Do judges/clerks care about secondary journal positions Forum

[Anonymous User]

It’s journal board election season. Wondering if people have thoughts about the benefit of doing board on a secondary journal. Especially, is there a major marginal benefit to doing EIC over Articles or Executive or Note editor?

[Anonymous User]

EIC matters and (I would argue) is the only E-board position that gives a benefit that is appropriately worth the time commitment. After EIC, there tends to be somewhat of a boost for whatever the position is that is for the person in charge of articles. After that I do not think any of them give a noticeable bump worth it. For instance on my journal, the managing editor did like 2.5-3 times the work of a normal notes editor. Don't think it was worth it.

If the question is do judges/clerks like seeing a senior board member over a normal articles/notes/whatever member, the answer is probably sure. I highly, highly doubt it is going to be worth the ultimate effort though.

[Anonymous User]

EIC matters and (I would argue) is the only E-board position that gives a benefit that is appropriately worth the time commitment. After EIC, there tends to be somewhat of a boost for whatever the position is that is for the person in charge of articles. After that I do not think any of them give a noticeable bump worth it. For instance on my journal, the managing editor did like 2.5-3 times the work of a normal notes editor. Don't think it was worth it.

If the question is do judges/clerks like seeing a senior board member over a normal articles/notes/whatever member, the answer is probably sure. I highly, highly doubt it is going to be worth the ultimate effort though.

Does getting your note published in your secondary journal help, or not really?

[Anonymous User]

Did hiring for my judges at both the D.Ct. and the COA. I'm sure its judge dependent but I'd say the ranking goes: main law review EIC/ME > main law review membership > secondary journal EIC > every other position on a secondary journal = no journal/law review. It will also depend how much the judge knows about journals at your schools. For example at my school there was a secondary journal that was pretty well respected and judges who went there know that. There's also secondary journals at T14s that are well respected by conservative judges because the subject matter or e-board leans right.

Publication in any journal, even secondary, was viewed favorably by both my judges.

[Anonymous User]

For maximal clerkship impact per work, the best position is LR AE—high prestige, but relatively relaxed outside of the submission periods. Definitely nothing executive or managing.

[Anonymous User]

For maximal clerkship impact per work, the best position is LR AE—high prestige, but relatively relaxed outside of the submission periods. Definitely nothing executive or managing.

Don't know about your journal, but on my one this position was a lot of work.

[Anonymous User]

For maximal clerkship impact per work, the best position is LR AE—high prestige, but relatively relaxed outside of the submission periods. Definitely nothing executive or managing.

Don't know about your journal, but on my one this position was a lot of work.

Yeah, it was on mine, too - submission period is obviously the most work, but the AE's then worked directly with the authors on edits up through publication, which was still a lot of work (some authors more than others, of course, but there are a lot of unhelpful authors out there).

[Anonymous User]

For maximal clerkship impact per work, the best position is LR AE—high prestige, but relatively relaxed outside of the submission periods. Definitely nothing executive or managing.

Don't know about your journal, but on my one this position was a lot of work.

Yeah, it was on mine, too - submission period is obviously the most work, but the AE's then worked directly with the authors on edits up through publication, which was still a lot of work (some authors more than others, of course, but there are a lot of unhelpful authors out there).

It definitely differs depending on the school/journal - articles editors were seen as far too much work at my T14's LR, and the general consensus was that non-EIC positions make a marginal difference (if any) on clerkship apps. There wasn't a correlation between peoples' journal positions and whether they got a clerkship/what clerkship they got, so I wouldn't recommend doing if the possible clerkship boost is your only reason. If you're actually interested in a position, then go for it - if nothing else, it'll give your interviewers something to ask about.

[Anonymous User]

I was articles selections editor on my journal and it was a good gig, entirely over 2L summer. Didn't have any benefits but I enjoyed it.

Is EIC still a good resume bump these days?

[Anonymous User]

This thread was supposed to be about secondary journals... so is the consensus that only EIC matters for those?

[Anonymous User]

I was articles selections editor on my journal and it was a good gig, entirely over 2L summer. Didn't have any benefits but I enjoyed it.

Is EIC still a good resume bump these days?

Being EIC of a secondary journal is a good bump. Being EIC of like a T6 law review is like an insane bump based on performance which admittedly could be more correlation than causation.

[Anonymous User]

Strong disagree that nothing but EIC matters btw—obviously not every judge hires on the same criteria, but I think it’s equally obvious that many judges care about journal board positions. I know of a prominent, selective judge who virtually exclusively hires via a couple of top LR boards for example.

[Anonymous User]

Strong disagree that nothing but EIC matters btw—obviously not every judge hires on the same criteria, but I think it’s equally obvious that many judges care about journal board positions. I know of a prominent, selective judge who virtually exclusively hires via a couple of top LR boards for example.

I think the point of this thread was to inquire about secondary journals. So the relevant question would be whether judges care about non-EIC positions on secondary journals, not law review.

[Anonymous User]

Strong disagree that nothing but EIC matters btw—obviously not every judge hires on the same criteria, but I think it’s equally obvious that many judges care about journal board positions. I know of a prominent, selective judge who virtually exclusively hires via a couple of top LR boards for example.

I think the point of this thread was to inquire about secondary journals. So the relevant question would be whether judges care about non-EIC positions on secondary journals, not law review.

Like articles editor

[Anonymous User]

Strong disagree that nothing but EIC matters btw—obviously not every judge hires on the same criteria, but I think it’s equally obvious that many judges care about journal board positions. I know of a prominent, selective judge who virtually exclusively hires via a couple of top LR boards for example.

I think the point of this thread was to inquire about secondary journals. So the relevant question would be whether judges care about non-EIC positions on secondary journals, not law review.

Like articles editor

compared to some other positions, a judge generally knows what kind of work you were doing as an articles editor and it's a guarantee you were engaging with legal ideas. some judges probably don't care but some others might.

[Anonymous User]

So, to the original question of this thread. Is the consensus for secondary journals that there's no real difference in clerkships prospects between board positions besides EIC? Is it not be worth it to go for an executive position over a normal articles editor position, given the workload disparity?

[Anonymous User]

So, to the original question of this thread. Is the consensus for secondary journals that there's no real difference in clerkships prospects between board positions besides EIC? Is it not be worth it to go for an executive position over a normal articles editor position, given the workload disparity?

I mean it really depends. If the AE was equal in work to the non-AE then yeah the AE is better. But of course the workload is not equal. So like to some extent there is some individual balancing going on of if the marginal increase in work is worth the marginal increase in prestige. For most journals it will not be. But there is conceivable a secondary journal out there where the AE does about the same work as a non-AE and in that instance I would say go with the AE.