LR E-Board or Published Note? Forum

[Anonymous User]

What's better for future employment in the eyes of employers?

[Anonymous User]

Depends on what board position, what law school, and which employers. Published Note is probably > Development Editor in general, and < Managing Editor at most schools, but a Note in a top ranked law review probably is worth relatively more. Also, if you want to be an academic, a Note is better than everything, while if you want to be a litigator it may not be more valuable than anything.

[alabamabound]

What's better for future employment in the eyes of employers?

These aren't usually mutually exclusive.

[Detrox]

Depends on what board position, what law school, and which employers. Published Note is probably > Development Editor in general, and < Managing Editor at most schools, but a Note in a top ranked law review probably is worth relatively more. Also, if you want to be an academic, a Note is better than everything, while if you want to be a litigator it may not be more valuable than anything.

From what I've heard this is remarkably untrue. E-Board position on LR will be incredibly more valuable for almost any relevant aspiration including academia, clerkships, and general resume building.

Academia is concerned predominantly with publishing you do AFTER your law school career, potentially with the second piece of scholarly writing you do at the end of your 3L year in a rare case. Conversely, the publication of a student note on your own journal or other school affiliated journal (LR or not), is of little concern to potential employers.

The rare case where your note launches a major new finding or basis for research aside, I have heard that LR e-board or LR membership generally is of far greater importance then a law school note publication. That being said, publishing a note is still a nice resume line to have as well and is useful to bolster the power of its use as a writing sample.

If my impressions from the information I have gathered on this board or in discussions with professors and career services are wrong, feel free to correct me if you have more substantial support for notes > lr board.

[vamedic03]

(1) Beyond EIC, it's not really possible to distinguish all that much between managing board/executive board positions. All law reviews are set up differently. On some LR's, for example, the managing editor is a non-substantive roll (business / administrative only).

(2) Managing board versus publishing a note are not mutually exclusive activities. At some law reviews, however, members of the notes department will have to wait to submit their notes.

(3) If, for some absolutely inexplicable reason, you had to choose between the two, I would choose managing board for two reasons: (1) the competitiveness of publishing a note widely varies between law reviews, at some places virtually everyone's note or comment gets published, while at others very few get published and (2) its unlikely a note will have much impact on a future academic career. It is certainly very valuable to publish a note; however, many academics never published a note.

(4) Is OP a 1L or 0L? I ask because most (though I'm sure not all) managing boards/executive boards of law reviews have already transitioned.

[Anonymous User]

Op here. I'm a 2L.

I know they aren't mutually exclusive, but both were goals of mine. I got on the LR E-board (haven't fully assumed my role yet), but found out this week that my Note wouldn't be published. I know it doesn't matter now which is more valuable because there's nothing I can do about it, but I was curious as to people's opinions on the subject.

[Anonymous User]

Depends on what board position, what law school, and which employers. Published Note is probably > Development Editor in general, and < Managing Editor at most schools, but a Note in a top ranked law review probably is worth relatively more. Also, if you want to be an academic, a Note is better than everything, while if you want to be a litigator it may not be more valuable than anything.

From what I've heard this is remarkably untrue. E-Board position on LR will be incredibly more valuable for almost any relevant aspiration including academia, clerkships, and general resume building.

Academia is concerned predominantly with publishing you do AFTER your law school career, potentially with the second piece of scholarly writing you do at the end of your 3L year in a rare case. Conversely, the publication of a student note on your own journal or other school affiliated journal (LR or not), is of little concern to potential employers.

The rare case where your note launches a major new finding or basis for research aside, I have heard that LR e-board or LR membership generally is of far greater importance then a law school note publication. That being said, publishing a note is still a nice resume line to have as well and is useful to bolster the power of its use as a writing sample.

If my impressions from the information I have gathered on this board or in discussions with professors and career services are wrong, feel free to correct me if you have more substantial support for notes > lr board.

I'm the first anonymous poster. Like I said, it really depends on where you're at law school. I imagine if your note is published in Drake Law Review, then it'd probably be better for your academic career to be Executive Editor of Drake Law Review. But if we're talking HLR, SLR, YLJ, CLR, etc, having a Note published is a huge accomplishment and will matter far more than a position like Development Editor for an aspiring academic. Like, it's not remotely close. Development Editor matters for academia only insofar as it helps you get a clerkship, and having gone through the clerkship process at a top school, I'm not convinced that positions like that help much. On the other hand, having a note published is going to be the first (of several) credentials that the hiring committee seriously considers. There are some positions that may trump having a note published--EIC and Articles Editor are the two easy ones. But, for the most part, if we're talking top law reviews the note thing is the easy choice for an aspiring academic.

[Detrox]

Depends on what board position, what law school, and which employers. Published Note is probably > Development Editor in general, and < Managing Editor at most schools, but a Note in a top ranked law review probably is worth relatively more. Also, if you want to be an academic, a Note is better than everything, while if you want to be a litigator it may not be more valuable than anything.

