So I REALLY Don't Want to Do Write-On... Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey all, hoping you seasoned vets could give me some wisdom...

I'm hoping to transfer (although obviously dependent on this semester's grades) but what I got last semester puts me right on the fringe. I REALLY don't want to do write-on at my current school, but would obviously do it in August or whatever for the transfer school. I got good grades and a good summer job, so would not being on a journal absolutely kill me for 2L OCI (If I had to end up staying?)

Thanks!

[TLSModBot]

Getting law review/top journal doesn't hurt (Especially if you're a K-jd with nothing else distinguishing on your resume). That being said, there are relatively few firms in my experience that actually cared (and those that I ran across already require top grades etc.)

[WheatThins]

Stop being lazy. You've made it this far already. Write-on ducks but it's worth doing to see if you make law review.

[Bmgray06]

I'm in the same boat. Got a good summer job, good first semester grades, and one CALI award. My transfer apps depend on my second semester grades, but the journal competition started right after finals and is due this weekend, so I semi-feel like I am wasting my time.

[jt91isles]

Stop being lazy. You've made it this far already. Write-on ducks but it's worth doing to see if you make law review.

It is not really about being lazy. Obviously write on competitions are time consuming and its better to only waste one week of your summer rather than two. I did the writing competition at my old school and didn't do writing competition for the T14 I transferred to. Still ended up with big-law so I don't think it really it matters.

[mandimeoutof10]

I wrote on to my old LR and onto a secondary journal at my new school. The first was a massive waste of time but I was glad I did it in case I slipped in the rankings enough to make transferring not a viable option. I'll echo what others have said: suck it up and do em both. Journals are a MASSIVE waste of time and energy everywhere and are ONLY useful for OCI purposes.

[Nebby]

Hey all, hoping you seasoned vets could give me some wisdom...

I'm hoping to transfer (although obviously dependent on this semester's grades) but what I got last semester puts me right on the fringe. I REALLY don't want to do write-on at my current school, but would obviously do it in August or whatever for the transfer school. I got good grades and a good summer job, so would not being on a journal absolutely kill me for 2L OCI (If I had to end up staying?)

Thanks!

Stats?

[PinkRevolver]

I can't be sure because lots of factors go into it, but I think making Law Review from my old school helped me land my Biglaw through OCI at the school I transferred to when I didn't make law review there. They only save a few spots for transfers. Also, the results are not always posted before interviews start. Also, a lot of employers assumed I wasn't even allowed to do write on when I transferred, so they may have counted my law review at my old school school *i think.

[bearsfan23]

Hey all, hoping you seasoned vets could give me some wisdom...

I'm hoping to transfer (although obviously dependent on this semester's grades) but what I got last semester puts me right on the fringe. I REALLY don't want to do write-on at my current school, but would obviously do it in August or whatever for the transfer school. I got good grades and a good summer job, so would not being on a journal absolutely kill me for 2L OCI (If I had to end up staying?)

Thanks!

This is really vague and I don't see how anyone can give you an answer?

What range is your current school? What are "good grades"? What is a "good summer job"?

If you're at Cornell, for example, and looking to transfer to HYS, then doing write-on just to get LR for OCI probably won't matter.

On the other hand, if you're at a T3 and might possibly stay, LR is going to be much more important

[Anonymous User]

Hey all, hoping you seasoned vets could give me some wisdom...

I'm hoping to transfer (although obviously dependent on this semester's grades) but what I got last semester puts me right on the fringe. I REALLY don't want to do write-on at my current school, but would obviously do it in August or whatever for the transfer school. I got good grades and a good summer job, so would not being on a journal absolutely kill me for 2L OCI (If I had to end up staying?)

Thanks!

Stats?

Top 25% at vandy/UT/UCLA with a 1LSA

[chuckbass]

I can't be sure because lots of factors go into it, but I think making Law Review from my old school helped me land my Biglaw through OCI at the school I transferred to when I didn't make law review there. They only save a few spots for transfers. Also, the results are not always posted before interviews start. Also, a lot of employers assumed I wasn't even allowed to do write on when I transferred, so they may have counted my law review at my old school school *i think.

Ehhh

[Nebby]

Hey all, hoping you seasoned vets could give me some wisdom...

