Buffalo Law Review having an impact

An influential survey has shown that the Buffalo Law Review now ranks 49th in the nation, among general student-edited law reviews, in its impact on legal scholarship.

The ranking, issued by the Washington & Lee Law Library, in Lexington, Va., covers the past eight years. It reflects the average number of annual citations to each journal, taking into account the total number of articles that journal published.

“Publishing in law reviews is the coin of the realm for legal scholarship,” says Associate Professor Christine Bartholomew, adviser to the publication at SUNY Buffalo Law School. “The Buffalo Law Review’s high rank is a testament to the quality and hard work of this distinguished student-run organization. People notice these kinds of rankings, and this success redounds to the benefit of the whole institution.”

Michael Staszkiw ’16, the outgoing editor in chief of the Buffalo Law Review, said the ranking confirms the richness of the Buffalo Law experience. “It’s a testament to the quality of the education we get at UB,” Staszkiw says. “The students who are on the review are really high-quality.”

The Law Review publishes five issues yearly, with four or five substantial articles in each issue. Its staff of 60 people, Staszkiw says, is about half the size of the publication team at law schools like Harvard and Yale. The Buffalo journal also has an online presence called The Docket.

“One thing we pride ourselves on is author interaction and trying to make the publication process as seamless and enjoyable as possible for the author,” he said. That approach is paying off.  Many top professors elect to publish with University at Buffalo over offers elsewhere.  The upcoming publication of a piece by a professor at Yale Law School, Staszkiw said, is one recent example: “He bypassed a lot of journals to come with us.”

Kerry Battenfeld is the journal's incoming editor-in-chief and is committed to maintaining the journal's high-quality of article selection and editing.