The Business Lawyer circulates to approximately 30,000 readers and is among the most cited law journals in the nation. Our aim is to provide members of the legal profession and the public generally with practical articles by individual authors and reports and surveys by various committees of the ABA Business Law Section in the fields of law within the general purview of the Section.
The Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board encourage the submission of finished manuscripts on legal topics within any area of business law.
Submission Guidelines
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The Business Lawyer is published quarterly in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall.
Articles submitted for possible publication in The Business Lawyer are carefully reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and/or various members of the Editorial Board or other peers specializing in the area or topic on which the article is based. The Editor-in-Chief and Editorial Board members are volunteers with full-time legal practices. This may result in a comparatively lengthier review process than other law journals. Accordingly, we generally will not honor requests for expedited review absent special circumstances. See the Peer Review Guidelines.
If your article is rejected, you will receive notice of such in writing from the Editor-in- Chief. If your article is accepted, you will receive notice of such in writing from the Editor-in-Chief along with the ABA's standard Publication Agreement for your signature. The Publication Agreement must be signed before we may publish your article.
Please contact the Production Manager for a status update of your article. However, please allow at least six weeks from your submission date before you inquire.
Once an article is accepted for publication in The Business Lawyer, it is coded in Word, edited and cite checked. Upon the author's approval of this draft, the author will receive a second version of his or her article reflecting these changes in typeset format. This is the author's final review before the issue is printed. It is expected that authors will meet all deadlines in order to ensure timely production. Authors should contact the Production Manager with questions or concerns regarding any changes made to his or her article or with problems meeting deadlines.
Offprints are copies of each author's article printed on the same paper stock as The Business Lawyer and bound by the cover of the issue in which the article is printed. Fifty complimentary offprints of each article are printed for distribution among the authors of each article. Thus, a single author of a particular article appearing in The Business Lawyer will receive all 50 copies. Articles co-authored by two or more individuals must designate a "contact author" who will receive the 50 copies for distribution among his or her co-authors. In addition to the 50 complimentary copies, all authors are provided an opportunity to purchase, through the Production Manager, additional copies at the time the issue is printed.