<p>Each year, I answer students' questions about the law review, the write-on competition, and what it generally takes to get onto law review. Although the specific process varies from law school to law school, there are many similarities among all the write-on competitions.</p>
<p>If you have any questions, shoot.</p>
<p>Do you have a link to a thread where you’ve answered those questions? I’d like to know the answers to all of them, actually.</p>
<p>I have answered several questions about the law review and the write-on competition at the TLS forum: [Former</a> law review editor taking questions](<a href=“Former law review editor taking questions Forum - Top Law Schools”>Former law review editor taking questions Forum - Top Law Schools)</p>
<p>If you have any other questions, feel free to ask me.</p>
<p>What do you think about law schools that reserve spaces on law reviews based on affirmative action?</p>
<p>razorsharp:</p>
<p>I’ve heard of Harvard Law Review doing that, but I’m not sure how prevelant of a practice that is around the country. I think each law review should be able to create its own rules for choosing members. If the majority of the board members of a law review vote for some kind of affirmative action policy, that’s their choice. Affirmative action, of course, has positives and negatives – just like any policy.</p>
<p>I’d prefer to answer questions for students who have specific questions about how to improve their chances of getting onto law review. If you have a question, please ask it.</p>
<p>ah this is great!
how much does an applicant’s undergrad institution plays in the process?
is there much of a difference of how you would view mcgill v. georgetown v. notre dame?</p>
<p>neonblue327:</p>
<p>I have never heard of an applicant’s undergrad institution even being disclosed in the process of applying to law review. I don’t think it is ever considered. Law reviews select members based on grades (‘grade-on’), the write-on competition scores (‘write-on’), or some combination of the two (‘composite-on’). There may be some other ways people get onto law review, but these are the big three. And each law review does it differently. </p>
<p>For example, some law reviews choose almost all members based on 1L grades; others choose none based entirely on grades but select most candidates through the write-on competition. You need to check with your law school’s law review to find out how the selection is made. That way, you know what you are shooting for going into the competition.</p>
<p>ohh wow I always thought that undergrad play some type of role…guess now i dont have to stress about paying 50k to go to georgetown when i can go to mcgill with 15k.</p>
<p>thank you!</p>
<p>Wes, can you explain who makes the decision (e.g. faculty, students, administrator, lawyers, etc.) to select members of the law review at your school and others that you know about?</p>
<p>razorsharp:</p>
<p>Law reviews are run by law students. Students manage the organization, select articles to publish, and do all the editing and cite checking for publishable articles. Students are also in charge of selecting new members. I don’t think this is something that varies from law school to law school, but is rather a universal truth. (With the rare exception of law schools like Northeastern, which do not even have a law review.)</p>
<p>So the answer to your question is that a committee of current law review members is in charge of selecting the members of the next class. This process is, as far as I know, pretty much always anonymous. That is, the law review members selecting new members do not see the names of those they are choosing. Instead, they see only grades and write-on competition scores.</p>
<p>The write-on competition normally takes place around April or May, often falling right after Spring final exams. It’s a good idea to begin preparing a few weeks before the actual competition, so please send me your questions.</p>
<p>How would you suggest to best prepare for the write-on competition? Our competition is about 3 days after my last final, which is ouch. Anyway, the competition seems to require a persuasive note and a bluebooking exercise. Now, I <em>hate</em> Bluebook with a passion, and I seem to have had trouble with it during my last legal writing paper–do you have any suggestions as to how I can improve? Are there guidebooks TO the bluebook around? It would be nice to read one in advance.</p>
<p>As for persuasive writing–any opinion on Scalia’s new book? I know people aren’t generally fond of Scalia as far as his decisions go, but reading his opinions is always a pleasure and I do appreciate the guy’s brilliance.</p>
<p>Also, any suggestions for the moot court write on competition? That seems to be coming up right after the law review one.</p>
<p>To prepare for the write-on competition, do the following:</p>
<p>1) Attend the law review meeting where the current editors tell applicants about the competition and what is required.</p>
<p>2) Clear your schedule completely during those 3 days. Make sure you do not have any other obligations or worries during the competition. This is particularly important in your case since you only have 3 days.</p>
<p>3) Take some time and actually read through the Bluebook. Yeah, I know, this activity is as bad as it sounds. But I’m not talking about hours here, just a few minutes here and there to familiarize yourself with the different rules. I don’t know of any guidebook on the Bluebook.</p>
<p>4) Read old competition papers. Oftentimes, these are made available for applicants to review in order to get a feel of what the editors are looking for. They can be a valuable resource.</p>
<p>5) Make a plan, and a backup plan, of how you will write your paper and do the Bluebooking exercise. Library? Your apartment? Somewhere else? It doesn’t matter as long as you have it planned out.</p>
<p>Regarding the moot court write-on competition, I don’t have any tips for you. My law school did not have a moot court write-on competition — members were selected through their performance in moot court appelate and trial competitions where they wrote briefs and argued before a mock judiciary panel. But I would say that the advice I posted in #13 above should work well for whatever type of moot court competition you have.</p>
<p>Wes, if you make law review, it is an activity that is in addition to your regular law classes. How well do students manage the additional workload? Is law review really worth it, if your GPA goes down due to the additional work?</p>
<p>razorsharp:</p>
<p>Being on law review takes up a lot of time. And it definitely has the potential to affect your grades in your classes (not to mention the time it takes away from your personal life). But in my opinion, being on law review is worth it because it is a stellar credential to have on your resume and it is something that will make you stand out as long as you practice law. So, even if your grades suffer a little, having law review generally more than compensates for anything it takes away from you academically. </p>
<p>If you are at all worried about landing a good job or about improving your resume, try to get onto law review. But remember, being on another journal can also be valuable and not making law review can also be beneficial in that it will allow you to put more energy into your classes and other activities.</p>
<p>Any other questions?</p>
<p>In response to an earlier post…</p>
<p>There are guides to the Bluebook (search amazon.com for “guide to the Bluebook”). You can probably find something in your school’s bookstore and/or library. My school had us buy Dworsky’s “User’s Guide to the Bluebook”, but I’ve never actually referred to it. I have the best luck just using the Bluebook’s index, which seems to be undervalued by a lot of students.</p>
<p>Excellent post, Wes Henricksen. I’m always happy to see members of CollegeConfidential share their experiences.</p>
<p>Wanted to point anyone interested to [an interview with the Editor of the Yale Law Journal](<a href=“Yale Law Journal Editor-in-Chief | Interview”>http://lsatblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/yale-law-journal-editor-interview.html</a>).</p>
<p>How would you gauge the value, if any, of participating on a Journal, for those who don’t make Law Review?</p>