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Hey guys, I'm a 3L and just got an interview (through networking) with the best real estate law firm in the city I want to live in. Unfortunately I hadn't really ever considered that field, so I never took the real estate course at my school and it isn't being offered in the spring. I sent emails to my career and academic advisers, but in case they can't do anything I wanted to know what my options are. Is Real Estate coursework necessary for working for in that field? Is there another legitimate way to learn that stuff before Fall? Am I screwed? I will be doing a corporate externship in the spring that supposedly involves real estate work.

You aren't expected to know anything.

Also, you don't even have the job yet so...deep breaths...

There are SO many resources you can use to learn basic real estate law without taking a class. There's PLC on Westlaw (fantastic), E&Es, Nutshells, old course outlines, commercial outlines, Google links, and of course traditional casebooks that you can find in your library. You could even ask your real estate professor for the syllabus he uses.

You should focus more on doing well in the interview before worrying about your knowledge (or lack thereof) as you go into real estate practice. Why do you want to be a real estate lawyer? One of the best answers (which will resonate with almost all real estate lawyers) is that you like the tangible aspect of real estate...that you could drive down the street and see deals that you worked on.

^ yes to above. like the tangible stuff. Yes you can learn it all on the job, relax and check some of those suggested sources to get some basics if necessary. Transactional is mostly contract law and entity formation. Financing courses are helpful for you to learn about the loan documents, but you will learn there.

Do you know if transactional or lit focus? Make sure you could discuss if one is the real focus.

Transactional Bingo - teamwork, collaborative, everyone can win, bringing both sides together, etc. Also if you like working with entrepreneurial types a lot of those guys are the ones buying or developing. You can go with the "tangible" point in that you like helping people build their dreams or find that perfect plot.

With boutiques be genuine because they actually care about you liking/fitting the work. So don't just parrot the words, match with a story from your life and focus on the things you really mean.

Classes that helped me
- Real Estate/Mortgages (obvious)
- Income/Partnership Tax
- Transactional drafting class

If you are interested in financing, taking a class to get the basics on loans/mortgages will help. But really, the classes will just help give you a basic understanding of the terms/lingo. There was no class at my law school that would have helped with understanding the steps in a RE deal.