The Cornell Law Review extends a warm welcome to those who are interested in learning about our journal's admissions policies.
How to Join
Under the Cornell Law Review Constitution, Associate membership is open to all second- and third-year students. Associate membership continues until an associate either elevates to Editor status at the end of two semesters of Review membership or fails to meet the Review's elevation requirements.
The Law Review's Bylaws explain the Associate selection process. Second-year students interested in membership must participate in the Law School's annual Writing Competition.
Associates are chosen from Writing Competition participants based on three criteria. Sixteen or more participants with the highest academic grades will be offered Associate membership, so long as their Competition scores are passable. Approximately 12 additional students will be offered Associate membership for earning the Competition's highest scores. Finally, 12 additional participants with the highest combined total academic grades and Competition scores, weighted equally, will be offered Associate membership; these "Composite Associates" may also opt to include Personal Statements that might add additional weight to their composite score.
Absent participation in the Writing Competition, there are two alternate means by which second-year students may join the Law Review. The first is through the submission of a Scope Note for publication, "publishable substantially as written." Historically, this particular provision of the By-Laws has not been invoked by prospective Associates with any frequency. The other means is to earn one of the top thirteen cumulative grade point averages by the end of the third or fourth semester at the Law School, or to be among the top three students in the class after four semesters based on second-year grades alone.
Responsibilities
An admitted Associate is responsible for the editing and collecting of source materials for approximately one year's worth of upcoming Cornell Law Review articles. Editing is carried out in two stages, "proving" and "paging," the first of which is primarily to verify and correct the substantive content of an article, and the second of which is to resolve issues relating to layout and remove whatever remaining substantive errors remain within. Associates are herein responsible to the Law Review's Managing Editors, who oversee the intermediate and final editing of every article, the Article Editors, who are responsible for selecting and editing the submissions generated by professors and practitioners, and Note Editors, who are responsible for developing, selecting and editing the submissions generated by third-year members of the Law Review.
Source collection involves the physical process of securing books, magazines, Internet sources and other law review articles for use in the aforementioned editing processes. Collectors traverse the several libraries found around Cornell's campus in search for hard, printed copies of these items, in a quest to insure the highest possible degree of accuracy for our finished work product. Because electronic versions of legal documents are frequently littered with errors, printed editions are strongly favored by the Law Review's editors. The search may bring the Associate into contact with both Editors and the Authors of the submissions.
Each admitted Associate is also required to submit a publishable Note to the Law Review by a pre-determined deadline. Standards and deadlines for submission are set by the Senior Note Editor and the Note Office, which consists of five additional Note Editors. The Note Office considers finished Notes throughout the year for potential publication in the Law Review, and advises Associates on both standards and possible topics by which new Notes may be developed for publication. Note Editors then assist at every stage of a Note's ongoing development, and review the Note at pre-determined points in the gestation process to determine whether an Associate is on track to meeting the Note elevation requirement. Successful completion of a Note is believed to be among the most rewarding points in a law student's career.
