Top Law Schools

I'm currently a 2l with an SA lined up for next summer. Not sure about the exact offer rate of the firm, but I believe it's close to 100%. I'm deciding between (graded) advanced legal research or a super easy class for this upcoming semester. Is ALR worth the extra effort, or is it just a time suck that I'm going to regret? Did anyone find ALR helpful during their time as an SA? I want to do everything possible to make sure I can get a permanent offer after the summer, and I think having improved research skills would help, but I also don't want to regret my decision by taking a class that's a ton of extra work. Thoughts???

AZ123 wrote:I'm currently a 2l with an SA lined up for next summer. Not sure about the exact offer rate of the firm, but I believe it's close to 100%. I'm deciding between (graded) advanced legal research or a super easy class for this upcoming semester. Is ALR worth the extra effort, or is it just a time suck that I'm going to regret? Did anyone find ALR helpful during their time as an SA? I want to do everything possible to make sure I can get a permanent offer after the summer, and I think having improved research skills would help, but I also don't want to regret my decision by taking a class that's a ton of extra work. Thoughts???

I found taking advanced legal writing very helpful. I'd take both if you want lit. People are going to expect your to write well and be able to find any case, even if it almost assuredly does not exist.

I think grade inflation should be the goal of 2L and 3L. You can always just call the reference attorneys at westlaw if you're having trouble.

AZ123 wrote:I'm currently a 2l with an SA lined up for next summer. Not sure about the exact offer rate of the firm, but I believe it's close to 100%. I'm deciding between (graded) advanced legal research or a super easy class for this upcoming semester. Is ALR worth the extra effort, or is it just a time suck that I'm going to regret? Did anyone find ALR helpful during their time as an SA? I want to do everything possible to make sure I can get a permanent offer after the summer, and I think having improved research skills would help, but I also don't want to regret my decision by taking a class that's a ton of extra work. Thoughts???

It may be helpful if you want to do litigation, probably a useless time suck otherwise. Also going to depend heavily on how good the professor is. I just remember my legal research and writing class as a tedious bluebooking exercise. I probably developed my actual writing skills more by simply taking paper classes (rather than exam classes).

I loved ALR. Super chill and it did improve my researching skills. Probably school/prof specific though.