Curriculum Advice Guide
(Revised October 2005)
Selecting courses as an upper-class student can be an overwhelming task. While navigating the first year of law school is easy in the sense that courses are chosen for you, upper-class students often feel as if they have more questions than answers about what courses they should take. Students often wonder whether they should take every course covered on the bar examination, whether they should specialize in a particular area of the law, and whether it is appropriate to focus their studies on particular subjects and instructors of interest to them or whether they should take a broad range of courses that exposes them to the law generally. There is no single “right” answer to these interrelated questions. With that said, however, there are a few guiding principles to consider when determining your courses for the next two (or three) years.
Following your first year of law school, the remaining two-year period (or three-year period if you are an evening student) gives you an opportunity to expand your breadth and depth of legal knowledge, to determine what interests you (and what doesn’t), to take courses in those areas of interest, and to experience new professors (and take additional courses from the professors you enjoy). Before you begin identifying areas of interest and selecting the courses you wish to take, however, you should first consult the current version of the Student Handbook on the School of Law homepage at www.sandiego.edu/law (go to the Student Resources tab and click on Student Handbook) to be certain that you are familiar with the courses, units, and other requirements for graduation.
With respect to the question whether students should take bar courses in addition to the courses required to graduate, the answer is “yes,” but not necessarily all courses covering bar examination subjects (as explained more fully below). Because most students take a commercial bar-review course before taking the bar examination, it is myopic (and some might even say it is a mistake) for students to view law school as simply a bar preparation exercise. The commercial bar-review courses cover all the substantive subjects that appear on the bar examination and the related test-taking skills. Thus, if you focus almost exclusively on bar courses during law school, you likely will be forced to forego other courses in areas of interest to you.
Perhaps the best advice regarding course selection is to select a balanced and well-rounded array of courses that adds to your knowledge of the law generally, and exposes you to the broad range of skills required of lawyers. We recognize, however, that many law students may wish to specialize in a particular area of law based on a particular interest in that area. Whether your ultimate goal is to diversify your experience and expose yourself to many areas of the law, or to specialize in a particular field of interest, the purpose of this Guide is to help you determine the areas of law that interest you and to assist you in making an informed choice about the courses you might consider taking in those areas.
To assist students in tailoring the School of Law’s curriculum to their specific interests, the Guide first sets out a General Practice section and then lists fourteen specific areas of study and practice. The General Practice section provides a suggested course of study for students who desire an exploratory program that will expose them to a broad range of courses covering diverse areas of the law. Following the General Practice section, the fourteen concentrations are listed in alphabetical order. Each concentration includes a general overview of the specific area of law, and includes a list of applicable Core Courses, Advanced and Related Courses, and Clinics/Internships/Externships that encompass the School of Law’s courses, seminars, and clinical offerings within the concentration that have recently been taught or are expected to be taught within the next two years. Please note: During any given semester, we may offer additional courses in a particular concentration that are not included in this Guide. Thus, when registering for courses, please consult the course descriptions for that semester for additional courses of interest to you. The course descriptions are available online by going to the School of Law homepage at www.sandiego.edu/law and clicking on the Student Resources tab, selecting the Course Info option, and then clicking the Course Descriptions tab.)
Core Courses are those courses (in addition to the courses required for graduation) deemed particularly important to that concentration and, if you are interested in focusing on that particular concentration, should be taken in your second year, if possible. Advanced and Related Courses are those courses that will add further breadth and depth to your knowledge of that concentration. Finally, the course(s) listed under Clinics/Internships/Externships will enable you to gain practical experience in that concentration. Note that all of the courses listed in this Guide are merely recommended courses, whether listed under Core Courses, Advanced and Related Courses, or Clinics/Internships/Externships.
Some concentrations list a wide variety of courses. You must select among the available courses according to your interests. When selecting courses, be sure to check the applicable course description to ascertain whether the course has any prerequisites. For example, many of the upper-division courses in a concentration may require as a prerequisite one or more of the Core Courses in that concentration, and many of the clinics have prerequisites that you must fulfill before being eligible to enroll in the clinic. You may not take a course for which you have not satisfied the applicable prerequisite(s). Finally, for each concentration, we have included a list of visiting and full-time faculty members who teach courses in that area.
This Guide is only a start. Each semester, please refer to the registration information you receive for details regarding registration and course selection. Finally, if you are interested in learning more about a particular course or concentration, we strongly encourage you to contact the course instructor or one of the faculty members listed as teaching in the area.
