Legal Writing

Arizona State Law Journal: Criminal Justice Reform National Writing Competition
This contest offers prize money and potential publication in the Arizona State Law Journal Online. It is open to law students across the country. Articles must not exceed 7,500 words and must concern criminal justice reform.

American Indian Law Review National Writing Competition
Three awards offered annually by the American Indian Law Review at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. The competition is available to any currently enrolled law student who submits a paper on any issue concerning American Indian law.

Artificial Intelligence Writing Competition
This competition from William & Mary Law School's Center for Legal & Court Technology requires students to identify an application of emerging technologies, such as Internet of Things, facial recognition, or autonomous systems, and propose new regulations or regulatory systems to govern those applications.

Suffolk University Law School ICompete Writing
A breakdown of writing contests into particular areas of law.

Georgetown Law Technology Review Student Writing Competition
This competition for law students invites submissions addressing a legal or public policy question relating to emerging and sustained challenges to legal and political structures created by online platforms, digital services, and other emerging technologies. Up to three winners will be selected, with a first prize of $4,000.

ABA for Law Students Writing Competitions
Contests in a variety of subject areas offer money prizes.

National Law Review Writing Competition
This monthly contest for law students focuses on practice oriented analysis for lawyers and professionals in related fields.

AccessLex Writing Competitions
This is a searchable database of law school writing competitions put together by a non-profit dedicated to legal education.

Professors at ASU Law and S.J. Quinney College of Law, as well as students and alumni who have published articles, provided the following tips:

Write for Your Audience
Legal audiences are diverse, and your paper should be useful or interesting to legal academics or legal professionals. Commentators can provide guidance on how to conceptualize, organize, and execute your legal arguments.

• Break new ground: Our Conducting a Preemption Check guide can help you make sure that other writers have not already argued your key points. The more current and cutting edge your topic, the more likely it will be of interest to a law journal.
• Tap into general interests: Notes or comments of broad interest will garner more interest than papers that are focused too narrowly, such as one examining just one particular case or jurisdiction. 
• Join a conversation: Journals may consider articles that make an effective counterpoint to an ongoing academic discussion. Our Choosing a Paper Topic guide can help you identify subjects of hot debate.
• Summarize a complex doctrine: By virtue of externships or particular research projects, students often emerge as the experts in very discrete areas of the law, and you can impart your wisdom to the professionals. Many legal practitioners turn to law review articles to help them navigate issues that arise while representing a client. User friendly breakdowns of complex legal doctrines can appeal to audiences and, consequently, journals.
• Write for particular journals: Secondary journals in your field are more likely to publish student writing than general, flagship law journals. You can tailor your article to a particular journal by choosing appropriate subject matter and writing techniques. You can read up on particular publications by browsing HeinOnline (available on campus or through ASURITE).
• Use reliable sources: Proper input is essential for helping you write a useful history of legal precedent in your comment or note. Meet with a Law Librarian for assistance in identifying and navigating reliable legal and academic resources.
• Strike an academic tone: With some exceptions, law journals and reviews will prefer sober academic and legal analysis with professional vocabulary to papers that indulge in overt activism or "soaring rhetoric." Still, the writing should be engaging and flow well.

Seek Guidance

• Join a professor: If you find a strong connection with particular professors' research interests, assisting them with their projects can be an excellent way to learn about topics and get exposure. You will likely read up significantly on particular legal debates, and you may even be able to co-write an article with a professor, which will increase your publication potential. Our Research Assistants' Guide can get you started.
• Get lots of feedback: The more criticism and advice you solicit, the stronger your paper will be. It's particularly useful to seek different perspectives, sending articles to legal practitioners as well as legal academics.

Meet Publications' Expectations

• Reach the word count: Some student notes and comments may not be long enough to meet journals' requirements, so be sure to check journal websites to find their submission guidelines.
• Format your text properly: Most journals will enforce formatting requirements for submissions such as double spaced text. Journals will more likely reject students than legal professionals for formatting errors.
• Format footnotes properly: The law library provides resources to help you master legal citation in this Legal Writing Research Guide. You may also make an appointment to discuss complex citations with a reference librarian or email the reference librarians about simpler questions.

Get Noticed

• Strengthen your cover letter and abstract: First impressions count for a lot, and engaging introductory materials can help your work advance beyond the initial stages of a journal's selection process. Commentators provide guidance on how to get noticed.
• Cast a wide net: Try to send your article to as many journals as will likely take an interest in your topic to maximize your publication changes.
• Enter a contest: Student writing competitions typically provide prizes, recognition, or publication, depending on the particulars of the contest. Find a partial listing of contests in the Writing Competitions section below. 
• Run a blog: Particularly if you have a strong interest and take many courses in related areas of law, you can opine on a series of topics and build an audience for your ideas through a blog. It can be an informal place to recycle research assignments to gain exposure.

Law Journal Submissions and Ranking
For students seeking journals that will maximize their work's impact, the Washington & Lee Law School Library provides rankings, primarily based on citation counts. 

Alfred L. Brophy, The Signaling Value of Law Reviews: An Exploration of Citations and Prestige, 36 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. (2009) .
A study of citations finds that articles published in secondary or subject specific journals can receive as many citations or more than articles published in top ranked general law journals.