Cornell Class of 2018 Forum

[CFC1524]

Section B here - anyone else in the same boat? Schedule seems nice time wise, not sure about the professors though.

Heise for Torts
Willis for Contracts
Chafetz for Con Law
Grossman for Civ Pro
Freed for Lawyering

Should we worry about getting supplements before our classes start, or is best to wait to hear what the professor says?

[Lavitz]

Section B here - anyone else in the same boat? Schedule seems nice time wise, not sure about the professors though.

Heise for Torts
Willis for Contracts
Chafetz for Con Law
Grossman for Civ Pro
Freed for Lawyering

Should we worry about getting supplements before our classes start, or is best to wait to hear what the professor says?

It's not like you need a supplement to survive the first week or anything, so you can wait.

But TCR will still be Hillman's hornbook for Contracts and Chemerisnky for ConLaw. Willis is new but since he's using Hillman's casebook, I can't imagine another supplement being better. You don't really need a supplement for Heise. Grossman is also new, so nobody will know anything specific about his style to be able to recommend anything other than what worked for them in BHS or Clermont.

ETA: Also, Heise is awesome. Chafetz assigns a lot of reading, but seems cool. And I've heard good things about Freed.

[Lavitz]

Anybody else? Also, any advice from upperclassmen?

Contracts - Willis
Torts - Wendel
Civ Pro - Holden-Smith
Lawyering - McKee
Con Law - Tebbe

+1, section D over here

My advice really isn't going to change much.

For BHS, maybe Clermont's BLO will be less useful, but maybe not. I never tried it since I didn't have Clermont and didn't know what it was. Probably should have. You can try various things for CivPro and see what helps. I think Freer treatise will still be TCR for most. Others found E&E or Acing Civil Procedure helpful, but no need to buy those unless some time has passed and you realize you're really not getting it (you're definitely not going to understand what is going on the first few days, anyway, so don't worry about that).

Tebbe's a nice guy. Had him for First Amendment--not ConLaw. Should be a 6 hour take home exam with a word limit, which is good for slow typists like me. Dorf's is an 8 hour take home. Other ConLaw profs are in class.

[Lavitz]

Contracts: Hillman

Torts: Schwab

Constitutional Law: Johnson

Civil Procedure: Grossman

Lawyering: Bigoness

Anybody else in section E? Also how are my professors looking?

Edit: Also, how is Omarova as an advisor?

Hillman's great. Corny sense of humor.
Schwab is the former dean, so that should be cool. But his specialty is employment law, and I have no idea when he may have last taught torts, so I'm not sure what his exam would be like.
I hear Johnson's intense. At least, she is when she's judging moot court.
Grossman is new.
Bigoness is new to Lawyering, but she's been teaching transactional class for the past year, so it should be interesting to have someone with a transactional background teach lawyering.

No idea how Omarova is in general. I never went to my advisor--whoever that may have been.

[Gkmc]

Looks like I'm in section F:

ConLaw - Dorf
Contracts - Kalantry
CivPro - Clermont
Torts - Heise
Lawyering - Mooney

Any information for these professors that hasn't already been posted?

[betty_bojangles]

Upperclassmen - need your help. Below are my professors, please advise with any useful hints/recommended supplements! Thanks

Lawyering - Whelan

Torts - Wendel

Contracts - Taylor

Civ Pro - Clermont

Con Law - Johnson

Looks like we are in the same section, given the exact same schedule

Does anyone have advice on when I should buy books? Should I do it now, or wait until I get on campus for an upperclassman to sell me used books?

Hey all! I am in this section too. Any thoughts on these professors?

[Alhe5015]

Who is in town?
More importantly,who is in town and want to get a beer somewhere?!

[Yea All Right]

Class of 2018 has a substantial number of 1L professors 2017 didn't have, interesting

[Lavitz]

Looks like I'm in section F:

ConLaw - Dorf
Contracts - Kalantry
CivPro - Clermont
Torts - Heise
Lawyering - Mooney

Any information for these professors that hasn't already been posted?

K, I'll come up with new stuff.

