I’m going to be honest: I ended up practicing in an area that I hated in law school. For some reason, Information Privacy and I never jived well with one another—maybe it was me, maybe it was the other students, maybe it was the fact that the class was right at lunchtime. Regardless, I dreaded the subject. I find it ironic that only after law school did I realize how much it interested me—I took two certification courses with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) on a whim and I’ve been hooked ever since.
I had always thought the adage “take a variety of classes so you can figure out what you like” was bogus. My second-year self continued on the straight and narrow path toward becoming a corporate attorney by choosing only corporate classes: Mergers and Acquisitions, Transaction Drafting, Regulation of Financial Institutions (boring!). I only ended up taking Information Privacy and Health Law because nothing else would fit in my schedule: who knew these last-minute add-ons would be what I spend the majority of my 9-5 practicing?
With this in mind, I think there are three approaches to choosing your law school classes, and not all of them are ideal:
1. The “I already know what I want to do” method. The first method involves only taking classes in the area you’d like to practice in after law school. It means signing up for very specific courses in only one area, writing your term papers on new developments, and staying up to date on case law and doctrine. With this approach you will come out of law school ready to practice—if you can pass the bar, that is. One of the hardest struggles of law school is what comes after: sure, you are required to take Contract and Criminal law, but all those hours you spent poring over the latest developments in agricultural or immigration law won’t serve you at all when you sit for the bar exam. This means you will be spending your entire bar prep learning concepts for the first time—that’s a lot to do in just 12 weeks!
2. The experimental method. This is for the people who have no idea what they want to do. They signed up for law school because they love watching Better Call Saul, Suits, and Law & Order. Yeah, Regulation of Financial Institutions sounds fun, but then again, so does Eighteenth Century Trial Law. Trying to take one course in each area will ultimately leave you with only a basic understanding of them all. And just like the first method, taking these one-off highly specific courses (think: Drone Law or Clothing Intellectual Property) will still leave you unprepared for the bar exam—what good is it to know the legal difference between a tactical or recreational drone when you can’t even practice?
3. The bar prep method. This is the gold standard for choosing your courses after your first year. Find out what topics are covered on the bar exam of the state you want to practice in and take those. All of them, if possible. (I mean it.) Come bar prep time you will be seeing these concepts for the second time—which will allow you to have a more complex and nuanced understanding of the subject. I’m not saying this method will make it easier to sleep at night, but it certainly feels better to start preparing for the bar exam sooner than later. Once you’ve passed and are ready to practice, then you can orient yourself towards what you most enjoy doing.
I’m not saying one of the three methods is better than the others…oh wait, yes, I am! I think law students need to think long term and worry about passing the bar more than anything else. Side subjects can be studied later, from the comfort of your new office.
