This post is a little bit outside the peraminaters of typical start a law firm fodder, but I wanted to let the world know that there is a new legal journal called the “Journal of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies” at UND School of Law.
I was a member of the Law Review at UND and we did not have another competing legal journal at our small law school while I was there. Heck, we had trouble getting all the student writers we needed for law review. During my tenure, I always wondered why somebody (or, more likely, some faculty member) didn’t encourage students to start a new legal journal at the school. Well, they did, and I am excited about it.
It may not come as a suprise as somebody who is blogging about starting a law firm, that I am very into the exchange of quality information. I have always found legal research and the academic wherewithal it takes to formulate an interesting, timely, and scholarly article to be one of the hallmarks of the law. Even when I am at my lowest in terms of my faith in the law, I have always felt that my time on law review was one of the most worthwhile things I have done as a lawyer. I always hoped some other people would get excited enough to start their own legal journal.
I think a lot of practitioners of the law can relate when I say that our jobs often don’t seem to be based in the law at all. Rather, in my own law practice, I have often found myself bickering with opposing counsel about some minor fact or trying to help a completely unreasonable client see that fighting over the truck in their divorce just isn’t a good choice. Those kind of things aren’t about the law, they are about hand holding and trying win. That kind of thing can be extremely draining.
But, when I see that some bright, young, ambitious law students want to try and start something and contribute to the law, I get excited. There is hope out there. Am I being a little bit melodramatic? Yes, probably, but how can you not get excited by a quote like this:
“We are an innovative online publication that explores the various dimensions of contemporary legal scholarship and its relationship to other disciplines, working to provide a dynamic environment that fosters an evolving scholarly dialogue between practitioners, scholars in law, scholars from other disciplines, and the general public.”
While going down the road less traveled and starting my own law firm, I plan to take inspiration where I can find it. I hope you do to and I hope you check back with UND’s new legal journal.