Northwestern 1L/2L/3L/Grads Taking Questions and Challenges Forum

[splitsplat]

I'm thinking Lawyer Memoirs. Too bad I already took all of the easiest seminars during 2L, haha.

i hated this class. you have to read a full memoir each week- then listen to tryhards discuss their feelings for 2 hours.

[Big Dog]

question on bidding. If assigned to a WL in Round 1, can you let it ride to Round 2, and then if still on the WL (after Round 2 bidding is complete), drop the WL'ed class in the final "2 day cancellation period" (after Round 2) and still recapture the points? Or can points from a Round 1 WL only be recaptured by dropping prior to Round 2?

[homestyle28]

I'm thinking Lawyer Memoirs. Too bad I already took all of the easiest seminars during 2L, haha.

i hated this class. you have to read a full memoir each week- then listen to tryhards discuss their feelings for 2 hours.

I'm on the other side of this. I liked the class, most of the memoirs are interesting, the paper's not that hard, you can even do it with a partner. Discussion was painful at times, but I didn't think it was that bad. Plus you learn useful things like David Boies was at NU, but left after banging his evidence prof's wife.

[franklyscarlet]

Thoughts on corporate governance?

[AstonMartin177]

BusCom – Bruce Markell
CLR – Dana Hill
CivPro – Richard Hoskins
Property – David Dana
Torts – Ellen Mulaney

Survival tips appreciated. TIA

[herrowww]

Any 2L or 3L students have advice about renting vs buying 1L books? Are the 1L books even super relevant when it comes to later years or the bar? Any advice would be much appreciated!

[lhanvt13]

Any 2L or 3L students have advice about renting vs buying 1L books? Are the 1L books even super relevant when it comes to later years or the bar? Any advice would be much appreciated!

do whatever is cheaper. don't need 1L books for bar. or any law school text book for that matter

[cookiejar1]

SFPIF book sale. Textbooks for ~$15. Can't go wrong there

[lhanvt13]

SFPIF book sale. Textbooks for ~$15. Can't go wrong there

what's SFPIF

[cookiejar1]

I totally lied casebooks are like $40/50 bucks and supplements are $15. But SFPIF is awesome. It's the organization that provides funding for students pursuing public interest. So you should really buy from them.

I recommend getting the casebooks through SFPIF (you're saving $100++) and the supplements (especially the E&Es) are GOLDEN (especially if you, for example, have Ron Allen for civ pro).

[bjsesq]

SFPIF book sale. Textbooks for ~$15. Can't go wrong there

what's SFPIF

Student Funded Public Interest Fellowship

[lhanvt13]

Gotcha. How do I participate in this?

[captainplanet]

I'm thinking Lawyer Memoirs. Too bad I already took all of the easiest seminars during 2L, haha.

haha could you provide some examples? for reference for next semester

These aren't necessarily the easiest seminars, though some are on the easier side, but they include work that is different from your standard classes, which is a nice break:

Advanced Dispute Resolution with Riskin. You get a lot of leeway in your paper topic and the research is usually not legal in nature. Easy grader.

Prisons & Prisoners' Rights with Mills. You have the option to represent a prisoner in his parole hearing instead of writing a paper. While I wouldn't say that that's less work than writing a paper, it's different from writing yet another paper, and very interesting.

Pro Bono in Large Law Firms with Kadish. You need to complete 25 hours of pro bono work during the semester and the final project is putting together a pro bono program with a class partner for a mock law firm.

Jurisprudence with D'Amato was very easy in terms of not being much work during the semester (about 5 pages of reading per class) and a joke final but then he screwed a bunch of people with the grades so probably not a good idea.

[crumpetsandtea]

SFPIF book sale. Textbooks for ~$15. Can't go wrong there

Which days/hours is SFPIF selling this year? I def want to support but not sure when to stop by.

Easy Seminars/Classes (From my experience) -

Project Finance - This 3 hour 1x a week class is kinda boring (and there is a sign in sheet so attendance matters), and the last class WILL run till nearly midnight (starts at 6PM). BUT if you can get past that, this is a great A class. The final is a 20 minute presentation and a 20-40 page paper...split between 4 people. SO basically you have to talk for 5 minutes and write 5-10 pages. I think the worst grades given were A-s, and from what I heard it was literally because that group tried to do TOO MUCH work. Keep it simple and straightforward and you'll be fine. Guaranteed uncurved.

Strategy of Litigation - I've talked about this class before, but basically just Prof Salpeter telling war stories and giving tips for litigation. A lot of it is common sense. The final is a take home hypothetical about a case asking you to come up with strategies for dealing with them - I went through the Syllabus, made sure I hit up every section we covered and mentioned a tactic for each one, got an A+. You do have to make 1 5-10 minute presentation during one of the classes but they're very easy assignments (usually recapping a case or something). My attendance was less than stellar. Guaranteed uncurved.

Labor Law - Interesting class, Prof does a good job getting people to talk. Final is a 2 week take home where you pick 7 out of 12 short answer hypos, where you explain what the union/management could do for that hypo situation, with a WORD CAP of 400 words per answer. Guaranteed uncurved.

Dispute Resolution - Small assignments every 2 weeks (preparation for a mock mediation, negotiation, and arbitration). Opportunity for extra credit points with every assignment. Class usually ends early (6-9 on Mondays) and there's a lot of videos during the class. The professor is VERY nice. Guaranteed uncurved.


I've also heard that Lawyers & Memoirs is easy, that there's a class where you meditate every week (??), and that Negotiation is easy.

