Odds and Ends

[megspencer]

I said at the new year that I wanted to journal more. Since then, taking the time to sit down and actually write has seemed like too much effort. I've been in something of a funk all night though, so maybe writing will clear my head a bit. The last time I updated I was in a funk too. These seem to come every few weeks, stick around for a couple of

Comments

[hilabeans]

Hm, you're taking a course on international law as a 1L? I'm curious as to what classes you took last semester. I had thought there was a pretty set curriculum for 1Ls across the nation (for the year, not per semester; my property class was in the fall). I'm wondering what WUSTL makes their 1Ls take that U of Minnesota doesn't.

[megspencer]

First semester we do contracts, torts, constitutional law 1 (we have to take 2 any time during our 2L or 3L years), civ pro and legal writing (pass/fail). Second semester we get to pick between international law, civ pro 2, perspectives on the law and corporations. As I understand it they got the extra slot by making civ pro 2 optional, but I'm not 100% sure about that one. What was your schedule?

[hilabeans]

First semester we did contracts, torts, property, and legal research and writing (all one class, of which research was the smaller part). Second semester we did constitutional law, criminal law, civ pro, and more legal research and writing. So it looks like the one I got that you didn't was crim (trust me, you're not missing much). Nothing was pass/fail (they only allow us to do that for a very few classes, mostly 1 credit ones). International law and corporations are both upper level courses for us, as are any further civ pro and con law classes or anything along the lines of "perspectives", and none of them are required - the only courses that WUSTL requires outside of the 1L curriculum are an ethics course and a seminar.

I really think you're getting a better approach to start out with than I did. Not that I regret not going back to Minnesota.

[megspencer]

No, I'm doing criminal law this semester. I think they must have cut some credit hours off of some of the other classes to fit in the elective. All of the electives are also available as upper level classes - I'm planning on taking both corporations and civ pro 2 later on. I think practice and professionalism counts as our ethics course, but I'm not sure.

I feel like contracts, torts and property would be a rough mix for a first semester. I thought con law was a good balance to contracts and torts, and I'm definitely glad to have gotten civ pro right off the bat as well.

We don't really have formal research classes, which I think is kind of a shame. We get training from Westlaw and Lexis, but they're in these huge groups and it's really hard to follow along or retain the information since we're not actually using the skills right away. We've also had a handful of lectures from library staff that have been even LESS helpful for all the same reasons.

[the_rammy]

You realize, of course, that being one of the few people who actually enjoy a subject area (that the already-existing comments thread indicates is rather important) could mean that you could be a valuable asset on a team of lawyers as the only one who really gets that area of things, yes? That's pretty a pretty cool deal, I must say.

[megspencer]

Well, that's certainly my hope!