Membership on the Review is often regarded as one of the highest honors achievable in law school. Membership is divided into two levels: full membership and candidate membership. Candidate members are those members who have accepted an invitation from the Review to be candidate members after ranking in the top ten-percent of their class (“grade-on candidates”) or those who have been selected for membership by Review members based on their performance in a semiannual Review writing competition (“write-on candidates”).
To become full members, candidates must complete two requirements. First, candidates must satisfactorily complete all “spading” assignments. Spading involves checking the accuracy of the text and footnotes of articles scheduled for publication in the Review. Satisfactory completion of spading includes accuracy and thoroughness as well as completing all assignments on or before the deadline. Incomplete spading assignments may lead to removal from candidacy.
The second requirement for achieving full membership is the “writing requirement.” To fulfill this requirement, each candidate member must submit an article suitable for publication in the Nebraska Law Review to the Executive Board of Editors. There is no specified page-length limitation, nor must the article actually be published. Likewise, there is no guarantee that the Review will publish such articles. The article is called a case note and generally analyzes a single case or statute. Each grade-on candidate member is guided through the writing process by the Review Research Editor and an assigned case note mentor. Write-on candidates are not assisted by a case note mentor. Failure to produce an acceptable case note will automatically lead to a loss of candidacy for write-on candidates. However, grade-on candidates whose articles do not initially fulfill the writing requirement are provided with opportunities to revise their work, accompanied by guidance from their case note mentor, to fulfill the requirement.