Phil Tonseth ‘22
Editor-in-Chief
In an unsurprising move, Student Affairs has announced that the Virginia Law Weekly and Virginia Law Review (VLR) have joined forces, becoming the Virginia Weekly Law Review. This new format, whereby the Law Weekly will incorporate VLR into its operating structure, comes at a critical juncture for both clubs. The Law Weekly, winner of the ABA Student Newspaper of the Year award in three of the last four years, graciously offered a lifeline to the struggling VLR, which cited the inability to publish any articles of interest and a lack of general gravitas in their work as reasons for the merger.
From a macro perspective, this merger seems like a win-win. The Law Weekly is not only able to draw from more talented writers to opine on whether cereal is a soup (it is) and if 1Ls deserve fundamental rights on the Court of Petty Appeals (they don’t), but also the Law Weekly will be able to put the members of VLR in their place. Earning a position on VLR doesn’t make these students any better than the rest of the student body, especially when the reward is unpaid labor solely for a line on their resume. To emphasize this point, the Law Weekly plans to frequently highlight the cringey LinkedIn and Instagram posts of VLR members as examples of who-not-to-be at the Law School.
On the flip side, VLR also stands to greatly benefit from this merger. With a readership base declining faster than the value of stock in Zoom post-COVID, VLR needed an outlet so that their scholarship would actually be read. Enter Law Weekly. Although VLR members understand they must learn to be pithy and publish their pieces in only 800 words, they also understand that this will force them to distill key concepts and finally get to the point of the annoying hypotheticals that they frequently bring up in class. Further, VLR is slowly realizing who “Big Brother” really is in the publishing world at UVA Law, and they want in.
When asked for comment, Peter Kaplan ’22, the Managing Editor of VLR, relayed, “I am just excited to finally be able to tell my mom ‘good’ when she asks how the school newspaper is going.” In concert, Law Weekly’s Editor in Chief, Phil Tonseth ’22, added that he “is both elated and dejected by this merger. On one hand, this journalistic monopoly recognizes the growing importance of the Law Weekly and its ability to control the narrative both internally and external to UVA Law. Sadly, the Virginia Weekly Law Review will have a bumpy road at the beginning, as you can’t invite all of the nerdy VLR kids into the cool-kids-club and expect a smooth transition.”
The impact of the merger on journal try-outs is unknown. The Law Weekly arguably has higher journalistic standards than VLR, as the members of Law Weekly publish quite frequently, as opposed to VLR’s sole requirement that their members only publish one note during their time in service. In order to justify this solo publishing adventure, lowly 1Ls must endure an agonizing weekend of BlueBooking and replying to an antiquated prompt just to hope to make it through the byzantine selection process. Countering this, the Law Weekly try-outs simply entail showing up to three meetings, expressing a desire for free pizza, enjoying poking fun at and critically analyzing salient issues around the school, and exhibiting a general cool vibe[1]. As negotiations are still pending on how journal try-outs will progress (read “dissolve”), the result will ruffle feathers regardless. Gone are the days where elitism can be bought through sucking up in office hours to achieve all A+’s to reach the head (as VLR thinks) of UVA Law’s journalistic endeavors.
What this author can confidently state is that the quality of the work between the two parties in the newly formed Virginia Weekly Law Review will be stellar. Pieces will no longer be edited/cite checked solely by one member (looking at you VLR), but three (the Law Weekly standard). Further, the articles selected for publishing won’t be chosen by a select and close-minded student committee (again VLR, do better). Lastly, the articles will be something everyone will want to read. Scholars will no longer be able to publish nonsense, relying on their tenure, just for the sake of publishing. The journalistic standards of Virginia Weekly Law Review will be interstellar: be prepared ye wary writers.[2]
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pjt5hm@virginia.edu