# Lawyers: Your least favourite subject undertaken during legal education.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 24, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210 "2010-04-24T15:24:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/1 "2010-04-24T15:24:13Z")
Lawyers and lawyers only, babies aka law students do not enjoy rights of audience in this thread.š
What was your least favourite subject? Mine was Civil Procedure. Followed closely by Trusts.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/2 "2010-04-24T15:55:22Z")
Tax. Funny thing was, I really liked the professor, and I did ok in the class. I just found the material painfully dull.
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### Author:  [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/3 "2010-04-24T16:05:50Z")
Please tell me Tax was a compulsory subject in your course.
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/4 "2010-04-24T16:13:53Z")
Community Property. All those formulas to figure out percentages of property after divorce were brutal. Especially because thereās actually no _need_ to manually figure out all that crap, thereās software out there that does it for you. _Hate_.
Civ Pro also sucked. Total yawnathon.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/5 "2010-04-24T16:18:01Z")
Real Property. I liked the professor fine, but I just couldnāt find a way to care, and the rules were so arcane.
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/6 "2010-04-24T16:22:26Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> Real Property. I liked the professor fine, but I just couldnāt find a way to care, and the rules were so arcane.
Totally. I kinda geeked out on future interests, though, they were like little mini puzzles to figure outā¦
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/7 "2010-04-24T16:33:44Z")
> [@AK84](#):
>
> Please tell me Tax was a compulsory subject in your course.
Nope. If I remember correctly, the only required classes were the first year: contracts, torts, property, civil procedure, legislation, con law, a three-semester legal research/writing class, and the third year ethics class. Tax fell in to a second tier of classes that were not required, but were recommended by most advisers, along with evidence, criminal law, criminal procedure, corporations, wills & estates, trial practice and administrative law.
There was a writing requirementāie, a class where the grade was based on on a research paper, but you could pick from a list of subjects during any semester after the first year, or you could convince a professor to supervise an independent research paper.
Selection for Law Review, Moot Court, and Mock Trial was competitive. I did Moot Court in International Law of all things š
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### Author:  [@lezlers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lezlers)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/8 "2010-04-24T16:55:48Z")
Criminal law and evidence werenāt required in your school? What state did you go to law school in?
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/9 "2010-04-24T17:15:17Z")
Corporation/Partnership/LLC (called āBusiness Organizationsā at my law school).
I had a great professor, I just suck at it.
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### Author:  [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/10 "2010-04-24T17:35:42Z")
> [@lezlers](#):
>
> Criminal law and evidence werenāt required in your school? What state did you go to law school in?
I donāt think they were. It was 15 years ago and I could be mistaken. I took both, and everything else my adviser recommended. He was an old school guy, taught everything with the Socratic method, and he suggested a very traditional slate of classes with a few āfunā choices to pursue areas of interest.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/11 "2010-04-24T17:54:26Z")
Secured transactions. Iād have been the damn valedictorian if it werenāt for secured transactions.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/12 "2010-04-24T18:10:34Z")
> [@lezlers](#):
>
> Community Property. All those formulas to figure out percentages of property after divorce were brutal. Especially because thereās actually no _need_ to manually figure out all that crap, thereās software out there that does it for you. _Hate_.
Until you notice that the software matches the legislation rather than the judicial decisions. That happened in Ontario with respect to how mortgages on the matrimonial home were treated. Folks who relied on the software did so at their peril, for the software was based on the legislation, including a section that the courts had rejected.
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### Author:  [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/13 "2010-04-24T18:12:07Z")
Tax ā not so much because of the subject matter, but because the prof could barely speak English.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/14 "2010-04-24T18:22:32Z")
Federal Income Tax, a required course was boring and tedious. I did well in it. Civil Procedure was my favorite, I did poorly in it. Despite that, more than two decades later my classmates call me up on Civ Pro questions.
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### Author:  [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/15 "2010-04-24T18:32:36Z")
Bit of a geek hereāI liked most of 'em. That said, there were a fewā
Wills: The rather paternalistic attitude that courts/legislatures frequently (based on the selected cases!) seemed to take towards anything that wasnāt a ātraditionalā estate plan irritated me quite a bit. Nor was I a fan of the forced elective shareāwhile I understand it as a matter of social policy intended to keep widows off the dole, it ought to have some sort of a means test. (Besides that, I generally think you ought to be able to be an utter bastard if thatās what floats your boat.) Plus, the relentless formalities associated with making an effective testamentary instrumentāreally, do we doubt this was the decedentās intent because he signed on the side of the page instead of at the bottom? IMO, wills law could stand to be knocked over and started nearly from scratch.
Legal Ethics: This was just a disaster of a course. The subject matter is important, and I mightāve liked it if the course hadnāt been such a joke. (Or not. Itās important, but Iām not sure if that is enough to make it fun.) The less said the better. Irony: I actually got a cash prize for having the top grade in my section.
Negotiation: Chalk this up to a personality conflict with the adjunct. Probably wouldāve had a lot of fun with it otherwise.
Agency: This was accelerated and compressed into half of a semester, shared with Partnerships/Unincorporated Business Associations. Mostly this was a dull adjunct, but I seem to recall the reading putting me to sleep as well. (Ultimately, this became one of the only courses in law school where I didnāt do much of the reading.) When the agency guy passed the baton to the UBA guy, the class did a 180āit was engaging, fun, and I learned the material really well despite not cracking the book.
(Oops! Technically Iām not a lawyer yetābut the barās passed and Iām off to get interviewed and sworn in next month. Close enough, I hope. ;))
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### Author:  [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/16 "2010-04-24T18:48:41Z")
Professional Responsibility. It was one part MPRE review course, which is useful but boring, and two parts amateur philosophy club, which was tendentious and boring.
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### Author:  [@Visual\_Purple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Visual_Purple)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/17 "2010-04-24T18:49:02Z")
I ended up hating conflicts of laws, an elective I thought Iād like. Iām not sure whyāsomething about the professorās style.
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### Author:  [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/18 "2010-04-24T18:55:55Z")
> [@Visual\_Purple](#):
>
> I ended up hating conflicts of laws, an elective I thought Iād like.
Conflict of Laws is my choice. It was a required course at our school; and in addition to it being just plain difficult, the fact that it was required meant that I couldnāt take another course that interested me far more.
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### Author:  [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/19 "2010-04-24T22:27:02Z")
State and Local Tax was the absolute worst. The first half was all of the most boring cases from first-year con law (i.e., substantive due process and commerce clause casesāIām talking case after case about filled milk and colored margarine), and the second half was boring technical rules about different ways to do a sales tax or franchise tax.
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### Author:  [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lawyers-your-least-favourite-subject-undertaken-during-legal-education/537210/20 "2010-04-24T22:44:35Z")
Civ Pro, without a doubt. I also hated Business Associations (aka Corporations), even though I had a WONDERFUL prof (RIP Professor Shipman) who made it as interesting as it possibly could have been. I LOVED Wills, Estates, and Trustsāthat was my highest grade.
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