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https://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=205046
OP here, yeah this is what I was thinking.jbiresq wrote:Check your grade-on requirements for journals. I didn't do mine b/c I knew I was transferring before 2nd semester finals (our LR did a tryout right after) but ended up grading onto it.
It has nothing to do with what your new school does or doesn't care about.Anonymous User wrote:OP here, yeah this is what I was thinking.jbiresq wrote:Check your grade-on requirements for journals. I didn't do mine b/c I knew I was transferring before 2nd semester finals (our LR did a tryout right after) but ended up grading onto it.
When you transfer, does the new school care at all about whether or not you made a journal? I assume they see your transcript anyway so it's not too big a deal
Journals aren't going to teach you how to write better.Jsa725 wrote:anecdotally, last week i emailed and got an opportunity to speak w/ a partner @ KE... i asked him what he wished more incoming associates knew or did better... he said 2 things:
1) that they worked better with others so he could put them in front of clients more frequently
2) that they were better writers. he said "you can never be too good of a writer"
Basically, a partner at a V10 firm, a firm that hires many preftigious law-school grads, wishes that they could all write better.
Moral: take this opportunity to get some legal writing practice.
This.Uncle.Joe wrote:Also if you make LR at your old school you can put it on your resume for OCI.
The LR people are unlikely to do this... generally, you grade write-ons blind, and while in theory you could get the LR board to track down which essay was yours and who graded it and ask the people who graded it what they thought, I've never heard of anyone doing this, and it would probably be more trouble than it's worth (to the LR people if not you). Plus, grading write-ons is frequently more about how a given piece of writing compares to the others submitted than a more objective assessment of the writing. Basically, it's not a good learning-to-write-better experience. (And the essays are usually enough of an artificial exercise that I'm not sure they're very helpful as practice, either, honestly.)Jsa725 wrote:OP said journal try-outs ... i am assuming there is a required writing portion? if so, then practicing writing is a good thing... especially if you can have the LR folk or another good writer (professor) look at it and give you guidance on how to improve.quakeroats wrote: Journals aren't going to teach you how to write better.
Getting feedback from a professor is a very good idea, and part of what professors are paid to do, so yes, do this. But that has nothing to do with whether LR people will give you feedback (or are even any good at giving you feedback).Jsa725 wrote:^^
I agree that the LR people may not do this... but if you do not ask you will never know... plus....
the only reason I said this is b/c my friend did this @ a T14... brought his piece to a professor to look at.... probably not many people do this, but he said he got valuable insight... also, it goes back to my original position that a V10 partner (KE) said most incoming associates are poor writers (even ones at the T14 schools that KE hires); therefore, practicing writing is a good thing to do.... IF you have someone that can point out your mistakes.
just here to pass along what was told to me... do with it what you wish.
Is this credited? Can we actually do this and not look like a douche? Seriously curious. It'll be a good motivator for me.Uncle.Joe wrote:Also if you make LR at your old school you can put it on your resume for OCI.
Did you get good bites? (This is importantUncle.Joe wrote:I was told to do so by career services and did it. I don't see why you wouldn't put all the gold stars you've collected on before the oci meat market.
No idea if I looked like a douche but probably.
shock259 wrote:This.Uncle.Joe wrote:Also if you make LR at your old school you can put it on your resume for OCI.
Plus all of the other reasons mentioned here, like don't be cocky.
Depends if the two schools run their write-ons in similar ways. In the sense that any legal writing is good practice, sure, but the processes and topics and so on may be different enough that doing one write-on won't especially help with another (except perhaps in getting practice Bluebooking).SiRR wrote:It seems like the write-on at your current school would be good practice for the write-on at any transfer targets. Thoughts?
FWIW Berks and SLS are mostly the same...Hastings is crazy (IMHO). And not in the intense way.A. Nony Mouse wrote:Depends if the two schools run their write-ons in similar ways. In the sense that any legal writing is good practice, sure, but the processes and topics and so on may be different enough that doing one write-on won't especially help with another (except perhaps in getting practice Bluebooking).SiRR wrote:It seems like the write-on at your current school would be good practice for the write-on at any transfer targets. Thoughts?
I figured they would (predominately) be Bbook exercises and a closed-universe memo or brief, but I am definitely interested what else is out there.lisavj wrote:FWIW Berks and SLS are mostly the same...Hastings is crazy (IMHO). And not in the intense way.A. Nony Mouse wrote:Depends if the two schools run their write-ons in similar ways. In the sense that any legal writing is good practice, sure, but the processes and topics and so on may be different enough that doing one write-on won't especially help with another (except perhaps in getting practice Bluebooking).SiRR wrote:It seems like the write-on at your current school would be good practice for the write-on at any transfer targets. Thoughts?
AFAIK about the memo/brief, some places make you write a casenote about one Supreme Court case, some places give you a huge stack of material to write something from (my school gave us 800 pp), I've even heard of a school requiring an objective memo (which is weird. That might actually be Hastings...). Some schools give you 72 hours to write the thing, some give you 3 weeks. It's not going to hurt you to do 2, but I don't think it will give you much of a leg up on the second to have done one already.SiRR wrote:I figured they would (predominately) be Bbook exercises and a closed-universe memo or brief, but I am definitely interested what else is out there.