First year students may apply to only one journal during the application period. Student Services will confirm that each 1L complies with this limitation. Each journal may fill a maximum of one-third of their expected staff during this period. Journals will determine and disclose whether the early offer is binding, i.e. prohibiting participation in the Writing Competition.
Early application period
April 7 - 12:00 - 1:00pm - JG 104 and 106
Journal Day Presentation on writing competition and journals
Tabling for each journal in the East hallway of JG
April 8 - April 15
Individual journal presentations, if desired
Please attend the information sessions of any individual journals in which you have an interest.
April 17 - 5pm
Application deadline for Early Application Period
April 24 -12 noon
Release of results from Early Application Period
April 27 - 12 noon
Acceptance deadline
Writing Competition Period
May 15
Packet prepared by Columbia Law Review available online and in person for pickup
May 22 - 1pm in person or May 23 via overnight delivery
Competition and application deadline
July 8: All first-round offers will be made to 1Ls on July 8 (contingent on professors’ timely submission of grades), by phone or by a letter from the journal making the offer.
Please note: This date does not apply to any of the early acceptance programs offered by journals. In addition, journals not requiring either the Writing Competition or grades may give notice of initial offers as early as they wish, so long as all first-round offers for a particular journal are given at the same time before or on July 8. You should be aware that you may receive offers from more than one journal. Therefore, you might prefer to delay your acceptance until you have heard back from all journals to which you applied (provided that you conform to the acceptance rules set out below).
Please also note: If you make an outright acceptance to a journal that does not permit their journal members to be on the staff of any other journal, you automatically withdraw yourself from consideration by any other journal. The Columbia Law Review and many other journals do not allow their staff to participate in other journals. Each journal is responsible for its own policies, so be sure to confirm with your journals of interest, either when you receive your offer or before, if you have any doubts. For those journals that do allow participation on multiple staffs, please be aware that you will be expected to undertake the same workload as those students participating on only one journal.
July 15: Deadline for outright and conditional acceptances.
Outright acceptances to first-round offers can be made to a journal at any time, but no later than July 15. An outright acceptance withdraws you from further consideration by those journals that do not permit their staff to be on the staff of other journals. Please see the list provided above.
Conditional acceptances (i.e. “I cannot commit but I want you to keep the offer open until July 25”) to first-round offers can be made to a journal, but no later than July 15. You may only conditionally accept an offer from one journal. The conditional acceptance applies to first-round offers and allows you to see how second-round offers go before making your commitments.
Please note: Because the Columbia Law Review requires its staff members to return to campus on August 3 for training, students who are invited to join the Review will have only twenty-four hours in which to accept or decline the offer. No conditional acceptances are allowed. Furthermore, the Review’s policy does not allow students to be employed elsewhere during the summer production period. This restriction includes work as a Legal Methods TA. The production schedule does not allow for exceptions from this policy.
July 16: Journals will make second-round offers to those students who did not respond with an outright acceptance by July 15. Students have until July 25 to respond to second-round offers. If you receive a second-round offer, you have only two responses: an outright acceptance or a rejection. There are no conditional acceptances at this stage.
July 25: Students who gave conditional acceptances for July 8 first-round offers must give either a rejection or an outright acceptance by this date. This is also the deadline to respond to second-round offers.
July 26: Journal staffs should be set by this date.
For more information about journals at Columbia Law School, please visit the Journal Web site.
