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In law school a lot of my energy goes towards picking classes that sound interesting, fun, or easy.

What classes (if any) do you wish you had taken in law school / classes that you found essential on the job?

I think a good mix of practice-area classes (Sec Reg, Admin law, Antitrust, White Collar, M&A, etc) are good foundations and potential launching off points for finding what you might be interested in but law school doesn't prepare you for practice so you're not "missing" anything.

Evidence was super helpful for bar prep.

I wish I had taken the pass/fail accounting for lawyers course at my school. Nobody will expect you to have intelligent comments on a company's balance sheet, but it helps to put things in context. I also think it would have been helpful to take a securities course, but I doubt it would have been given me more than a passing familiarity with some of the work I'm doing.

Somewhat related, a district judge outright lectured me on why I should have taken Admin. and fed courts.

For big law, I would say clinic (something land landlord-tenant where you have lots of procedure), advanced legal research, and Admin -- in that order.

banjo wrote:I wish I had taken the pass/fail accounting for lawyers course at my school. Nobody will expect you to have intelligent comments on a company's balance sheet, but it helps to put things in context. I also think it would have been helpful to take a securities course, but I doubt it would have been given me more than a passing familiarity with some of the work I'm doing.

I agree. If you have a particular practice area that interests you, definitely take any related courses (e.g. IP survey, Complex litigation, etc. ).