New Mexico Law Review Prospective Members

Eligibility

Students who are entering their second year of law school and are in good standing are eligible to apply for membership in the NMLR. Interested students must also participate in the Write On, an annual writing competition held each spring.

Writing Competition

Eligible students participate in the Write On at the end of the spring semester (May - June).  Competition papers are judged anonymously. To maintain anonymity, students are assigned numbers for the competition which are used in place of their name.

The competition is administered under the provisions of the Student Code of Conduct ("The Honor Code"). It is an Honor Code violation to discuss the competition materials or paper with anyone, including discussion of editing, proofreading and typing.

Papers are scored by current Editorial Board members. Scoring is based on the quality of each paper in the following areas: organization, composition, content, grammar, spelling, punctuation, style, and Bluebook citation form.

Staff Member Responsibilities

Students will be notified by the Editorial Board of their acceptance as NMLR staff members.  New staff members are required to attend training sessions that frequently occur before fall classes begin. Details will be included in the acceptance letter.

New staff members (2Ls) proofread and cite-check articles for publication and are required to write a case note of publishable quality during their first year on staff.

After successful completion of these requirements, 2L staff members are eligible for positions on the following year’s Editorial Board. A third-year student who does not receive a board appointment can become an assistant editor or a staff writer. Staff writers produce a comment for possible publication in the Law Review.

Case notes and comments written for the journal can be used to satisfy the UNM School of Law’s advanced writing requirement.  To do this, a faculty member and a second reader must supervise and approve the final written product.  Please see your advisor for more details about this requirement.

For More Information

See also the Bylaws of the NMLR: Staff Membership and the research guide: Student Legal Journals.

Transfer Students

Letter to 2L Transfer Students