The thought of actually being on law review has not gotten any more attractive. Maybe next week.

I think most advice that "you need to do X, it'll be good for your resume" is overstated. First, anyone who did X is not exactly a neutral observer. Second, I've never found it worthwhile to do anything because of some perceived future value of having done it. If you don't have a good reason in the present to do it -- like, enjoying it -- it's a waste.

Here's the problem. You do X because it's useful to get job Y, which you need because it's helpful to get clerkship Z ... and so on. It gets you on this cycle where everything is a stepping stone; nothing is a destination. Small wonder there's so many 3rd-year associates who feel negative about the legal profession and drop out.

Also, there's the issue of opportunity cost. Doing law review means automatically foreclosing other uses of my time in the next 2 yrs before I know what they are. Can I say, right now, that law review is better use of my time than any of them? No. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not.

31 Mar 05