Question for lawyers

Just got an e-mail from my son who is in Law School. He's been accepted to both the Environmental Law Review and the Business Law Review at his school. He was the only one at the school who got accepted to both. He asked me my opinion on which one he should do. I know nothing about such things. The obvious question would be what is he most interested in; the answer to that is he doesn't really know just yet. He is interssted in environment/public health issues. He's also interested in the criminal side of business law - like prosecuting turkeys like Ken Lay.

Any thoughts from someone in the profession that I could pass on to him?

MzPip
:dem:

First, law review is a lot of fact and citation checking and a little actual writing of an article that will most likely be published. If he has a strong interest in a particular article topic then it would make sense to join the review that will publish that article. He should also consider the regard given to both reviews by the profession. One may be held in great esteem as compared to the other. In that case he may want to pick the more highly regarded review.

If all things are equal he should go with the one where he likes the people the most. Law review involves a lot of long hours doing grunt work and it helps if you enjoy the people who are working with you.

Congratulations are definitely in order. It is quite an accomplishment to be accepted to two reviews while maintaining course work at the same time.

I second everything Gumbo YaYa said. I would add that if your son knows at this point what area of law he is interested in practicing in, lean that way. It sounds like he's not decided, and that's not a bad thing at this point. In law school I thought I'd end up a transactional type doing M&A or securities, and when I got out I became trial lawyer. He should find out which one is more highly regarded, if either one is, and strongly consider going that route. The market is just so competitive that he'll want/need every possible advantage, and of course, there are geographical variations. It doesn't sound like he'll go wrong either way. Some law schools have one major law review, like the Harvard L. Rev., and then a number of secondary ones by topic. If one of the named reviews is the school's primary law review, that's definitely the one he should accept.

Where does your son go to law school? And what does he want to do when he gets out? Big firm? If so, go with the main review. Smaller, boutique firm in a particular field? Go with the main review also, probably, but consider the topical review.

Just my $0.02.

Bake

Excellent advice, IMO.

DTH

and look at the table of contents of several issues of each to see.

This is excellent and I will pass it all on to him.

Unfortunately he can't get to the library since he's in Brooklyn doing an Internship and the school is in Oregon. Oh well.

MzPip
:dem:

practice environmental law in the future, and all things being equal (i.e. quality of students, esteem of publication)he really needs to go with the environmental group, in terms of keeping his options open. The environmental bar is a really close knit community. To become part of it, you have to show on your resume that you've always been serious about the practice. The Attorney General or US Attorney won't care that much which law review he was on, so long as he was on one, if he ends up wanting to be a white collar prosecutor.