Manager, UCC Digest

Company: Boston College

Job Location: Chestnut Hill, 02467

Category: Publications and Editing

Type: Full-Time

Boston College Introduction

Founded in 1863, Boston College is a Jesuit, Catholic university located six miles from downtown Boston with an enrollment of 9,654 full-time undergraduates and 5,072 graduate and professional students. Ranked 37 among national universities, Boston College has 923 full-time and 1,336 FTE faculty, 2,822 non-faculty employees, an operating budget of $1.4 billion, and an endowment in excess of $3.9 billion.

Job Description

The UCC Digest at Boston College is hiring a manager. This 10-month position will be one of two advisors, the other is a Faculty Advisor, to provide professional oversight for the UCC Digest, a professional publication. The UCC Digest's Manager partners with the Faculty Advisor in overseeing the Digest and ensuring the professional quality of the end product. In addition, the Manager mentors and teaches the UCC student staff and runs the day-to-day operations of the UCC Digest. The Manager is necessary to provide professionalism, continuity, institutional memory, long-term stability, and direction.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Writing, Editing, Reviewing and Teaching (70%)

• Researching various UCC cases to select the more novel cases to annotate
• Assign cases to 2L writers to annotate in cooperation with and under the supervision of a 3L editor.
• Read each case that the students have annotated and provide edits for substance, accuracy, completeness, organization, flow, sentence structure, grammar, style, and Digest formatting. The editorial process is a critical aspect of the Digest's educational function and the student experience.
• Conduct a "final review" of all annotated cases to ensure appropriate standard is met.
• If necessary, restructure and rewrite the annotation to ensure its professional quality for the publication version.
• Ensure students learn from comparing and contrasting their student-level drafting to professional-grade drafting. Ensure students learn what is of interest to practitioners and academics and what is not.
• Frequent meetings with the 3L leadership

Management & Operations of the Digest (15%)

• Oversee, plan, and ensure the Digest produces four releases a year and each release consist of 40 annotations
• Serve as the contact person for Lexis
• Oversee and manage the Digest's budget in partnership with the Student Treasurer.

Student Mentoring, Advising, Counseling (15%)

• Guide, mentor, and manage the staff.
• Overseeing the 3L editors who are performing the work.
• Lead the training and acculturate each incoming class of 2Ls.
• Oversee and maintain Digest traditions, such as the 1L Exam Survival Kits project
• Oversee a biannual newsletter to Digest alums.
• Mentor students on non-Digest issues in support of the student
• Help 3Ls develop leadership skills and counsel students.
• Implement and oversee processes relating to the resolution of conflicts, receipt of complaints, and the exercise of disciplinary action, up to and including probation and expulsion from the Digest.
• Meet with students to discuss cases to discuss an edited annotation, performance-related issues or concerns

The Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") governs most aspects of commercial law. It states rules governing transactions involving the sale and lease of goods, negotiable instruments, bank collections, electronic transfers, and secured lending.

The UCC Reporter-Digest was created (over 60 years ago) to give practitioners and courts an efficient, effective, and easy way to remain current on new, important case law developments. The Digest "annotates" all important UCC opinions. Each case annotation provides a concise, clear, accurate, and complete synthesis of the case from a commercial law perspective.

LexisNexis ("Lexis"), a global information and analytics company focused on legal research, publishes the Digest for practitioners. End-users use the Digest in two ways. First, annotations offer an easy way to keep current. A reader can quickly read an annotation to get a working sense of a case. The reader does not need to read every page of an opinion, much of it irrelevant from a commercial law perspective. Second, readers use the Digest as a research tool. The reader can read an annotation to determine if he/she needs to read the whole case.

The Digest staff ranges from 28 to 30 students a year, usually equally divided between 2Ls and 3Ls. The students, under close advisor supervision, find and annotate 160 cases a year. The advisors manage, oversee, and supervise the yearly publication of 160 professional-grade annotations. The Digest provides excellent practical training. Students learn how to write efficiently, succinctly and effectively. They learn time-management, teamwork, and leadership skills.

FTE Range $54,633 - $68,300 (10 Months)

Requirements

Education/Training & Experience:

• JD from an ABA accredited law school
• Post-JD experience that involved writing for a legal audience preferred - e.g., clerking for a judge or transactional experience that involved research and writing
• 3-5 years of legal experience
• Practical experience
• Preference for knowledge of the UCC and/or related legal spheres (e.g., bankruptcy, secured lending).

Functional & Technical Competencies

• Demonstrated excellence in writing and a commitment to teaching and mentoring.
• Demonstrated ability to write in a succinct, clear, well-organized way.
• Desire to teach, mentor, and serve as a role model in terms of professionalism, work ethic, timeliness, organizational skills, and time management.
• Excellent people skills, excellent time-management skills, curiosity, humility, and adaptability.
• Ability to have difficult conversations when a difficult conversation is necessary.

Closing Statement

Boston College offers a broad and competitive range of benefits depending on your job classification eligibility:

• Tuition remission for Employees
• Tuition remission for Spouses and Children who meet eligibility requirements
• Generous Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Low-Cost Life Insurance
• Eligibility for both University-Funded 401k and Employer-Sponsored 403b Retirement Plans
• Paid Holidays Annually
• Generous Sick and Vacation Pay
• Additional benefits can be found on https://www.bc.edu/employeehandbook

Boston College conducts pre-employment background checks as part of the hiring process.

Boston College is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected category, including disability and protected veteran status. Boston College's Notice of Nondiscrimination can be viewed at https://www.bc.edu/nondiscrimination.

Apply Now