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75 Temp. L. Rev 7 (2002)
In Praise of Law Reviews

handle is hein.journals/temple75 and id is 17 raw text is: COMMENTARY IN PRAISE OF LAW REVIEWS Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter Law reviews play different roles for readers in different positions. They are a source of commentary on legal issues for legal scholars, practitioners, students, and judges. To academics and aspiring academics, they are the vehicle by which their research (often years of research) will be presented to the legal community at large and to their professional peers. The reaction will often determine promotion, tenure, and status. To practitioners and judges, law reviews can provide an expeditious vehicle by which to receive a comprehensive introduction to an unfamiliar field of law written by scholars who have studied and taught in the field or by experienced practitioners who are personally involved with that subject. Law review articles, and even student notes, may offer useful insights on unresolved issues, particularly when there is more than one point of view. The point-counterpoint of an article, response, and other commentary can be useful as well as entertaining for those seeking an entree into the most sophisticated thinking on the latest issues and trends. For law students, law reviews provide multiple opportunities. Selection for the law review staff is a source of recognition of achievement in the first year, particularly in law schools that base their invitations to law reviews in large part on first year grades. They provide an opportunity for intensive legal analysis with another student on a one-on-one basis. While working on a law review, a student develops, often for the first time, the skill of taking criticism from a peer rather than a professor, and conversely, as an editor, giving criticism that is both tactful and constructive. These skills developed by working in small groups on a single project will be essential in law practice, whether in a large firm or small one. They will be similarly important in government legal offices where young lawyers are likely to be carefully supervised and the briefs they draft strictly edited. Law reviews provide experience in managing a student-run publication, in getting the issues out on deadline, in keeping within a budget, and in dealing with temperamental, and often imperious, contributors of articles. Even the laborious task of cite checking an article or another student's note is a useful learning experience and can be, depending on the subject and the author, enjoyable and enlightening. And, of course, a student's piece prepared for a law review, when selected, provides the student with the satisfaction of having his or her written analysis of a current legal issue published where it may * Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

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