Courses for Big Law Forum

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone help me narrow down my courses for next year... if you had to choose 8 of the following courses, which would to take?

Basic Tax
Labor Law
Administrative Law
Negotiation and Mediation
Sale of Goods
Art of the Deal
Legislative Drafting
Intellectual Property
Class Actions
International Trade Law
Jurisprudence
Real Estate
Corporate Reorganizations
Insurance Law
Evidence
Employment Law
Antitrust
Wills & Trusts
International Commercial Transactions
Securities Law

[thesealocust]

It doesn't matter at all.

[Sup Kid]

It doesn't matter at all.

This -- take whatever you want. Note however that most lawyers have taken evidence, corporations, and fed tax (to a lesser extent).

[Anonymous User]

Well then, any courses that you found particularly helpful/interesting?

[Sup Kid]

Well then, any courses that you found particularly helpful/interesting?

I'm doing transactional work at my firm, and found that corporations, securities, secured transactions/bankrupcy, and accounting were helpful. If you want to do litigation, take evidence, complex civ pro, some sort of trial advocacy, and corporations (since at Big Law it's always good to understand the basics of how your clients operate). Legal drafting is also good, so long as it teaches you the type of drafting you ultimately want to do.

[vb007]

doesn't matter unless you intend to apply to firm that has a particular specialty (eg tax, ip).

in general, you probably would benefit from taking IP, admin law, corporations, evidence, basic tax and negotiations

[Cupidity]

Federal Courts is insanely useful for Lit.

[Aqualibrium]

I think everyone who is interested in working at a civil defense type firm of any size should take Biz Orgs/Corporations. For those interested in litigation, evidence and advance civil procedure classes will be helpful. Transactional folks don't need anyone to tell them what to take...

[Perseus_I]

What's the consensus on B.S. courses? I am .06 short of order of the coif at my school after finishing 1L. Might it be a good idea to load up on "X and the Law"? Or is this proverbial career suicide?

I am considering a Tax LLM after graduation, so I will throw in some tax courses and probably BA and Corp. too. But I don't really feel like taking Evidence or Wills & Estates.

Clinic
B.S. and the Law
Federal Income Tax
B.S. and the Law

[monkey85]

What's the consensus on B.S. courses? I am .06 short of order of the coif at my school after finishing 1L. Might it be a good idea to load up on "X and the Law"? Or is this proverbial career suicide?

Not career suicide.

But it will be harder than you think to break into coif. 2L has easier grading and "A"s are easier to come by.

Even if you get great grades and your numerical GPA increases by .06, the same people that were Top 10% in 1L get that same easier grading curve and can still keep you out of coif during 2L/3L.

I guess it doesn't hurt to try though. Take whatever you think you are interested in, and will get you the best grades.

[Perseus_I]

What's the consensus on B.S. courses? I am .06 short of order of the coif at my school after finishing 1L. Might it be a good idea to load up on "X and the Law"? Or is this proverbial career suicide?

Not career suicide.

But it will be harder than you think to break into coif. 2L has easier grading and "A"s are easier to come by.

Even if you get great grades and your numerical GPA increases by .06, the same people that were Top 10% in 1L get that same easier grading curve and can still keep you out of coif during 2L/3L.

I guess it doesn't hurt to try though. Take whatever you think you are interested in, and will get you the best grades.

No, I am .06 short of order of the coif at graduation. That means going up .06 would get me order of the coif. So, if I take "Science and the Law" "Reproductive Justice" and "Federal Income Tax" while my classmates (including those currently in order of the coif range) take Evidence, Wills and Estates, and Business Associations, I'll still be ok?

[Anonymous User]

take a class that covers rule 23. but really it doesn't matter that much

[Anonymous User]

does your school offer non-BS type of seminar classes/small classes such as complex litigation, health care and business law, education law ....? our school does and some of these are taught by great adjuncts. I ended up writing and publishing a great seminar paper.

does it always have to be 'space law' and shit?

[CanadianWolf]

Really depends on your practice area as to which 8 courses you should take.
Evidence, basic tax, sale of goods & corporate reorganizations should be helpful. Your primary goals in law school are to do well, get a job & pass the state bar exam. Beyond that, any specialization depends upon your specific practice area. Being a successful lawyer--in the long run--has little in common with being a successful law student.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

What's the consensus on B.S. courses? I am .06 short of order of the coif at my school after finishing 1L. Might it be a good idea to load up on "X and the Law"? Or is this proverbial career suicide?

Not career suicide.

But it will be harder than you think to break into coif. 2L has easier grading and "A"s are easier to come by.

Even if you get great grades and your numerical GPA increases by .06, the same people that were Top 10% in 1L get that same easier grading curve and can still keep you out of coif during 2L/3L.

I guess it doesn't hurt to try though. Take whatever you think you are interested in, and will get you the best grades.

No, I am .06 short of order of the coif at graduation. That means going up .06 would get me order of the coif. So, if I take "Science and the Law" "Reproductive Justice" and "Federal Income Tax" while my classmates (including those currently in order of the coif range) take Evidence, Wills and Estates, and Business Associations, I'll still be ok?

"Blow off" classes that end up still being on the curve (so non-seminars with 20+ people) can end up hurting your GPA more than taking a bar course that most all 2L and 3Ls take with 100+ people in it. Everyone takes Wills and Estates and Evidence, and there will be a lot of 3Ls in those classes (and 3Ls will generally be trying less). BA is just a good class to take. FIT is a must if you are interested in tax, but keep in mind that the class composition in that class is going to be harder than most general bar courses. Peroni has the reputation of being the best tax teacher at UT, but that means his class has a good amount of law review people in it (meaning the curve for this class is probably going to be a lot tougher than your 1L curve).

It wouldn't be a bad idea to do: Clinic (6 credits) + seminar (3 credits) + FIT (4 credits) for the Fall. (If you need to take more credits to make sure you aren't crushed your last 3 semesters, try getting into a 1 or 2 credit writing course).

Other things to keep in mind:
-Don't fully trust nalp (or whatever source you are using for what Coif is). Even if what it is currently listed as is 100% accurate, that just applies to that particular class. For the last two years, the number I saw for coif for previous classes was over a 3.8.
-You can't take both BA and Corp. BA is just Corp. + partnership law.
-Evidence is just a very helpful class in general, no matter what you want to do after law school.