How did it come to be my last semester of law school?

So, I recently submitted my registration for my LAST SEMESTER OF LAW SCHOOL. 

Registration presents the eternal dilemma for me: do I take what I want to take, or do I take what I "should" take - in other words, all the "hard," "serious" courses that are on the Bar? It would make life easier, I think, if I wanted to be a corporate lawyer or a criminal lawyer, but strangely enough, the Bar doesn't seem to be organized for your generic non-criminal-law bleeding-heart research geek. To illustrate, I found a list of topics that are supposed to be tested on the Bar (some are national topics, some are specific to my state). Here's what they are and what I've actually taken relevant to the topics:

• Tested: Contracts
  I've taken: the 1L class. Employment law reviewed some elements of contracts, but I'm kind of screwed on this one, I think!
• Tested: Real Property
  I've taken: the 1L class. I did really well in this class, actually, and had an awesome prof, so maybe that will help?? 
• Tested: Criminal Law
  I've taken: the 1L class. And a course on computer crime (yeah, not so relevant). Didn't do brilliantly in either.
• Tested: Criminal Procedure
  I've taken: nothing, except that I did a ton of 4th Amendment stuff for various reasons last year. 
• Tested: Torts
  I've taken: the 1L class. Am actually planning to take Advanced Torts, too
• Tested: Evidence
  I've taken: Evidence (taking it this semester). Semi-okay on this, assuming I can pass the damn class.
• Tested: Constitutional Law
  I've taken: This is my saving grace! I am ALL ABOUT the Con Law - have taken Con Law, Advanced Con Law, and Education Law, which does a lot of Con Law; my note was on Con Law; and I took a course on Higher Ed and the Law, which had a lot of Con Law
• Tested: Business Associations (including Agency, Partnership, and Corporations)
  I've taken: yeah, not so much. None of these, and while I would take Agency this semester, it's at 8 IN THE FRICKING MORNING. Which is VERY hard for me, given that I commute from another city. It may sound wussy, but getting to school for an 8 am class really fucks up my whole day. (This isn't just hypothetical - I have class at 8 am 3x a week this semester. It is AWFUL. Seriously.)
• Tested: Civil Procedure
  I've taken: the 1L class. My weakest subject, with a really awful professor. Am considering taking Complex Civil Lit to make up for it, but... I don't really want to, because it conflicts with Law and Religion (which I'd really rather take, even though it's unlikely anyone will ever hire me to practice law and religion!), and because I worry I might fail it given how little I learned in 1L!
• Tested: Secured Transactions, Sales, and Negotiable Instruments
  I've taken: Nothing. I'm not even sure what these things ARE. Totally screwed here.
• Tested: Family Law
  I've taken: Nada. I would think about taking this, but the much beloved prof who teaches it isn't teaching it next semester. And I don't want to practice family law. And my clinic has involved some juvenile law. And I really don't want to sit through what friends of mine described ensuing in class when, for instance, custody issues came up (e.g. 5 of the 6 men in class arguing with the rest of the class that judges are biased against fathers - ugh!).    
• Tested: Public Law (including Constitutional Law and Administrative Law)
  I've taken: relevant stuff, yay! I have taken Admin Law on top of all my Con Law. I also think Local Government addresses some of this.
• Tested: Wills
  I've taken: um, what? no.
• Tested: Estates & Trusts
  I've taken: nothing (we teach this combined with Wills, actually. Have also heard it's easy to teach yourself this stuff? Here's hoping that's right...)
• Tested: Professional Responsibility
  I've taken: Ethics, and did really well (somehow). Haven't taken the MPRE yet, but will do so in March - so it will be nice and fresh in my mind, right? 

So. This semester, if I were really serious about this Bar thing, I COULD take the following useful subjects:

    Agency
    Family Law
    Wills and Trusts
    Crim Pro (Adjudicative Phase) [we have 2 semesters of Crim Pro - the other is the Investigative Phase]

I seriously think that's it - we don't have anything REMOTELY related to Sales/Secured Transactions/Negotiable whatevers being offered next semester. And the thing is? I don't want to take any of those! Well, I'd seriously consider Crim Pro, but it's at the same time as Immigration Law, which I REALLY want to take. Even though, yeah, NOT ON THE BAR. And I'd seriously consider Agency except, of course, for the 8 am thing.