I'm hoping to transfer (although obviously dependent on this semester's grades) but what I got last semester puts me right on the fringe. I REALLY don't want to do write-on at my current school, but would obviously do it in August or whatever for the transfer school. I got good grades and a good summer job, so would not being on a journal absolutely kill me for 2L OCI (If I had to end up staying?)

Thanks!

Stats?

Top 25% at vandy/UT/UCLA with a 1LSA

Did you apply EA at GULC?

[Anonymous User]

Hey all, hoping you seasoned vets could give me some wisdom...

I'm hoping to transfer (although obviously dependent on this semester's grades) but what I got last semester puts me right on the fringe. I REALLY don't want to do write-on at my current school, but would obviously do it in August or whatever for the transfer school. I got good grades and a good summer job, so would not being on a journal absolutely kill me for 2L OCI (If I had to end up staying?)

Thanks!

Stats?

Top 25% at vandy/UT/UCLA with a 1LSA

Did you apply EA at GULC?

No, altho in hindsight I really should have...

[beepboopbeep]

I wrote on to my old LR and onto a secondary journal at my new school. The first was a massive waste of time but I was glad I did it in case I slipped in the rankings enough to make transferring not a viable option. I'll echo what others have said: suck it up and do em both. Journals are a MASSIVE waste of time and energy everywhere and are ONLY useful for OCI purposes.

Honestly law review has been by far the worst part of 2L

I think OP's in one of the few positions grades-wise where it makes sense to do it, though, just to ensure something out of OCI

But it sucks so much

If you can avoid it and still be employed, seriously, avoid it

edit: by it, I mean law review in general, not write-on. If you think write-on sucks, imagine doing the same shit but with assignments ten times as long... and sometimes having spans of weeks where you just have that shit back-to-back-to-back.

[txig]

I did write-on at my original school (during Spring Break) and had a practice session doing what journal participants do. I hated hit and did a half-ass job of write-on at my transfer school. I obviously didn't get it, and still got Big Law during OCI. I asked if they thought I should do it fro 3L year and the hiring partner said it's the most student-overrated thing in all of law school. Not saying one way or the other, but there are about 10 of my 70 or so summer class who have no journal on their resume.

[mandimeoutof10]

I did write-on at my original school (during Spring Break) and had a practice session doing what journal participants do. I hated hit and did a half-ass job of write-on at my transfer school. I obviously didn't get it, and still got Big Law during OCI. I asked if they thought I should do it fro 3L year and the hiring partner said it's the most student-overrated thing in all of law school. Not saying one way or the other, but there are about 10 of my 70 or so summer class who have no journal on their resume.

Ya, I think it's well known by firms that it is a huge waste of time but if you look at their hiring patterns, the journal kids appear to get way more jobs than the non-journal kids. For that reason alone, I believe OP should do both write ons. Better to do more work and be on the safe side than relax and think "oh shit" later.

[Longtimecoming19]

Not doing LR wouldn't kill you, but it would be foolish to not even take the chance. You are by no means guaranteed to transfer, so to the extent that your thinking is shaped by the belief, even the subconscious belief, that you're bound to transfer, snap out of it. Whatever callbacks/offers you'd get without being on LR, you'd almost certainly get more/better callbacks/offers with LR. It's that simple. Yeah, doing the write-on competition is extra work. But you need to work so hard already to get into law school, get good grades, etc. that it would be silly to draw the line here of all places.

[Danger Zone]

I did write-on at my original school (during Spring Break) and had a practice session doing what journal participants do. I hated hit and did a half-ass job of write-on at my transfer school. I obviously didn't get it, and still got Big Law during OCI. I asked if they thought I should do it fro 3L year and the hiring partner said it's the most student-overrated thing in all of law school. Not saying one way or the other, but there are about 10 of my 70 or so summer class who have no journal on their resume.

Ya, I think it's well known by firms that it is a huge waste of time but if you look at their hiring patterns, the journal kids appear to get way more jobs than the non-journal kids. For that reason alone, I believe OP should do both write ons. Better to do more work and be on the safe side than relax and think "oh shit" later.

Correlation causation dude. The kids who make law review are far more likely to have top grades, which is something law firms DO care greatly about.

