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singNdance wrote:currently an 0L. have a couple of subjects i am passionate about. willing to do the research and writing (that passionate) to be submitted to law reviews.

thoughts? if published i would assume it'd give me a boost in the event i apply for law school, would it?

Desert Fox wrote:I'm not arguing this person will be able to pull this off. I'm just saying it's about as ridiculous as journals publishing 2L comments.

And journals don't HAVE to publish student comments, they do it because they want to.

And empirical legal analysis sucks because it's never peer reviewed.

utlaw2007 wrote:All that being said, I still think his/her original question is silly. As an 0L, the LAST thing you need to worry about is trying to walk on water so to speak. You'd have an easier chance of scoring over a 170 on the LSAT. I'd direct all of my efforts towrds that goal before trying to write some article for law review before I'd even enrolled in law school.

I don't care if you wrote a masterpiece of genius that has never ever been seen before in the legal field. I'd bet a ton of money that your article would go straight into the trash can before anyone that matters reads it. I know I wouldn't read it.

So if you don't mind using all that time to create trash can filler, knock yourself out and go right ahead.

Desert Fox wrote:

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:You guys laugh at this, but journals across the country print 2L notes about shit they have no clue about.

True, but most of those are going to be students on that journal, and the journal usually HAS to publish some of its own students' notes. I know some journals do publish student work by outside students, but I also think that in most cases, someone who hasn't gone through 1L-2L isn't going to know how to make their article sound like a LR article is supposed to sound or address the issues that a LR wants an article to address. (Note I'm not saying anything about the value of the content here...)

I think it really depends if the OP has any kind of experience writing scholarly articles (beyond doing some kind of undergrad thesis). If they do, they might be able to pull it off; but chances are good they won't. It just doesn't seem like the effort would be worth the result.

OP, if you really do have a passionate desire to write about various legal issues, wait until after you get into law school; even if you do have the scholarly chops to get published now, publications as a law student will be much more valuable than publications as a pre-law student, and you might be able to get academic credit as well (say if you write the paper for a seminar and then get it published). The role a publication would play in getting admitted is so small, it's not worth it - study for the LSAT.

ETA: There is a school of legal writing (empirical? forget how it's referred to) that relies on quantitative analysis. And I don't think use of quant/statistics is the only way to study society - lots of humanities disciplines don't rely on that kind of analysis. (You, personally, may think those disciplines are bunk, but in academia, they are established and accepted. And even anth/soc don't always rely on quantitative analysis - there are qualitative approaches out there.) Or to put it another way, I don't think law has to be a "science" to be a valid field of scholarship. That said, though, yeah, legal scholarship is a weird no-man's-land of poaching other disciplines' methodologies in a totally ad hoc manner. There are almost no other disciplines where someone with as little formal methodological training as most law profs could get to be sole author on an article. All hail lack of peer review!

I'm not arguing this person will be able to pull this off. I'm just saying it's about as ridiculous as journals publishing 2L comments.

And journals don't HAVE to publish student comments, they do it because they want to.

And empirical legal analysis sucks because it's never peer reviewed.

sambeber wrote:Some schools require their journals - if the journals are part of the school, which some are - to publish a certain proportion of student-authored content.

Bobnoxious wrote:

utlaw2007 wrote:All that being said, I still think his/her original question is silly. As an 0L, the LAST thing you need to worry about is trying to walk on water so to speak. You'd have an easier chance of scoring over a 170 on the LSAT. I'd direct all of my efforts towrds that goal before trying to write some article for law review before I'd even enrolled in law school.

I don't care if you wrote a masterpiece of genius that has never ever been seen before in the legal field. I'd bet a ton of money that your article would go straight into the trash can before anyone that matters reads it. I know I wouldn't read it.

So if you don't mind using all that time to create trash can filler, knock yourself out and go right ahead.

Let me add a little to this, with the caveat that I am a 0L, but also currently working on my Masters - sub-disciplines of public law and political theory. Depending on the subject matter and how it might relate to other research or some practical application there's no reason a good legal article, qual or quant, couldn't get published in a peer reviewed journal. If the goal is to become a practicing attorney, I don't think being published matters a hill of beans, but if you want academia, or a leg up on academia as an option, then being published won't hurt a bit. I've never heard of a case where an applicant for associate instructor or assistant instructor was denied a position because they were published. I know I've used law journal articles for research in other areas that I'm interested in (not passionate about). For example, if you're interested in polyamory and the law, start with Elizabeth Emens and her work at the University of Chicago and Lenore Weitzman and her work from Yale (I think it was Yale).

If you're passionate about a subject, as opposed to being passionate about learning the practice of law (regardless of how narrow the focus), perhaps a look at academia is best for you. If so, then like the other posters have said, get into a T5-7 and then pursue the subjects your passionate about at a research university. But, please, please, please do not use a plan like this to try to get into a position as an instructor at a law school. There are already enough law professors out there with little to no practical experience in actual practice. Go teach in a Poli-Sci or CrimJus department if you do this.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

sambeber wrote:Some schools require their journals - if the journals are part of the school, which some are - to publish a certain proportion of student-authored content.

Yes. But the OP is unlikely to fall into this category, since it applies to law students, not pre-law.

BCLS wrote:Please don't come to BC.