Law Professors, Law Reviews, Law Schools

Fight Between Law Professor And Law Review Editor Gets Published

A law review editor calls out a law professor for his elitist bullsh*t.

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eye roll studentWhen we first heard about a new article, published in the Touro Law Review and entitled “A Law Review Editor and Faculty Author Learn to Speak Honestly,” there was a lot of debate at Above the Law.

The article, published as a back-and-forth email exchange between a law review editor named Jim and law professor S., who submitted an article for consideration, struck several of your editors as a work of satire. In the piece, the professor pesters the editor about publishing his work. Jim the editor reads the piece and offers to publish it, and that’s when the wheels fall off. Seems Jim’s law school isn’t quite as prestigious as Professor S. might like, and he withdraws the piece. And our editor Jim calls him out for his elitist bullsh*t:

[From Professor S on Nov. 19]
After consultation with my dean, I have determined not to accept publication this go-round and to rework and then re-submit the article next semester.

[From Articles Editor Jim on Nov. 19]
Oh my God. You are withdrawing your article after all that? … We are so beyond—below—the pale that nothing is better than our journal?

[From Professor S on Nov. 19]
Please don’t put words in my mouth. I didn’t say that.

[From Articles Editor Jim on Nov. 19]
How else should I interpret your message other than that everything you have said to us is a lie?

[From Professor S on Nov. 21]
I just saw that my article had flaws that needed attention. Nothing more.

[From Articles Editor Jim on Nov. 21]
Students at lower-tier law schools are not as dim-witted as you think. Let’s get real here for a change. The flaws seemed to have revealed themselves only after you failed to get the offer you had hoped for. The delays were for the purpose of leveraging our offer with higher ranking law reviews. Your dean then told you that we were not respectably enough ranked for our imprimatur to do your school any good. …

[From Professor S on Nov. 21]
You obviously know all about the ranking system. So what’s your gripe?

[From Articles Editor Jim on Nov. 21]
Simple. Why did you not look into that matter before you submitted and began toying with us? What did we do to you? We spent hours on your article and could not give other submissions the attention that they deserved. …

[From Professor S on Nov. 21]
[T]here is a marketplace for law review articles and that marketplace has rules. I was playing by those rules. This is what we professors call a teaching moment. As a seasoned contracts person, I can assure you that there is no implied promise in a submission that the author will accept one of the offers received.

[From Articles Editor Jim on Nov. 30]
Thanks for the lesson. At my school we have learned to always ask: Who made the rules? Do you think so little of your own law students, for example, that they would have agreed to a process that greatly advantages faculty and disadvantages themselves? …

[From Articles Editor Jim on Dec. 3]
Was it good practice, professor, to tell us that you were limiting submissions to a “select” group of law reviews, that you were “anxiously” awaiting our evaluation of your article, that we were complimented by an “old friend”—when, as is clear from your nonresponse, she is entirely fictional—and that you were so, conveniently, busy with committee work and a sick girlfriend that you could not answer yes or no?

[From Professor S on Dec. 3]
You should have learned even before law school about “puffing.” Buyers and sellers do this; this is how the world works. Any alternate proposed morality is just cant. We do not operate independently here. Our realm is not so esoteric; authors romance law reviews. And vice versa. …

[From Articles Editor Jim on Dec. 5]
I am afraid that the everyone-does-it routine does not work. There is no real symmetry in position here. Yes, we dragged out our response to you as you did to us. But my communications with you did not take more than five minutes of your time. Your submission, by contrast, not only tied us down. It also could not benefit us; indeed, it could only hurt us. You never had any intention of working out a publication arrangement with us. You have been unethical in using us as a “means” to your own ends. Students can cite Kant too.

[From Professor S on Dec. 5]
I cannot continue this colloquy. My time is valuable, and I have to get back to work. All I can say is that I am sorry. I will not do it again.

Wow, so who is this law professor who’d rather go unpublished than have his work appear in a lesser law review?

Well, we just had to know what was the real story behind the article. Was it an actual conversation that happened between an editor and a law professor? Inspired by actual events? Was it just a work of satire, or meant to be a “teachable moment”? I reached out to the author, Dan Subotnik, a professor at Touro Law Center, to get the scoop, and he was coy in his response. Though he was able to confirm the article was NOT purely fictional/satirical:

Thank you for your interest. Forgive me if I do not respond fully to your question. There are things that I cannot talk about. I will say that the piece did not arise out of my experience with the Touro Law Review, which published it. And I am most grateful to TLR for that. Knowing that in our business an in-house publication is less credible than an outside one, I first sent my piece out widely. No other law review would touch it.

I will also say that of course I did intend the piece to provide a “teachable moment.”

Oooh, I want to know all the juicy details now! Though I certainly respect Professor Subotnik’s discretion, I’d love to know who is this law professor so willing to actively string along a law review they consider beneath them. Also kudos to Jim the editor — we know how great it can feel to call out the bullsh*t.

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Law Review Editor And Prof Spar After He Declines To Publish Article Rather Than Accept Offer From Low-Ranked Journal [Tax Prof Blog]
A LAW REVIEW EDITOR AND FACULTY AUTHOR LEARN TO SPEAK HONESTLY [Touro Law Review]

Kathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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