Student Section: Observations from Law Students
WHERE TO INVEST YOUR TIME:
Law Review or Moot Court? by EMILY L. SMITH
By now, you’ve probably heard about your school’s Law Review Journal or Moot Court Team, but you may not know enough about either to decide where, or whether, you want to invest your time. While there are some students who choose to participate in both, many students simply do not have the time. As a current 2L student who is both a law review staff member and a moot court team member, I hope this article gives both incoming and current 1L law students some basic information about each academic endeavor.
The Basics:
Law review is a student-run journal that publishes articles from both academic scholars and students exploring novel and interesting aspects of the law. Students are responsible for connecting with authors, choosing articles and editing them according to
STUDENT SECTION
law review standards. There is a workflow hierarchy that includes an editor-in-chief, a managing editor and several other positions that all share different responsibilities regarding editing and publishing. Moot court is a competition in oral advocacy. There are a number of competitions throughout the country, all of which are specific to an area of law. A school’s team typically consists of two to three individuals, and perhaps some fellows, who share the responsibility of writing a brief that responds to a hypothetical and
58 | Columbus Bar L aw yers Quarterly Spring 2021
