I'm referring to courses like Evidence, Corporations, Tax, and Admin Law. I'm not particularly interested in any of the above, but most people seem to recommend them.

I have below median grades at a bottom T14. Pretty much guaranteed I'll be out of the running for Big Law and clerkships. Don't really have an interest in trial practice, but I'll take whether employment I can get post grad. I do have a niche interest/background, so I'd much rather take more classes in that area than the courses listed above.

Would I be screwed if I didn't take the foundational courses at all? I'm most likely going to take Corporations, but not sure about the rest. Mostly worried how employers would take it. Do they really care if you take those courses?

What do you guys think?

You're going to need to know them for the bar. Learning evidence through bar prep sounds pretty fucking scary.

Also, evidence is a pre-req for a lot of courses at my school.

And I'm mostly speaking about bar courses here. I wouldn't call tax law a foundational course. However, my state tests admin law, evidence, corporations.

What would you take in lieu of those courses?

The courses you named are pretty easy because the combination of old outlines + E&E (esp. for Evidence, Tax and Admin - Corp is more subjective) make those classes a cakewalk. Also, the teachers at your T14 are probably killer in that field and will make it interesting.

In the end, since you are trying to strengthen your stats for the jerb hunt, go with whatever gets you the best grades.

Evidence wasn't bad and I haven't taken corps or tax yet but I have to disagree on Admin. That class can be unbearable at points and it's usually the most gunnerish class out there (besides fed courts).

I don't know how one goes through law school and doesn't take Evidence. The rest you can learn through BarBri if you just wanna pad your GPA the rest of your time in law school.

I was told prior to law school to avoid Admin because it is both boring and gunner-y. I've taken the advice.

To OP: personally, I don't mind the foundational classes, and they tend to be pre-reqs for other stuff. At the very least, take Evidence and whatever the basic corporations class is. They tend to be helpful for other stuff.

I tend to agree with this. Evidence is crucial. I can see passing on corps if you don't want to do business law, but I still think you should probably take it to get a good grasp on stuff that comes up in a lot of different areas--particularly agency, vicarious liability, ways to limit personal liability, etc. Tax is probably not as critical as Evidence either, but the regular Federal Income Tax class will actually be somewhat useful to you in your own personal life--and this is probably the only law school class to which that statement would apply.

Admin? Meh.

In my humble opinion, if you want to be a lawyer, you should know the basics of evidence, corporations (business entities, whatever it is called at your school) and admin law, and even tax (but tax sucks if you don't like it). Not because you "need" them in your practice, but because those are the things lawyers should generally know. And as mentioned, I don't know how you can learn evidence with just a BarBri type review - that stuff is very nuanced, even on the bar.

A doctor who specializes in feet should still have a basic understanding of the workings of the human ear. They don't not take the ear class because they won't be working on ears. So yes, you should have a "foundation," and you can learn more about your niche while you "practice" it. Besides, any niche geared course work really won't better prepare you for work in that field than learning on the job. Sure, you'll be familiar with the general lay of the land, but law school really teaches you how to learn new subjects. Gain a foundation, and you can learn a new field of law as you practice. But when a friend asks you what the general difference is between an LLC and a corporation, "I have no idea" is not an answer that inspires confidence in your lawyer abilities.

There were a few courses I was extremely happy to have taken in law school while studying for the bar. Namely, Wills, Evidence, and Admin Law. In my opinion you cannot learn the rules of evidence or basics of Wills/Trusts in a three day BarBri lecture. It will just seem too foreign to you.

It makes learning the stuff a cakewalk.

It makes getting graded on a curve a nightmare because everyone has access to all of this and the margin for error on the exam is zero.

Thanks, everyone. It looks like Evidence > Corps > Admin >>> Tax. I'll try to at least take the first two classes then.

Tax >>>>>>>>>>> Admin
Tax is at least helpful IRL.

Turbotax is even more helpful

I'd recommend tax for someone only if they have a lot of time or if they find it interesting. If you want to cruise through 3LOL, definitely DO NOT take it.

I wouldn't take Admin if my life depended on it. I personally am padding my 3LOL GPA with classes like "Spanish for Lawyers", I suggest you follow suit.

I'm taking tax now and I kind of like it. Don't know how well I'll do or anything, but it's not a terrible class. I'm also assuming OP is a rising 2L and not a rising 3L.

baby tax is not even remotely useful for RL... not a good reason to take it.

Honestly, aside from Evidence, there is not a single law school class that is remotely useful for anything in RL, be it practice or day-to-day living.

I don't know what kind of lawyer you want to be, but if you ever want to take classes like Environmental Law or Health Care Law, Admin Law should be done in advance. It really gives you a foundation for other classes in law school that may be more interesting.

Same for Crim Pro. I think I might cram it into my summer schedule.

Crim Pro can easily be learned in bar prep. I regret wasting the time on it.

Maybe my evidence class was just stupidly content less, but evidence doesn't seem any worse than any other bar class.