, I definitely didn't read that. You just had to figure out what was in the packet to be able to decide what you wanted to write about and therefore did have to read. (Heck, when I graded the write-on, we had someone submit a casenote - they didn't get accepted, but not really because they only wrote on about 2% of the packet.)
And I definitely didn't read 800 pp of stuff - probably at least 150 was a massive ALR on a relevant topic, I definitely didn't read that. You just had to figure out what was in the packet to be able to decide what you wanted to write about and therefore did have to read. (Heck, when I graded the write-on, we had someone submit a casenote - they didn't get accepted, but not really because they only wrote on about 2% of the packet.)
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Robert Paulson wrote:ineptimusprime wrote:Well, luckily I haven't started yet or I probably would have done it wrong.
It sounds like I should do it, but half ass it since my odds aren't great anyway.
This sounds like a really dumb idea.
Good thing I was just being snarky then, right?
If I decide to do it, I'll do my best.
- Robert Paulson
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
ineptimusprime wrote:Robert Paulson wrote:ineptimusprime wrote:Well, luckily I haven't started yet or I probably would have done it wrong.
It sounds like I should do it, but half ass it since my odds aren't great anyway.
This sounds like a really dumb idea.
Good thing I was just being snarky then, right?
If I decide to do it, I'll do my best.
haha. Yeah, that seems like TCR.
- Redamon1
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
kalvano wrote:Unless you're at a highly ranked school, suck it up, buttercup.
Can you say more? I'm at T10, on secondary journal already and debating whether to do the law review write-on competition. Seems to be all about the preffstige. I.e. I don't think there's anything I would learn on LR that I wouldn't learn on my secondary journal (which is pretty demanding BTW). One view I've heard is that unless you want to do academia, at the end of the day LR is not really a deciding factor for employers -- all other things being equal.
- Jsa725
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
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Last edited by Jsa725 on Fri Oct 24, 2014 9:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Too many write-oners strike out for it to be some huge deal.
- kalvano
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Redamon1 wrote:kalvano wrote:Unless you're at a highly ranked school, suck it up, buttercup.
Can you say more? I'm at T10, on secondary journal already and debating whether to do the law review write-on competition. Seems to be all about the preffstige. I.e. I don't think there's anything I would learn on LR that I wouldn't learn on my secondary journal (which is pretty demanding BTW). One view I've heard is that unless you want to do academia, at the end of the day LR is not really a deciding factor for employers -- all other things being equal.
No one cares about what you learn. It's about the prestige level. If you're at Yale or Harvard, the prestige of the school is enough for a lot of people.
I can't speak to how it works at your school, but why would you turn down any opportunity to differentiate yourself unless you already have a job lined up post-grad? LR is shitty work. Everyone knows it. But having it on your resume is generally a really good thing.
In other words, of course it's all about the prestige. Why are you at a T10 instead of a TTT? Same reason: a more prestigious school gives you more and better opportunities than a less prestigious one.
Suck it up, buttercup.
- Redamon1
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Re: Law Review & Secondary Journal
Yeah, it's nice to have a reality check. Thanks for your thoughts. I guess I just wonder at what point you can give up on the rat race while still being OK. But that's a bigger existential question I guess...
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