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Hello all,

I've been recently appointed to one of the top three most desired executive positions with my school's flagship law review. I am ecstatic about this opportunity, but I had also hoped to run for Editor-in-Chief of a lesser-known journal at my law school. It has only been in existence for a few years but is slowly gaining momentum and notoriety. The only problem is that the law review's bylaws state that a member on the executive board cannot run for an executive position on another journal. Keeping the executive position with the Law Review would bar me from running for Editor-in-Chief of the other journal.

My question to the forum is: which looks better? An executive position with the Law Review or Editor-in-Chief of the lesser-known journal? I believe I will enjoy either position, so nothing besides the prestige factor will play a role in my decision-making process at this point.

I apologize for the vagueness, but it is for the sake of anonymity. Thanks in advance.

I would say flagship law review position.

Are you shooting for an Article III clerkship? If so, are you competitive within your class for a position? You'll definitely get more recognition for the e-board position on your school's flagship journal, particularly when you apply for clerkships, but even on like firm bios.

You could also get that bylaw changed.

Flagship.

Does this still hold if you're interested in PI? My understanding is that PI generally cares less about general prestige and more about demonstrated interest.

To the extent that's true, I don't think journal even matters for PI. Demonstrated interest is better shown through internships and other actual legal experience. If you want a publication, you can write your law review note on anything, so it can cover your PI area of interest.

I think if you do a specialized journal in your area of PI interest, you can make a reasonable case for having done so. And as EIC you may be able to make some connections. But actual legal experience will help more. To the extent it's a PI field that cares a lot about prestige/pedigree, the flagships are almost invariably ranked higher than the specialized journals at the same schools. (The HLS journal of law and [whatever] is doubtless more prestigious than the flagship LR at my school, but that's not the choice you're facing.)

Check w/ contacts in your PI field though. I'm in an arguably PI (more Gov't) field, and my employer did care about rank, GPA, all that. Not to the same degree that BigLaw does, but it still mattered.

Figure out how much (if at all) it counts.