Should I join a journal my 3L year. Forum

[Anonymous User]

I go to a T25 and managed to land a SA position at a Vault 100, however the firm is in NYC and I want to lateral back home in a couple years to CA. I didn't do write on and have nothing outside of class, should I pick something up 3L?

[Eldon Tyrell]

lol no

[BigZuck]

Read the thread title, came to type "lol absolutely not" but that was already taken care of

[zot1]

I'll play devil's advocate for a minute. If you're planning to head back, having connections will help (thought they're often not necessary). Most of the people in the journal will likely be headed to biglaw firms, so meeting those people and whatnot could be useful for you in the future.

But the reality is that 3L is a rough year because you don't want to do anything, so it's really hard to pile on something else that will just be bothersome.

[Mr. Archer]

As someone who joined a journal 3L year, I'll argue why you should consider it. As long as this journal doesn't have a lot of spading assignments, you won't have more work than a regular class. Not sure about your school, but journal comments typically guarantee some kind of A unless you just really screw up. That's a nice way to pad your GPA, which might help for lateraling purposes (check with someone familiar with big law/lateraling).

This strategy also works for independent research projects if you're allowed to take those. Yes, it requires research and writing. But you wouldn't have to go to class or be graded on a curve.

If you've already landed something without journal, I'm not sure how much this would help you in the end.

[dudders]

Depends. If it provides greater opportunity to get something published than you otherwise have, can't deny the value of that.

[yogotti]

Dude. I joined a journal for 2L year. Didn't help me get biglaw, so I am basically just being academically tortured for no reason.

Law school is like academic sadism/masochism. Law review is like the dungeon with the lady in leather trying out all manner of torture implements for her own satisfaction.

[Toni V]

It you’re at a vault firm you’re good, as is. For someone not at a V firm but considering a lateral at some point, a 3L journal might possibly come in handy.

[Anonymous User]

You managed to get a BigLaw V100 whilst at a T25 without doing any ECs outside of class, no journal, and whilst being in a different market? Show me your ways!!!

[Eldon Tyrell]

lol no

[Joscellin]

Maybe there's an argument for doing it if he wants to clerk in a few years? Don't know that the resume line would matter for any other kind of lateral moves (say, biglaw --> fedgov).

I imagine there'd have to be a pretty specific reason to make it worth even considering.

[pancakes3]

Maybe there's an argument for doing it if he wants to clerk in a few years? Don't know that the resume line would matter for any other kind of lateral moves (say, biglaw --> fedgov).

I imagine there'd have to be a pretty specific reason to make it worth even considering.

I don't think a non-T6, non-flagship would move the needle much for a clerkship app - and even with a T6 LR resume line, there's a chicken/egg argument as to whether it's the substantive LR experience or the credentials to make LR in the first place that's the true demonstration of merit.

just say no to 3L, SA-secure journal. do moot court if you're aching to fill up your extracurricular section.

[elendinel]

Unless you want to get published/getting published is a big thing in your future market, I don't see any reason why you'd do it 3L year.

You may not even need to join to publish, either. You could try submitting the same comment/note/whatever the journal calls it to other schools' journals and see what happens.

[Anonymous User]

Hijacking this topic, but once you're BigLaw secure is there even any reason to do a journal at all?

I'm a 2L who transferred to HYS and got a great firm at OCI. So far I'm not doing any extracurriculars, just enjoying my spare time and keeping up on reading. Will this decision come back to haunt me? I really like my firm and barring extreme circumstances I'm confident I'll spend at least the first couple years of my career there.

Will another firm or an in-house recruiter give a shit that I didn't fill my resume with extra curriculars when I lateral out? Or will they only care about 1) the work I did 2) my school and 3) my grades in that order as I suspect?

[Anonymous User]

You should definitely join a journal. I joined the law review at the very beginning of 3L and it helped me go from a decent firm (where I summered) to an elite firm for full time employment. When I lateraled to a new firm several years later, my interviewers kept bringing up law review. Maybe my experience is unique because I am working abroad, but the partners and associates I interviewed with were all American and they all cared a lot, even several years after I graduated.

While a secondary journal won't be as helpful, it still is valuable. When I lateraled, I saw a lot of job postings looking for people from top schools "with journal experience". Is it dumb to care about journal experience when you have actual work experience? Yes. But law is a prestige-obsessed profession. It never really ends.

