Top Law Schools

So I transferred to a T14 and made it onto a secondary journal. A month later and I'm really regretting it. I don't get credit for it and it won't be helpful in my career as I plan on pursuing corporate law. It's a ton of work with no benefit to me. While I doubt the journal will contact my employer (as I had the interview beforehand and the journal wasn't on my resume) I am still worried about the stigma that would be attached to leaving. Would this be a big deal or am I overthinking it?

I see you transferred to GULC. If you are on my secondary journal and quit now, you should not be worried about stigma, but about me murdering you in your sleep.

ha!

he's not kidding. flaking on a journal will get you killed.

Did you commit to do work that, if you dropped journal, would otherwise fall to other people?

If no, quit. If yes, then I guess it depends on the degree to which you value responsibility, integrity, etc.

And not getting murdered by Hand.

At my t13, you can't quit a journal during the school year. Plus you are a giant asshole if you do, because other people will have to pick up your work.

usn26 wrote:Did you commit to do work that, if you dropped journal, would otherwise fall to other people?

This shouldn't really weigh into your decision-making process. I think it's pretty fucked up to join any journal and then subsequently quit after deriving benefits from journal membership. However, if you really haven't done so, just quit. Who cares that everyone else gets a few extra footnotes or something stupid like that? They can just take on another associate or (gasp) delay publication.

It's really not a big deal.

i agree it's not a big deal, except it will be perceived as a big deal.

runinthefront wrote:

usn26 wrote:Did you commit to do work that, if you dropped journal, would otherwise fall to other people?

This shouldn't really weigh into your decision-making process. I think it's pretty fucked up to join any journal and then subsequently quit after deriving benefits from journal membership. However, if you really haven't done so, just quit. Who cares that everyone else gets a few extra footnotes or something stupid like that? They can just take on another associate or (gasp) delay publication.

It's really not a big deal.

Eh, it’s obnoxious to back out of work you committed to do. I'm not saying that the OP shouldn't do it, but it's still kind of rude and there's no reason not to consider that.

runinthefront wrote:

usn26 wrote:Did you commit to do work that, if you dropped journal, would otherwise fall to other people?

This shouldn't really weigh into your decision-making process. I think it's pretty fucked up to join any journal and then subsequently quit after deriving benefits from journal membership. However, if you really haven't done so, just quit. Who cares that everyone else gets a few extra footnotes or something stupid like that? They can just take on another associate or (gasp) delay publication.

It's really not a big deal.

By joining a journal you have unavoidably committed to do work that someone else will have to do if you drop out. The people who will have to do the work that you agreed to do will care. The person who has to reassign the work will care. The person who will have to deal with impatient authors, the incompetent office of journal administration, and the assholes at the printer will care. One of those people might murder you in your sleep. But setting that aside, you’re an asshole for agreeing to do work and then run away when you no longer perceive it to be in your self-interest.

Hand wrote:

runinthefront wrote:

usn26 wrote:Did you commit to do work that, if you dropped journal, would otherwise fall to other people?

This shouldn't really weigh into your decision-making process. I think it's pretty fucked up to join any journal and then subsequently quit after deriving benefits from journal membership. However, if you really haven't done so, just quit. Who cares that everyone else gets a few extra footnotes or something stupid like that? They can just take on another associate or (gasp) delay publication.

It's really not a big deal.

By joining a journal you have unavoidably committed to do work that someone else will have to do if you drop out. The people who will have to do the work that you agreed to do will care. The person who has to reassign the work will care. The person who will have to deal with impatient authors, the incompetent office of journal administration, and the assholes at the printer will care. One of those people might murder you in your sleep. But setting that aside, you’re an asshole for agreeing to do work and then run away when you no longer perceive it to be in your self-interest.

This is called "quitting your job," and it happens all the time.

That being said,

pancakes3 wrote: it's not a big deal, except it will be perceived as a big deal.

It’s not a job. It’s something you agreed to commit to for a year and now you want to back out. Any job where you’d contracted to be there for a set period would be pissed if you backed out part way through, too (like residential summer camp counselor. Or teaching a semester long class). It’s not the worst thing anyone could ever do by any means but it’s undeniably a pain in the ass for the journal.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:It’s not a job. It’s something you agreed to commit to for a year and now you want to back out. Any job where you’d contracted to be there for a set period would be pissed if you backed out part way through, too (like residential summer camp counselor. Or teaching a semester long class). It’s not the worst thing anyone could ever do by any means but it’s undeniably a pain in the ass for the journal.

