USC undergrads aim to launch law journal

USC students Jonathan Laifman and Marshall Amaya plan to launch an undergraduate law review journal next spring.

The co-founders said their aim in creating The Trojan Review is two-fold: to give undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue legal scholarship and to make law school more accessible by providing resources and information to other pre-law students.

"There wasn't really an outlet on campus for students to engage in a deeper discourse about issues in the legal field," said Amaya, who is to be president and managing editor of the publication. "We wanted to provide a resource for pre-law students to explore their own intellectual curiosities, to be aided and guided by Gould [School of Law] faculty... and ultimately create scholarship that allows people to think critically about some of these issues."

Following some early mentoring from the law school's Southern California Law Review staff, the new journal will be written and produced by undergraduates. Laifman, who is to be editor-in-chief, is confident the USC student body will find it useful.

"We want it to be something that is respected, well received and viewed as serious legal research," he said. "Maybe it will get to the point where it is impactful in the legal community."

With the help of professor Donald Scotten, the students also created a two-unit course through the law school temporarily titled "LAW 490: Directed Research."

"The course coincides with The Trojan Review itself, so you learn all of the principles you need to write in a legal manner," Laifman said. "It's trading up basic skills, so we have the capacity to seriously and efficiently go about researching our questions and creating works of quality."

The course will be taught by professor Jeffrey Rodgers. Scotten, who's also vice dean for administration at the law school, is also the journal's faculty adviser.

Laifman said the journal will include student notes along with a professor's overview of a particular area of law. It will also likely welcome external submissions, though guidelines have not been finalized.

The publishers also plan to build a complete online presence featuring additional content, such as shorter legal op-ed pieces, and intend to create a podcast presenting conversations with professors, judges, lawyers and other legal experts.

The journal aims to make law school more accessible by providing resources to pre-law students, including seminars and events that connect undergraduates with law students, who Amaya said can act as "helpful guides" in the admissions process.

The journal is intended for undergraduates, and as such, Scotten said he didn't think it would be very useful to law students.

"Maybe if law students were involved in editing The Trojan Review, it could help them gain skills, but that is not the case right now," he wrote in an email. "Of course, there may be some benefit that I just do not see."

Amaya and Laifman, however, said the journal could be useful for law students as well. The Trojan Review could be an alternate place for law school students to publish an article or to practice writing a piece on a smaller scale. And first-year law students especially might benefit from the publication's expanding tools and resources on legal research and writing, the publishers said.

"In the long term, that could help law students, especially those who haven't had that experience before. Our resources could serve as a jump start or aid to their legal writing courses," Amaya said.

The first edition of The Trojan Review is expeted to be published in May 2022.