JOINING LAW REVIEW

Membership on the University of Memphis Law Review is limited to second-year law students who are selected based on their performance in a competition held during the summer of their 1L year.

After successfully completing the required courses of a full-time first year law student, and achieving a GPA of 2.50 or higher, the law student is eligible to participate in the summer competition. Part-time law students and transfer students are also eligible to participate once they have completed the required courses of a full-time first year law student and have met the GPA requirements. Second-year transfers are eligible to compete once they complete the second year coursework and have met the GPA requirements.

Selection

Selection of the staff members is based on the results of the summer competition, which is designed to demonstrate the students' aptitude for legal scholarly writing, researching, and cite checking.

The competitors are required to write a Case Comment on a recent state or federal case, as well as complete a citation and editing exam for a piece of unpublished work. The anonymous competition is scored by the Editorial Board and the top scoring 2Ls are then selected as Staff Members.

Membership

If selected for membership on the Law Review, the duties for 2Ls and 3Ls include line editing and cite checking the articles chosen for publication. Additionally, 2L members must write their own work of legal scholarship, the student Note. 

Rising 3L members may apply for positions on the Law Review Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is responsible for day-to-day operations of each facet of the journal: article selection and editing, cite checking supervision and reconciliation, and student Note consultation.

Student Publications

Each year, the Law Review selects a number of student works to publish. Selected student Notes and the winning Case Comment from the summer competition are published throughout the year. In conjunction with the faculty, the Editor-in-Chief and the Senior Notes Editor select the best students Notes of those published. The top three ranking Notes receive a cash award and plaque for their achievement.

Credit

Upon successful completion of their Note and other assignments, 2L Staff Members will receive two credits in the spring semester of their 2L year, as well as satisfaction of the legal writing requirement. Senior Staff Members will receive an additional credit hour during the spring of their 3L year. Editorial Board members receive two additional credit hours during the spring of their 3L year, for a total of four credits for fulfilling all of their Law Review responsibilities.