^ this. OP, no one cares if you drop journal at the end of the year. Don’t be a dick and just check this goddamn footnotes till then.

I was laziest student ever and I had 10 mins DURING A CLASS, to quickly read 10 footnotes a few times a year.

joefresh wrote:So I transferred to a T14 and made it onto a secondary journal. A month later and I'm really regretting it. I don't get credit for it and it won't be helpful in my career as I plan on pursuing corporate law. It's a ton of work with no benefit to me. While I doubt the journal will contact my employer (as I had the interview beforehand and the journal wasn't on my resume) I am still worried about the stigma that would be attached to leaving. Would this be a big deal or am I overthinking it?

I don't plan on forgiving some fellow peers on my journal who, towards the end of 3L, did shitty work and then refused to fix their work during a critical time, until we threatened to throw them off the journal. There is definitely a stigma, and there's a decent chance your classmates (and future colleagues/opposing counsel/etc.) won't forget it next time they run into you in a professional setting.

If you really don't think you can handle doing journal for all of 2L, at least talk to a 3L editor in a managerial position about your concerns, and maybe they'll cut you a little slack. Or perhaps you can agree on a time when things will be a little slower and it won't severely burden others for you to step away. Communicate first. Don't just quit.

What you should really do is convince everyone on your journal that it's a waste of time and that legal scholarship is a joke. If you all quit together you can just deep six the journal and not worry about screwing anyone over who wasn't trying to exploit your free labor to begin with.

Lol at exploiting someone who signed up of their own free will.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:Lol at exploiting someone who signed up of their own free will.

That is the core of the entire law school scam.

Like why do people go to Cooley? Because they don't know any better and people they perceive as the trustworthy gatekeepers of the legal profession tell them it's a good idea. Why do people sign up for journal? Because career services and law professors and everyone else with a financial stake in the scam convince them that it's a good career move.

nobody is fully informed of the tedium of LR when they "freely" sign up for it. some ppl deal with it like it better than others but ppl sign up bc it's "the thing to do" and also it's the extracurricular that makes a difference on a resume.

if you do drop out, do it sooner rather than later though.

BlendedUnicorn wrote:Like why do people go to Cooley? Because they don't know any better and people they perceive as the trustworthy gatekeepers of the legal profession tell them it's a good idea. Why do people sign up for journal? Because career services and law professors and everyone else with a financial stake in the scam convince them that it's a good career move.

Pretty sure it’s firms selecting for journal that convinces people to do journal. Still doesn’t change the fact that you committed to something (which doesn’t actually require much work) for a year and backing out means your peers have to do something on top of what they signed up for.

(Edit: as the extracurricular that makes a difference on a resume it’s clearly not like going to Cooley.

You think people are fully informed of the tedium of contracts and civ pro when they sign up for law school? And journal is somehow some much greater imposition of tedium?)

no, but ppl can drop out if they don't like law school without being pressured into staying out of a sense of duty

pancakes3 wrote:no, but ppl can drop out if they don't like law school without being pressured into staying out of a sense of duty

Lollllll. These things aren’t comparable. You dropping out of school doesn’t affect anyone else, and spending a few hours over a year doing journal work isn’t like paying a year’s worth of tuition on nothing.

Again, OP should still drop it if he really wants to. Doesn’t mean it’s not kind of rude.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

BlendedUnicorn wrote:Like why do people go to Cooley? Because they don't know any better and people they perceive as the trustworthy gatekeepers of the legal profession tell them it's a good idea. Why do people sign up for journal? Because career services and law professors and everyone else with a financial stake in the scam convince them that it's a good career move.

Pretty sure it’s firms selecting for journal that convinces people to do journal. Still doesn’t change the fact that you committed to something (which doesn’t actually require much work) for a year and backing out means your peers have to do something on top of what they signed up for.

(Edit: as the extracurricular that makes a difference on a resume it’s clearly not like going to Cooley.

You think people are fully informed of the tedium of contracts and civ pro when they sign up for law school? And journal is somehow some much greater imposition of tedium?)

Bolded is why I’m saying the only way out is to convince everyone on the journal to quit. Otherwise I agree with you that it would be a dick move to drop it. But fuck the law profs who want you to edit their work for free and would be left out to dry if everyone quit.

Yeah, well, good luck with that.