Dropping law review after interviews? Forum

[jrf12886]

We all know the value of LR is the prestige of making law review. Who cares if you actually do it.

[A. Nony Mouse]

The people stuck on law review with you.

[rpupkin]

The ignorance of law students is really shining through ITT.

You're not set for life just because you got a big law job through OCI. The vast majority of you will not be working at your 2L summer firm in a few years. Many of you seem at least vaguely aware of this, as evidenced by the frequent questions about "exit options."

But just think for a moment about how "exit options" work in real life. It's not like you take another LSAT and then use your great score to get into a coveted government/boutique/in-house position. For many of these positions, your chances are greatly improved if you have connections at the places you want to "exit" to. And working on LR in law school is probably the single best opportunity you'll have in your legal career to make a bunch of meaningful connections at once. If you're pleasant to work with, you've instantly created a sizable network of generally successful people who will be spread across different legal sectors.

But who cares about any of that stuff? I mean, you've got it made because you landed that sweet summer associate job at Misery and McSweatshop, LLP!

[DJ JD]

Second, It shows that you're willing to drop the ball when you're supposed to make a total commitment. What's to say you wouldn't drop a major client or case because suddenly you're "disinterested," or the "work is too hard?" Sure, you could always say it's different when you're being paid. But when you're this early on in your legal career, everything counts.

I'm not gonna cut to hard on this because (1) I nevertheless think OP dropping law review would be stupid and reflects poorly on him/her, and (2) I'm sure plenty of employers share the same sentiment, which means you're "functionally" correct, BUT, this line of thinking is just stupid...

I highly doubt the same thing that makes a person want to drop an extracurricular that's nothing more than a method professors use to scam law students into doing something they would otherwise have to pay people for under the half-empty promise of prestige while they're paying five to six figures on school, would make them want to drop a client with money running the other way (their way).

But like I said, (1) I still think OP dropping LR makes him a selfish, self-serving snake and (2) it's not like the wannabe social scientists that populate hiring committees won't be sold on that type of reasoning anyways, but I'm just saying...

[Anonymous User]

You guys can stop the excoriating now, pls. I have learned my lesson and have resigned myself to two years of cite checking.

[rpupkin]

You guys can stop the excoriating now, pls. I have learned my lesson and have resigned myself to two years of cite checking.

Frankly, I had forgotten all about you. We've moved on to excoriating those who are providing answers to your question, OP.

[UVAIce]

If you hate law review then prepare to really hate big law.

[rubberplant2020]

Just write a shitty note, and do the least amount possible.

TITCR this is what all the upper classmen tell me. I've also heard this be repeated on this website.

[Anonymous User]

I transferred into T14, wrote on to LR, and did it for the sole purpose of compensating for being a transfer @ OCI, thinking it would land me a job. Still no offers. If there was a novel about murphys law, it would just be my day-to-day life

[ballouttacontrol]

why do journals bother people so much?

It's really not even that much work. Pour yourself some booze and knock that shit out in 1 night before/after going out. it is not challenging work

[hdunlop]

http://www.theonion.com/article/local-t ... admi-51358

[Rahviveh]

I made LR at my school, and at the time I felt like I wanted to do it. Now that I'm actually doing it, that feeling faded. My problem is that I put it on my resume, obviously. Would my SA firm even find out if I dropped it? Also, how pissed would the LR staff be at me? I have zero desire to clerk and zero desire to strive for anything other than $190k. I don't even want to do litigation. Should I just suck it up for two years?

Law review can actually be quite helpful even if you want to do transactional work. When I review contracts/documents, I can spot errors a lot quicker and with more accuracy as a result, partially, of my time with law review.

This sounds like horseshit

[rpupkin]

I made LR at my school, and at the time I felt like I wanted to do it. Now that I'm actually doing it, that feeling faded. My problem is that I put it on my resume, obviously. Would my SA firm even find out if I dropped it? Also, how pissed would the LR staff be at me? I have zero desire to clerk and zero desire to strive for anything other than $190k. I don't even want to do litigation. Should I just suck it up for two years?

Law review can actually be quite helpful even if you want to do transactional work. When I review contracts/documents, I can spot errors a lot quicker and with more accuracy as a result, partially, of my time with law review.

This sounds like horseshit

Why? It sounds sensible to me. But I'm not a transaction drone, so enlighten me, Rahiviveh.

[pancakes3]

What about secondary journal? got a part time (legal) job that is more of a time commitment that I had anticipated - also a lot more substantive/value-added work than I would be doing cite checking. FWIW, I am on the primary law review also and won't be dropping that, just the secondary journal.

wack

[zot1]

I made LR at my school, and at the time I felt like I wanted to do it. Now that I'm actually doing it, that feeling faded. My problem is that I put it on my resume, obviously. Would my SA firm even find out if I dropped it? Also, how pissed would the LR staff be at me? I have zero desire to clerk and zero desire to strive for anything other than $190k. I don't even want to do litigation. Should I just suck it up for two years?

Law review can actually be quite helpful even if you want to do transactional work. When I review contracts/documents, I can spot errors a lot quicker and with more accuracy as a result, partially, of my time with law review.

This sounds like horseshit

That's how I feel about it. You're welcome to not feel that way, since you obviously don't. Cheers.

[Anonymous User]

Some guy at my school quit LR after landing his V10 summer gig. I was informed by someone that a 3L who summered there last year (and was offered and accepted) at the same firm (who is also on LR) is going to "make sure that that person doesn't work there." Idk how much stock you could put in that but why would you risk it? You control your own destiny here.