[wojo98]

BusCom – Bruce Markell
CLR – Dana Hill
CivPro – Richard Hoskins
Property – David Dana
Torts – Ellen Mulaney

Survival tips appreciated. TIA

Mulaney is the best. Dry, underrated sense of humor (her son was an SNL writer and is now a semi-famous comedian). Wondefully helpful during office hours. Does all the little things that in the aggregate make for a great 1L experience - provides PPTs; breaks class up at the end of sections with formal hypos as practice; gives an ungraded midterm (which she provides comments on, etc.); had two prominent attorneys come in and speak to the class (she's pretty well connected); brought snacks to our last class; etc. Not sure if it's a positive or negative, but class material mirrors the E&E (which I didn't use, but had classmates who used it liberally).

Recommend using the midterm as your deadline to finish your outline - did so and had positive results. Also, both her and her TA's office hours were worth the time .

[bjsesq]

Mulaney is the best. Dry, underrated sense of humor.

She's funnier than he is.

[desichhori]

Anyone selling books for 1L classes? Please pm me! Also is it better to rent or buy?

BusCom – Bruce Markell
CLR – Dana Hill
CivPro – Richard Hoskins
Property – David Dana
Torts – Ellen Mulaney

[lemons]

How does this schedule sound? (Not that I can change that haha)

Property -Shoked
Torts -Shapo
Civ Pro - Provenzano
Contracts - Nzelibe
CLR - D. Hill

Anything that would be good to know about these professors before classes start? Seems like Shapo uses his own textbook. Is that good or bad? Thanks in advance

[slexisl1024]

How does this schedule sound? (Not that I can change that haha)

Property -Shoked
Torts -Shapo
Civ Pro - Provenzano
Contracts - Nzelibe
CLR - D. Hill

Anything that would be good to know about these professors before classes start? Seems like Shapo uses his own textbook. Is that good or bad? Thanks in advance

[Flips88]

How does this schedule sound? (Not that I can change that haha)

Property -Shoked
Torts -Shapo
Civ Pro - Provenzano
Contracts - Nzelibe
CLR - D. Hill

Anything that would be good to know about these professors before classes start? Seems like Shapo uses his own textbook. Is that good or bad? Thanks in advance

Not bad. Nzelibe gives takeaway slides in his powerpoint presentations which basically cut out the work for you. Very easy to outline off those.

For Shapo, just buy his hornbook. He basically lectures straight from it and you can sound like a genius if you read it and can answer the random questions he asks.

Had Provenzano for Employment Discrim. She will likely have powerpoints that are pretty helpful. She's a good lecturer, but can be demanding in terms of work load.

Didn't take the other two.

[Micdiddy]

How does this schedule sound? (Not that I can change that haha)

Property -Shoked
Torts -Shapo
Civ Pro - Provenzano
Contracts - Nzelibe
CLR - D. Hill

Anything that would be good to know about these professors before classes start? Seems like Shapo uses his own textbook. Is that good or bad? Thanks in advance

I had Shoked for Property last year. The class will likely start off scary, since he will cold call right away and his cold calls are a bit intense, but he is a fantastic Professor. He talks a lot and he talks very fast, so it will be difficult to keep up with your note-taking, but if you do, it'll be worth it.
Also, the final is closed-book. Luckily his class is so well organized it boils down to about 10-12 topics you need to memorize (of course, each one has its own detailed analysis, but his organization helps with the memorization).
It's "tough" because there is a lot of information and a lot of students are intimated by Shoked's brilliance, but it's also just a great, great class.

[Cobretti]

How does this schedule sound? (Not that I can change that haha)

Property -Shoked
Torts -Shapo
Civ Pro - Provenzano
Contracts - Nzelibe
CLR - D. Hill

Anything that would be good to know about these professors before classes start? Seems like Shapo uses his own textbook. Is that good or bad? Thanks in advance

i'm so sorry

[lemons]

Not bad. Nzelibe gives takeaway slides in his powerpoint presentations which basically cut out the work for you. Very easy to outline off those.

For Shapo, just buy his hornbook. He basically lectures straight from it and you can sound like a genius if you read it and can answer the random questions he asks.

Had Provenzano for Employment Discrim. She will likely have powerpoints that are pretty helpful. She's a good lecturer, but can be demanding in terms of work load.

Didn't take the other two.

I had Shoked for Property last year. The class will likely start off scary, since he will cold call right away and his cold calls are a bit intense, but he is a fantastic Professor. He talks a lot and he talks very fast, so it will be difficult to keep up with your note-taking, but if you do, it'll be worth it.
Also, the final is closed-book. Luckily his class is so well organized it boils down to about 10-12 topics you need to memorize (of course, each one has its own detailed analysis, but his organization helps with the memorization).
It's "tough" because there is a lot of information and a lot of students are intimated by Shoked's brilliance, but it's also just a great, great class.

i'm so sorry

you are all wonderfully amazing people! thank you for your input! i'm glad to know that Shoked will cold call right away so i can (attempt to) be prepared. and i will definitely read Shapo's hornbook then!


also, Cobretti, can you elaborate why Hill is not great? I was talking to Susie Spies Roth and she didn't have anything bad to say about Hill. She basically said that all the CLR professors are fantastic.. on second thought, it might just be her personality to think everyone is great haha

[Micdiddy]

She basically said that all the CLR professors are fantastic.. on second thought, it might just be her personality to think everyone is great haha

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Definitely just her personality. From what I experienced personally and gathered from others only Falkoff (my CLR prof) and McMasters were liked last year (might be one more people liked, but can't recall).
There are a bunch of new ones though iirc. But still...

[rinkrat19]

I was talking to Susie Spies Roth and she didn't have anything bad to say about Hill. She basically said that all the CLR professors are fantastic.. on second thought, it might just be her personalityjob to thinksay everyone is great haha

I think McMasters is the only CLR prof I didn't really hear all that man complaints about.