Prospective Members

Prospective Members

The Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy (JLSP) selects new members through Northwestern Law’s spring provisional, spring write-on, and summer transfer programs. In membership decisions, we consider both students’ first-year GPAs and their write-on scores.

All students who accept membership offers from JLSP serve on the journal staff for the remainder of their law school careers. General member responsibilities include source and citation checking, copyediting articles for publication, and assisting in article selection.

JLSP members are strongly encouraged to write a Case Note or Comment addressing a topic at the intersection of law and social policy. The interdisciplinary nature of JLSP allows members to research and write on topics of both academic and personal interest. Many members base their article ideas on prior work, volunteer, and educational experiences. New members who elect to write Notes or Comments are encouraged to not only pull from their personal experiences, but are also urged to draw upon current news, events and trends in crafting their research topic. Additionally, our interdisciplinary approach provides members with the opportunity to enhance arguments with non-legal resources in social science, anthropology, economics, political science, and an array of other academic disciplines. In recent years, members have transformed their Note or Comment research into successful postgraduate fellowship applications with institutions such as the Equal Justice Works fellowships. All member Notes and Comments are evaluated for three-draft credit and are considered for publication in JLSP.

For further information about JLSP membership, please contact the Deputy Editor-in-Chief.