Dorf has an 8 hour take home exam. He also has a blog: http://www.dorfonlaw.org/ . At least in FedCourts, one of the exam questions was answered in one of his blog posts. Probably not going to happen in ConLaw, but it's still a neat blog.
Kalantry is new. There are a lot of new profs now that the administration wants no class being larger than 2 sections.
Clermont is a troll. I enjoyed his class, but it can definitely be confusing and some people may be frustrated. There will be iclicker questions that almost everyone will get wrong, and sometimes after his explanation you're still left wondering which answer was correct, let alone why. Exam is half MC and half short essay with word limit. My exam question was an article from Above the Law that basically ended with "imagine you are the junior associate in this situation. What do you do?" Tabbing the casebook would be helpful, as the MC questions can sometimes be a bit of a scavenger hunt through the casebook.
Heise is great. Explains everything really well. Can appear a bit stuff, but actually a good sense of humor and a bit theatrical. Exam is traditionally 2 long issue spotters and a policy question.

[Sloth Hero]

Section B here - anyone else in the same boat? Schedule seems nice time wise, not sure about the professors though.

Heise for Torts
Willis for Contracts
Chafetz for Con Law
Grossman for Civ Pro
Freed for Lawyering

Should we worry about getting supplements before our classes start, or is best to wait to hear what the professor says?

It's not like you need a supplement to survive the first week or anything, so you can wait.

But TCR will still be Hillman's hornbook for Contracts and Chemerisnky for ConLaw. Willis is new but since he's using Hillman's casebook, I can't imagine another supplement being better. You don't really need a supplement for Heise. Grossman is also new, so nobody will know anything specific about his style to be able to recommend anything other than what worked for them in BHS or Clermont.

ETA: Also, Heise is awesome. Chafetz assigns a lot of reading, but seems cool. And I've heard good things about Freed.

I would strongly suggest the torts Examples and Explanations for Heise. And probably a principles hornbook to get a concise articulation of the causes of action. But this discussion is probably for another day.

[Lawperson2018]

Section B here - anyone else in the same boat? Schedule seems nice time wise, not sure about the professors though.

Heise for Torts
Willis for Contracts
Chafetz for Con Law
Grossman for Civ Pro
Freed for Lawyering

Should we worry about getting supplements before our classes start, or is best to wait to hear what the professor says?

Section B as well. Not a bad schedule at all, though I suspect Con Law from 2:55-4:10 is gonna be a drag...that's right about the time in the afternoon where my attention span is shot.

[runthetrap1990]

Looks like I'm in section F:

ConLaw - Dorf
Contracts - Kalantry
CivPro - Clermont
Torts - Heise
Lawyering - Mooney

Any information for these professors that hasn't already been posted?

K, I'll come up with new stuff.

Dorf has an 8 hour take home exam. He also has a blog: http://www.dorfonlaw.org/ . At least in FedCourts, one of the exam questions was answered in one of his blog posts. Probably not going to happen in ConLaw, but it's still a neat blog.
Kalantry is new. There are a lot of new profs now that the administration wants no class being larger than 2 sections.
Clermont is a troll. I enjoyed his class, but it can definitely be confusing and some people may be frustrated. There will be iclicker questions that almost everyone will get wrong, and sometimes after his explanation you're still left wondering which answer was correct, let alone why. Exam is half MC and half short essay with word limit. My exam question was an article from Above the Law that basically ended with "imagine you are the junior associate in this situation. What do you do?" Tabbing the casebook would be helpful, as the MC questions can sometimes be a bit of a scavenger hunt through the casebook.
Heise is great. Explains everything really well. Can appear a bit stuff, but actually a good sense of humor and a bit theatrical. Exam is traditionally 2 long issue spotters and a policy question.

Adding some on Heise and Dorf:

heise - this year his exam had no policy (that I was aware of - i did fine); if you get cold called first day he'll have fun with you but otherwise his cold calls are set up in such a way that you'll know roughly what day you should be prepared. Don't stress too much on his cold calls...they don't matter at all for your grade. I used the Torts E&E to practice writing out questions and formulating answers to issue spotters, but in general Heise will give you everything you need to do well on his exam.

Dorf - Chemirensky supplement will help you a lot for his class, but really listen to Dorf's opinion and thoughts on cases because at the end he has sometimes different perspectives and terminology so it can be confusing time to time. Exam is tough, but 8 hours is more than enough time to do it. Also, cold calls are predictable as you know roughly what day you'll be going since it's in a set order. He's a tough cold caller nonetheless, but only because he asks some tough questions.

