Worth joining journal as 1L? Forum

[DonGately]

I'm at a T50 school in a big market. I know first year grades are the most important thing right now. (Maybe especially important given that my school isn't in the T14?)

Nonetheless, one of the secondary journals invites 1L's to become "review staff." They ask for your resume, statement of interest, and short memo. Since I did pretty well on my short memo, I think I might have a good shot.

Would it be worth it? Will this look good for OCI? Is it better to wait for the writing competition at the end of the year?

[FSK]

I'm at a T50 school in a big market. I know first year grades are the most important thing right now. (Maybe especially important given that my school isn't in the T14?)

Nonetheless, one of the secondary journals invites 1L's to become "review staff." They ask for your resume, statement of interest, and short memo. Since I did pretty well on my short memo, I think I might have a good shot.

Would it be worth it? Will this look good for OCI? Is it better to wait for the writing competition at the end of the year?

Don't waste your time. You'll need top grades to have any shot for OCI jobs.

[DonGately]

Got it. Thanks.

[MarkfromWI]

Don't waste your time.

[Avian]

It's not going to help with 2L OCI, so if that's your only reason don't even bother. I did join a secondary journal 1L year through what sounds like basically the same application process. Obviously I'd already written my short memo, so the only thing left to do was take about 30 minutes to write up a quick cover letter. Given the relative ease of applying, I'd say go for it and if you do get the position you can turn them down then if you've changed your mind.

The work for my journal was minimal for 1L staff members, so it might be worth checking out whether this is the case at your school. I had two footnoting assignments all year which combined only took about a day's worth of work. I found it beneficial in a couple of ways.

First, although I know what you do 1L summer doesn't really matter for biglaw unless it's a 1L SA position, I nonetheless wanted to do something interesting. Because a lot of places hire starting immediately on December 1st, or shortly thereafter, many of them will not ask for grades. This means that there are not a lot of ways to stand out, joining a journal being one of the few law school things you can do during your first semester. My membership on the journal was specifically mentioned by the federal judge I ended up interning for as something he noticed when sifting through what I can only imagine was a huge pile of very similar applications.

The second way I think it helped was that it forced me to become very familiar with the bluebook. Although everyone gets some practice with it from LRW, most people will only be citing cases and statutes. My school's writing competition included a bluebooking component in addition to the written portion. While I can't say for certain that I wouldn't have written on to law review anyway, even without the journal experience, it undeniably helped to some extent. At the very least I didn't have to spend any time learning the rest of the bluebook in the short period after spring exams and before the writing competition started.

Obviously whether this makes sense for you will depend on how much work you will be expected to do for the journal. I found it to be a negligible time commitment and had at least some benefits.

[Kimikho]

don't do it it's awful

[GOATlawman]

The best editor I ever seen got a jump on the rest of us because he was an editor for a secondary journal as a 1L when everyone else just started to learn how to REALLY bluebook for the first time during the writing competition.

I'd imagine if you do journal as a 1L you could really stand out during 2L to your executive editor as doing some really high quality edits. This will really help, especially if your Exec Ed might go to bat for you, if you could possible be vying for an e-board position in the future, which will be one of the longest lasting credentials you can get from LS

[Desert Fox]

A journal. No. 3 Journals.

[BigZuck]

The best editor I ever seen got a jump on the rest of us because he was an editor for a secondary journal as a 1L when everyone else just started to learn how to REALLY bluebook for the first time during the writing competition.

I'd imagine if you do journal as a 1L you could really stand out during 2L to your executive editor as doing some really high quality edits. This will really help, especially if your Exec Ed might go to bat for you, if you could possible be vying for an e-board position in the future, which will be one of the longest lasting credentials you can get from LS

lol

Don't do it OP. You like yourself more than that.

[Young Marino]

I've heard that there's really no point in doing a journal or any law review unless you want biglawl. Any truth to this?

[hoos89]

I've heard that there's really no point in doing a journal or any law review unless you want biglawl. Any truth to this?

Also if you want a clerkship.

[northwood]

I've heard that there's really no point in doing a journal or any law review unless you want biglawl. Any truth to this?

if you want lit, don't do a journal, do moot court/ mock trial. If you don't want lit, do a journal.

the problems here are 1) you may change your mind, 2) depending on schools both moot court and journals applications are due at the same time (or so), and 3) a lot of higher ups on the journal come down with a bad case of power/ego trips and thus attempt to make everyone miserable.... just to name a few.

[hoos89]

I've heard that there's really no point in doing a journal or any law review unless you want biglawl. Any truth to this?

if you want lit, don't do a journal, do moot court/ mock trial. If you don't want lit, do a journal.

the problems here are 1) you may change your mind, 2) depending on schools both moot court and journals applications are due at the same time (or so), and 3) a lot of higher ups on the journal come down with a bad case of power/ego trips and thus attempt to make everyone miserable.... just to name a few.

No, journal is for lit. If you don't want lit then its borderline worthless (some firms may still expect it, though).

[DonGately]

Again, 1L grades are the most important, right? So it would not be worth joining the journal, if the time commitment takes away from time I could devote to studying.

The only potential benefits I see are: 1) 1L's who join are guaranteed a spot on the journal as 2L's—so in case I don't make it onto Law Review after the writing competition, I have a spot on another journal; 2) a chance to learn Bluebooking; 3) something to put on a resume for 1L summer employment.

I want to do BigLaw if I can. If you're telling me this won't matter at all during OCI, then it seems the benefits aren't enough.

[AReasonableMan]

Could help. It won't get you interviews, but it's something to talk about. Some people find journals interesting. If your interviewer's last name ends with III or IV, they'll love talking about journals.

[Kimikho]

don't do it it's awful

[ManoftheHour]

[salix]

don't do it it's awful

Seriously, it's not so bad. And coming from a non-HYSCCNrestoftheT14, you may need everything you can to set you apart from the pack. Odds are good your grades will be median-ish, right?

Don't underestimate the need to have something other than being top X% to get you the job you want. And don't underestimate the importance of your 1L summer in getting the job you want.

Look into the time commitment the journal says is necessary, double that, and then ask what else you'd do with your time this critical semester.

If at all possible, make the time. Rough out there.

(Kimikho, dig your avatar. Not enough love in the world for HAAH.)

[sparty99]

I recommend doing it. HOWEVER, I do not recommend doing the formal journal where you compete. Once you do your "sham" journal experience, you can list that journal activity on your resume and be done with it. Being on Journal (with the exception of Law Review) teaches you nothing. Almost no one cares. It is all about your grades. People will like seeing your journal experience on the resume, but after that, it has no worth. It is a Resume booster. They might not even ask any questions about your journal experience in an interview.

I wasn't on journal and no one cared. I totally wished I would have done it as a 1L for that sham exprience that I could put on my resume. Being on Journal is one of the worst activities in law school. I don't know why anyone does it.

[BigZuck]

Don't do it OP. You like yourself more than that.

+1

[Young Marino]

I've heard that there's really no point in doing a journal or any law review unless you want biglawl. Any truth to this?

if you want lit, don't do a journal, do moot court/ mock trial.

What's lit?

[BankruptMe]

I wouldn't do it personally.

I think I am a member of 1 club and that is pretty much it (and I never go to the meetings).

Grades are my ticket and that is what you should focus on.