[Boltsfan]

You would be better served working on your golf game for BD purposes.

[BigZuck]

lol no

^

[1styearlateral]

I joined the law review at the very beginning of 3L

How the fuck did you join the flagship journal 3L year? Unless you're a night/PT student, I'm calling BS.

Don't give obviously wrong advice. Secondary journals don't have the clout that the law review has, so it's not worth the trouble your 3L year unless you like to do research, write, and memorize mundane citation rules.

[Anonymous User]

I joined the law review at the very beginning of 3L

How the fuck did you join the flagship journal 3L year? Unless you're a night/PT student, I'm calling BS.

Don't give obviously wrong advice. Secondary journals don't have the clout that the law review has, so it's not worth the trouble your 3L year unless you like to do research, write, and memorize mundane citation rules.

At my school you can write on after 1L or 2L. Not sure why someone would do it after 2L, nonetheless, you can.

[Lettow]

I joined the law review at the very beginning of 3L

How the fuck did you join the flagship journal 3L year? Unless you're a night/PT student, I'm calling BS.

Don't give obviously wrong advice. Secondary journals don't have the clout that the law review has, so it's not worth the trouble your 3L year unless you like to do research, write, and memorize mundane citation rules.

Some law reviews allow 3Ls to join. I wouldn't attack someone so strongly on things that could differ from your school.

[Lettow]

Some law reviews allow 3Ls to join. I wouldn't attack someone so strongly on things that could differ from your school.

Accidental anon--this was me.

[1styearlateral]

I joined the law review at the very beginning of 3L

How the fuck did you join the flagship journal 3L year? Unless you're a night/PT student, I'm calling BS.

Don't give obviously wrong advice. Secondary journals don't have the clout that the law review has, so it's not worth the trouble your 3L year unless you like to do research, write, and memorize mundane citation rules.

At my school you can write on after 1L or 2L. Not sure why someone would do it after 2L, nonetheless, you can.

I joined the law review at the very beginning of 3L

How the fuck did you join the flagship journal 3L year? Unless you're a night/PT student, I'm calling BS.

Don't give obviously wrong advice. Secondary journals don't have the clout that the law review has, so it's not worth the trouble your 3L year unless you like to do research, write, and memorize mundane citation rules.

Some law reviews allow 3Ls to join. I wouldn't attack someone so strongly on things that could differ from your school.

Not trying to derail the OP, but I've never heard of this, especially at any of the T100 schools. Being a managing editor on my school's law review myself, I don't see the benefit of having a 3L onto the journal so late; 1) there's not a lot of time to write an article (which is a requirement at any flagship journal I've interacted with), and 2) there's not enough time to learn the editorial process in order to be effective in publishing the (at least 2) issues each year (some schools have as many as 2 per semester). Maybe at Barry or Arizona Summit they let you "write on" after your second year but if that's the case I don't think a journal is going to help you much anyway.

[RaceJudicata]

Could you also enlighten us about all of the t100 law schools' various enrollment procedures and add/drop dates?

[Lettow]

Not trying to derail the OP, but I've never heard of this, especially at any of the T100 schools. Being a managing editor on my school's law review myself, I don't see the benefit of having a 3L onto the journal so late; 1) there's not a lot of time to write an article (which is a requirement at any flagship journal I've interacted with), and 2) there's not enough time to learn the editorial process in order to be effective in publishing the (at least 2) issues each year (some schools have as many as 2 per semester). Maybe at Barry or Arizona Summit they let you "write on" after your second year but if that's the case I don't think a journal is going to help you much anyway.

I'm getting the impression from your two posts that you seem to think law reviews are all (nearly) the same. They can operate very differently. For example, under the way my law review operated, your two points against having 3L junior members don't make any sense.

[Anonymous User]

I'm the anon who got on law review at beginning of 3L. The way it worked at my school is you could get on if you wrote a high quality comment during 2L (and over following summer). You wouldn't be eligible for an editorial position, but you would still be on. And the workload wasn't so bad because your comment was behind you.

As a side note: there's no point jumping down people's throats when they describe law review policies you may not be familiar with. I was just trying to offer advice about the benefits of journal experience down the line.