Course selection advice - what will employers care about? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Looking for course selection advice.

Finished 1L with approx. 4.0 GPA from HYS and had my pick of firms at EIP. Not on LR. Want to do tax law. Have options at several good firms.

Don't want to take more than the required amount of credits from here on out/do any time intensive extracurriculars. I'll work hard for the rest of my career - now I want to focus on learning and enjoying life without unnecessary stress.

What I would ideally want to do with course selection from here on out is pick the courses that will be most relevant for me in tax practice. But I have a competing interest in picking the courses that are the easiest grade, because (a) would prefer to work less (b) don't want to make a conscious goal of it, but would like to stay in running for Latin honors.

My three questions are - how much do you think employers care about (a) how relevant your courses are (esp. for tax); (b) my grades?
Also, (c) at what point in my career does any of this matter? Does it matter at all from the perspective of my 2L summer employer - or would it only be relevant come time to lateral? I know most people say it matters only when you lateral, but do you think that having Cum Laude or Magna on my resume would make me any more desirable to my first employer (and thus more likely to get the practice area I want, or a special working arrangement down the line, or something like that?)

[notinbiglaw]

You need fed tax, Corp and partnership tax. Everything else is pretty much meh.

[Wubbles]

Yeah, tax is like the big area where some prior knowledge will be useful and employers like to see it, so I would take a few tax courses and then feel free to fill up your schedule with fluff.

[Person1111]

FYI, if you are at HLS (which you probably are given that you have around a "4.0" and listed the potential honors options as cum laude/magna), cum laude is really yours to lose if you try at least a little bit. I'd suggest making sure you get the key tax classes, taking relatively few units (I think you just need like 11-12 a semester), and trying to schedule your weeks so you have a 3 or 4 day weekend.