[jbagelboy]

Some guy at my school quit LR after landing his V10 summer gig. I was informed by someone that a 3L who summered there last year (and was offered and accepted) at the same firm (who is also on LR) is going to "make sure that that person doesn't work there." Idk how much stock you could put in that but why would you risk it? You control your own destiny here.

that person is a peeve. what a dick move. first, lol at a 3L having any power over hiring decisions. second, who cares if some law student doesn't want to be on law review.

[Johann]

Some guy at my school quit LR after landing his V10 summer gig. I was informed by someone that a 3L who summered there last year (and was offered and accepted) at the same firm (who is also on LR) is going to "make sure that that person doesn't work there." Idk how much stock you could put in that but why would you risk it? You control your own destiny here.

that person is a peeve. what a dick move. first, lol at a 3L having any power over hiring decisions. second, who cares if some law student doesn't want to be on law review.

ill set the odds at -900 the law review quitter keeps his job and -200 the law review bitcher keeps their job.

[rpupkin]

Some guy at my school quit LR after landing his V10 summer gig. I was informed by someone that a 3L who summered there last year (and was offered and accepted) at the same firm (who is also on LR) is going to "make sure that that person doesn't work there." Idk how much stock you could put in that but why would you risk it? You control your own destiny here.

that person is a peeve. what a dick move. first, lol at a 3L having any power over hiring decisions. second, who cares if some law student doesn't want to be on law review.

ill set the odds at -900 the law review quitter keeps his job and -200 the law review bitcher keeps their job.

Agree with those odds.

[Anonymous User]

I know from a good source that at least in one t14 the school or the board of the journal threatens with telling your employer but it wont actually happen because the school cares too much about its employment stats to let it happen.. plus u might be risking a suit by volunteering info to the employer

[lavarman84]

Some guy at my school quit LR after landing his V10 summer gig. I was informed by someone that a 3L who summered there last year (and was offered and accepted) at the same firm (who is also on LR) is going to "make sure that that person doesn't work there." Idk how much stock you could put in that but why would you risk it? You control your own destiny here.

that person is a peeve. what a dick move. first, lol at a 3L having any power over hiring decisions. second, who cares if some law student doesn't want to be on law review.

They're both assholes. The 2L shouldn't have taken LR away from someone who would have actually stuck out and doesn't deserve to use it to boost his/her resume during OCI. The 3L should get a life. That person should have better things to do than trying to stop another person from getting a job.

[SemperLegal]

Second, It shows that you're willing to drop the ball when you're supposed to make a total commitment. What's to say you wouldn't drop a major client or case because suddenly you're "disinterested," or the "work is too hard?" Sure, you could always say it's different when you're being paid. But when you're this early on in your legal career, everything counts. And if you decide to drop a big commitment just because you don't like it, well, too bad. That makes you look awful. That makes you look like a real jerk to people who would have liked that position. That puts your co-workers in a terrible position. And that should be expected to reflect negatively on every single one of your applications.

Right, and also on top of that, you are being paid. You're being paid with the value of being able to put it on your resume. Since it might be the difference between biglaw or ding, clerkship or ding, etc., it's potentially worth as much as the job itself.

That's not what paid means, you boomer f.

[AVBucks4239]

Incoming law students/1Ls: this thread is a nice case study on how easy it is to become a whore to prestige and worthless bullshit, all for the sake of landing a job that produces threads like this http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=217956 and this http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=238405 .

But hey, you NEED to do BIG LAW for EXIT OPTIONS and to PAY OFF YOUR LOANS (despite the fact that PAYE/REPAYE make your loans an imaginary number anyway).

Can't decide whether it's comical or sad.

[bearsfan23]

Incoming law students/1Ls: this thread is a nice case study on how easy it is to become a whore to prestige and worthless bullshit, all for the sake of landing a job that produces threads like this http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=217956 and this http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=238405 .

But hey, you NEED to do BIG LAW for EXIT OPTIONS and to PAY OFF YOUR LOANS (despite the fact that PAYE/REPAYE make your loans an imaginary number anyway).

Can't decide whether it's comical or sad.

The only thing sad is making a post like yours. Sorry you struck out dude, but don't be bitter and criticize an entire sector of the legal profession, that's just pathetic.

It's also not relevant to the obvious answer to OP's question: You can probably get away with dropping LR but for a variety of reasons it';s the wrong move

[FSK]

The ignorance of law students is really shining through ITT.

You're not set for life just because you got a big law job through OCI. The vast majority of you will not be working at your 2L summer firm in a few years. Many of you seem at least vaguely aware of this, as evidenced by the frequent questions about "exit options."

But just think for a moment about how "exit options" work in real life. It's not like you take another LSAT and then use your great score to get into a coveted government/boutique/in-house position. For many of these positions, your chances are greatly improved if you have connections at the places you want to "exit" to. And working on LR in law school is probably the single best opportunity you'll have in your legal career to make a bunch of meaningful connections at once. If you're pleasant to work with, you've instantly created a sizable network of generally successful people who will be spread across different legal sectors.

But who cares about any of that stuff? I mean, you've got it made because you landed that sweet summer associate job at Misery and McSweatshop, LLP!

Though rpupkin has revealed in other poasts that he is very preftigious, this advice is actually just obvious. I feel like law students never actually THINK through the questions and problems they have. OF COURSE YOU DON'T QUIT LAW REVIEW, basically for the reasons above, and these reasons are OBVIOUS if you think about the problem for more than one iota.