UVA Law Students Taking Questions Forum

[bgdddymtty]

Of course, I do plan on continuing to reside in VA after graduation so I do meet the residency requirements.

DOMICILE!

[jawsthegreat]

Of course, I do plan on continuing to reside in VA after graduation so I do meet the residency requirements.

DOMICILE!

He is actually moving, with the intention to stay. ZOMG

[uvahooo]

Of course, I do plan on continuing to reside in VA after graduation so I do meet the residency requirements.

DOMICILE!

He is actually moving, with the intention to stay. ZOMG

why are you thinking about CivPro? you never have to think about that again. duh.

[BruceWayne]

Hey 2L's what have you heard about the Criminal Law journal? Frankly, if I don't make law review I really don't want to join a journal just for the minimal "prestige" and minimally enhanced job prospects in exchange for boat loads of work. However, a few of the journals--mainly the criminal law one--have interesting topics. I would rather be on a journal that has a topic that interests me than be on VJIL etc. I know Criminal law is new but what's the buzz about it amongst 2 and 3Ls?

[Cavalier]

Hey 2L's what have you heard about the Criminal Law journal? Frankly, if I don't make law review I really don't want to join a journal just for the minimal "prestige" and minimally enhanced job prospects in exchange for boat loads of work. However, a few of the journals--mainly the criminal law one--have interesting topics. I would rather be on a journal that has a topic that interests me than be on VJIL etc. I know Criminal law is new but what's the buzz about it amongst 2 and 3Ls?

If you're spending your winter break thinking about what journal you want to be on, you're doing it wrong. But to answer your question, the Criminal Law journal is not a bad choice because it publishes only twice per year. Since employers don't actually care what secondary journal you are on, I recommend picking a journal based on workload, and not the "prestige" 1Ls ascribe to it.

[vamedic03]

Hey 2L's what have you heard about the Criminal Law journal? Frankly, if I don't make law review I really don't want to join a journal just for the minimal "prestige" and minimally enhanced job prospects in exchange for boat loads of work. However, a few of the journals--mainly the criminal law one--have interesting topics. I would rather be on a journal that has a topic that interests me than be on VJIL etc. I know Criminal law is new but what's the buzz about it amongst 2 and 3Ls?

If you're spending your winter break thinking about what journal you want to be on, you're doing it wrong. But to answer your question, the Criminal Law journal is not a bad choice because it publishes only twice per year. Since employers don't actually care what secondary journal you are on, I recommend picking a journal based on workload, and not the "prestige" 1Ls ascribe to it.

I definitely agree with Cavalier on this one. My suggestion is as follows for deciding what journals to try out for:

(1) Go and flip through a recent issue of each journal.

(2) Pick whichever journal bores you the least; or,

(3) If they all bore you equally, then pick whichever journal publishes the least.

People will say lots of random things as journal tryouts approach. Discount the following things:

(1) There's no such thing as journal rankings. Yes, there is a W&L library page that tracks how frequently journals are cited but, this does not equal prestige.

(2) A certain journal will claim to be the most business oriented journal; ironically, it's not the Law & Business journal that makes this claim. I.e., don't believe what some journals claim.

(3) I personally thought it was a waste of time to tab the bluebook. Others disagree. But, whatever you do, look up every rule, every time.

(4) Just remember, the best indicator of workload is # of times / year the journal is published.

[ILikeIke]

(3) I personally thought it was a waste of time to tab the bluebook. Others disagree. But, whatever you do, look up every rule, every time.

I'm not sure I found tabbing that useful, either- I certainly don't use my tabs now when I cite check. It might save you a bit of time over looking through the index, but I can't imagine it's that significant.

What I would definitely advise against doing is reading through the Bluebook before journal tryouts. A rumor got started last year that it was absolutely essential to read the entire Bluebook before tryouts. I can't think of anything that would be more boring or a bigger waste of your time. There's no way you're going to memorize the rules on one read through. I guess the belief is that it makes you familiar with things to look for? The thing is, though, from having used the Bluebook at least a bit for LRW (not to mention, used other citation systems in your life) you have some idea of things to look for like: Gee, are there any weird rules about fonts for this kind of citation? or Can I abbreviate any of these magazine titles further?

In sum, for the love of God, do not waste your time and brain cells reading the entire Bluebook.

[005618502]

Hey everyone i have a question for you:

I have a SO that will be moving with me to Charlettsville. How hard of a commute is it from there to Richmond if that is the best place to find a job?

[vamedic03]

Hey everyone i have a question for you:

I have a SO that will be moving with me to Charlettsville. How hard of a commute is it from there to Richmond if that is the best place to find a job?

It's a boring one hour drive.

[napolnic]

(3) I personally thought it was a waste of time to tab the bluebook. Others disagree. But, whatever you do, look up every rule, every time.

I'm not sure I found tabbing that useful, either- I certainly don't use my tabs now when I cite check. It might save you a bit of time over looking through the index, but I can't imagine it's that significant.

What I would definitely advise against doing is reading through the Bluebook before journal tryouts. A rumor got started last year that it was absolutely essential to read the entire Bluebook before tryouts. I can't think of anything that would be more boring or a bigger waste of your time. There's no way you're going to memorize the rules on one read through. I guess the belief is that it makes you familiar with things to look for? The thing is, though, from having used the Bluebook at least a bit for LRW (not to mention, used other citation systems in your life) you have some idea of things to look for like: Gee, are there any weird rules about fonts for this kind of citation? or Can I abbreviate any of these magazine titles further?

