The Catholic Lawyer

Membership Selection

Membership in the St. John’s Law Review is limited to first-year day and second-year evening students. All those interested in journal membership must compete in a writing competition at the end of the year.

Students have the opportunity to either grade-on or write-on to the Law Review. Those who are in the top six percent of their class are offered membership in the Law Review if they wrote the paper in good faith and have substantially complied with the competition guidelines. Alternatively, students who are in the top one-third of their class are eligible to write-on to the Law Review. At the completion of the writing competition, all papers meeting the minimum eligibility requirements will be evaluated by third-year members of the Law Review.

In recent years, the number of students who complete the competition has ranged from 160-200. Of these, between 32 and 38 will be asked to join the Law Review.

Students are not required to stay on campus to complete the competition. No competitors, however, may discuss the paper with anyone else. The competition is closed universe, as all materials will be provided to competitors.

Students who take the competition will be notified of the results in late June. Those students who are selected to join the Law Review must be prepared to begin work in early July.