From what I've heard this is remarkably untrue. E-Board position on LR will be incredibly more valuable for almost any relevant aspiration including academia, clerkships, and general resume building.

Academia is concerned predominantly with publishing you do AFTER your law school career, potentially with the second piece of scholarly writing you do at the end of your 3L year in a rare case. Conversely, the publication of a student note on your own journal or other school affiliated journal (LR or not), is of little concern to potential employers.

The rare case where your note launches a major new finding or basis for research aside, I have heard that LR e-board or LR membership generally is of far greater importance then a law school note publication. That being said, publishing a note is still a nice resume line to have as well and is useful to bolster the power of its use as a writing sample.

If my impressions from the information I have gathered on this board or in discussions with professors and career services are wrong, feel free to correct me if you have more substantial support for notes > lr board.

I'm the first anonymous poster. Like I said, it really depends on where you're at law school. I imagine if your note is published in Drake Law Review, then it'd probably be better for your academic career to be Executive Editor of Drake Law Review. But if we're talking HLR, SLR, YLJ, CLR, etc, having a Note published is a huge accomplishment and will matter far more than a position like Development Editor for an aspiring academic. Like, it's not remotely close. Development Editor matters for academia only insofar as it helps you get a clerkship, and having gone through the clerkship process at a top school, I'm not convinced that positions like that help much. On the other hand, having a note published is going to be the first (of several) credentials that the hiring committee seriously considers. There are some positions that may trump having a note published--EIC and Articles Editor are the two easy ones. But, for the most part, if we're talking top law reviews the note thing is the easy choice for an aspiring academic.

I remain unconvinced when you say that a law school note will be the first thing a hiring committee "seriously considers." Do you have any evidence of this? Everything I have heard has been that your note will garner little to no credit in terms of academic hiring. I'm not contesting your point that a non-major LR board position is valuable for little more than helping with clerkships; however I remain unconvinced by an anonymous poster's bald assertion that a note will matter to a hiring committee.

[Anonymous User]

Sort of unrelated, but has anyone heard of a student's Note being published in another law review if not selected for their own? I've heard of this happening to one person, but would guess that it's pretty rare. Thoughts? How about undergrad journals as a last resort?

[romothesavior]

Kind of mildly interested as well, although obviously they aren't mutually exclusive. My initial understanding was

EIC or another top board position > note > lower board positions

But I dunno.

[romothesavior]

Sort of unrelated, but has anyone heard of a student's Note being published in another law review if not selected for their own? I've heard of this happening to one person, but would guess that it's pretty rare. Thoughts? How about undergrad journals as a last resort?

Not a law review, but in another school's journal. I know a guy who submitted his note to a bunch of journals after being rejected by LR and had 2-3 offers in like a week.

[Anonymous User]

I would still think an offer for publication from another journal, let alone 2-3, is unlikely. I just don't see why the journal would accept a student Note when presumably that piece is competing with the work of professors.

Hopefully I can tell a similar story after I'm done with submissions though. Does anyone else have experience with this?

[Anonymous User]

Detrox--

My evidence is similar to yours--anecdotal. I'm a 3L at HYS interested in academia, and the word I've gotten from the many professors who I've spoken with is that very little factors into hiring decisions other than your publication record. I've heard mixed things with regards to how valuable a note is as part of your publication record, but they range from "it counts more than nothing" to "nearly as good as an article, and that means a lot." On the other hand, my professors have been pretty pessimistic about the value Law Review, let alone E-Board, adds to a candidate's resume.

[romothesavior]

This thread is a perfect example of over-anoning. Over half the posts are anon, and not one shred of identifying or sensitive information is being shared.

[Blindmelon]

I would still think an offer for publication from another journal, let alone 2-3, is unlikely. I just don't see why the journal would accept a student Note when presumably that piece is competing with the work of professors.

Hopefully I can tell a similar story after I'm done with submissions though. Does anyone else have experience with this?

Because there are like 400 journals and a lot, if not most, professors' work is utter garbage. Student notes tend to be better written and researched. That being said, any top 30 or so LR likely won't look at student work. This person probably got offers from like MSU (they definitely take student notes from other schools), Drake, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Top 30? Try top 70-100. There are maybe 1-2 exceptions, but very few tier 1 flagships will consider student notes. Go the secondary route; there are some really great secondary journals at there (many of which are better than those tier 1 flagships that won't consider student notes), and secondary journals tend to be more open about who submitted the piece.

[leobowski]

Excellent grades and a solid publication record can render e-board mostly irrelevant (outside of EIC). But if you're a borderline candidate for competitive positions (i.e top 20-30% at many schools), you better damn well do e-board.

I'm not sure where you guys are getting the idea that e-board factors into hiring in the meat market. It may get you a good clerkship, but the buck stops there (again, outside of EIC). It's often a proxy for those who can publish, but not really a determinative factor in and of itself.