Cornell Law Class of 2019 Forum

[MrChicken]

I'm surprised I'll be taking Property instead of Constitutional Law.

I thought all sections took the same classes during the semester.

[CFC1524]

I'm surprised I'll be taking Property instead of Constitutional Law.

I thought all sections took the same classes during the semester.

Yea, this used to be the case - might be the result of shortening contracts to one semester. I don't think it really matters, and not having to experience a year of contracts is probably priceless anyways

[Lavitz]

It's because Alexander is retiring (yes, for a 3rd time) and he wanted to teach in the Fall instead of the Spring because, who can blame him, Ithaca is much better in the Fall semester.

The good news for you is Alexander is awesome.

[JackCade]

I have:
Constitutional Law with Tebbe
Contracts with Taylor
Criminal Law with Ohlin
Civil Procedure with Rachlinski
Lawyering with McKee

How does the admin pick everyone's sections? Anyone have any insight into these profs and their exams? Would appreciate pms....Thanks!

[cantexplaingottago]

Hey folks, I just pulled into town, 2600+ miles from California. I'm exhausted, dirty, sick of driving, and still not fully moved in, but I'm down to meet up for drinks as y'all start trickling in. Let me know.

[hopefuljumbo23]

Hey guys - what's the best walking route from CTT to campus? Which roads are the least hilly/most reasonable, especially considering that winter is coming?

(Yes - GOT reference intended)

[runthetrap1990]

Hey guys - what's the best walking route from CTT to campus? Which roads are the least hilly/most reasonable, especially considering that winter is coming?

(Yes - GOT reference intended)

Depending on what building your in, either Eddy Street all the way up to the little street that goes by the gorge or take College Ave up. I know they are doing some construction at the intersection of College Ave and Dryden but I think you can still walk through to campus from there. Neither one is super "hilly." (I lived off of Buffalo Street for the last 2 years and can attest that the walk up is much more reasonable).

If you really want to evade Winter's grasp, take the Shuttle.

[runthetrap1990]

I have:
Constitutional Law with Tebbe
Contracts with Taylor
Criminal Law with Ohlin
Civil Procedure with Rachlinski
Lawyering with McKee

How does the admin pick everyone's sections? Anyone have any insight into these profs and their exams? Would appreciate pms....Thanks!

I had Rach City for Contracts my 1L year. His exam was 12 short answer issue spotters (some were long issue spotters with two part questions or something of that nature). Looking at his past exams for CivPro, I would expect the same thing in CivPro this year.

In general he's a great professor. Super energetic. His cold calls are intense but not BHS level intense; you will still be taken for a ride during the class, though.

[hopefuljumbo23]

Hey guys - what's the best walking route from CTT to campus? Which roads are the least hilly/most reasonable, especially considering that winter is coming?

(Yes - GOT reference intended)

Depending on what building your in, either Eddy Street all the way up to the little street that goes by the gorge or take College Ave up. I know they are doing some construction at the intersection of College Ave and Dryden but I think you can still walk through to campus from there. Neither one is super "hilly." (I lived off of Buffalo Street for the last 2 years and can attest that the walk up is much more reasonable).

If you really want to evade Winter's grasp, take the Shuttle.

Thank you!

[jrvansant]

what's everyone doing for books? i'm thinking of renting casebooks and buying the rest used on amazon or somewhere. also, does anyone know if we can charge the books to our student account? i'd rather just add this on to my loan balance if possible.

[hopefuljumbo23]

what's everyone doing for books? i'm thinking of renting casebooks and buying the rest used on amazon or somewhere. also, does anyone know if we can charge the books to our student account? i'd rather just add this on to my loan balance if possible.

I just sucked it up and bought them on Amazon. I didn't buy books for one class - so far it has cost me $1000. Sigh.

I figure I'll find a cheaper way to procure them for 2L and 3L but don't wanna skimp on books for 1L. What do others think?

[jrvansant]

Yeah I'm really hoping 2 and 3L will be better. When I calculated cost of buying them all used on Amazon it was around $850.

[burritoface]

I just sucked it up and bought them on Amazon. I didn't buy books for one class - so far it has cost me $1000. Sigh.

I figure I'll find a cheaper way to procure them for 2L and 3L but don't wanna skimp on books for 1L. What do others think?

Same here. I was worried about used casebooks being too marked up/not arriving in the mail on time, so for casebooks I bought new on Amazon and rented new from the bookstore- whichever was cheaper/made more sense. I bought/rented used for assigned hornbooks/legal writing stuff because I'm not as worried about the highlighting in those. It came out to $1000 for all my classes, but I'll most likely want to get unassigned supplements later on. Oy vey.

[CFC1524]

I have a fairly large stack of 1L books idly sitting in my apartment if anyone wants some / all of them. I got most for free, so I have no problem passing them on for free as well. PM me / post here, and we'll figure something out. Books have no writing or highlighting unless otherwise indicated.

