For me, JURIST provides a unique experience that I would otherwise not be able to acquire in law school. I was driven to go to law school out of an academic fascination with the law and out of a desire to learn something which I could use to make a positive impact on society. JURIST has helped me to fulfill both of these goals right from the beginning of my law school career to a degree that no other student organization could.

Working on JURIST’s Academic Commentary staff gives me the opportunity to stay on top of the latest legal developments in a way that simply studying for my classes and attending extracurricular events does not. While working on JURIST, I get to reach out to some of the brightest legal scholars and convince them to share their analysis of the most recent legislation, court rulings and world-changing events with our readership. In editing their commentary, I get to be the first to read their work (and read it closely), and I get to sharpen my researching skills by hunting down all of the related primary legal sources to provide to our readership.

Perhaps more important than what JURIST does for me is what it does for others – and what it allows me to do for others by extension. By working on JURIST, I know that I am helping to disseminate knowledge about the law to the general public. We offer a source for concise, well-written news about domestic and international legal issues to everyone, without any advertisements or sponsorships that might compromise our mission. Through our commentary sections, we provide analyses of these developments that often go deeper than anything provided in mainstream news sources, and without hiding these analyses behind some kind of paywall or registration requirement.

In my short time at JURIST, I have seen several emails come in expressing gratitude for our service, generally from readers who have no professional connection to the law, but simply read JURIST as a source of news that is free from bias and sensationalism. Since we do not operate on advertising revenue, there is no pressure to fill our news section with quasi-legal updates, such as the latest celebrity scandal. Instead, we can run stories about issues which are far more important from a legal standpoint, but which may nonetheless not be glamorous enough to attract very many page views, such as the case of PPL Montana v. Montana, which examined the constitutional test for determining river navigability. And just in case you need to know more right now, our coverage can be found here.

For these reasons, I believe that JURIST performs a unique and vital public service, and I am proud and excited to be a part of it. In the few years in which I will get to work on JURIST’s staff, I hope to see our organization grow and expand to provide information to more members of the public. However, as JURIST’s operations grow, the need for funds becomes greater. Since it is essential that we do not rely on advertising to fund our operations, I hope that you will consider offering a donation, however small, to help assist us in meeting our costs. When you give to JURIST, you are not only providing an exciting opportunity for law students, but also a kind of public news outlet that might not otherwise exist.

Caleb Pittman
Academic Commentary Section Head