By: Steven Nowak*
Obtaining membership on the University of St. Thomas Law Journal is not an easy feat. For most students, the experience begins the spring of 1L year: exhausted by the prolonged rigors of the first full year of law school, the Journal write-on process requires a quick turnaround following final exams in May. As required by the Journal bylaws, most new members participate in this write-on process, which consists of: “(1) a preliminary application, (2) a closed memo assignment (“memo”), and (3) an editing examination.”[1] Upon acceptance, students assume their new role as an associate editor (“AE”) and typically receive their first article-editing assignment at the beginning of the fall semester. Confusion follows as AEs grapple with their first source pull assignment and they strive to put the article in context to understand the types of sources at play. The majority of AEs do not realize the articles they review are only one piece of a larger puzzle. Symposia authorship largely determines what the Journal publishes because overwhelmingly the majority of submissions generate from biannual symposia.
Each spring and fall, symposia assist the Journal in accomplishing several of the substantive goals described in its mission statement:
“The University of St. Thomas Law Journal, as a publication of a Catholic law school, is committed to encouraging ethical legal thinking through the publication of compelling legal scholarship dedicated to the discussion of morality and social justice, developing students’ legal research and writing skills in an endeavor to produce accomplished servant leaders in the practice of law, and broadening the legal imagination to cultivate creative solutions to real world problems with a goal toward social change.”[2]
There are three primary methods of sourcing articles for publication in compliance with the mission statement: (1) article submission from symposia and Editor-in-Chief (“EIC”) lectures, (2) submissions to the Journal from authors outside the symposium or EIC lecture context, and (3) submissions from student authors and Journal members.[3] Law Journal symposia specifically, and their closely-related cousin, the EIC lecture, serve “to showcase the contributions of established academics and practitioners in the global law community.”[4] While all three methods ultimately produce submissions for publication consideration, historically symposia are the largest generator of article submissions to the Journal.
The Symposium Editor is responsible for the organization and oversight of symposia. This board position requires collaboration with “the EIC, faculty, faculty advisor, administration, and symposium committees” to generate topics for the symposium event.[5] The Symposium Editor also “manages the symposium budget and oversees members’ symposium assignments.”[6] In practice, the process of symposia planning begins early: typically, mid-spring for the fall symposium and mid-fall for the spring symposium. The most significant challenge facing all Symposium Editors is identifying a faculty member to produce the event and establishing an overall topic framework. The decision determines the scope of the symposium, related subtopics, the number of participants, and most importantly, an estimated number of articles submitted for Journal publication. Depending on the faculty member who wishes to proceed with masterminding the symposium, their connections within the legal profession and areas of academic interest drive the thematic core of the event.
Simply stated, without symposia article submissions to the Law Journal, there would be a significantly reduced pool of scholarship to consider for publication. Symposia are ready-made sources of articles, which sustain the Journal’s annual workload. Unlike an archetypal school newspaper, which sources content primarily from student authors, the Law Journal faces a different reality. While there is a percentage of article submissions to the Journal from authors outside the context of symposia and EIC lecture, historically the number tends to be lower than the array of articles produced by authors participating in symposia.
Of course, each Journal member must adhere to the stated writing requirement in order to retain their academic credit for membership participation. Yet the Journal’s writing requirement does not produce enough annual submissions to publish a volume because of the timing discretion members have to produce their work. In the case of the Journal’s new blog posts, the submissions do not qualify for publication in a volume. Undoubtedly, symposia are the workhorse source of article submissions for the Journal.
Moreover, symposia serve a key role in cultivating creative solutions to legal problems in real time.[7] While it is essential that the Journal have scholarship to publish, consideration of why the Journal publishes to begin with keeps the importance of its work in perspective. The short-term benefits of Law Journal membership are the improvement of legal research and writing skills, but the long-term legacy of the Journal is the discussions fostered by symposium panelists on the same thematic issue. Symposia events are more helpful than individual submissions because they provide a spectrum of perspectives, as opposed to one author’s opinion on a particular topic. Participants, whether they simply contribute remarks or author a lengthy article submitted for publication, are a gathering of some of the brightest minds concerning the symposium’s subject.
Just as Journal membership changes each academic year, so does the opportunity for discussion of pertinent issues facing the legal profession. While the greenest AEs may be unable to contextualize the specifics of the first article they edit, they should know the scholarship likely represents one valuable perspective within a thematic symposium framework. Symposia constitute two calendar days, yet the events (1) provide the Journal with an abundance of scholarship to publish and (2) present solutions to significant issues in real time. Those prescribed solutions and discussions survive intact through published volumes. Ultimately, symposia both give the Journal a reason to publish and the work to contribute to a continuing academic discourse.
* Steven Nowak, J.D. Candidate, University of St. Thomas School of Law Class of 2023, Symposium Editor of the St. Thomas Law Journal.
[1] University of St. Thomas Law Journal: Fides et Iustitia Organizational Bylaws art. 6, § (A)(2) (amended April 2021).
[2] University of St. Thomas Law Journal Handbook 2022- 2023, 1 (emphasis added).
[3] Id. at 9.
[4] Id.
[5] Id. at 6.
[6] Id.
[7] Id. at 1.
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