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

[S.Lee2018]

Has anyone had Kristen Stilt for property? She came to teach at Harvard this year. Anyone willing to offer some advice, outlines or previous exams (either PM or in the thread) would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[star fox]

Are we supposed to take 4 or 5 classes (no clinics)?

[Desert Fox]

[S.Lee2018]

Has anyone had Kristen Stilt for property? She came to teach at Harvard this year. Anyone willing to offer some advice, outlines or previous exams (either PM or in the thread) would be much appreciated. Thanks!

She was pretty standard at teaching. No curveballs. She gave a midterm and graded it with a rubric. That should tell you what she values, and follow that.

You can PM for an outline, but mine really fucking sucked and I got a B+.

Thanks a lot! PMed.

[lhanvt13]

ST: Music Law or Lawyering Success
which to take?
Anybody have experience with either?

[hearsay77]

Is there anywhere I can find a list of the supplements/E&Es/etc that are good for each of the 1L classes?

[captainplanet]

Considering this course list. 3L and was a transfer re-interviewing to go to a larger firm in the New York market. Any thoughts about these classes.

-Judicial Practicum (Not sure how worthwhile these practicums given the workload. Does anyone have any feedback they can give me about the judicial practicum workload during the semester?
-Entrepreneurship Law Clinic
-Business Principles with Giovanni
-Negotiations
-Legal Ethics
-Securities Reg (I know this is a grade-killer in the Fall and was thinking about waiting until Spring to take this? But then I will be stuck taking it along with Evidence).

Any thoughts?

I highly recommend judicial practicum, though can you sign up for it at this point? Don't you have to apply in the previous semester? Judicial practicum took my legal writing to the next level and I received a lot of feedback (way more than in clinic, though that probably depends on the clinic you choose and the judge/clerks you do the practicum with). It was also really interesting to get a behind-the-scenes look into the judicial system. It is a significant amount of work, but doable. It averaged out to about 12 hrs/wk for me, with some weeks being hardly any hours and others being 20 (but that's mostly because of my poor time management and procrastination ). Every judge is a little different, but most give you 2-3 weeks to research and write a draft, and then another week to revise it after they edit it. Prof. Wilson requires you to go to the courthouse every week, and you have to observe several types of trial stages, but this doesn't take up too much additional time (I combined observing trials with my weekly check-ins). But DO NOT combine practicum with clinic in 1 semester.

Negotiations: awesome class, you have work due every week, subjective grading, choose your professor well

Legal Ethics: pretty easy, chill class (took it with Muchman, she's super nice), definitely try to take it uncurved because it's a very tight curve otherwise

[captainplanet]

Regarding coursework outside the law school, can advanced levels of a foreign language course at Evanston be counted toward the JD degree? Anyone know? The answer on the FAQs on the site seemed vague.

Reach out to Chris Martin. I think that approval for non-law classes is at his discretion.

[captainplanet]

Is 15 credits absurd? (4 of these are the death penalty clinic)

If it's not absurd, does it become absurd if I'm considering doing a journal?

Not sure I want to do a journal - but really like the layout and the classes that add up to 15 credits :-/

yet, do not want to kill myself

Not absurd, even with journal, but it depends on the classes. If you're taking like an Antitrust/Sec Reg/Admin Law combo or something silly like that, it'll be pretty miserable.

Looking at
dp clinic (4)
ST: music law (2)
Copyright law (3)
Lawyer memoirs (2)
Corporations (2)
Torts and product liability (2)

You're better off taking 5 classes with more 3-credit classes than 6 classes with lots of 2-credit classes. 6 classes is going to feel like a lot to balance, even if they're 2-credit classes. Maybe do BA instead of Corporations and drop one of the 2-credit classes? That'll get you to 14. IMO 5 classes for 14 credits > 6 classes for 15 credits.

[captainplanet]

Thoughts on Law, Advocacy & Public Persuasion with DeSanto? Business, Government, and Public Policy with Spitzer?

LAPP is one of the best classes at Northwestern.

Is LAPP an easy-ish class? I like DeSanto and his teaching style but I'm wondering if this is a paper class or an exam?

The class has several assignments (memos, speeches, etc.) throughout the semester that count towards the final grade. It's really a class that you get the most out of if you're willing to put real effort in during the semester.

LAPP is amazing! You get regular feedback and 1-on-1 training with DeSanto on improving your speech writing and public speaking skills. And DeSanto is everyone's favorite professor. You'll have a speech writing assignment almost every week. I probably spent 4-7 hrs/wk, and unlike other classes you can't blow off your work one week because the assignments are due weekly. There's a final group project, but no exam, and I believe the project is over before exam season.

[captainplanet]

Advice on my potential fall schedule would be great. I know the basic requirements for 2 and 3L, I just don't know if there's general wisdom about classes that are best to take a certain year/sem/prof so I thought I would ask this thread.

Pretty sure about taking ITA (Burns/Lubet/Burns) - 10 credits

and I don't wanna overload with 15 credits or under load with 13, but also interested in these electives:

Internatl crim law in U.S. Courts (Sorensen) - 3 credits
Law and Religion (koppelman) - 3 credits
copyright law (DiCola) - 3 credits
Internatl human rights (scheffer) - 2 credits
In house counsel (Finke/Hacker) - 2 or 3 credits?
Prisons and prisoners rights (Mills) - 2 or 3 credits?
Biz assoc (miller or Litvak) - 3?
Cross border transactions (Goldberg) - 3?