In sum, for the love of God, do not waste your time and brain cells reading the entire Bluebook.

I disagree on this point. I found it quite useful to at least know where there were odd things (or at least things that struck me as odd) with the rules when I read through them. The purpose isn't to memorize, but to get a feeling of where things strike you as odd. Otherwise, you might not think twice about just looking at the basic format without considering the possibility of slight irregularities. LRW only really exposes you on how to do case citations and even then in limited sources.

All of that said, it's winter break. Do ProBono, don't worry about journal tryouts.

(and yes, tabs were pretty useless on the whole. I think the only tabs I still use are to the abbreviations and the index)

[YCrevolution]

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[005618502]

Hey everyone i have a question for you:

I have a SO that will be moving with me to Charlettsville. How hard of a commute is it from there to Richmond if that is the best place to find a job?

It's a boring one hour drive.

Do other people have GF's or wives that do this? Is the drive bad besides boring? Will traffic often be a problem? I just dont see her getting anything in charlettsville for what she wants to do.

[dailygrind]

break is stretching by and i'm getting a little restless (i'm living in suburbia with the folks and most of my friends are working stiffs). thinking about doing a little gunning. if anyone has or knows someone who has an old outline for con law with sprigman, property with cushman, or law and econ with hynes, i'd greatly appreciate it if you could hit me with a PM. thanks in advance.

[arism87]

Hey everyone i have a question for you:

I have a SO that will be moving with me to Charlettsville. How hard of a commute is it from there to Richmond if that is the best place to find a job?

It's a boring one hour drive.

Do other people have GF's or wives that do this? Is the drive bad besides boring? Will traffic often be a problem? I just dont see her getting anything in charlettsville for what she wants to do.

It's an easy drive. My roommate at UVA UG stayed an extra year and more or less lived at home in Richmond while she finished up; it never bothered her.

[Cavalier]

break is stretching by and i'm getting a little restless (i'm living in suburbia with the folks and most of my friends are working stiffs). thinking about doing a little gunning. if anyone has or knows someone who has an old outline for con law with sprigman, property with cushman, or law and econ with hynes, i'd greatly appreciate it if you could hit me with a PM. thanks in advance.

No gunning over winter break!

[badwithpseudonyms]

Question: What are the rules of etiquette about contacting alumni? Specifically, I am asking about alumni in a secondary market you are from and plan on returning to.

...A little further off, but on a similar note, Cavalier made a comment in another thread about not wasting 2L OGI bids on firms from your secondary/home market and just writing letters to them during your 1L summer. How does that work?

Thanks.

[RVP11]

Question: What are the rules of etiquette about contacting alumni? Specifically, I am asking about alumni in a secondary market you are from and plan on returning to.

I did this during winter break as a 1L. I just mass-emailed every alumni (from the alumni career network on LawWeb) in that city. About half responded and I ended up meeting with three just to chat about the market and UVA. This was far from necessary but I suppose I wanted the reassurance that it would be easy to get a job in the city. As for etiquette, a polite e-mail is fine - if they're extremely busy or not interested then they won't respond. If you want to see exactly what I e-mailed, feel free to PM me.

...A little further off, but on a similar note, Cavalier made a comment in another thread about not wasting 2L OGI bids on firms from your secondary/home market and just writing letters to them during your 1L summer. How does that work?

Most firms want you to bid on them at OGI if they are coming. There are a few exceptions - if you have some special connection to the firm it might be a better idea to mail them well before OGI. I know a few people who got callbacks from firms that way and didn't have to use a bid on them (note, though, that these were NY/DC firms).

If they're not coming, you really want to have your cover letter/resume/transcript sent to them some time in July before OGI. If you're lucky, you can end up with some interviews and callbacks before OGI, which will give you a nice edge in law firm interview experience heading into OGI. I had a 6-7 hour callback with one firm in July and it made the screening interviews in August very easy by comparison.

[plum]

if you miss a day of classes in order to attend an interview for a summer position, is that an honor code violation? how is it handled? should you tell the professor about the conflict? what's the general uva custom on this sort of thing (for 1Ls, not ogi).

[Cavalier]

if you miss a day of classes in order to attend an interview for a summer position, is that an honor code violation? how is it handled? should you tell the professor about the conflict? what's the general uva custom on this sort of thing (for 1Ls, not ogi).

You can skip classes for whatever reason you want. The ABA requires that your attendance be at least 80% in each class, but even that rule is routinely violated. If you skip a non-seminar class, no one will know or care.

[RVP11]

if you miss a day of classes in order to attend an interview for a summer position, is that an honor code violation?

No. It's not an honor code violation to skip class and watch TV either, is it?

how is it handled? should you tell the professor about the conflict?

E-mail them and tell them you'll be missing, and why. They'll understand.

[plum]

No. It's not an honor code violation to skip class.

ah. i got the idea from #3 on this blog post: --LinkRemoved--

[Cavalier]

No. It's not an honor code violation to skip class.

ah. i got the idea from #3 on this blog post: --LinkRemoved--

You can't skip your Friday classes to grab extra time for journal tryouts. That's all.

[plum]

You can't skip your Friday classes to grab extra time for journal tryouts. That's all.

ah ok. speaking of which, do you have any links with detailed information on the journal tryout process at uva? these blogs are just commentary and i'm not getting a clear picture of what is involved.

[YCrevolution]

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[plum]

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danke!