Lawyr.it is a student-run project aimed at offering law students coming from Central and Eastern Europe an opportunity to do legal research, write articles and find opportunities to develop their skills. The project is built around a law journal called Lawyr.it published online three times per year and features a Legal Dictionary, a rubric about masters abroad, an Opportunities section and a Blog. Lawyr.it is now present in over 10 countries from CEE. In our work, we are guided by our belief that the young minds of law students coming from all over the region can offer a fresh perspective and valuable solutions to different legal issues.
"Lawyr.it was definitely one of the more impactful activities that I undertook in university. I now work as a lawyer in a firm with many international clients, where many of our deliverables have to be done in English. Lawyr.it was one of the very few activities available to me that helped me develop my legal English, editing the submissions for the magazine and writing my own articles. Additionally, my role in the project my ability for developing legal argumentation, a skill that I use on a day-to-day basis at work. Last, but not least, the organizational skills that I developed, as well as the appeal of being a founding member of Lawyr.it greatly improved my resume and my chance of getting a job at a prestigious law firm."
Călin Mureșanu, Board Vice-President and Co-Founder
How are we different from other legal publications?
The major difference in our profile comes from the fact that we only accept submissions from students. Regardless of their year of study or country, any law student can submit legal articles, with the best of them being chosen for publication. We consider law students to be invaluable sources of solutions, ideas, and original analysis or approaches of different aspects of law, thus one of our goals is to encourage more law students to write, by providing a platform destined exclusively to them.
Secondly, another important aspect is that the editorial team consists solely of law students. Every year, the editorial team is refreshed after a thorough process of recruitment, which encourages all law students interested in contributing to the development of the project to apply. Moreover, the most remarkable and active students who submit valuable articles to be published in the magazine are often encouraged to apply for a Junior Editor position in the editorial team.
Thirdly, the publication differs through the material that it publishes. There is a tendency in the current regional academia and in legal practice to use excessively legal terminology (legalese) even then ideas could be simply explained in plain language. This type of approach makes them harder to read and comprehend by both non-legal readership (including clients!) as well as law students or fresh graduates, who are not accustomed to using such a language in practice. This basically restricts the realm of people who could access such sources of information. Thus, as part of the set of principles this publication is promoting, the editorial team is encouraging writing two types of articles: (i) articles that, while clearly structured and formally well-written, are able to express legal ideas in a straight-forward, intelligible manner for the general audience; (ii) articles that focus on analyzing the practical impact of the different legal issues that are tackled, on comparative analysis or on identifying solutions to specific issues. We consider this type of skills essential for the professional life of any law graduate and valued by any employer, and we strongly promote any type of content that can add value in this direction.
Lastly, the entire Lawyr.it project has a significant educational side. We approach every piece of content in a constructive manner, focusing on how the authors can improve in terms of content and structure, and we prepare extensive feedback for all authors whose articles have not been published. Moreover, we are always open for any questions that law students may have at any moment and which are related to writing legal focus articles. Finally, we develop particular projects, in order to create the platform for members of the editorial team to develop other skills, such as research (e.g. Lawyr.it Dictionary), as well as to serve specific needs of the large law students community (e.g. Opportunities or Lawyr.it Newsletter).
"Being a part of the Lawyr.it team is a tremendously rewarding experience; the open minds of everyone involved and the room I have had for development make the project the ideal environment for students and young professionals. In the three months I have been a legal researcher, I had the opportunity to improve my writing, research, and reasoning skills, by contributing to its Legal Dictionary. Most importantly, I was encouraged to make creative decisions even as a newcomer; recently, my idea to feature Summer Schools in Europe in our Opportunities Section has received the green light and is currently under way."
Daniela Toma, Legal researcher (2015-2016)
We invite you to follow our activity on this website as well as on the social media platform in which we are present, and we hope you will enjoy the read!
***
Serial number of the publication:
ISSN 2501-1782
ISSN–L 2501- 1782
The Lawyr.it Association, registered under Romanian legislation as a personal data operator nr. 0001911. / Asociatia Lawyr.it, inregistrata ca operator de date cu caracter personal nr. 0001911.
