What do you learn in Law School?

Discussion in 'Education and Academia' started by Neo¹, Aug 10, 2006.

  1. Neo¹

    Neo¹ Member

    Sep 17, 2004
    I sure they teach law, precedent, some philosophy, rhetoric ( the art or of persuasion through language), and i guess politics (the study of ideal social organization). But what exactly do they teach? What are the courses called? And I know this sounds like a stupid question but do they teach you every single law? I mean, Upon completion are you expected to know pretty much every law by heart? I know in engineering and architecture you have to learn bi-laws, compliances, shuff like that. Do they teach all that jazz in law school as well? I mean is it cumpulsary? Or do you just choose what kind of law you want to specialize in first year?
     
  2. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  3. Ombak

    Ombak Moderator
    Staff Member

    Flamengo
    Apr 19, 1999
    Irvine, CA
    Club:
    Flamengo Rio Janeiro
    Nat'l Team:
    Brazil
    You don't really specialize at all in Law School, although you can certainly pick lots of electives in one area.

    At my school the teachers encourage you to pick a large variety of electives - in subject and type (lecture classes, skills classes etc).

    Check out some school pages - you'll notice most are very similar in the first year - with the top 20-25 schools perhaps offering more alternative curriculums (Georgetown has a philosophy of law kind of track in the first year available to some students). After that it's pretty much up to you - some requirements remain, but plenty of space to study different things.

    Here's the list of courses at my school.
     
  4. billyho96

    billyho96 Member

    Aug 16, 2003
    Arkansas
    I graduated 8 years ago and law school, well, its a bit hard to explain. The "Law" covers millions of subjects, too many for anyone person to understand. Law school divided the broad scpectrum of the whole legal world into overly broad subjects.

    at first you take:
    civil procedure and criminal procedure (the rules of the courtroom)
    property (land law-obviously millions of sub-parts)
    torts (injuries caused by another, the ambulance chaser class)
    contract (again super broad)
    family law (divorce, custody, juvenile law)

    then in your second and third year you take subsection of these (gross oversimplification)

    in law school you learn how to find and learn the law for yourself, so that you can "practice" when you get out of school
     
  5. Alberto

    Alberto Member+

    Feb 28, 2000
    Northern, New Jersey
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Exactly, it's the same thing in architecture. It about teaching students how to think. You learn how to problem solve. The lessons are then applied in the daily practice of your profession.

    There is really little similarity in how you will actually practice architecture and what you learn in school. I'm sure it's the same with the law. It's mostly theory in school and the practical application will come in your actual professional practice. For example, there is signficantly less time to design buildings and significantly more administrative work in the actual practice of architecture when compared to school. I am sure most professions have a similar divergence between the lessons learned in school compared to one's professional practice.

    What is most important is keep an open mind while in school. Learn to broaden your horizons. Learn from the different groups and cultures at college. Take as many writing and specifically as many, technical writing classes as possible in order to learn how to express ideas succinctly on paper. It will be of great benefit to your professional career.
     
  6. HeadHunter

    HeadHunter Member

    May 28, 2003
    Generally correct though I don't know any school even a TTT that makes you take family law. I'm a joint degree in my third of four years and the law classes I've taken are as follows:

    Semester 1
    Torts* (the law of liability for your actions - in oarticular the harm you inflict on others)
    Contracts*- the rules governing interactions usually economic between persons
    Criminal Law*- what most laypeople think of as the law- absolute prohibitions on certain forms of conduct
    Civil Procedure*- the general forms and rules that determine which courts here what problems and the form in which the arguments are made.