[beepboopbeep]

Not doing LR wouldn't kill you, but it would be foolish to not even take the chance. You are by no means guaranteed to transfer, so to the extent that your thinking is shaped by the belief, even the subconscious belief, that you're bound to transfer, snap out of it. Whatever callbacks/offers you'd get without being on LR, you'd almost certainly get more/better callbacks/offers with LR. It's that simple. Yeah, doing the write-on competition is extra work. But you need to work so hard already to get into law school, get good grades, etc. that it would be silly to draw the line here of all places.

I really disagree with this. Law review simultaneously killed any social life I had this year and demolished my grades - it's a reasonable place to draw a line given that it's a lot of work for a variable amount of benefit (let's not pretend that the time cost being discussed is JUST the cost of write-on). I spent WAY more time working on law review shit than I did studying during 1L, and that was doing what I, and apparently the editors reviewing my work, felt was a fairly minimal amount of work - though admittedly, part of that was having my comment published, which was an absolutely hellish process.

Maybe your offers are "better" in that you could get fancy boutiques instead of an NYC v10 or whatever - but if you just want a certain level of firm that you would get anyway, why waste your time? The benefit is for OCI and clerking; evaluate whether that bump is really something that will benefit you or not. If it won't benefit you - the time and life-enjoyment cost of doing lawl review can be really high, so don't treat this just as another gold star to get for the hell of it.

[A. Nony Mouse]

That has to vary a lot by school/LR. Just being a member and not being on the board was not a lot of work where I was and didn't kill anyone's grades or social life.

[ManoftheHour]

Can you quit law review whenever?

Also, can you get kicked out for doing a shit job?

[beepboopbeep]

Can you quit law review whenever?

Also, can you get kicked out for doing a shit job?

At ours:
1) yes, but it will go on your transcript that you quit.
2) yes, and it will go on your transcript that you were kicked off.

I don't think everyone on mine had the same bad experience I did - sort of got screwed with the schedule of cite checks lining up badly with other deadlines (but this isn't always something you'll have control over / it could happen to you). I'd still really encourage people to think about whether it will actually be helpful to their goals vs just doing it to earn another shiny resume award. This goes for stuff other than law review, too.

[everton125]

I wrote on to my old LR and onto a secondary journal at my new school. The first was a massive waste of time but I was glad I did it in case I slipped in the rankings enough to make transferring not a viable option. I'll echo what others have said: suck it up and do em both. Journals are a MASSIVE waste of time and energy everywhere and are ONLY useful for OCI purposes.

Honestly law review has been by far the worst part of 2L

I think OP's in one of the few positions grades-wise where it makes sense to do it, though, just to ensure something out of OCI

But it sucks so much

If you can avoid it and still be employed, seriously, avoid it

edit: by it, I mean law review in general, not write-on. If you think write-on sucks, imagine doing the same shit but with assignments ten times as long... and sometimes having spans of weeks where you just have that shit back-to-back-to-back.

What are the incentives, besides pride in one's own work, to put a whole lot of effort into law review once you get on? In the hopes you will get a better position come 3L? Is anyone ever dropped because of poor performance?

Edit: Obviously I should have read further in the thread, since someone asked the same question. My bad.

[mandimeoutof10]

Can you quit law review whenever?

Also, can you get kicked out for doing a shit job?

At ours:
1) yes, but it will go on your transcript that you quit.
2) yes, and it will go on your transcript that you were kicked off.

I don't think everyone on mine had the same bad experience I did - sort of got screwed with the schedule of cite checks lining up badly with other deadlines (but this isn't always something you'll have control over / it could happen to you). I'd still really encourage people to think about whether it will actually be helpful to their goals vs just doing it to earn another shiny resume award. This goes for stuff other than law review, too.

From my experience something like 99% of ppl that do law journals do it almost solely as a resume "booster" of sorts. Again, that is my experience but I think that journals are a massive waste of time and that students should view them only as a potential aid to their employment goals (whether or not they aid in employment and how much can be debated).

[Nebby]

If you want to do nonbiglaw, then I think secondaries in your desired field are helpful. If you're at a school with good BL placement and you're just interested in being a cog in the machine, then journals aren't a prerequisite.