Law review and journals: what they are and why people want them

Law reviews are academic journals edited by students. The flagship one at each school is usually called the law review; most schools also have specialized journals in particular fields. Students select and edit the articles, check every citation, and write pieces of their own.

It is an unusual arrangement — students editing the scholarship of professors — and it is a long-standing feature of American legal education rather than a quirk of one school.

How people get on

Typically after first year, through some combination of two things: grades, and a writing competition run in the weeks after exams. The competition usually involves a closed-universe problem and a citation exercise, done to a deadline, on top of a year that has just ended.

• Grade-on. A share of places goes to the top of the class by first-year grades.
• Write-on. A share goes on competition performance regardless of grades — which is the route worth knowing about, because it is the one that does not depend on the curve.
• Note requirement. Members generally write a substantial piece of their own, and completing it is often a condition of membership.

What the work actually is

Mostly citation checking, in volume, to an exacting standard. It is tedious and it is also the closest thing in law school to the precision the job demands — every proposition traced to its source and every source verified.

The editing and writing are more interesting and less of the hours. Anyone considering it should weigh the time honestly: it is a substantial commitment during the years when clinics, jobs and coursework are competing for the same hours.

Who it matters to

It matters most for two paths: judicial clerkships, where it is close to expected at the more competitive levels, and academia, where the writing and the credential both count. It matters somewhat in large-firm recruiting as a signal.

For a great deal of practice it matters little. If you intend to do public defense, or transactional work at a small firm, or to go in-house eventually, law review is a nice line that is not doing much work on your behalf.

Which is the better place to look if you are trying to work out what a school's graduates actually need in order to get the jobs you want.

Worth keeping in view, because journal work sits on top of that requirement rather than counting for much of it. The hours are additional.