WHY LAW REVIEW?
Membership on The University of Memphis Law Review is one of the highest honors a law student can attain. Members vastly improve their legal abilities with respect to writing, researching, and editing. In addition, members have the opportunity to deepen their substantive understanding of diverse legal fields and interact with many of the country’s most highly regarded legal scholars. Because of the skills developed during this process, your association with the Law Review will be weighted substantially throughout your career as a legal practitioner. The most sought-after law firms do not simply recommend Law Review as a prerequisite to the interviewing and hiring process, but require it. A list of all the summer clerkships that our 2L staff members have accepted for the upcoming summer is attached.
HOW TO JOIN
The goal of the Law Review is to select students who exhibit a high capacity for comprehending legal concepts, an excellent writing style, and the ability to correctly edit a potential law review article. The Law Review chooses its new members anonymously based on a summer writing competition held after completing the first year of law school. Students must meet the minimum cumulative GPA requirement of 2.5. The summer competition consists of writing a case comment on a recently decided case and completing a Blue-Booking/editing exercise.
MEMBERSHIP DUTIES
Second-year members participate in the weekly editing assignments, which usually amounts to about ten hours per week. Second-year members also write a Note, a written work of legal scholarship that explores a specific issue within an area of law. Third-year members of Law Review participate in weekly editing assignments, as well, and can serve on the Law Review’s Editorial Board. Members successfully completing all Law Review obligations for both their 2L and 3L years earn three academic credits and satisfy the law school writing requirement. Law Review members chosen to serve on the Editorial Board during their third year receive a total of four hours of academic credit.
