Effect of Quitting Law Review on SA and Potential Clerk Opp Forum

[reformed calvinist]

I don't understand how judges would know OP was ever on law review to begin with. It wouldn't be on his/her resume.

At my school, you are basically not allowed to quit a journal. If you do (even if it's just saying, "Hey, this journal is not for me, too much work, I'm done, kthxbai" and not slacking off and missing deadlines and being kicked out) you get No Credit on your transcript. With all the bitching I hear, I can't imagine people not quitting en masse without a punitive rule like that. I think the real reason is that we have so many secondary journals and rank preferences in the write on instead of applying to them directly. So it's sort of a stern warning for the people who don't make LR who will take any journal I guess.

[leobowski]

Don't quit. Just do a low-level editorial position, and chill out your 3L year.

[vamedic03]

Any thoughts on how bad this would hurt me. I currently go to a middle of the pack school and I am 3rd in my class. I have a decent SA lined up at a firm with 400 attorneys and I want to clerk before I start full-time there.

I am just sick of law review. It is adding nothing to my skill set and the articles and things I work on appear to have no practical application. I seriously think I could become a better lawyer by spending my 3L year working on my weaknesses and doing practical things. Working on writing memorandums and motions at a USAO or something similar. Something I will use in the real world.

What say you?

You can do a volunteer internship at a USAO while also doing law review. And, you'll be competing for clerkships with people who have done that or with people who have done clinics + law review.