2L/3L General Advice for Registration

• Scheduling

o You have to take an ethics class to graduate so if you can’t decide on a class to fill

out your schedule that’s definitely worth a look.

o Remember to consider how many exams you’re going to have.

o Biggest advice: do not take more than three exams. Just don’t do it. I think

everyone, whether you are going to be a litigator or not, should take evidence. Also, if you

want to know whether a class is going to be offered in the spring, you can look at the grid on

the registrar’s web page. It isn’t completely accurate, but it should give you an idea when

things are planned to be. Be sure you already have your classes listed on your registration

worksheet and know how the process works. And then get up at 7 am and register as soon as

it opens. Don’t be afraid to put yourself on a waitlist. They shrink pretty quickly close to

classes starting. And register for more classes than you plan to take (just watch for drop

deadlines). And the advice that helped me most, find an upperclassman to sit and walk you

through the process, look at classes, and answer questions.

o Take classes with professors you like rather than specific classes.

o Taking NDR classes like mediation, multi-party dispute resolution, and arbitration

are beneficial for anyone, whether or not you want to go into litigation. It really teaches

communication.

o You can look at past courses and see the highest grades in the class. If that is

important to you, you can take that into account when selecting classes.

• http://intranet.law.wustl.edu/grade-distributions-grading-requirements/

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 o Take into account when your major job search will be, and try to take a lighter

semester during that time! o In the course directory, you can look at the history of the course

to see when it has been offered. There will be a link for history in the details of the course.

o You can see professor’s reviews here: https://registrar.wustl.edu/washu-

courseevaluations/

• But, take this with a grain of salt! We have great professors at this school!

o The Wiley Rutledge Moot Court Competition is a “class” that you have to register

for! The rest of the competitions have try outs and you will receive an email about it closer to

those dates.

o You can take as many pass/fail and modified pass/ fail classes as you want!

However, if you are hoping to get Order of the Coif, at least 75% of your courses must be

graded.

• Weekend Classes

o You can take up to 6 1-credit weekend courses. If you want to register for them, you

can only register for 1 during the primary registration period. If you register for more than 1,

you will be dropped from both!

• Seminars

o You can only take 1 seminar a semester. If you register for more than 1, you will be

dropped from both!

• 2L or 3L?

o You probably don’t want to take a seminar or other writing-intensive course 2L fall

if you’re on a journal.

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 o If you're on a journal, you should definitely not take a seminar in the fall of 2L but I

can't imagine being motivated for it during 3L. I did "war crimes" and it was an insane paper,

which I thought everyone did but it turns out other seminars had like biweekly 2 page max

reflections or something! #regrets

o I think a clinic or externship is a great thing to take 2L

o If you want to do litigation, you should definitely take evidence during 2L

o Figure out what works for you, see how many credits you need, and try to plan out

all the classes you will want to take over the four semesters. Look at the prerequisites for

those classes and make sure to get those done.”

o Get ethics out of the way 2L.

o Balance your load on the ebbs and flows of law school, do not do a clinic, be

writing your note, and taking a heavy course load first semester 2L.

o Try to get what you know you want to do done early, if you push it off it may not

work in your schedule later.

o Ask 2Ls and 3Ls about specific classes to see how labor-intensive classes are so that

you can balance your work load.

• Clerkships

o If you are clerking/interested in clerking you should definitely try to take fed courts,

both criminal procedures and admin law.

• Note: Some clerkships explicitly require these classes!

o Federal Courts is really helpful for jurisdictional information

o The Supreme Court Simulation class

o Classes about the type of content you will have in the courts you want to clerk in o

Corporations can be helpful for the corporate cases you will see.

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• Big Law

o Admin is super important and is especially pertinent to a lot of government and Big

Law jobs.

o If you want to do litigation, take classes like trial and pretrial.

o Take classes specific to the practice areas you are interested in (employment law,

health law etc.)

o Mediation is helpful if you want to do litigation!

• Public Interest

o The Criminal Procedure classes are offered on an alternating basis, so if you want to

take both then you have to take each when offered.

o Admin is super important and is especially pertinent to a lot of government and big

law jobs.

o Ask people who are doing the job you want to have what they think you should

take.

o Take advantage of the clinics and externships! Talk to professors in the specific

subjects you are interested in and they can point you in the right direction. 4

• IP

o Some classes are only offered every other year, while others are pre requisites for

certain classes and clinics. Upper class students will share their experiences and answer

questions.

• Bar Classes

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 o There are mixed opinions about whether to take classes to help you prepare. Think

about how you learn and whether it might make good sense to take a few bar subject classes

now (rather than learning a bunch of new subjects over a couple months). It can be nice to

have some subjects that were “refreshers” made learning entirely new subjects much easier.

• Registration Process

o Use the registration worksheet!

o The waitlists move through very quickly, so do not be discouraged by those!

o Pay attention to the time and do not log on late!

• LCU Classes

o If you have 86 credits, you need 67 Law Classroom Units (LCU). In the course

directory, they are labeled LCU in the course attributes. With 86 credits, there can be 19 non-

LCU credits. Non-LCUS are things like competitions, externships, publications, TAs,

supervised research. Study abroad counts as an LCU.

