Evidence Course Prior to USAO Summer

[Anonymous User]

1L here who will likely work for a USAO this summer. I can either take Evidence this spring with a so-so professor or take Evidence next year with a dynamite professor. Would the usefulness of taking Evidence before the USAO gig be worth the worse professor? Evidence would not allow me to appear in court.

[Anonymous Loser]

In my experience, it would be unusual for a 1L SA assignment to require an understanding of evidentiary rules. Actually, it would be unusual for a 1L SA assisgnement to require an understanding of any substantive law.

[UCLAtransfer]

Unless someone in the office indicated that they had a preference that you take evidence before the summer, I wouldn't worry about it. Most students do not have the opportunity to take evidence during 1L, and the vast majority of your fellow USAO interns will likely not have taken it.

I worked for a major city USAO my 1L summer without taking it first, and it was a total non-issue. I was able to work on PLENTY of great substantive stuff without dealing with evidentiary issues. It seemed like most of the AUSAs knew that we hadn't taken it, because they didn't even try to assign projects that dealt with detailed evidentiary issues.

Evidence is a somewhat complicated and super-important class (if you want to be a litigator/prosecutor), and I think having a solid professor makes all the difference in the world.