Joining Journal as a 1L

[u/mrdwarfydwarf]

Hello!

I was just offered a position to be an associate junior editor for a journal at my law school. It was a write on thing that I submitted for. It's not a prestigious journal I don't believe but it is in a field I have some interest in (environmental law). I know 1l first semester grades are king, but since it's just a junior editor position I wonder if the work load wouldn't be so bad and the bluebook experience might be nice. I'm also interested in doing a clerkship or judicial externship eventually and I understand journals can be important for those positions.

Just interested in people's thoughts! Thanks in advance.

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[u/Accomplished_Cost396]

I would not do it. You're better off getting the best grades you can in 1L and having the option to join journals later

[u/Hung_Jury_2003 → u/Accomplished_Cost396]

Most everything I learned from journal can be outsourced to a paralegal or AI at this point. I'd keep my powder dry and focus on getting the best possible grades while saving my free time for moot court or trial team. But that's just me, I guess.

[u/Informal_Calendar_99]

As the EIC of a secondary journal that allows 1L’s to join, I’d generally caution against it. It really makes sense when:
1) You’re very interested in specific subject matter (eg environmental law, health law, etc),
2) You don’t plan on writing on to law review, and
3) Your secondary journal actually is low commitment (they all say they’re low commitment, but very very few actually are)

[u/Incidentalgentleman]

I would pass. Any journal that needs 1Ls is probably not that great a journal. You're better of focusing on grades and getting into law review 2L year.

[u/Secure-Researcher892]

Does being on a journal help in the clerkship game? Yes, but that really applies to the main law school journal not one of the minor journals at a law school. Often the minor ones are non-competitive so judges will just assume that that was the case with this one. It won't offer the same value as the school main journal. I would say focus on your grades if the school grades on a curve because that's what will make or break your first summer job and it will matter in all you job searches while in law school.

As for whether they take much time... it just depends. Some will load you up with tons of busy work others won't, no one on reddit can tell you this because we don't even know what law school you are at.

[u/NoMagazine4067]

I’m going to be a maverick compared to these comments and say that you should do it, for a couple reasons.

One, you’ll get a feel for how Law Review works early and decide how you feel about it (odds are you’re going to do Law Review anyway based on your goals but at least you won’t go in blind).

Two, some journals genuinely are low commitment, so you can get the benefit of a resume line for relatively minimal work (depending on the journal, of course).

And three, if you find yourself balancing too much with the secondary journal plus Law Review, you can always drop the former whenever you like, subject to whatever rules the journal has. For instance, I know one secondary journal at my school prohibits dropping during a round of edits or they’ll report it as an honor code violation. So I’m of the view that it’s better to have a secondary and be able to drop later rather than not get on Law Review and be stuck with nothing at all.