Prospective Members

Since 1949, the Hastings Law Journal has published scholarly articles, essays, book reviews, and student notes on a broad range of legal topics. With close to ninety members, HLJ has the capacity to print six issues each year, reaching a large domestic and international audience.

Each year, one of these issues is dedicated to our annual symposium, which features a full day of speeches, commentaries, and panel discussions on an area of current interest and development in the law. Recent topics have included: Consumers in the Digital Age: Perspectives on the Intersection Between Law, Technological Innovation, and Consumer Protection; and 25 Years After Watergate: The Impact of Legal Ethics and the Investigation of Public Corruption.

One of the most challenging and satisfying aspects of Journal membership is the opportunity to research, write, and publish a student note—a piece of legal scholarship similar to law review articles authored by professors. Early in the Fall, each second-year member investigates an area of the law that s/he finds interesting and selects a topic on a developing issue in that area. Over the next few months, the member, assisted by a third-year mentor and the Senior Notes Editors, refines the topic and completes a paper—the Note—on the subject.

Second-year members also work on variety of projects, including article and Note editing, technical production of the pieces ready for publication, and organization of the symposium. Aside from the scholarly elements, second-year members are also encouraged to participate in the fund-raising and social functions conducted by the Journal.

Six ways to become a member of the Hastings Law Journal:

1. The top four students from each section are invited to join on the basis of their G.P.A. (please note that in order to be eligible to join HLJ based on G.P.A., a student must still submit a writing competition entry);
2. Sixteen students are invited on the basis of their writing competition scores;
3. Sixteen students are invited on the basis of a composite of their writing competition scores and their G.P.A.;
4. Through HLJ's special admissions program, students may also be invited on the basis of their grade-point-averages, writing competition scores, Legal Writing and Research grades, and supplemental personal statements. HLJ considers a variety of factors that demonstrate personal achievement in the face of social, economic, or educational disadvantages;
5. Transfer students may submit writing competition entries; transfers receive invitations if their scores equal at least the fifteenth-ranked, regular entry in the competition;
6. Students may also participate in the self-submittal program by submitting a prospectus for a Note that will actually be published in the Hastings Law Journal. Please contact the Scholarly Publications office for more information.

For more information:

Please stop by our office located on the 23rd floor of the Tower, or contact us below:

Hastings Law Journal
UC Hastings College of the Law
200 McAllister Street
San Francisco, CA 94102-4978
Phone: 415.581.8960
Email: hlj@hastingslawjournal.org