Christina Wu is the first woman in her family to go to college. She's also part of a rare group of female law students sitting in the top positions as editor-in-chief at the top 16 law schools in the country, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report.

As editor-in-chief of the Texas Law School Review, Wu is part of a group of female law students that stands in contrast to their cohorts of only a few years earlier.

The nonprofit group Ms. JD conducted a study in 2012 that found women comprised only 29% of top editors at the premier law journals of the top 50 law schools. Women made up 43% of all law review editors in 2012 and 45% of all law review members at that time.

Women are now represented in many of the top law review leadership positions and the future appears to be getting brighter as more women are enrolling and graduating from law school, as well as taking up positions on law school journals.

Wu spoke with Texas Lawyer recently about her background, what it's like overseeing a prestigious law review, and her plans after graduation.

The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Texas Lawyer: Tell me about your upbringing and formative years, especially the things that made you want to study law and edit a law journal?

Christina Wu: I grew up in Northern Virginia, but when I was 13, my family moved back to my parents' native China, and then when I was 16, I left my family to move in with my older brother in Austin, Texas. I attended the University of Oklahoma (Boomer Sooner) where I majored in accounting, but I found my way back to Austin through internships and then law school.

I'm currently a 3L at the University of Texas School of Law. The legal field is unique in that the vast majority of legal journals are student-run, student-edited, and not peer-reviewed. I'm the first woman in my family to go to college and I didn't know any lawyers growing up, so I never thought I'd be editing a law journal because I didn't know a thing about legal journals until I enrolled at UT. I think the fantastic thing about law review is that it allows people who never considered writing and editing to be their strong suits, like myself, to hone their skills and get involved in academic publishing as students.

TL: What's your job as the editor-in-chief like, what do you like and dislike about it, and what are your pet peeves as an editor?

CW: I think being part of a law journal is important because they're one of the primary ways through which legal scholarship is disseminated. Something that I think all of the Editorial Board appreciates is the impact we might be able to have outside the University of Texas. We always get excited when we see citations to the Texas Law Review "in the wild," particularly if they make it into SCOTUS opinions. And we enjoyed working with younger, up-and-coming authors this year because we recognize how important publishing with us can be early on in an academic's career.

On a more personal level, I appreciate the community around the law review. As 1Ls at UT, we take all our classes with the same group of students, and it can be tough to meet people outside of our sections. Being a part of Texas Law Review has allowed me to get to know and work with a ton of fantastic people. It's been fulfilling to be able to rely on each other and work as a team to put each issue out. And this year I was particularly lucky to get to collaborate with 15 other law reviews on a joint publication, Women & Law. The only real downside has been the time commitment. I don't think I've been as good of a student or friend as I could or should be since I've taken on the role.

As far as pet peeves go, all of the editors on the law review have strong thoughts on the sometimes conflicting and frequently ambiguous rules in the Bluebook and our style guide. Whether or not to hyphenate particular phrasal adjectives has been particularly contentious. What irritates me the most, though, is inconsistency. The Texas Law Review tries to be a light-edit journal; we defer to authors and we want to let their voices come through in their writing, even if it isn't always strictly grammatically or technically correct. I'm OK with letting things slide, so long as they're consistent!

TL: Tell me about the production schedule of the Texas Law Review; for instance, what's a typical day on the review like?

CW: The Texas Law Review publishes seven issues each year, in November, December, and February through June. Each of the first six issues generally contains two full-length articles, one featured content piece (a shorter essay or book review), and two student notes, while the seventh contains pieces from our spring symposium. Though the symposium issue is published under the masthead of the outgoing Editorial Board, it's actually the first issue that the new board members oversee and edit, as a trial run for their own volume.

Each year, just under 50 new members join the journal as 2Ls. In our first year on the journal, we have requirements that are fulfilled primarily through "BBCCs," or Bluebook cite checks. As 3Ls, our responsibilities are more task-based, with 20 members becoming the new Editorial Board and the remainder becoming associate editors for various offices.

The workload for all of us kind of ebbs and flows throughout the school year, depending on where pieces are in our editing cycle and what else is going on with the journal or the school; for example, we stop editing before finals each semester. A typical day for me consists primarily of responding to internal and external emails. I come into our editing process toward the end, after pieces have already been reviewed and revised by the authors and other Editorial Board members several times. In addition to substantive edits, I get to see each piece to the end because I format and paginate each issue before sending the files off to the printer. I've never measured all the hours that go into TLR; I think that can wait until I start working for a firm.

TL: With such a busy schedule do you have any hobbies? What do you enjoy doing to relax?

CU: I've always really enjoyed the act of creating things. I get a lot of satisfaction out of seeing a final product that I had a hand in making, which may be why pagination is my favorite task as editor-in-chief. In my spare time, I've been trying to keep up with my creative hobbies, like sewing, knitting, and painting. And if I could find a darkroom in Austin, I'd love to get back into photography.

TL: Were there any female role models in journalism or law when you were growing up; if not, what would you like to change about that? Where do you see yourself going after you leave UT Austin and the Texas Law Review?

CW: I don't think it's accurate to categorize what the Texas Law Review does as journalism, so much as academic publishing. As a result, I can't say that I looked for role models in journalism or that I'll go on to promote journalism per se. But I am an advocate for women pursuing whatever path in life they're interested in—whether that's journalism, law, or something else entirely. And I'd certainly like to see more women in prominent positions in the legal field.

I won't be going far after graduating from UT this May. After taking the bar (and a lengthy bar trip), I'll be working for Vinson & Elkins in its Austin office. Since I'll remain in Austin, I'd like to stay involved with the law school in some capacity. I had a number of official and unofficial mentors as a 1L, and I'd love to pay it forward by joining the school's mentoring program for new law students.

I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to be editor-in-chief of the Texas Law Review, and I'm happy that my successor is also a woman. Yet that doesn't, or shouldn't, mask the fact that in my year, only 18 of the 48 new members who joined the journal were women. The law review and the legal profession look better than they did a few decades ago, but there's still progress to be made before they reflect the rest of society. To other women who are thinking about law school, I would say to recognize that reality but to not be dissuaded by it. Things can change, and we can change them!

TL: What advice would you give those young women out there who might not know that a career in law, or even a turn editing a prestigious law journal can be a part of their future?

CW: One of my favorite 1L professors told me that law school was the perfect time to learn to be your own advocate. But really, that sounded like a great lesson to practice at any point in life. Just because you don't have a role model to help you envision yourself in a position doesn't mean you should wait for one to tell you that you can do it. And even if you haven't thought of yourself as pursuing a particular path before, that doesn't mean you can't be ready to take the opportunity if you come across it.