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A Report on the First Annual Bluebook Invitational

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This past weekend witnessed an historic event: the first annual BLUEBOOK INVITATIONAL!!!
And we were on hand for the competition. On Saturday, May 12, the four august publications that publish the Bluebook — the Columbia Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal — vied for supremacy.
When we first learned about the “Bluebook Invitational,” we could barely contain our excitement. We imagined a contest to determine which law review’s editors were most proficient in the rules of legal citation. It would be like the law review version of the crossword puzzle contests featured in the movie Wordplay. Editors would be given sample pages of incorrectly Bluebooked prose. They would then have to edit them, under time pressure, before being scored on both the speed and accuracy of their Bluebooking.
Sadly, as we later learned, the “Bluebook Invitational” has nothing to do with actual Bluebooking:

WTF? Why would we want to watch a bunch of law review gunner-types toss a pigskin around?
As it turned out, though, we had a fun time. And some of the players were actually very good.
A report on the proceedings, plus pictures, after the jump.



The games were held at Riverbank State Park in Manhattan. It’s a lovely park — despite being located on top of a sewage treatment facility.

Andrew Cohen, outgoing Operations Editor of the Columbia Law Review, models the official t-shirt.

This sporting event was co-sponsored by Covington & Burling, which has not yet raised associate pay to the $160K scale, and Sullivan & Cromwell, which is still dealing with the Brokeback Lawfirm imbroglio. We can see why they might want to get on law students’ good sides.

Since this was a football tournament for law review editors, some spectators were more interested in line-editing than the line of scrimmage.

Matthew McKenzie, Projects Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Yes, he really is this good-looking in person.

As the sun set over Riverbank State Park, the teams geared up for action.

Saturday Night Lights, at Riverbank State Park.

Part of the victorious team fielded by the Yale Law Journal. Here’s a report on the game, from the YLJ’s fearless leader, Captain Roy Altman (who was quarterback for the Columbia football team back in college — wow):

Yale won the first annual Bluebook Invitational, with Penn coming in second, and Columbia and Harvard rounding out the standings.

In the first round, Yale beat Columbia 24-12, and Penn beat Harvard 36-22. In the loser’s bracket, Columbia beat Harvard by a touchdown, and Yale beat Penn 32-6.

At the moment, the trophy is a bronzed bluebook, which will travel to the winning school’s campus on a yearly basis, and on which the winning school will engrave its name, again yearly.

A bronzed Bluebook? How neat! We’d love to see a picture of this “trophy” if someone can send us one.

A close-up of the Yalies. Left to right: Bharat Ramamurti, Bobby Gomez, James Wilson, and Kay Ng.
A few more shout-outs, from YLJ captain Roy Altman:

I’d like to name a few people who played exceptionally well: Eric Citron and Nick Miranda (both of whom dominated both games on both sides of the line), Matthew Mckenzie (who had 2 touchdowns vs. Columbia and one vs. Penn), Articles Editor Jim Wilson (who had three sacks vs Penn), Notes Editor Bharat Ramamurti (who had two touchdowns vs. Penn), and Jane Okpala (who was a fierce tackler throughout).

Despite not being allowed to play — their publication isn’t involved in putting out the Bluebook — these editors of the NYU Law Review were in very good spirits:

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Congratulations to the Yale Law Journal on its victory in the first annual Bluebook Invitational!
(It’s a good thing for the Yalies that this was a football rather than Bluebooking contest. We suspect that the Harvard kids would have prevailed in the latter.)
Update: In response to this comment: As Yale Law Journal alums ourselves, we know that making it on to the Journal requires taking a Bluebooking test. We just imagine the Harvard Law Review editors to be far more anal than the YLJ crew.

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