law school - what classes should I take 2L?

[eviljeff]

just finished 1L - Torts, Civ Pro, Contracts, Criminal, Constitutional, Property

I have to select classes during the next couple weeks and my school has given us zero guidance on this. I have a B.S. and I'm interested in intellectual property. If it matters, I go to law school in NY and I'm planning on practicing in CA.

I plan on taking all of the following at some point:
Copyright Law
Patents
Trademarks

I'll probably want to take these sooner rather than later as there are some other IP-related classes that have pre-reqs. Anyone have advice on what order I should take these? Would taking them concurrently be a good/bad idea?

What other classes should I take? Obviously certain choices will depend heavily on the professor and student feedback, but what would you recommend just based on content? I know a lot of people take Evidence and Corporations before they graduate. Also Family Law and Environmental Law were recommended.

[VOX]

1. Take as light a load as your plans allow.

2. Take as few classes as possible.

3. Combining the two, take classes that count for more credits. Under NO circumstances should you take 6 classes, like I did this semester.

4. Take classes in law that interests you. I like IP as well, and I enjoyed (in descending order) TMs, (C), Patents.

5. Classes vary by school. Ask the 3Ls if all 3 IP classes is a bad idea.

6. The best law professors can make their subject, however boring, engaging. Conversely, mediocre professors can turn the most interesting law into a mind-numbing torture. Ask the 3Ls who they liked.

[gusmahler]

Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks are completely unrelated, so it doesn't matter what order you take them or if you take them at the same time. However, many schools have an Intellectual Property overview course, where you can sample each of those disciplines.

Evidence is a must, simply because it's on both portions of the CA Bar Exam. You can probably learn the other CA specific courses in you bar review course, so don't worry about them.

You probably should take Ethics/Professional Responsibility also.

Everything else really depends on your interests, the ease of the teacher, and your schedule. Personally, I hated income tax. But I loved Wills/Trusts. Hated corporations (it's on the Bar, but you have BarBri for that). I never took Family Law and it's not on the Bar. But, at my school, a lot of people liked the class. Clinical classes were always popular also.

See if you can get an externship (for credit) with a judge. That was one of my highlights.

[GreywolfNYC]

Evidence is the most important class that you can take in law school. It still surprises me that it isn't mandatory in many schools.

[bobman0330]

[ QUOTE ]
Evidence is the most important class that you can take in law school. It still surprises me that it isn't mandatory in many schools.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quoted for falseness.

[Hey_Porter]

One of the best classes I took was American Legal History. 1) It was interesting 2) It was a nice change from a case book 3)It was incredibly applicable to so many other classes; dropping one-sentence lines in exams in regards to something's place in history can do a lot.

I'd look for something like that. I'm entering 3L, and plan on doing what someone above said: underloading. Plus, not taking ANYTHING that has to do with the UCC.

I'm glad no one is saying "bar classes."

[GreywolfNYC]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Evidence is the most important class that you can take in law school. It still surprises me that it isn't mandatory in many schools.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quoted for falseness.

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh? I've been practicing law for 10 years. Why is what I said false?

[Hey_Porter]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Evidence is the most important class that you can take in law school. It still surprises me that it isn't mandatory in many schools.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quoted for falseness.

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh? I've been practicing law for 10 years. Why is what I said false?

[/ QUOTE ]

I wasn't the original, but I'll take a shot:
"most important class that you can take in law school" is false because, more than ANY other class I have taken, Evidence is the one that you can teach yourself. Unless you're taking it from Irving Younger (which would be weird, because I think he's dead), I don't see a reason to take it. To clarify, I think you should KNOW it, I just don't think it's necessary to TAKE it to KNOW it.

[JCool]

I hate to break it to you, but its not going to make any difference to your career down the road what you take in law school. The substance of what is taught in law school is for the most part useless to you in the practice of law.

You may want to consider taking classes that are in subjects covered on the bar exam, particularly the MBE portion, i.e. evidence, criminal procedure, corporations. I think the California Bar also has a community property section.

I found that it was a lot easier studying for the Bar (I took the Arizona Bar in 2003) having had at least a background in some of these areas in law school, rather than having to learn it all in two months.

Otherwise take classes that interest you, that are easy, that are taught by professors you like, etc. I would strongly recommend taking as many advanced legal writing classes as you can. Most lawyers cant write for [censored] when they get out of law school.

[whipsaw]

I graduated from law school in 2005, so my experience with this is fairly recent. I would suggest NOT taking three IP classes in one semester, because there is some reasonable chance that you will hate IP.

What are you doing this summer? I took classes over the 1L summer, and was very happy to lighten my load in the 3L year. The 2L year is very very hectic, with law review, harder classes, usually some form of mandatory moot court, and looking for jobs for your 2L summer. The old addage of scare you to death, work you to death, bore you to death is very true in my experience. Plan on being busy, so don't overdo it too badly with classes.

Evidence is very important, and I would take it sometime in your 2L year. I don't think it's important for practice, but it's the one bar exam class that I think is really hard to learn in a bar prep course. Junk like commercial transactions and family law are easy to master in a few days, but there are SO many little evidence rules that I would highly suggest you take it as a full class.

Take Antitrust Law if you can fit it in. With the M&A boom going on right now, antitrust lawyers are pretty busy. I randomly took a course in it and fell in love with it, even though I was basically sure I would practice IP.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.