What is the Chicago-Kent Law Review?
The Law Review is an academic journal that publishes legal scholarship produced by academics, practitioners, and students. The Law Review is completely run by students.  

What do Law Review staff members do?
Law Review staff members are responsible for editing the articles and comments published by the Law Review, which includes source collecting, cite-checking, and Bluebooking. In addition to these requirements, every Law Review staff member completes either a case note or a comment that is then considered for publication in the Law Review. 

What other positions are available on the Law Review?
After their first year on the Law Review, staff members are eligible for election to editorial positions. These positions include Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor, Executive Notes and Comments Editor, Executive Articles Editors, Notes and Comments Editors, and Website Editor. Staff members may also choose to be a Senior Associate. Each position entails significant responsibility for the publication and overall quality of the Law Review.

What are the eligibility requirements to become a staff member of the Chicago Kent Law Review?
Law Review eligibility is detailed in § 1.12 of the Student Handbook. In general, there are two ways to become eligible for an invitation to join the Law Review:
(1) by academic performance, or
(2) by writing a qualifying case comment in the Summer Candidacy Program.

What are the requirements to receive an invitation to join the Law Review based on academic performance?
At the end of each academic year, the following students are invited to join Law Review based on their academic performance:

(a) Full-time day division students who have completed their first year and rank in the top 7% of the day division class; and

(b) Evening division and part-time day division students who have completed their first year and rank in the top 7% of the combined evening division and part-time day division class; and

(c) Evening division and part-time day division students who have completed their second year and rank within the top 7% of the combined class of first-year day students and second-year evening and part-time day students.

What are the requirements to receive an invitation to join the Law Review based on the Summer Candidacy Program?
Students who do not receive an invitation based on academic performance may participate in the Summer Candidacy Program. To participate, students in the following categories must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.000 at the end of the spring semester:

(a) Students who have completed only one academic year in the day division; and

(b) Students who have completed at least one academic year in the evening or part-time day division, but not more than two academic years in the evening or part-time day division; and

(c) Transfer students who have completed one year of academic work at Chicago Kent, but who were not enrolled at Chicago Kent at the end of their first year if day division, or second year if evening division.

Students who do not fall within any of the above categories are eligible to participate in the Summer Candidacy Program if they have completed at least one academic year at Chicago Kent and have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.250 at the end of the spring semester immediately prior to the Summer Candidacy Program.

The Law Review Executive Board selects which papers, if any, qualify for an invitation to the Law Review based on an evaluation of the case comments submitted. The papers are evaluated anonymously.

For guidance on the process of writing a law review article, see Eugene Volokh, Writing a Student Article, 48 J. Legal Educ. 247 (1998).  For a discussion of the ethical responsibilities of prospective law review members, see Michael L. Closen, A Proposed Code of Professional Responsibility for Law Reviews, 63 Notre Dame L. Rev. 55 (1988).

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Official Materials for the 2007 Summer Candidacy Program

The 2007 Summer Candidacy Program will take place from July 1, 2007 until July 15, 2007.

Instructions for the 2007 Summer Candidacy Program

2007 Summer Candidacy Program Packet

Archived Materials for the Summer Candidacy Program

2006 Summer Candidacy Program Packet

2005 Summer Candidacy Program Packet

Summer Candidacy Program Resources

Click here for a sample paper written for a past Summer Candidacy Program.  (This paper is meant to be representative of what has been done in the past and should not be construed as a guideline for required content, style, structure, etc.)

Click here or click here for two additional papers written for previous Summer Candidacy Programs. Please note that the authors of these papers had put in much additional work after the Programs had ended to prepare the articles for publication. The original versions of the papers submitted for the Programs were limited to the page, reference material, and other restrictions of the respective Programs.

Another good source for examples of well written student notes and comments is the Chicago-Kent Law Review issue archive. Each issue contains two or more articles that were selected for publication from the Staff Writing Program. 

Click here to access a short article that provides general advice on how to write a case comment.  Although this article makes reference to using footnotes, remember that we expect you to use endnotes. 

Click here to access a short guide to the steps involved in writing a case comment.

Click here to access a sample case comment that is annotated with pointers.

Click here to access a second sample case comment that is annotated with pointers. 

Last Updated: July 1, 2007 July 1, 2006