Is a Bankruptcy Class Necessary? Forum

[Purplebook]

I have no interest in taking Bankruptcy. Is it necessary for transactional practice?

[911 crisis actor]

No

[JG7773]

This could be entirely anecdotal, but I have had several practicing attorneys tell me that Secured Transactions is a solid class to take for transactional practice. I even received this advice from a BK attorney. She recommended ST over BK.

[Purplebook]

This could be entirely anecdotal, but I have had several practicing attorneys tell me that Secured Transactions is a solid class to take for transactional practice. I even received this advice from a BK attorney. She recommended ST over BK.

I've heard that multiple times too. No one's ever mentioned anything about bankruptcy though.

[kalvano]

I thought Creditors Rights was easily one of the best classes I took in law school.

[fanlinxun]

It is certainly not necessary, but I found that bankruptcy and corporate tax were the two best classes to get ready for a transactional practice. This obviously depends on how the class is taught, but I learned the language of debt and credit from bankruptcy (I didn't take creditors rights, which might have had the same benefit). Also, there is something about seeing how companies are put together (corporate tax) and then taken apart or reorganized (bankruptcy) that helps you better understand what is going on in various corporate transactions.

This is also completely contingent on how the class is taught, but I found secured transactions useless for anything other than picking up a couple of multiple choice questions (literally two) on the NY bar exam. It isn't one of the classes that I look back on and feel like it has had a direct impact on my transactional work.

[Bronte]

It's good for an overall understanding of corporate law. And if your firm has a big bankruptcy practice, good chance you'd work on bankruptcy deals as a corporate lawyer. But, no, it's not necessary.