which UG courses help most in biglaw? Forum

[staples88]

none of them probably do, but some probably have a nonzero effect.

I've been taking useless classes until now. in last semester, which courses should I take, one that may help in biglaw?

e.g., organizational psychology, management, marketing (yourself?). financial accounting, etc.

[owlofminerva]

Pretty much nothing is really going to be all that helpful. Your main goal should really be in taking classes you'll do well in and won't make you appear lazy to a law school admissions committee. That said, if you are really serious, maybe classes on finance/accounting. Law school does not do a terrific job in teaching the fundamentals that form the "language of business." An ability to comprehend those concepts early on could be useful. However, you really have no need to be thinking about this at this point. Just do well and get into a good law school.

Also, the vast majority of Biglaw firms don't look at UG transcripts to the extent that matters to you.

[2014]

I took a reasoning course that was more useful on the LSAT but helps with formulating sound arguments in law school. My school probably gets more of it than most, but Economics courses were very useful for most of my classes. I would take intro to micro and macro as a way of understanding roughly how people rationally respond to incentives since a lot of law can be formulated that way.

I think for OCI purposes and ultimately working purposes I agree that some basic business stuff is an asset. Accounting is a big one, but so is finance and potentially management. You can usually pick those up in law school though by cross enrolling with your schools UG business or MBA program.

[JazzOne]

Does the business school at your university offer a business law class? I wish I had taken something like that before law school. It's not going to give you enough knowledge to matter if you get to biglaw, but the class can give you an overview of the legal landscape, and then you'll have a better idea what areas of law interest you.

[Renzo]

I think all of the suggestions in this thread so far are on point. There is nothing that will be particularly helpful, and your first concern should be grades. Second to this, I would focus on improving your writing, no matter how good it may be now. It may be less applicable to other biglaw practice areas, but as a litigator when we talk about whether or not someone else is good to work with/for, that person's writing is one of top 3-4 traits that gets mentioned.

Beyond the above, having some basic, fundamental understanding of finance and accounting will get you up to speed a little quicker, since almost all biglaw work involves one or both in some manner. Also, law and economics has been important in legal academics for the past 10+ years, so having some basic understanding of economic concepts will save you some time reading wikipedia entries for various concepts.

[84651846190]

Accounting and corporate finance classes might help for corporate biglaw. For litigation, any classes that make you write a lot and improve your analytical skills. I had a technical major that didn't afford me many opportunities to improve my writing skills. I felt like English majors and people who wrote a lot in undergrad had a fairly obvious leg up on me, at least during my first year of law school.

[gregfootball2001]

A sport. Never forget step 1 - Be attractive.

[nomdeplumeify]

Any and all accounting/business courses. The ones I found best were fraud, mergers and acquisitions, cost accounting, and federal taxation. Business law [at least mine] was just a super quick overview of contracts, civ pro, and torts. It was enough to actually be useful in any of those classes. I also think any communications class that forces you to research and write would also be beneficial.