I believe my schedule will look like this...
Con Law - Dorf
Contracts - Hillman
Civ Pro - Holden-Smith
Torts - Bowman
Lawyering - Atlas

Decent set of classes/professors, or should I start despairing?

Hillman - I think he's hard, and his exam is deceptively tough. His exam often has a tight word limit for essays. His cold calls aren't intimidating but if you come across as unprepared it could hurt you in the long run. You'll need his hornbook, but at the same time don't only rely on it. He'll give you the pieces you need but the onus is on you to put it all together in the end. Also a really good outline may be floating around for this class but don't overly rely on it.
BHS - intimidating coldcalls, but i think she does a phenomenal job teaching you the black letter law (and walking you through policy considerations). I used E&E and Glannon Guide for supplements. Good professor to have to go over the initial survey of CivPro. Finally - Sibbach is going to look like a foreign language to you and may make you question whether you made the right choice - don't worry everyone else felt the same.
Atlas - He is easily the toughest lawyering professor, extremely demanding, and his class is not a cake walk to a good grade (he gives easily the most B's of any of the lawyering professors and A's are rare, usually 1 or 2 per semester). That being said, he will make you a superior writer and editor, and will prep you very well for the writing comp and your future in general. Embrace his madness early and don't take any of his assignments for granted. This year I believe a solid 25% of law review is from his section. Also, don't be discouraged if you don't do as well in his class --> it's not necessarily an indication that you are a bad writer

Edit: I accidently said Hillman's cold calls are intimidating. i corrected it to say they AREN'T.

[Lavitz]

Hillman . . . His cold calls are intimidating but if you come across as unprepared it could hurt you in the long run.

Wut. He literally wrote an X next to my name and I still got an A.

[runthetrap1990]

Hillman . . . His cold calls are intimidating but if you come across as unprepared it could hurt you in the long run.

Wut. He literally wrote an X next to my name and I still got an A.

I've heard it can hurt. Anecdotal I suppose.

[Lavitz]

I've heard it can hurt. Anecdotal I suppose.

My experience doesn't match, so I just don't want them worrying about cold-calls.

[scofield0183]

This may sound stupid but do we use textbooks for the full year or the first semester only? I am deciding between renting and buying used. Thanks in advance!

[runinthefront]

This may sound stupid but do we use textbooks for the full year or the first semester only? I am deciding between renting and buying used. Thanks in advance!

Contracts, lawyering and civ pro will be for the year

Everything else is for the semester

[Class of 2017]

I'm just surprised that your class hasn't made individual Facebook groups for your sections - that was the first thing we did when we received our assignments.

[LundWashington]

I would strongly suggest the torts Examples and Explanations for Heise. And probably a principles hornbook to get a concise articulation of the causes of action. But this discussion is probably for another day.

I agree with this, the E&E is probably the most helpful supplement for Torts - not for necessarily learning the material fresh - but for practicing applying the material learned in class to new factual scenarios, which is ultimately what you need to do on an exam. Additionally, in the back there are 2 practice exams with model answers, which I found useful. I don't think that the principles hornbook is something that you necessarily need to buy, there is an older copy in the library by Epstein that I was able to use for some concepts that I had a bit of difficulty fully understanding.

[CFC1524]

Anyone know how accurate the "scheduled disbursement dates" are for federal loans? Just trying to get a feel for when they usually come out

[runinthefront]

Anyone know how accurate the "scheduled disbursement dates" are for federal loans? Just trying to get a feel for when they usually come out

It was like three weeks off for me which was reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll shitty

but in general, most of my friends got their disbursements on time

[future!jd12]

Is it true that we can stream live tv through our computer if we are on Cornell's wifi? Not sure where I heard this, does anyone have the link?? Or do I need to go get a TV

[DebtAverse]

Anyone know if we need our computers tomorrow? Looks like they aren't required until Saturday, but I'm not sure.

[Yeezus]

Anyone know if the team building exercise on Sunday is mandatory?

[Lavitz]

Is it true that we can stream live tv through our computer if we are on Cornell's wifi? Not sure where I heard this, does anyone have the link?? Or do I need to go get a TV

Huh? Never heard of this. Maybe they just meant the wifi is good enough that you can stream videos?

Anyone know if the team building exercise on Sunday is mandatory?

If this is the ropes course, it was always optional, but then again we never had this weird career orientation thing you do.