Blog Entry 84

August 20th, 2010
Greetings again. 

Today was an interesting sort of day. This morning, I attended the UDM Law Review orientation. I’m not sure how much you all know about law review, but I guess it’s kind of a big deal. (And I say that in the most humble way possible…) Basically, law review is a student-run organization that publishes a “law review.” Faculty members and other important people write articles for the law review, and the members are responsible for editing and sourcechecking these articles to make sure that they are ready for publication. In addition, members of the law review choose a previously unexplored area of the law to spend a great deal of time researching, with the ultimate result being a written piece called a note or comment. (And don’t get the wrong idea; notes and comments sound like nice little things that might take up the space of a post-it, they’re actually pretty extensive .) The editors of law review are then responsible for selecting some of these student-written notes and comments for publication. The opportunity to get your work published as a student? Like I said, kind of a big deal. 

Students can be selected for law review in one of two ways: either as a write-on candidate, or a grade-on candidate. The top ten ranked JD students are automatically offered a position on law review as “grade-on” candidates. (I’m not exactly sure how this is calculated, because I know it is based on a minimum number of credits, and some part-time students will not qualify until going into their third year, and they are still eligible to be included in the grade-on process…but suffice it to say that if you do really well your first year, it’s possible that your ranking could earn you a spot.) Also, there is the possibility to participate in the write-on competition. The writing competition requires a pretty fair amount of work, but it also offers some great experience, and the chance to showcase your writing abilities. This year, grade-ons weren’t announced until after the writing competition, so everyone who wanted to be on law review had to participate…ahh what nice law school bonding over shared experiences.  

Anyway, now I am hanging out at the school, being productive, until the 1L Tigers game tonight. I get to tag along and share this oh-so-Detroit experience with all of you. Hope all is well!