So, I am going to rely on what the vast majority of my profs have said: take what you want - BarBri will prepare you for everything else. (Granted, these are profs teaching the mostly non-bar courses. Some of the bar course profs say, TAKE BAR COURSES! So I guess we have to take both of these perspectives with a grain of salt.)

But even if you put aside what profs say, a lot of people at my school focus either on environmental/natural resource law, or tech/IP stuff. Like, a LOT of people. And neither of those areas seem to show up on the Bar in any significant form. And my school has a 93-4% pass rate. So I'm going to take that as evidence that if you take bar prep seriously, and study your ass off in BarBri, it is entirely possible to pass without taking all the Bar courses.

Right? Right?

Comments

[Seeking Solace]

Take what you want and let Bar Bri do the rest.

Seriously, your last semester should be a little fun. Besides, bar review is 10 weeks of being in law school again.

I used West (which was swallowed up by Bar Bri) and Bar Bri many years ago. They do a great job. I didn't take Wills or Trusts in law school and they did a great job preparing me. Study your ass off.

(BTW, I did have to take the Bar more than once. But in my defense, I am a terrible test taker. Also, I am admitted to NY (enough said).

I don't blame you for not wanting to practice Family Law. I did for many years...and now I'm an academic. It can burn out the best lawyers. :)

[LL]

I second "seeking solace" - take what you want and let barbri do the rest. I didn't take any courses on the bar, beyond those required during 1L, so I never took Con Law, Evidence, Trusts and Estates, anything relating to Family Law, Commercial Paper, etc. And it really didn't matter. BarBri teaches you what you need to know and I wonder if it almost helped to have no background knowledge to use to second-guess my BarBri provided throught processes with each question.

So enjoy this time that you can take a class just because it's interesting and worry about the Bar after you graduate (or a few weeks before, depending on where you go to school and when you're done with finals ;)

[Dame Eleanor Hull]

I'm an academic who just followed her nose through grad school and beyond. I can't remember the last time I studied something (only) because it would be a good idea in terms of some future necessity. So while YMMV, I agree with LL: do the fun stuff while you can, because it sounds like there's already a lot to review before the bar exam, so what's a little more?

[C]

I had THE BEST classes in my last semester of law school - housing law! Negotiations! Con law seminar! And my favorite class of all time - History of the Common Law! NONE of these subjects are tested on the bar exam (w/ the exception of con law, but this was a pretty philosophical seminar), but ALL of them ROCKED. It was the most gratifying semester in all of law school. And all of the above posters are correct: you've taken the 1L courses for the MBE, and BarBri will teach you the rest. I passed on the first try and definitely don't regret having taken those seriously awesome classes. Agency, Family Law, Wills & Trusts are no problem on the bar. You'll be fine - just enjoy these final classes!

[Kori]

I'm taking Trusts and Estates next semester because...uhm...I don't know why actually. If I can teach you T&E over the internet I WILL DO IT. Also T&E is arguably the only bar useful class I've taken in all of law school, not including the obvious 1L requirements. And awayyy we go!

[Notorious Ph.D.]

If I were to go to law school, I'd likely be most interested in con law, too! So much focus on the interpretation of the big questions, rather than minutae. I'd find procedure the most interesting of the list (well, considering my research interests, I would, right?), but it seems like wills & trusts is a big enough area, and intricate enough, that having a background in it would be essential before doing your bar prep courses.

Deadly dull, though.

Family law: could be some interesting gender stuff in there, and you might be able to read some juicy feminist jurisprudence, no?

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Thanks, everyone!

Seeking Solace, if I had to take the NY bar I bet I'd have to take it twice, too! (Thankfully I think my state is fairly easy, as bars go.) And it's interesting hearing my classmates who are in our juvenile law clinic having conversations with their clients - I just don't think I have the temperament to be able to ask people about their relationships with their spouses/kids all the time for work. (I have immense respect for my classmates who are doing this, though!)

LL, that makes sense - I will be a blank slate for BarBri to implant what it likes upon!

Dame E - it's true there will be plenty to learn for the bar - even stuff I've taken courses in!

C - I hope my last semester is as much fun as yours!

Kori - nice to have company! In return for Trusts & Estates, I can teach you... well... not much, actually. :-P

Notorious - the thing with wills & trusts is that, unlike some of the other subjects, it has NOTHING to do with anything I hope to do when I finish. So that one's out. And the problem with reading feminist jurisprudence in family law (which might or might not happen, honestly) would be discussing it with some of the people in class!