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ToTransferOrNot wrote:Matters for competitive clerkships, basically a requirement for academia.

desperate4lawschool wrote:I realize that it's a good thing to have your note published, once you get on a law review. However, my question is, how do employers view a note that was not published? Does it matter whether or not your note is actually published?

shortporch wrote:To pursue a career in legal academia, realize that the first several steps occur before publication. You should, hopefully, have a solid undergraduate degree. You're attending a top 7 law school, a good sign. You then need to achieve stellar grades, and then you almost must get on law review. And you should get to know professors in your field. And then you should publish a Note. (And then there are a number of things you should do after that.)

Now, all of those are, in a sense, prerequisites. As a second- or third-year student, you can also try to publish an article in another school's publication or in a peer-reviewed journal. Be warned, however and ironically, that most student-run journals tend to frown on student-authored pieces, while peer-reviewed journals are more willing to consider them. Have a professor or two mentor you and help you narrow the piece as it should be. Go through several drafts with them. You can definitely make time for it, especially as an upper-level student with control over your schedule.

Also, keep in mind that you already need to "brand" yourself in your publications. If you want to teach tax, you should start thinking about tax pieces. Publishing an international law piece, then going on the academic job market as a tax scholar will result in some skepticism about your interest.

shortporch wrote:

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Matters for competitive clerkships, basically a requirement for academia.

No, your scholarship pumped out as a first-semester second-year law student, often based on some recent circuit split or a rudimentary constitutional law analysis, and placed on your home law journal is not "basically a requirement" for academia.

leobowski wrote:

shortporch wrote:

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Matters for competitive clerkships, basically a requirement for academia.

No, your scholarship pumped out as a first-semester second-year law student, often based on some recent circuit split or a rudimentary constitutional law analysis, and placed on your home law journal is not "basically a requirement" for academia.

u mad?