Top Law Schools

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.

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.

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.

Bump.

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

Ah, class classes.