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Law school admissions come from all sorts of undergraduate majors. While certain subjects might serve as preparation for legal study, no single undergraduate major can guarantee a successful law school career.

Law school requires extensive experience reading and analyzing complex text, such as court opinions, statutes and other legal documents. This type of reading serves as a vital foundational skill in your professional development as a lawyer.

Legal Method

Legal Method is an introduction to the nature and sources of law, as well as to the techniques lawyers employ when interpreting case law and statutes.

Legal Method provides students with a foundation in the law. However, students will also gain exposure to other related subjects like Constitutional Law I and II, Property Law, Trust & Equity as well as Criminal Law and Evidence. Topics will vary by school and curriculum but most jurisdictions offer core subjects which all students must take.

Law study requires considerable practice in close reading and critical analysis of complex texts, so students preparing to enter law school must acquire these abilities through various educational, extracurricular and life experiences prior to enrolling in law school.

An effective legal education requires many hours of thoughtful reading and comprehension of judicial opinions, statutes, written materials of considerable length – especially given their role in lawyers and law students’ daily work lives. For instance, appellate court decisions, legislative history materials, secondary literature pertaining to ongoing disputes over statutory interpretation are just some examples of materials needed.

Legal Research & Writing

Writing and researching are fundamental skills in law school regardless of your chosen field, which is why many law schools offer legal writing classes as stand-in classes or during first year programs to develop those abilities further. While some students take them during their initial year experience while others continue these classes throughout their law school journey to hone their writing and research abilities.

In most instances, legal writing courses offered during the fall semester consist of four credit courses that provide students with training in legal analysis, print and online research, objective writing and citing legal sources effectively in memoranda that address complex legal questions. Writing instructors typically offer feedback on drafts before meeting with their students individually to review progress.

Legal Research & Writing IV course builds upon research and writing skills acquired in semester one while also introducing oral advocacy, which requires students to present and defend an argument before their classmates. For instance, one assignment might require them to present a case study about an hypothetical client that requires persuading a judge of something. Instructors provide feedback regarding research, writing skills as well as presentation/arguments made by each student in class.

Torts

Studying tort law is a fundamental element of legal education, addressing liability when someone breaches someone else’s rights such as property, privacy or dignity. Tort law encompasses negligence, strict liability, cause-in-fact defenses and joint/severe liability as well as damages recovery theory.

To successfully pursue a law degree, one must possess substantial experience reading and analyzing complex textual materials like court decisions, statutes, or any written material related to law. You can gain this experience through any number of activities such as reading books in your field of interest; joining student groups that promote reading, writing or critical analysis; or participating in clubs focusing on such tasks.

Though LLM students should complete their program of study well ahead of taking the bar exam, it never hurts to begin building the foundation necessary for passing it as early as possible. Many LLM students enroll in commercial bar prep courses which provide a valuable opportunity to review subjects that might appear on test day – these typically run 8-10 weeks prior and can be costly.

Contracts

New York Court of Appeals rules impose an eligibility requirement on prospective bar-eligible students that includes classroom study at an American Bar Association-accredited law school and legal office study or clerkship (524.4); numerous Yale Law School courses have been approved to satisfy this requirement by the New York Court of Appeals; additionally, candidates must also complete 50 hours of pro bono legal work through clinical or experiential learning programs offered at Yale – note courses that meet both criteria in the table above.

Criminal Law

By studying criminal law, you’ll become adept in understanding the legal ramifications of crimes and working to protect innocent victims while holding offenders accountable. If you want a fulfilling career that keeps challenging you to stay on top of things, criminal law could be exactly what’s needed!

First step to studying criminal law: earn an undergraduate degree. Next step: taking the LSAT; this exam is typically required by most law schools and will help determine your eligibility to enroll in their programs.

As part of your first-year legal education, you’ll take foundation classes that provide the basis for future legal practice, including constitutional law (both I and II), contracts, torts, evidence gathering procedures, real estate law and criminal law.

Instead of lecturing, many courses utilize the case method. This involves reviewing various judicial opinions that pertain to one area of law. Professors ask students questions regarding facts presented, application of legal principles and analysis of reasoning used in each case study – teaching students to think like lawyers instead of simply memorizing it all.

Real Estate Law

Real estate law covers land ownership and its various aspects. This area of law encompasses federal and state regulations with localized codes – lawyers specializing in this field must know which specific laws pertain to their region of practice.

Some states mandate additional education or training for future real estate lawyers. This may include earning a master of laws degree (LL.M) in either real property law or something closely related like tax law. According to experts, such additional legal training can prove particularly helpful during economic downturns when jobs for real estate attorneys become scarcer than ever.

New York LLM students must fulfill both classroom hour and bar-admission course requirements set by the New York Court of Appeals to qualify for admission to practice law in New York State. At NYLS there are six courses which satisfy this requirement, including some clinical classes. Please be aware that due to fluctuating course titles/numbers only those classes exactly identical to those below have been approved by the NY Ct. of Appeals as fulfilling this special New York bar-admission course requirement – any others do not fulfill it.

Business Organizations

The Law of Business Organizations introduces students to the dominant legal form of modern economic life: businesses organized as legal entities such as corporations and sole proprietorships/partnerships/and or partnerships; it examines state laws regarding them as well as agency law that determines who may represent whom and how their authority should be exercised.

Students aspiring to a career in business transactional work should complete three courses: Business Associations, Commercial Law – Sales (contract law) and Secured Transactions. Furthermore, Corporate Finance may provide tools to understand asset values while designing financial instruments like debt or preferred stock.

Survey results conducted among practicing lawyers at leading firms show that these five courses are often mentioned by associates as foundational for their future careers. Other second-year courses recommended for business law careers are Federal Income Taxation, Deposition Skills, Trial Advocacy (Comprehensive or Intensive), and Intellectual Property Law Survey.

As well as these substantive courses, students should also consider enrolling in two skill-based classes which place greater emphasis on ex ante aspects of transactions rather than litigated outcomes, marked with an asterisk: Negotiation Theory and Practice and Accounting for Lawyers.