Ask Noah About First Year of Law School, Getting inTop 10%, Law Review

[XXXNoahXXX]

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Noah,
Care to talk about your experience at the VC (Saw in EDF) and how it will help your career? It seems rather irrelevant to someone who wants to go into big law but I am curious to find you wanting to expand your horizon (which is great because VC is hot as heck).

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Where I work there are a few lawyers, an IP lawyer, accountant, and then various assistants and paralegals. It is all transactional deals, and I spend most of my day drafting or reviewing contracts, leases, venture capital deals, etc. The investment group is based out of Asia, and there are tons of international deals going down, so I'm frequently on the phone with people from India, Amsterdam, Israel, Monaco, etc. Most of the investments are in biotech, although we do a little bit of everything.

It's useful because I am constantly drafting memos (albeit internal ones), drafting and editing contracts, etc.

Not very useful for my interest in litigation, but it pays well for a 1L job, and there are plenty of people working for free this summer.

[Salerosa]

Care to go more in depth into your experiences with the Law Review?

Also, I was initially pre-med when I came into college, then journalism for a semester, before settling on a more law oriented major, and as a result it will take me an extra semester to graduate. How much of a detriment to me will this be when applying to law school?

[XXXNoahXXX]

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Care to go more in depth into your experiences with the Law Review?

Also, I was initially pre-med when I came into college, then journalism for a semester, before settling on a more law oriented major, and as a result it will take me an extra semester to graduate. How much of a detriment to me will this be when applying to law school?

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I really don't think it will be a huge deal when applying. They usually only care about the GPA and to a lesser extent the school.



As for law review, maybe I wasn't clear, but I just finished first year and graded on, but I haven't actually done anything other than accept my spot.

I'll make sure to bump this when school gets going to give a TR for both recruiting and to let everyone know what law review is like (for me).

[Salerosa]

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As for law review, maybe I wasn't clear, but I just finished first year and graded on, but I haven't actually done anything other than accept my spot.

I'll make sure to bump this when school gets going to give a TR for both recruiting and to let everyone know what law review is like (for me).

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Actually no, you were perfectly clear, I am at work and was trying to post quickly so it was me who was entirely unclear. What I meant was this:

I know very little about the law review in general aside from that it is a law journal that is run and published by law students and that being a part of it is integral to being recruited by top firms after graduation. Would you mind going more in depth as to what it is and what it entails, eg. Does everyone just get around and discuss cases and laws and then assign articles for people to write? How often is it published? How involved are professors? Are different jobs given out based upon grades (top 3% get first shot at editor or whatever)? How time consuming is it supposed to be? etc, etc.

By the way thanks for fielding these questions as my school doesn't actually have a "pre-law" major so I haven't discussed alot of my questions with my advisor.

[XXXNoahXXX]

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As for law review, maybe I wasn't clear, but I just finished first year and graded on, but I haven't actually done anything other than accept my spot.

I'll make sure to bump this when school gets going to give a TR for both recruiting and to let everyone know what law review is like (for me).

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually no, you were perfectly clear, I am at work and was trying to post quickly so it was me who was entirely unclear. What I meant was this:

I know very little about the law review in general aside from that it is a law journal that is run and published by law students and that being a part of it is integral to being recruited by top firms after graduation. Would you mind going more in depth as to what it is and what it entails, eg. Does everyone just get around and discuss cases and laws and then assign articles for people to write? How often is it published? How involved are professors? Are different jobs given out based upon grades (top 3% get first shot at editor or whatever)? How time consuming is it supposed to be? etc, etc.

By the way thanks for fielding these questions as my school doesn't actually have a "pre-law" major so I haven't discussed alot of my questions with my advisor.

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Yeah, my UG didn't have pre-law either and I actually heard that it is an awful major, better off just doing any real major. Probably best major would be hard science just given the opportunities for IP work and the rigors inherent in the fields of study.


People always talk about law review as if the time commitment is insane, but I think it depends entirely on your school and the journal you are on. Most schools have a main law review that is titled after the school which is the hardest to get on and is the "most prestigious." There are also secondary journals that narrow their focus to environmental law, international law, etc.


The articles in the review are typically written by professors, lawyers, legal scholars, etc.

(Here is a link to the Cornell Law Review Constitution, which explains the duties of various positions. (link)


Basically you are a staff writer 2L, editor 3L, and you can get your note published, etc. I am not sure how they select Editor-In-Chief, etc.


All I know is that it definitely helps a lot when it comes time for recruiting and membership on a journal is a near-prerequisite if you are interested in clerkships, etc.

It is something that will be on your resume and people will assume a certain level of intelligence and capability, simply based upon membership.


At my school, the top 10% automatically get their choice of journal (pretty much all select the main law review, one everyyear chooses a specialty journal because of interest, etc.)

Then there is a writing competition which consists of a 12-14 page memo, they provide you all the cases, you just write it. There is also a "blubooking" assignment which consists of editing citations.

You list your preferences, they score your submission, and based on that they fill the secondary journals. Since most people that grade on select the main law review, only a few spots are left for the writing competition on that one.

[eviljeff]

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This is kinda OT but why are so many people so reluctant to post where they go to school?

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WHERE DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL HUH?

[XXXNoahXXX]

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This is kinda OT but why are so many people so reluctant to post where they go to school?

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WHERE DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL HUH?

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EvilJeff is just bitter because he's now getting owned by NYU! LOL.







(pls no BU comments. thanks)

[eviljeff]

procedurely inferior, substantively superior ftw

[NickMPK]

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Noah, how does the law review work? Getting into it, advancing to editor, duties, etc?

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School-specific.

At my school, top 10% automatically get on and then the rest have to do a writing competition. Unfortunately you don't know your grades til after, so some people waste two weeks doing it when they didnt need to. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]


Other schools do only grades, only combo, or some formula combination of both.

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Yeah, this is definitely not how it was done at my school (Georgetown).

At my school, 50% of the people on the Law Journal were chosen purely based on the writing competition, without regard to grades. The other 50% were chosen based a formula that combined your grades and writing competition score.

I wish our system had been like Noah's, because then I would have gotten on the Law Journal! As it stood, the journal I did join was seriously one of the least fulfilling experiences of my life.

[eviljeff]

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the journal I did join was seriously one of the least fulfilling experiences of my life.

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pretty sure this is standard. I avoided the journal thing. of course now I can't cite for [censored], but we'll see how that goes.