The writing competition for the Class of 2020 will begin on Saturday, May 12, after the completion of 1L final exams, and end on Saturday, May 19.

The competition consists of two parts. The subcite portion of the competition, worth 40% of the competition score, requires students to perform a technical and substantive edit of an excerpt from an unpublished article. The case comment portion of the competition, worth 60% of the competition score, requires students to describe and analyze a recent Court of Appeals or State Supreme Court decision.

Information for Prospective Transfer Students
Prospective transfer students have the option of taking the competition at the same time as Harvard Law School 1Ls, or taking a separate transfer competition running from May 19-26. Like the regular competition, the transfer competition has a case comment and subcite portion. There is no advantage to taking either competition, and transfer students should take whichever competition is most convenient with their schedule. Transfer students are selected on the same blind grading basis as Harvard 1Ls and are eligible for 38 of the spots on the Review (in other words, all spots besides the 10 allotted to Harvard 1Ls for whom first-year grades play a role). Transfer students may submit an anonymized, unofficial transcript when their 1L grades are released if they would like their grades to be considered in the Law Review’s holistic review process.

As noted on the Harvard Law School website, the deadline for completing a transfer application is June 15, so many prospective transfer students will not have been accepted to Harvard Law School at the time of the competitions in May. Many prospective applicants may not even have decided whether to apply to transfer, in part because they may not yet know their spring semester grades. Notwithstanding these uncertainties, the Review strongly encourages prospective transfer applicants to write a competition. While being selected to join the Review in no way guarantees a transfer applicant admission to Harvard Law School, it is the policy of the Review to inform the admissions office whenever a transfer student successfully gains membership on the Review.

Prospective transfer students who would like to take the competition from Saturday, May 19 to Saturday, May 26 may register by completing the transfer applicant FedEx shipping form. The cost for the mailing is $45. The deadline to submit the form is Friday, May 11.

Information for SJD Students
SJD students at Harvard Law may serve as editors of the Law Review. To join, SJDs take the same writing competition as JD students and are eligible for 38 of the editorial positions (all spots besides those allotted to JD 1Ls for whom first-year grades play a role). Serving as an editor of the Law Review is a two-year commitment so SJDs should take the competition only if they are certain they have at least two years remaining in their program of study. Additionally, as with all candidates, SJDs are permitted to participate in the writing competition only once.

Information for Students with Disabilities
The Harvard Law Review provides accommodations on the writing competition to students with documented disabilities on an individual, case-by-case basis. To request an accommodation, please email a completed registration form to Lakshmi Clark-McClendon, Director of Student Affairs in the Dean of Students Office, at lclark@law.harvard.edu. In order to allow sufficient time to review documentation, students must submit their requests no later than April 13, and are encouraged to submit documentation as soon as possible. Please note that although accommodations decisions are ultimately made by the Review, no student will receive personal identifying information about any student requesting accommodation.

Religious Accommodations

Students with unavoidable religious conflicts during the competition, including those fasting for Ramadan, should email lawrev@law.harvard.edu to request an accommodation.