Credit for Journal Participation
Journal | Credit Hours |
North Carolina Law Review Board Senior staff |
5.0 (divided between 2 semesters) 2.0 in final semester |
First Amendment Law Review | 3.0 |
N.C. Banking Institute Journal | 3.0 |
N.C. Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation Board Senior staff |
3.0 2.0 in final semester |
N.C. Journal of Law and Technology | 3.0 |
Membership and Transfers
All first-year law students are eligible to participate in the Joint Journal Competition (JJC). The competition is held in May, the week after first-year spring semester exams. Each of the five journals selects staff members from the competition. In total, there are 130 staff positions among the five journals available to rising second year law students. Journal selection is made by the editors in chief of the journals typically held in mid-July. Students are invited to join the journal staffs in late July before resume collection begins for on-campus interviews.
The North Carolina Law Review selects 39 staff members. As a part of this 39, the top 13 students in the 1L class are invited to join the law review if those students have submitted preferences for the competition. An additional 13 thirteen students based on a combination of their law school GPA and their writing scores and 13 are chosen based solely on their writing scores (write-ons).
Transfer student participation is governed by the chart below:
Journal | Eligibility for Transfers | Requirements (Transfers accepted if:) |
North Carolina Law Review | Yes, staff membership | In first year of transfer: Class standing of top 5% in previous law school Such standing is equivalent to N.C. Law Review’s standards Student would have qualified for leading law journal at previous school After one year at UNC: Accepted through regular writing competition (Joint Journal Competition – JJC) After two semesters at UNC, has cumulative GPA greater than any student in his or her class who received an invitation to staff membership |
First Amendment Law Review | Yes | Submit resume including class rank Submit writing sample Submit few paragraphs describing why FALR is preferred journal to join |
N.C. Banking Institute Journal | Yes, Board membership | Top 15% of class in previous law school Submit piece written while a law student with legal citations for review or Write a recent development using same JJC competition packet used that year Submit written statement why want to be staff member |
N.C. Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation | Yes | No formal procedures |
N.C. Journal of Law and Technology | Yes | Qualify for grade-on (top 15%) of class in previous law school Submit unedited writing piece for review Complete journal preference form |
Resignations from Journals
A student who seeks to resign as a staff member of a journal must submit his or her resignation in writing to the Editor in Chief of the journal, the journal’s faculty advisor and the Assistant Dean for Student Development. The student is required to send a letter via email to all employers indicating his or her resignation with a copy to the Assistant Dean. The Assistant Dean for Student Development works with the Career Development Office to ensure that the student updates his or her resume and all CDO accounts. Any incident of failure to remove journal information from a resume will be referred to the Law School student Attorney General as a possible Honor Code violation. Copies of both letters and a response letter from the Assistant Dean for Student Development will be placed in the student’s file.