Top Law Schools

As I am determining what to take my second year of my 3L year, I was wondering what you guys think are the top 3 upper-level classes in law school -- from a practical standpoint. That is, if you don't have a particular idea of what area of law you want to practice, what are some good courses to take. I guess I'll start:

1. Evidence
2. Fed Tax
3. Conflict of Laws

Business enterprises
Federal taxation
Secured Transactions

If we count everything:

Evidence
LRW
Civ. Pro

If we only count upper level classes:

Evidence
Trial Advocacy
Professional Responsibility (I have had no other classes that were even remotely useful...)

Fed Courts
Corporations
Evidence

Fed Courts? Interesting.

interalia504 wrote:Fed Courts? Interesting.

I'm clerking.

my school had a document drafting class.

exitoptions wrote:

interalia504 wrote:Fed Courts? Interesting.

I'm clerking.

Awww. That makes sense.

It obviously depends on what track you're on. (I can't speak much to non-big law stuff.) If you're on a litigation track, I think conflicts of law and evidence are important. If you're on a corporate track, corporations, secured transactions, and securities regulation are important. Bankruptcy is also a good course whether you're in corporate or litigation. Even if you're someone who subscribes to the "you don't learn much in law school theory," you'll definitely learn more if you take core courses of this type rather than fluff courses.

I'm in fed tax, and I'm not certain why several people have claimed it's one of the 3 most useful classes. I'm not learning how to do my income taxes, I'm learning about how the supreme court decided to define "income" in 1934.

Evidence
Business Associations / Corporations
Secured Credit

Evidence
Admin Law
Creditor's Rights

Really depends on interest and practice areas.


If you want to go into criminal law, then Crim, Crim Pro, and Evidence (also Con Law).

If you want to go into civil litigation, then Civ Pro, Torts, Contracts (also probably Evidence).

If you want to be a transactional lawyer, Evidence will probably not be in top 3. It would probably be Contracts, Corporations, and some other corporate law class(es).


Etc.

TatteredDignity wrote:I'm in fed tax, and I'm not certain why several people have claimed it's one of the 3 most useful classes. I'm not learning how to do my income taxes, I'm learning about how the supreme court decided to define "income" in 1934.

I took the class last year, and I agree with you to certain extent. But there are some key concepts like basis, realization and recognition, that come up in other areas, so I think it's helpful in that sense. Not sure if you need to take a real law school class to learn all that, or if a surface-level survey course would suffice.

kalvano wrote:Evidence
Admin Law
Creditor's Rights

Admin law: I heard it's important, but that how it is taught in law school is extremely different that in actual practice.

interalia504 wrote:

kalvano wrote:Evidence
Admin Law
Creditor's Rights

Admin law: I heard it's important, but that how it is taught in law school is extremely different that in actual practice.

Not sure what you mean by that. It's an introduction to the basic underpinnings of how administrative agencies work and the rules that govern them.

The practice of admin law is dealing with administrative agencies. The class doesn't really teach you how to practice admin law so much as the administrative process and the laws they have to work within.

kalvano wrote:Evidence
Admin Law
Creditor's Rights

Dingdingdingdingding

People don't realize how helpful knowing bankruptcy is until they get into it and learn how integral insolvency law is to... eveyrthing.

SBL wrote:

kalvano wrote:Evidence
Admin Law
Creditor's Rights

Dingdingdingdingding

People don't realize how helpful knowing bankruptcy is until they get into it and learn how integral insolvency law is to... eveyrthing.

Hey, I said it first! Also, what's creditor's rights? Don't most schools offer "secured credit" and "bankruptcy" as the two core bankruptcy courses?

Bronte wrote:

SBL wrote:

kalvano wrote:Evidence
Admin Law
Creditor's Rights

Dingdingdingdingding

People don't realize how helpful knowing bankruptcy is until they get into it and learn how integral insolvency law is to... eveyrthing.

Hey, I said it first! Also, what's creditor's rights? Don't most schools offer "secured credit" and "bankruptcy" as the two core bankruptcy courses?

Creditor's Rights is basic bankruptcy at my school. Chapter 7, Chapter 13, and a bit of Chapter 11. We have more advanced courses, but after my summer work, it seemed like a basic overview of bankruptcy would be very helpful.

We're also lucky in that ours is taught by a current bankruptcy judge who is awesome. he's easily one of my top 5 favorite professors. He really knows his stuff, and he gives great practice tips. So that probably colors my judgment a bit on how useful the class is.

kalvano wrote:Creditor's Rights is basic bankruptcy at my school. Chapter 7, Chapter 13, and a bit of Chapter 11. We have more advanced courses, but after my summer work, it seemed like a basic overview of bankruptcy would be very helpful.

We're also lucky in that ours is taught by a current bankruptcy judge who is awesome. he's easily one of my top 5 favorite professors. He really knows his stuff, and he gives great practice tips. So that probably colors my judgment a bit on how useful the class is.

Nice. I think most schools do a course on secured credit, which concerns Article 9 of the UCC, and a course on bankruptcy, which generally focuses on chapter 7 and chapter 11. In each course, some professors will focus more on consumers issues than others.

Any class that teaches you how to write.

Thanks for the responses, guys.

TatteredDignity wrote:I'm in fed tax, and I'm not certain why several people have claimed it's one of the 3 most useful classes. I'm not learning how to do my income taxes, I'm learning about how the supreme court decided to define "income" in 1934.

Naw son what you're looking for is Glenshaw Glass

rad lulz wrote:

TatteredDignity wrote:I'm in fed tax, and I'm not certain why several people have claimed it's one of the 3 most useful classes. I'm not learning how to do my income taxes, I'm learning about how the supreme court decided to define "income" in 1934.

Naw son what you're looking for is Glenshaw Glass

Didn't claim I've been paying attention.