Monday, April 2, 2012

Law Review Celebrates Its 40th Year

Forty years ago, Roberta Mitchell was a student at Capital University Law School.  One day she was asked if she wanted to create a Law Review publication for the school.  These kinds of publications were prevalent in law schools across the country, but Capital did not yet have one.  After researching what needed to be done, and finding additional students to work as board members, Roberta Mitchell became the Law Review's first editor-in-chief.  Today, Mitchell serves as a professor emerita, and in honor of this 40-year milestone, this year's publication was dedicated to her.

Staff membership on the Capital University Law Review is a true honor for students.  The Law Review staff works hard throughout the year editing and selecting papers from scholars, attorneys, and judges with fresh ideas who are seeking publication.  Students involved gain a tremendous amount of additional training in legal research and writing.  Because of the sophisticated knowledge and skill that comes as a result of being involved in Law Review, employers look very favorably upon this activity.

But Law Review is much more than your average student organization.  Staff members devote countless hours in making sure articles have all of the correct legal citations and that they are free of spelling and grammatical errors.  In addition to their editing expectations, staff members also write their own articles on a current legal topic.  These student-written articles are also submitted to the Law Review and each year, a number of them are published.

Capital Law students have three different ways to become Law Review staff members.  First, students in the top ten percent of their class receive an automatic invitation.  Second, students who earn one of the top two highest grades in their legal writing class also receive an automatic invitation.  Finally, any other student not falling within one of those previous two categories may participate in the write-on competition.  Competitors analyze a fact pattern with accompanying case law, choose a side, and write a short brief.  A few briefs are selected as the winners of the write-on competition, and those students are extended an invitation to join the Law Review staff as well.

This year's publication focuses on contract and intellectual property, foreclosure, and adoption law.  As an incoming law student, Law Review staff membership is a great goal to set for yourself.  According to Professor Dan Kobil, a faculty advisor, "The students on Law Review tend to exemplify the combination of intelligence, diligence, commitment, and responsibility that make for the best lawyers."

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