Amid the flurry of posts addressed to various aspects of the spring law review submission season, I haven’t seen any addressed to this question, which is seemingly quite narrow but which I assume weighs heavily on the minds of submitters everywhere:
Does the cover letter matter? If it does, what should the cover letter say?
I’ll take Christine Hurt’s advice for what it’s worth, and I’m familiar with Eugene Volokh’s tips in Academic Legal Writing. Do law review editors pay attention to cover letters (other than to associate authors with schools, and to find contact information)? If they do, what makes a persuasive letter, well, persuasive?