    Semester 2

    Property*- exactly as you would think the rules defining ownership of things and how and in what form those things are passed on to others.
    Constitutional Law*- the forms of government, interaction between the three branches, and onteraction between federal and state government.
    Criminal Procedure- What the cops can and can't do while investigating/interrogating you. At least what evidence you can disallow if they broke a rule to get it.
    Emerging Markets Law- (a bit of a joke) looking at corporate transactions in less regulated areas of the world and how odd bits of US law (FCPA, Alien Tort Act) can still reach in your international activity

    Semesters 3+4

    working on my MBA degree

    Semester 5

    Banking Regulation- the Fed, the Treasury and the administrative and statutory framework that regulates banks
    Corporations- the laws that deliniate the form and obligations of corportations and similar business associations.
    Bankruptcy- exactly what it sounds like

    Semester 6 (not yet here)

    Federal Income Tax- the name says it all
    Trusts and Estates- the specialized rules dealing with inheritence
    Securities Regulation- What the SEC requries from publically traded companies within and without the US, what you have to do if you want to sell stocks to US citizens.

    *These were the required classes that every law student here has to take.
    As you can see I'm on a heavy corporate track. There are other general areas focusing on courtroom activity, and the a number of goofy classes looking at various policy issues, some philosophy and other academic rather than professional areas.

    In general though law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer. It has its own special jargon and these with which you can manipulate it is a large portion of being good at what you do.

    The OPs comments on social systems, politics, and philosophy are only true at the fringes though they may be touched upon tangentially.
     
  7. TurtleHawk

    TurtleHawk Member

    May 6, 2000
    At the University of Iowa...

    First year students take Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Contracts (2 semesters), Civil Procedure, Torts, and Property (2 semesters).

    Second year students take Appellate Advocacy.

    Some time during law school you have to take a second semester of Constitutional Law, a Professional Responsibility class, and 4 writing credits.

    The rest are the credits are electives.

    I have taken evidence, criminal procedure, family law, basic federal tax, debtor-creditor, consumer law, bankrupcy, employment, employment discrimination, election law, juvenile justice, advanced legal research, and the equivalent of a semester of "clinical internships" at Iowa Legal Aid and Student Legal Services. (I am sure that I have forgotten some classes.)

    [This is my last semester, and I plan on working in legal services.]
     
  8. Neo¹

    Neo¹ Member

    Sep 17, 2004

    So how do you like your job? Ive heard mixed reviews from family and friends who became lawyers.
     
  9. Neo¹

    Neo¹ Member

    Sep 17, 2004

    One of my friends is in on of those JDMBA programs. He wont tell me how much it costs.
     
  10. yossarian

    yossarian Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 16, 1999
    Big City Blinking
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I would ask them......did you go to law school because you really wanted to become a lawyer...or because you were about to graduate from college and figured...why not...it's a good way to make money.

    You'd be surprised (or maybe not) how many people who dislike being a lawyer will give the latter answer rather than the former.

    Ask yourself the same question before deciding.
     
  11. nicephoras

    nicephoras A very stable genius

    Fucklechester Rangers
    Jul 22, 2001
    Eastern Seaboard of Yo! Semite
    The law is a many splendoured thing......or something. The general idea is that you learn to "think" as a lawyer, because for 90% of lawyers their practice will have nothing to do with what they learned in law schoo, except for maybe a few classes. For instance, nothing I did in law school prepared me for my job, which is true for almost everyone who does corporate work. Even classes like Securities Regulation (10b5! 10b5!) are taught with the litigation concept in mind, meaning that its not helpful when you go to work and structure deals with the idea that you don't want to get sued. No one teaches you about giving reps and warranties, what certificated vs. global notes are, why you give 10b5 opinions, why 3(c)(7) is so reviled all over the world, etc. etc. Not even specialty classes will teach you this stuff. SecuritiesReg was, for me, mildly useful, and Corporate Tax (a hellish class) was barely useful as a reference point. Obviously not everyone does corporate work.

    Also, keep in mind that there is a huge variance between law schools in many respects, so some people won't take the same classes. I never took Evidence, for instance, or the jurisdiction part of Civil Procedure (never looked at Erie) because they weren't required. Yale doesn't require property, other schools offer more electives, etc.
    Incidentally, there are the occasional schools that let you specialize and earn some sort of certificate, but these specializations don't really make any different once you're out in the field. After 3 years where you worked and what you know are vastly more important than what school you went to, from what I've seen. Don't get me wrong, it helps to be able to say you went to Yale or Columbia, but not that much.
     

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