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I'm at a Top 20 school, with a GPA marginally above median. I hope to land a BigLaw job in a major city, where I already have significant ties.

I have absolutely no interest in being on a journal. Is being on a journal necessary to getting a biglaw job? How big of an impact can Law Review make? Secondary journals? I've already submitted my materials for write-on and can't imagine doing that for multiple hours every week of my 2L year. Is being on a journal, even a secondary one, just a necessary evil that I should learn to deal with?

Also, I participated in my school's first-year advocacy competition and did well. I intend on pursuing that further during my 2L year. Is this something that can make up for not being on a journal?

Any insights will be greatly appreciated.

IMO, if you don't get on the flagship journal, don't do a secondary.*

*Advice from a 1L

Try to get on Law Review; if you don't get on, then only do secondary if you're guaranteed to be published

If you don't get the primary journal, and you decide against a secondary journal, I'd make sure you had at least something else on your resume activity-wise that somehow relates to the law (advocacy comps, etc).

I think many, if not most, employers would be skeptical with no journal unless you had some significant time suck you could point to that prevented it--mock trial team perhaps. At my school, secondary journals required dramatically less work than law review since they published significantly less.

If you have an interest/passion for trial work, then mock trial or moot court are worth the effort.
Biglaw requires a lot of monotonous drone type work similar to that required for law review & law journals. Secondary journals can be a solid resume booster if related to a practice area of the interviewing law firm, if one is published or if the student becomes an editor.

You're not in the T14. You're just above median GPA. If you want Biglaw, why would you pass up a useful resume line? If you want a chance at Biglaw at median from a non-T14, you can't give up any potential advantages. Sure, journal is boring - but you don't have to do it well, you just have to do it.

OutCold wrote:I think many, if not most, employers would be skeptical with no journal unless you had some significant time suck you could point to that prevented it--mock trial team perhaps. At my school, secondary journals required dramatically less work than law review since they published significantly less.

This.

It is so incredibly easy to do the absolute bare minimum for a secondary. I'd spend maybe a full day per semester as a 2L on my secondary. You can just do a crappy job most of the time because very few 3Ls supervising your work will care (or won't care enough to do anything about it). I certainly didn't care as a 3L board member.

is not substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect.

It’s a lot of mind numbing work. Not sure of the return since my employer never brought it up. If you want to play it safe, do it, but get on the journal board (especially if it is a secondary journal).

"probative"?