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I'm enrolled in Fed Courts this call. I'd like to hear from those who intend to brave or have braved this class.

Please share your thoughts, experiences, etc.

Everything you never wanted to know about the 11th amendment. I seriously don't understand why people put themselves through that class.

I took Fed Courts as a 2L even though I knew I was going into transactional practice and wasn't going to clerk. I just had a perverse abiding interest in Civ Pro and Con Law. Fed Courts wholly cured me of that interest and kicked my butt. And this was back in the 20th century--I'm sure the jurisprudence has gotten even screwier since then.

I would say that if you're going to clerk and if you're interested in litigation, it's a useful course--but watch out because it could be a GPA-killer.

Kochel wrote:
I would say that if you're going to clerk and if you're interested in litigation, it's a useful course--but watch out because it could be a GPA-killer.

What about this class makes it so difficult?

RUQRU wrote:

Kochel wrote:
I would say that if you're going to clerk and if you're interested in litigation, it's a useful course--but watch out because it could be a GPA-killer.

What about this class makes it so difficult?

Everyone who wants to clerk takes it, which means the students in the class have much higher grades than average, making the curve brutal, allegedly.

Cavalier wrote:

RUQRU wrote:

Kochel wrote:
I would say that if you're going to clerk and if you're interested in litigation, it's a useful course--but watch out because it could be a GPA-killer.

What about this class makes it so difficult?

Everyone who wants to clerk takes it, which means the students in the class have much higher grades than average, making the curve brutal, allegedly.

Also, the class is substantively more case-law driven than any other I remember, even Con Law. To the extent there is black-letter law, the Supreme Court rewrites it every term, so you really need to know the cases.

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dood wrote:if u pull an A, will it impress a judge? say u had top 1/3 and wanted a prestige clerkship that normally auto-rejects anything less than top 10%. i know the answer is prolly not.

lol. No.

dood wrote:or lemme rephrase that another way - will the absence of said course be noticed if u are planning to clerk for a fed judge not in backass woods of arkansas? say example a fed. cir judge in dc (not so popular cause its patent and other boring appeals, but still semi prestige cause its in dc and its a CoA)

It's hotly debated. Plenty of people land absolutely baller clerkships out of law school by saying "taking it as a 3L" - so they have no grade in it when they get hired. It's generally understood that it will raise a flag if you're applying to prestigious clerkships and haven't taken it. Beyond that, clerk hiring is so idiosyncratic I doubt any generalization could be drawn.

I took it. I liked it.