As to the value of journals, it seems some journal is a prerequisite to a clerkship. According to CLS's clerkship manual either 95% or 99%(I can't remember) of students receiving clerkships had a journal on their resume. I also remember hearing a judge speaking about the clerkship application process saying she removes all the applications that don't have journals first. The value of a clerkship is subjective. Eben mentioned in class his District clerkship allowed him to see the law at work. I also know firms offer a bonus in pay and seniority to many who join with clerkships completed. The journal clerkship correlation seems to be the most important thing I've learned about journals so far.

A question of my own: Who knows how easy or hard it is to fulfill your major or minor writing requirements outside of a journal note? Is the journal note the best way to fulfill these requirements or just a common method?

-- JulianBaez - 14 Apr 2008

Journals

As far as journals go, I think it's more hype than substance. After being on a journal this year, it's a mixed experience. You definitely learn how to bluebook. But ask any 3L editors and they'll tell you that less than 30% is actually done right, and they just end up redoing the work. The best advice I got was to ignore the subject matter and take on the amount of work that you actually think you can handle. (How many times do they publish per year? Note requirement? Do you actually aid in selecting articles? Are the people generally cooperative or a little douchebaggy?) Those that I've counseled that took what they can handle, generally didn't mind the bluebooking grunt work and found the articles interesting.

-- MiaWhite - 10 Apr 2008

Can someone remind me what the benefits of journal membership are? Does membership help build a set of legal skills or just expertise in blue-booking? I suppose Law Review carries some marketable prestige, but are the others also valued?

-- EdwardNewton - 10 Apr 2008

-- MakalikaNaholowaa - 10 Apr 2008

To post questions and build out the discussion started in the Wednesday, April 9th class regarding where to go from here and how to build an action plan for shaping our career without hocking the license.

There are probably many, so I suggest that for ease of reading, if you post a question, you actually hit edit and add it in with a bold/header formatting and give it its own comment box.

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