I'll try for journal of course. Just to be annoying and make this harder, I want to avoid thurs and fri classes (reflected above)

Or scrap ITA and take all the electives that interest me?

No clue what I'm doing, the offerings are so different and seemingly better than my old school so I'm a kid in a candy shop

All help is appreciated

Not sure if you're still looking for advice ... but Prisons and Prisoners' Rights is a great class. It'll make you want to devote your life to prison reform. You have the option of either doing a paper or representing a prisoner in his parole hearing. I believe that the 3-credit option is either doing 2 drafts of the paper or representing a prisoner on your own (as opposed to with a partner). You'll need a car to get to the prison, and some of the prisons are pretty far (4 hours away), but you'll probably only need to actually go 2-3 times (the rest can be done by phone and mail). Mills is a pretty easy grader and the work load is on the lighter side.

[BaberhamLincoln]

Thanks for all the help captain!!

BA is pretty full for the times that would work in my schedule but I'll consider shifting some stuff

Do you think those 2 credit classes would be awful though? The course evals seemed to be very positive for most of them

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

Any current students/grads have thoughts on my first semester profs? Us 0Ls (rising 1Ls?) got our schedules a few hours ago.

Criminal Law, Leonard Rubinowitz
CLR, Brian Silbernagel
Contracts, Emily Kadens
Civil Procedure, Susan Provenzano
Property, Nadav Shoked

[Kinky John]

[captainplanet]

Thanks for all the help captain!!

BA is pretty full for the times that would work in my schedule but I'll consider shifting some stuff

Do you think those 2 credit classes would be awful though? The course evals seemed to be very positive for most of them

6 classes wouldn't be awful if 3 of them are easy (but still not as good as 5 classes). Plus, Corporations ends early because it's on the biz school schedule, right? If so, you'd be down to 5 classes by the time things get more intense in your other classes.

[cookiejar1]

Section 4 is stacked. Shoked & Kadens finals will leave you in pieces and then you'll have to collect what's left in you to take that Rubinowitz 8hr final after . . . pepper thy angus boys.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

Section 4 is stacked. Shoked & Kadens finals will leave you in pieces and then you'll have to collect what's left in you to take that Rubinowitz 8hr final after . . . pepper thy angus boys.

Just read the reviews of Shoked and seeing that he has a closed book/closed note final. Wtf. Was hoping law school did away with memorization for memorization's sake. fml

[Micdiddy]

Section 4 is stacked. Shoked & Kadens finals will leave you in pieces and then you'll have to collect what's left in you to take that Rubinowitz 8hr final after . . . pepper thy angus boys.

Just read the reviews of Shoked and seeing that he has a closed book/closed note final. Wtf. Was hoping law school did away with memorization for memorization's sake. fml

Luckily he's the best professor and his property class is amazing. So that more than makes up for the closed-book final, imo.

[Kinky John]

[lemons]

Section 4 is stacked. Shoked & Kadens finals will leave you in pieces and then you'll have to collect what's left in you to take that Rubinowitz 8hr final after . . . pepper thy angus boys.

Just read the reviews of Shoked and seeing that he has a closed book/closed note final. Wtf. Was hoping law school did away with memorization for memorization's sake. fml

Luckily he's the best professor and his property class is amazing. So that more than makes up for the closed-book final, imo.

100% agree... shoked's class was amazing and my entire section adored him. he gave me a B- but I still love him anyways. he's just that awesome. but i would recommend going above and beyond just completing the reading. make or buy flashcards and use them. if memorization is difficult, start early and practice often


Also, I <3 Provenzano for civ pro. she makes the material very accessible... make sure you talk to her outside of class/utilize office hours if you don't understand something or want clarification because she will explain things super clearly

[francis5]

what can people tell me about:

markell
hoskins
borman
shapo
yuracko

[lemons]

what can people tell me about:

markell
hoskins
borman
shapo
yuracko

Be prepared to teach yourself torts. And endure vaguely sexist comments. But I've heard good things about yuracko

[francis5]

what can people tell me about:

markell
hoskins
borman
shapo
yuracko

Be prepared to teach yourself torts. And endure vaguely sexist comments. But I've heard good things about yuracko

ugh. well thats fantastic re: torts.

[star fox]

what can people tell me about:

markell
hoskins
borman
shapo
yuracko

Be prepared to teach yourself torts. And endure vaguely sexist comments. But I've heard good things about yuracko

ugh. well thats fantastic re: torts.

Nah, it's not too bad. Just use the most recent edition of his hornbook. Literally, all you need to know. Order now.

[francis5]

what can people tell me about:

markell
hoskins
borman
shapo
yuracko

Be prepared to teach yourself torts. And endure vaguely sexist comments. But I've heard good things about yuracko

ugh. well thats fantastic re: torts.

Nah, it's not too bad. Just use the most recent edition of his hornbook. Literally, all you need to know. Order now.

thank you!