Law Review--can some 2Ls and 3Ls weigh in? Forum

[270910]

So what about a person who is 6th in their class with a CALI award under their belt? Would law review still be an absolute necessity?

Does it change anything if this person has zero intention of ever practicing law, and is only in law school to use the J.D. to leverage a better law enforcement position? Finally, what if this person absolutely despises legal writing and editing?

Should any such person take law review or let someone who actually wants it have it?

Especially if you don't plan to practice law, you'll be safe not doing law review. It's too good of a credential to pass up if you'll practice... but if not, why bother? Big time sink!

[westbayguy]

"That being said, at Yale I would definitely do it. Almost half of your class gets on YLJ, so I don't imagine that it will be too much work. If you get the opportunity, take it and run with it."


For the record, YLJ appears to take about 60, which is about 1/3 of the typical 185-190 person class. Unknown what they will do this year with the larger rising 214 person class.

[l.rev.serf]

If you have no interest in clerking/academia, I recommend that you consider taking a secondary journal over law review. That's my situation and I regret choosing law review over a much less labor intensive secondary journal.

The most obvious cost of law review is time. It involves a lot of hours and eats into your free time and study time. If you’re like me and require down time to truly be happy, law review can be a serious bummer. The hidden cost—which is very easy to overlook as a rising 2L—is the incredibly tedious, mind-numbing nature of the work (at least during 2L). It’s one thing to volunteer to do a lot of involved and rewarding work. It’s quite another to spend 80+ unpaid hours per semester photocopying and highlighting sources and reading string citations—complete with punctuation—aloud. For me, the large quantity and tedious nature of the work left me totally miserable and longing for the far more enjoyable experience of 1L.

That said, the resume line may, in some situations, be worth the year of misery.

[D.Wilde]

If I get into one of my transfer schools I'm going to use that as an excuse not to do law review.

Since we're having a general discussion about the pros/cons of LR, why not throw A'nold's point into the mix:

Which is more valuable: Higher ranked school as a transfer, or LR at lower ranked school? What about for biglaw? Academia? Does it matter if it's T3 + LR vs. T10 as opposed to T30 + LR vs. HYS?

[270910]

Which is more valuable: Higher ranked school as a transfer, or LR at lower ranked school? What about for biglaw? Academia? Does it matter if it's T3 + LR vs. T10 as opposed to T30 + LR vs. HYS?

Completely impossible to answer in the abstract. You can't even get started without knowing career goals, current school, current grades, target market, target school, and target school LR policy.

[deneuve39]

"That being said, at Yale I would definitely do it. Almost half of your class gets on YLJ, so I don't imagine that it will be too much work. If you get the opportunity, take it and run with it."


For the record, YLJ appears to take about 60, which is about 1/3 of the typical 185-190 person class. Unknown what they will do this year with the larger rising 214 person class.

YLJ only took 45 this year.