Joining 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.

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 competition held during the summer after completion of the first year of law school. Transfer students who have completed their first year are eligible to compete, as are part-time students who have completed the bulletin requirements for the first year. In order to be eligible for the summer competition, students must meet the minimum cumulative GPA requirement of 2.67. The summer competition consists of writing a case comment on a randomly assigned, recently decided case, and completing a blue booking/editing exercise. Once deemed creditworthy by a member of the faculty, the Comment satisfies the second-year writing requirement for competitors chosen to become associate staff members and is eligible to be published in one of the Law Review editions. Second-year members of Law Review participate in weekly editing assignments, which usually take between ten and fifteen hours per week. Third-year members write a Note, which explores a specific issue within an area of law, as well as participate in the weekly editing exercises. 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 for the Editorial Board during their third year receive a total of four hours of academic credit.