Undergraduate students interested in law have a great new opportunity to get published on campus.
Penn Undergraduate Law Journal is a research publication founded last year by Wharton sophomore Gautam Narasimhan and College sophomore Tomas Piedrahita . It will publish one full issue per semester with the goal of promoting scholarly discourse on legal topics and will accept submissions from undergraduate students. The first edition was available online in January, and was printed on Feb. 10.
According to Narasimhan, a former Daily Pennsylvanian marketing manager, the inspiration for establishing the journal came from the desire to provide a voice on campus for students interested in pre-law topics . “The impetus for it came really from the fact that [Piedrahita] is into human rights law,” Narasimhan said. “He had articles that would have been apt for journals like this.”
Narasimhan and Piedrahita started working on PULJ in January 2013. The journal quickly grew from the work of the two founders into an enterprise of 22 staff members and a board of professors. “The first semester we worked on building a little bit of funding and also building a faculty advisory board,” Narasimhan said. They started recruiting staff in the fall.
Many faculty members gave the pair advice on editing and structuring the journal. Professor of legal studies and business ethics Phil Nichols , professor of political science Roger Smith and assistant professor of medical ethics Alexander Guerrero were “very receptive,” helping the founders secure funding, set deadlines and edit.
Narasimhan and Piedrahita encountered some skepticism when they presented their idea to others. “It was implicit,” Piedrahita said. “No one ever said, ‘You guys are freshmen, why are you doing this?’ But I think there was perhaps this sort of resistance.”
PULJ has yet to establish a consistent source of funding. “Our revenue stream is not as steady as we like it ... but it’s enough for the next two issues,” Piedrahita said. For longer-term financial viability, PULJ established a business committee that contacts private corporations that want to appeal to pre-law students.
PULJ also needs to index itself with online databases, Piedrahita explained. Its articles are already searchable on online legal research database Heinonline. The founders hope to reach out to legal databases Westlaw, LexisNexus and Riley.
“If you take a look at the only three undergraduate legal publications in the world that are featured on Heinonline, it’s us, Oxford [University] Undergraduate Law Journal and the Dartmouth Law Journal, ” Piedrahita said. “That’s basically the standard we’re looking for.”
The first issue surpassed the expectations of both faculty advisors and law students. “There was an understandable doubt as to whether we’ll be able to succeed,” Narasimhan said. “[But] the response has been nothing short of overwhelmingly positive.”
The two founders have a clearly defined vision for the future of PULJ. “The goal would be to print the best journal we can each semester,” Piedrahita said. They would like to be among the best undergraduate law journals.
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