• Registering For Non-Law School Classes

o You can take them for credit and not-for-credit. You can also take up to 3 credits at

SLU. Forms can be found here: https://intranet.law.wustl.edu/registrars-office/course-

information-registration-process/

• Auditing

o You must get permission from the professor and you typically can only do it if the

class is not full.

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 Individual surveys from 2Ls and 3Ls

Ernest, 2L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Litigation

Practice Area: Labor and Employment Law

Relevant classes in 2L year: Ethics, Evidence, Appellate Advocacy, ABA Mediation

Competition, Arbitration, Complex Civil Litigation

Relevant classes in 3L year: Pretrial, Trial, Administrative Law, Employment Law,

Employment Discrimination, Labor Law

Other classes: Election Law (personal interest), Non-profit drafting (originally personal

interest but found transactional work more interesting after the class)

Lindsey Walker, 2L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Litigation

Practice area: General

2L year classes: Employment Law; Immigration; Evidence; Regulating Sex; American

Indian Law; Conflicts of Law; Family Law; Death Penalty Litigation; Trusts & Estates

3L year classes: Corporations; Pretrial; Ethics; Feminist Theories Seminar; Trial

Noah, 2L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Litigation (Clerking)

Practice Area: Appeals, Commercial

Relevant classes in 2L year: Evidence, Federal Courts, Corporations, Trusts & Estates

Relevant classes in 3L year: Appellate Advocacy, Pretrial, Trial, Administrative Law,

Employment Law

Other classes: Supreme Court Simulation; Speech, Press, and the Constitution; Mediation

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Wenlan, 3L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Transactional

Practice Area: Corporate & Securities Law

Relevant classes in 2L year: Commercial Law, Bankruptcy, Corporations, International

Commercial Arbitration, Administrative Law (somewhat relevant)

Relevant classes in 3L year: Ethics, Securities Regulation, Federal Income Taxation,

Business Planning & Drafting: Fundamentals of M & A Transactions, Contract Management

and Negotiation

Other classes: Jurisprudence Seminar (personal interest). International Law, Jessup

International Law Moot Court Team, International Court and Tribunals, Conflict of Laws (I

was originally interested in international arbitration/litigation, but eventually decided to do

cross-border transactional work. That being said, I still love these classes that I took).

Charlotte Young, 3L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Transactional

Practice Area: Capital Markets + Bankruptcy

Relevant classes in 2L year: Corporations, Accounting for Lawyers, Antitrust, Conflict of

Laws (The conflict of laws class helped with understand if/when the US courts will choose to

adjudicate cases originating outside the US boarders. This was specifically helpful for my

future line of work that deals with US laws but might only tangentially touch the US.)

Relevant classes in 3L year: Bankruptcy, Intensive Weekend Course: Federal Regulation of

the US Financial Markets, Studied abroad and took a course on Market Regulation of the EU

Financial Markets in the 21st century (very helpful for a future practice that deals with

financial markets in Europe)

Notes:

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There are not really many relevant classes that will specifically prepare you for an

international practice involving US Capital Markets. However, if you are doing Cap Markets

work in the United States, I would advise taking Securities Regulation.

Overall, I took a general class in Mediation Theory and Practice. I am clerking post-

graduation and my judge really appreciated that I had this experience. Also, the best piece of

advice I got with regards to class selection and clerking was to pick a class in a rapidly

evolving area of the law. For me, I took Information Privacy with Professor Richards. In

addition to being an amazing class, this also really helped me gain understanding in a

dynamic area of the law so that I could discuss a currently evolving legal issue while out on

interviews.

Charlotte, 3L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Litigation and Policy (Clerking)

Practice Area: Immigration/Family Law (Civil Public Interest)

Relevant classes in 2L year: Evidence, Children's Rights Clinic, Family Law, Health Law,

Non-Profit Management and Drafting

Relevant classes in 3L year: Pretrial, Administrative Law, Employment Law, Immigration

Law, Civil Rights, Community Justice, and Mediation Clinic

Other classes: Jurisprudence Seminar, Mixed Income Housing at the Social Work

School, Complex Civil Litigation

Sarah Tietz, 3L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Litigation (Clerking)

Practice Area: Public Interest/Public Defense

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All Classes: Admin, Evidence, Appellate Advocacy, Public Theory Law Seminar, Pretrial

Crim, Crim Pro Adjudication, Crim Pro Investigation, Immigration, Fed Courts, Election

Law

Meredith, 2L

Litigation/Transactional/Both: Litigation/Policy

Practice Area: Public Interest, Gender Justice

Relevant classes in 2L year: Evidence, Regulating Sex, Employment Discrimination,

Pretrial, Externship at the ACLU

Relevant classes in 3L year: Administrative Law, Employment Law, Ethics, Education Law

Other classes: Criminal Procedure: Adjudication (possibly interested in criminal law work);

Conflict of Laws (Clerkship prep; personal interest), Wiley Rutledge Moot Court (wanted

oral argument practice)

P.S.

2019-2020 Course Grid:

https://law.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/FL19-and-SP-20-schedules-combined.pdf