Law Review

I was invited, along with the top 20% of the first year class, to a welcome breakfast for the Law Review. I really didn't know what was required to become a member, so I wanted to attend and find out. Initially, I wasn't thinking it would be something I would want to do. In trying to complete the program in 3 years, I didn't see how I would have time to do it. Also, because the school's review is agriculturally focused, I wasn't sure how I would find a topic that would interest me. I'm not exactly a farm girl.

After attending the breakfast, I'm now leaning towards trying for it. It sounds like if you can find a topic and get the research done over the summer, it wouldn't be so impossible. Once summer school finishes in a couple weeks, I will have lots of time on my hands, because the only thing I'm committed to is working 2 mornings a week at the Small Claims office. It's not that I want to use my free time in doing legal research, but if I get a comment (actually a 25-35 page article) that is deemed publishable written, I will get 3 units of credit, waive the Advanced Legal Writing class, and be called a member of the Law Review. Because there is only a very slight chance I will be remaining in this community after graduation, I am going to need SOMETHING to make my resume standout among those who are graduating from Boalt, Stanford and Santa Clara. Perhaps being on Law Review would help me that way.

So, now I'm going to try to find a topic that I'm interested in and that hasn't been written on in the last five years. I have a few ideas, but need to narrow them down to a focused area. Once I get my idea picked, I need to find a faculty advisor to sponsor me. I have 2 that I am thinking of now, depending on which idea I go with.

I suppose the biggest thing you get from Law Review (yeah, yeah, other than the experience and learning about researching) is the bragging rights. For the rest of your life, you get to say you were on the Law Review. You get to have 50 copies of your comment printed up to pass out as writing samples or show off in other ways. You get to use a LEXIS cite, on your resume, to show your published article. Pretty sweet deal, huh? Yeah, that's what I thought too.