I think this is more the effect of the 1L to 2L transition and not anything to do with switching skewls. If you transferred in, you are capable of competing there for sure.

I doubt it. The higher tier schools consider it their duty to question what the law should be more than what it is. I can see it here comparing who is fresh out of the Ivy's vs who has been practicing in Az for 20 years.

I am almost positive that my reading workload, at least thus far (but probably for this entire semester) is considerably less than the average 1L law student in this country. I have one class that has 20-45 or so pages a class, and that's by far my worst. The rest end up totaling under or around 10 pages per class (but in CivPro half of that might be rules, so it's not quite as light as it seems).

Am I that much of an anomaly or is this more common than I'm perceiving?

I usually have around 20-25 pages per class assigned.

A lot depends on length of class. For example, my Tax II prof this semester is visiting and normally teaches it in 4 one hour classes a week but at our school it is two 2 hour classes. I have had some classes that are 8 hrs and obviously the reading for that is longer than the shortest class we have (85 minutes).

Wait, you have an 8 hour long class?

+1

I've talked to people who go to Touro and New York Law school and they're always like "WTF you don't even offer New York Civil Procedure? But it's on the BAR?"

Also saw some of the old exams they had for tax, and they were all about like-kind exchange results and whether stuff qualifies as a work expense. Our test had questions like "Look at section X of the code, why is it there?" and "Tiger Woods allegedly did magazine shoots in exchange for burying stories about his affairs. What are possible tax consequences for both sides"

This would still be high for me. I was wondering when things were going to get intense, but I checked the syllabi and while one class gets a little heavier in the last month or so, it remains even. I probably average 25 pages a night total, and a decent amount less if you just count the cases and not the notes/questions etc. Pretty sure I just got kinda lucky.

Yes, I took 2 classes that met for 8 hours a day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for two consecutive weekends. Let's just say the reading load for those classes is a bit heavy...

This is ****ing insane.

I took a similar class... it was pretty incredible because it was taught by a woman who heads up a really badass organization instead of a law professor. There was a ton of reading but it didn't really matter if you didn't do any of it. Also only met 4 hours a day.

I am in the same boat. Fwiw I am in a T3 school.

Reading assignments are more professor-dependent than school-dependent imo. Most of my classes had reading assignments between 25-30 pages. On the other hand, my Income Tax class, which met four days a week, often had well over 50 pages of reading every single day.

Also, I realize there are a lot of 1L's and 2L's here, so here is some free advice. If you don't have to, do not take any tax class. People are going to be all like "omg tax is so important you have to take it durr durr durr". Don't listen to those *******s. The class is completely useless, tedious, and will be full of accountants that already know most of the material.

This is very, very true.

lol nice avatar willie!

As was said, not sure this matters. Other sections here are getting way more than I am. Just a lucky distribution of professors I suppose.

Here here. And don't think "well I'm good at math so I'll be fine."

TY for that advice. I was gunna take a Tax class cause everyone said ZOMG U HAVE 2!!!1111 CANNONS OF LAWL!!!11 but was dreading doing it. I hate accounting and would rather light my ears on fire than do anything related to it or taxes. Eff taxes man.

Toadman, J., dissenting:

I would highly advise taking at least Tax I. Say what you will but almost every other area of law involves tax considerations. It is good to have a basic understanding of the issues that arise in contracts, torts, etc. It will help you in the long run even if it is a PITA in the short run.

1. Even if "almost other area of law" involved tax considerations, it is certainly not enough to require you take one of the most difficult and tedious classes in law school.

2. The areas of law that require real knowledge of taxes (estate planning, corporate, etc), require that you take far more advanced classes than just the first tax class, which will only focus on personal income tax.

3. If you want a basic understanding of tax issues, go on Wikipedia.

4. By the time you actually see a tax issue when practicing law, you would have forgot everything from the class.


If you are interested in tax law, then by all means take the course. Just don't feel pressured into taking the course because people say it is soooooo important. The only necessary 2L course is evidence, imo. Classes dealing with estates, corporations, and criminal procedure can also be useful, as it is difficult to learn that stuff from scratch when studying for the bar.

heh

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=557...goryid=2378529

8:35 for the relevant section

I think the obvious compromise with the tax law debate is: take it pass/fail if you can.

I've always heard tax is really hard (both the material and often the profs are dicks). It is supposed to be useful in practice though, and I've heard of people doing their friends taxes (for money) when they first get out of law school.

You are manlier in real life than I had originally envisioned

hud

My tax prof was hands down the funniest prof in law school. Very sarcastic about the people in the examples. But that couldn't stop the exam from being a labrynth of regulations that would have taken me 10 hours to get an A.