Do SA employers look at your 2L classes? Forum

[Anonymous User]

To decide to whether or not to give you a permanent offer and/or to decide what practice area to put you in if you get a permanent offer?

I expressed uncertainty about practice areas during my callback. I am rotating through both litigation and transactional practice areas during the summer. This semester I am taking a corp-heavy semester, but I'm not sure if I want to do transactional work. Do I have to take evidence/jurisdiction next semester to demonstrate a similar interest in litigation? (I spent this past summer working for a judge, so I pretty much only have experience with litigation right now.)

In other words, I need advice in picking classes.

Is it okay if I take Bankruptcy, Sec Reg but end up really liking litigation? Or should I stick with Evidence and/or Jurisdiction because I'm taking a corp-heavy semester right now? I'm trying to take "core" classes, but all of the important classes seem to overlap with each other next semester.

[ToTransferOrNot]

First of all, bankruptcy and sec reg are absolutely applicable to litigation. Depending on what kind of bankruptcy work you're doing, a bankruptcy practice might be primarily litigation (creditor-side, in particular, is ~80% lit, particularly for younger associates). And sec reg litigation is a big part of many Biglaw lit practices.

TBF, I found bankruptcy and Sec. Reg far more helpful than Evidence in my SA.

But, more to the point, firms aren't going to make fine-grain distinctions. If you really want to do tax over the summer, you should take class classes; same for bankruptcy. Evidence is probably helpful for litigation - Fed Jur won't be, really - all Fed Jur is good for is clerkship applications and academic self-indulgence - but your success/failure isn't going to be determined by what classes you take.

Even the corp-heavy classes in law school focus on the litigation aspects of the corporate world. Nothing in law school really prepares you for transactional work.

[edcrane]

I don't think so. Employers are more interested in grades than course selection, and they're A LOT more interested in your performance over the summer than your grades. That said, if you take a few relevant classes, you can improve your performance.

[Anonymous User]

Bump.

[Kohinoor]

If you really want to do tax over the summer, you should take class classes; same for bankruptcy.

Ah, class classes.