Law Review Membership

GOLDEN GATE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW | Membership | Submissions | Subscriptions | Ninth Circuit Survey

Approximately forty second-year and third-year students staff the Golden Gate University Law Review each year. Membership in the Law Review is among the highest honors and responsibilities that a student can receive during their law school career. Membership in the Law Review provides students with an opportunity to develop their skills in legal research, writing, and analysis.

Membership on the Law Review is by invitation. Students become eligible to join the Law Review after completing the twenty-nine units of the required first-year classes. Typically this means that full-time students are eligible for membership after completing their first year and part-time students are eligible after completing their second year.

Early in the summer, invitations to join Law Review will be offered to those students identified by the Office of the Registrar as being in the top 15% of their class.

In addition, invitations to join Law Review will be extended on the basis of a student's performance in a write-on competition conducted during the Spring Semester. In addition to superior performance in the competition, write-on candidates must meet a minimum academic requirement of a class ranking within the top 35% of the student's class. Writing and Research II grades will also be considered.

Law Review is a two-year commitment. Members earn six academic credits total. Two units are awarded for the Fall semester and one unit for the Spring semester each year.

In their first year on Law Review students write a Casenote or Comment for potential publication. Students spend the summer after their first year and the fall semester of their second year researching and writing their topic. The spring semester is devoted to production: revising final drafts and cite checking articles in preparation for publication.

The requirements for members in their second year on Law Review are predominantly editorial. As an Associate Editor or member of the Editorial Board, students are responsible for mentoring first-year writers, editing student works, and selecting and editing outside authors' manuscripts for publication in the Law Review.