USC School of Law Legal Times

The National Conference of Law Reviews has selected the South Carolina Law Review to host its 2005 national meeting. In March at the 2003 conference in Seattle, delegates elected the USC School of Law as the host school, over a competing bid from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. The conference will be held in Charleston from March 16-20, 2005.

“This is a showcase event for South Carolina Law Review and the USC School of Law,” explained Eli Poliakoff, Editor in Chief of the South Carolina Law Review. “The conference will bring national attention to the publication, the University of South Carolina School of Law, and the state’s entire legal community. We look forward to welcoming the hundreds of law review editors who will come to South Carolina in 2005.”

The National Conference of Law Reviews includes over 145 law reviews and journals from across North America. The conference meets annually to discuss the organizational, editorial and financial issues common to student-edited legal publications. Previous host cities include Los Angeles, Baltimore and Seattle. The 2004 conference will be held in San Antonio.

Brian Hellman, Managing Editor of the South Carolina Law Review, said the news about the conference would encourage USC's law students. "I think this really speaks highly of the students at the Law School," Hellman said. "They really want to see us as one of the top schools in the country, and I think that is the commitment of the administration as well as the commitment of the faculty."

In Seattle, Poliakoff made a PowerPoint presentation to several hundred delegates at this year’s conference. Hellman, publications and Web-page editor Michael Fletcher, and Poliakoff prepared the presentation.

"We had to sell USC, we had to sell the School of Law and we had to sell South Carolina," Poliakoff said. “For us, it was an easy choice.”

Hellman noted the close relationship between the law school and the state bar aided the law review’s bid. "We have a great relationship with the (South Carolina) state bar and the local bars as well as with the South Carolina legal community in general," Hellman said. "That is different from other states, where there might be six or seven law schools and the relationship or the bonds aren't quite as strong."

Mikell Harper, the 2002-2003 Editor in Chief of the South Carolina Law Review, said the conference is also a good opportunity to attract promising lawyers to South Carolina.

"It is a big deal. I think that these conferences generally have about 400 students attending," he said.

The South Carolina Law Review is published four times a year and contains articles by lawyers, professors and judges from South Carolina and across the nation. In 2004, the South Carolina Law Review enters its fifty-fifth year.