This made me laugh.. they’d better choose a career path of law over publishing then as all publishers know this isn’t a line of work that leads to riches and fame !
The Nation Jurist writes
Law students at New York University School of Law are demanding that they get paid to do work that, for 148 years, law students have done for the experience and prestige.
More than 275 students signed a petition requesting payment for their work on student-run law journals. Eight campus publications joined with a letter to law school administrators, where they demand that all journal contributors have the option of choosing between hourly wages or credit hours.
As of now, only third-year students are eligible for compensation through credit hours and no students are paid an hourly wage.
Devin McCowan, a third-year student and the Diversity & Membership Editor of the NYU Law Review, is one of the students behind the letter.
“There was a selections process that I put myself up for because I cared about diversity, equity, and inclusion issues on the journal and wanted to make systemic changes to the way in which our journal and the journal system at NYU worked,” McCowan said.
McCowan said law students, on average, work about 10 hours a week. He has had weeks where he worked up to 20 hours.
“NYU’s nine student journals publish an abundance of high-quality articles every year, working constantly throughout the semesters and the summer. We do a job that is performed by full-time staff and tenured faculty in other academic disciplines, thus supporting the careers of individual legal academics and undergirding the entire legal academic industry — all while batting constant turnover and the myriad other responsibilities of students. We love our work, but prestige is not adequate compensation for the value we provide,” the letter stated.
The letter claims that the student articles impact legal academics and the decisions of practitioners and courts. NYU law journals have been cited in courts all the way up to the Supreme Court.
The university has not responded to the National Jurist’s request for a statement.
