In August, the American Bar Association adopted a resolution suggesting that all law institutions compensate law review editors and students involved in other academic journals. Currently, NYU’s School of Law is not compliant with the resolution, despite monthslong student demands for compensation.
Last spring, more than 250 NYU Law students signed a petition demanding compensation for their work in student-run law journals. In addition to the petition, eight on-campus publications sent a letter to NYU Law administrators, asking that all contributors to the journals be able to choose whether they receive compensation in hourly wages or credit hours.
According to NYU Law spokesperson Emily Rosenthal, members of the school’s administration — including dean Troy McKenzie, vice dean Jeanne Fromer and dean of students Lindsay Kendrick — met with students on March 31 in response to the student petition.
“Both the students and the law school representatives were able to express their concerns and gain additional insight into one another’s positions,” Rosenthal said. “The administration has not been contacted by the law students since this meeting in the spring.”
Emma Walker, a third-year law student and editor of the NYU Review of Law & Social Change, said the ABA resolution was a huge win for the students’ campaign, and she is hopeful the school will compensate them soon.
“We’re now working across law schools — not just at NYU Law — and have support across law schools across the country for this initiative,” Walker said. “That’s the next big step, and we are continuing to build that momentum. We’re planning to have a meeting soon to discuss in depth all of our ways of moving forward.”
Some other private law schools, including the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University, offer credit hours to students who work at journals. In an August report, the ABA found that NYU Law is part of a minority of law schools that do not compensate journal work, meaning it does not provide monetary compensation and only offers credit to third-year law students.
Malina Gulino, a third-year NYU law student and an editor at the same journal as Walker, said that offering credit hours is not enough, and that it was difficult for her to choose between committing time to the journal and potential benefits from other on-campus jobs.
“I don’t need the two credits, I truly have enough to graduate without the two credits from the journal,” Gulino said. “It feels so dumb to be getting credits rather than just getting paid. I would choose to be paid if I could.”
Contact Alina Hollister at [email protected].
