Importance of note type..? Forum

[arism87]

I've gotten mixed advice on this and thought I'd bring it to the forum. I have a note topic/outline and my supervising professor has given it the okay, but I'm still unsure. It is almost completely policy/economics based and could potentially not cite a single case. Is this bad? My professor says no, but others have said that judges will be looking for legal analysis, and I definitely want to clerk. Any thoughts?

[Bronte]

I think students should generally focus on writing notes on narrow, practical legal issues. But the subject of your note is going to have very little impact on your career. Even not publishing at all is unlikely to matter much. I know people with appellate clerkships that did not publish. I wouldn't worry much about it.

[jess]

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[Bronte]

Well, you could technically try to publish it in a non-legal journal.

I had a note that was 75% legal, 25% business. My LR said it should be 100% legal and wouldn't approve my topic. I am now writing on something 100% legal but completely unrelated. I wish I had my old topic still.

Most law reviews will gladly publish interdisciplinary stuff. I think his issue is more whether this is the right topic, not whether his journal will publish it.

[arism87]

Yeah, I don't think my journal particularly cares that it's not traditional legal doctrine, just wondering particularly how much it matters for clerkships. I'm torn between thinking "f it, what are the odds that this dramatically changes my clerkship opportunities" and "why not give myself every advantage I can"

[Richie Tenenbaum]

I would try to incorporate some case law and legal analysis in it, but I don't think you should worry too much about it if your professor and note advisor (or whatever the equivalent is for your journal) think it's a good topic to write about.

And judges will vary in terms of what their preferences are. I would suspect the majority would prefer more legal analysis over something very theoretical, but you're not going to have a one-size-fits-all writing sample that is exactly what each judge wants. In the end the topic of your note is probably going to have a very minimal affect on your clerkship chances.

[Gamecubesupreme]

I think your goal should be to try and get published by playing to your strength, which is to write a Note about a topic that you're actually interested in. Getting published is a lot more impressive than to write an unpublished legal analysis Note.

Not to mention I'm sure you will have many other opportunities to show off your legal analysis skills.

[Gorki]

What is most important is that you will enjoy the topic, tbh. I know people writing on interesting areas of jurisdiction and other Civ. Pro. stuff but they hate the area and only did it b/c they assumed it would be a "good" topic. None of them are interested in making the note 'publishable' anymore.


You also need to check out what the rate of publication is for your journal... Does basically everyone get published? Do 5% of the staff get published? IMO if its closer to 5% just pick whatever topic you will enjoy and do your best.