Criminal Law: Doctrine, Application, and Practice, Ohlin (underlying / notes in margin)
Property, Dukeminier, Alexander, et al., concise edition (underlying / notes in margin)

Principles of Civil Procedure, Clermont, 2d ed
Civil Procedure Examples and Explanations, Glannon, 6th ed (heavy highlighting / underlying from a previous owners)
Principles of Property Law, Hovenkamp and Kurtz, 6th ed
Property, Singer, 4th ed
Property Examples and Explanations, Burke and Snoe, 4th ed
Estates in Land and Future Interests, Edwards, 4th ed (nominal underlying)
Torts Examples and Explanations, Glannon, 4th ed
Criminal Law Black Letter Outlines, Dressler, 2d ed
Criminal Law Examples and Explanations, Singer and Fond, 5th ed
Contracts Examples and Explanations, Blum, 5th ed
Contracts Examples and Explanations, Blum, 6th ed (some slight underlying from a previous owner)

[DebtAverse]

what's everyone doing for books? i'm thinking of renting casebooks and buying the rest used on amazon or somewhere. also, does anyone know if we can charge the books to our student account? i'd rather just add this on to my loan balance if possible.

Another book option is to look on myronslist.lawschool.cornell.edu. In the next week or so, there will probably be many 2Ls posting ads to sell their 1L casebooks.

[TheDapperDruid]

Does anyone have any insight as to what to expect from the following professors?

Contracts- Taylor
Criminal Law- Garvey
Civil Procedure- Clopton
Constitutional Law- Rana
Lawyering- Finn

Also, should I go about buying books now, or should I wait until my professors tell me what to get?

Thanks in advance.

[DebtAverse]

Does anyone have any insight as to what to expect from the following professors?

Contracts- Taylor
Criminal Law- Garvey
Civil Procedure- Clopton
Constitutional Law- Rana
Lawyering- Finn

Also, should I go about buying books now, or should I wait until my professors tell me what to get?

Thanks in advance.

For Garvey's Crim Law - he cold calls, but it is not intense and he often is asking for your perspective/opinion vs. a description of the history of the case or what the law is. He uses iClicker questions frequently and often focuses on theory in the class. Theory will not be the focus of the final exam though, so just make sure you are catching the "black-letter law" things he discusses.

I don't think Finn has taught Lawyering at Cornell recently.

You can find the books that your professors will be requiring by going to the Cornell bookstore online and selecting your courses from the drop-down menus (if your course list is not already there).

Hope that helps!

[runthetrap1990]

Does anyone have any insight as to what to expect from the following professors?

Contracts- Taylor
Criminal Law- Garvey
Civil Procedure- Clopton
Constitutional Law- Rana
Lawyering- Finn

Also, should I go about buying books now, or should I wait until my professors tell me what to get?

Thanks in advance.

I had Garvey for crim my 1L year. As was previously mentioned, a very tame cold caller. Garvey is a big philosophy guy—he doesn't spend a terribly long amount of time on the philosophy of crim law during class but it certainly coats his thinking and having that perspective yourself should make it pretty easy to do his cold calls when he's asking about opinions. Sometimes he asks the facts of a case, but a nice thing about the cases in the book is that they are usually very simple and well laid out in the casebook. I never briefed for the class and typically just skimmed the cases to get a sense of the facts. Most of the law will be drawn out in class and the cases in the book are more of a supplement to the law you learn.

I would get "Understanding Criminal Law" By Dressler as a supplement for the class. His exam is black letter law driven and the supplement does a great job explaining that. Also helpful to pick up the Model Question and Answers book he recommends in class, but that is more useful when you are prepping for his exam.

[Lavitz]

Rana is da best, but you probably won't get an A unless you CALI the class. Can get Chemerinsky as a supp, but not really necessary.

Also ask him about the case of the Burgled Bugatti.

ETA: Rana, Clopton, Garvey are all solid future clerkship recs. Nice section for that.

[HALT_REPTAR]

So what section is everyone in?

[cantexplaingottago]

So what section is everyone in?

C

[TheDapperDruid]

.

.

.

Thanks for the help guys! It's very much appreciated!

[TheDapperDruid]

So what section is everyone in?

B

[hopefuljumbo23]

Rana is da best, but you probably won't get an A unless you CALI the class. Can get Chemerinsky as a supp, but not really necessary.

Also ask him about the case of the Burgled Bugatti.

ETA: Rana, Clopton, Garvey are all solid future clerkship recs. Nice section for that.

What does it mean to CALI a class?

[Tycho]

Also, should I go about buying books now, or should I wait until my professors tell me what to get?

You can find the books that your professors will be requiring by going to the Cornell bookstore online and selecting your courses from the drop-down menus (if your course list is not already there).

This. If yours is like mine, you'll have to manually reselect courses through this page after clicking on the Shop Textbooks link. It will list "LAW 5000" as the only course when you log in, which is a generic 1L course level designation.