2L Spring Overview

Overview — “A general review or summary of a subject.”

-Oxford English Dictionary

I cannot believe that I am officially halfway done with law school and that I’m closer to graduation than to when I started law school.  But that being said, I thought I’d give you some insight into the classes I’m taking this semester.  My schedule this semester is way different than any schedule I’ve ever had before.  Two of my classes only meet once a week for two hours, which means I only have one class for two hours on Monday and Wednesday, and my classes on Tuesday start at 8:30 am and end at 5:00 pm.  Hopefully I can handle a schedule like this because last semester all of my classes ended at 2:30 so fingers crossed.

Patent Law

This was a last minute addition to my schedule for this semester because one of the classes I was in originally, Fashion Law, was cancelled four days before the semester started.  And I know what you’re thinking, you were a Chem major, why weren’t you planning on taking this class in the first place.  Well, the truth is, I actually enjoy Trademark and Copyright Law more than Patents, which is why I’ve mostly ruled out taking the Patent bar.  However, I needed a class that fit into my schedule that I would find interesting, and this one fit the bill.  Basically, it covers the requirements to obtain a patent, how patents are infringed, the remedies for infringement, and more of the practical issues regarding the patent system.  I had the professor who teaches this class for Intellectual Property last semester and Contracts 1L year so I’m pretty used to how he teaches class and cold calls.

Legal Profession

A lot of schools call this class Professional Responsibility and consider it a graduation requirement like my school does.  I really wanted to get a lot of my required classes out of the way 2L year so I decided to take it this semester.  This class covers the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility and basically how to be an ethical lawyer.  That means I’m also taking the MPRE this semester so stay tuned to see how I’m preparing for that later this semester.  This is also the third time I’m taking a class with a particular professor so I’m super used to how she runs class and writes her exams.

Copyright Law

After taking Intellectual Property last semester, I was very interested in taking Copyright this semester.  Similarly to Patent Law, we discuss the basics about copyrights and how they are obtained and enforced.  I find all of the intellectual property subjects to be extremely important in society and very interesting because they literally affect everything we ever do during the day; i.e. watching television, driving a car, etc.  My professor for this course is a copyright attorney who only teaches this class at our law school so she likes to talk about her practical advice with us we can utilize when we go to practice.  One thing that I find different about her class is she assigns a particular case note to each of us and requires us to read that full case.  That way we get a little more information about the importance of the case than what is just in the casebook.

Evidence

While this class isn’t required to graduate, it’s a highly recommended class since it’s on the bar and extremely important for almost every attorney.  This is my largest class this semester because it has about 120 people in the class (which is the largest class I’ve ever been in before, even in undergrad).  Evidence at my school focuses on the Federal Rules of Evidence and not the state rules, but it’s a bit different than other law school classes because it doesn’t rely on the case method to get points across.  There are definitely lots of examples of the rules in practice from real cases, but I don’t have to trudge through an entire case for an analysis of a particular rule.

Trademark Law

To finish out my intellectual property trifecta is Trademark Law and honestly, it is probably the class I’m most excited for this semester.  I find trademarks to be one of the most interesting areas of law, probably because of my background in marketing.  The class focuses on the whole of trademark law, including how to obtain a trademark and registration, infringement, damages, and other related causes of action.  My professor for this class is also a practicing trademark attorney so it’s interesting to get a more practical view of the subject that you’re learning.  It also only meets for two hours once a week so it’s definitely easier to be motivated to read.

I also have my professional development requirements, similar to last semester.  I’m also continuing my position as a research assistant for a professor, who is actually teaching one of my classes this semester.  I’m pretty excited about having two pretty open days during the week where I can get ahead on my reading and my research assistant job.

For any 2Ls or 3Ls reading this and taking the same classes as me, I feel your pain, and feel free to reach out to commiserate!  Best wishes for this semester!