First-Year Law Classes: What to Expect

First-year classes are assigned and scheduled for you. There are no electives in the first year. In addition, first-year students are generally assigned to sections, so that you will see the same people in virtually all your first-year classes.

First-year courses are designed not only to impart substantive knowledge about general areas of the law, but also to teach students how to think like a lawyer. Many laypeople believe that the law is a vast collection of specific rules that dictate the correct outcome for every imaginable set of facts. First-year courses are designed to disabuse the neophyte of such notions, because facts are infinitely variable and the rules cannot provide for every possible combination.


First-year students are introduced to the case study method of learning. Under this method, students study cases in which specific sets of facts give rise to specific results, and they discuss whether changing certain facts should or should not lead to different results.

Following are some of the law school classes you are likely to have during your first year of law school along with brief comments about each class.

Contracts

Contracts is the study of "deals"; it is the study of how binding and legally enforceable agreements are reached in our society and what happens when such agreements are breached, or not performed according to their terms. Without the "commercial glue" of contracts, our society's economy could not function. A free-market economy depends to a large degree on people being able to rely on others to perform their solemn promises as specified in their deals.

The law of contracts is vast, and the variety of factual settings in which disputes arise is infinite. Many contract professors unfortunately (but in keeping with the first-year myth) tend to overwhelm their students with too much factual detail and relatively insignificant garble. To combat this tendency, students need to focus on the big picture (that is, how contracts are formed and breached, types of breaches, defenses to a claim of breach or nonperformance, and rudimentary contractual damage measurements or principles). Other topics discussed in class may deserve much less emphasis than they in fact receive, and students should try to keep sight of the forest amidst all the trees. The basic idea is that promises people make are enforceable when certain rules are followed and certain conditions are met.

Property

Most first-year property classes deal with the creation, transfer, and ownership of rights in personal property (that is, movable things and intangibles, like notes and contract rights) and real property (land and fixtures attached thereto). For reasons that are unclear (but again in keeping with the first-year myth), too much class time is usually devoted to the confusing study of archaic real property rules (that is, future interests and estates) created in the Middle Ages. What your professor will probably not tell you is that very little of such discussions is relevant in modern practice or often even at exam time. Much of this material is very boring to everybody except your property professor. As a result, unless you are one of those students with a natural affinity for property law, you may be left with the formidable task of trying to stay awake in enough classes so that you can figure out what areas might actually appear on your exam.

Fortunately, however, property classes are not all about archaic rules and hypotheticals concerning "Blackacre." Issues stemming from landlord/tenant disputes, secured transactions, land use and takings, and environmental law are often very interesting and of tremendous current relevance and significance. This is an area of the law characterized by the opposing forces of development, on the one hand, and preservation and growth limitations, on the other. Property law is the battlefield on which this conflict will be fought.

In any event, reviewing old exams given by your property professor can be of significant value in getting a grasp on this course. Such a review should at least indicate what material your property professor really feels is important.

Torts

Torts is the study of non-contractual legal theories by which people can obtain compensation for injuries to their persons or property resulting from the wrongful conduct of another. Torts professors are famous for discussing incredibly bizarre hypothetical questions in class, such as whether Mr. X should be liable for all damages occurring as a result of his lighting a match in a restaurant s nonsmoking section when he did not know the restaurant was filled with explosive gas as a result of a negligently repaired leak. The gas exploded when the match was lit, causing the building to shake and resulting in a seismically unsafe sign over the entrance falling on top of Mr. Y, who was swinging from it as part of his Tarzan imitation at the time and who is now suing Mr. X for the ruination of his sex life, among other things.

During the first part of the year, torts class is generally devoted to intentional torts (like battery, assault, trespass to land and chattels, conversion, and false imprisonment) as well as the vague and perplexing tort of negligence (essentially, unreasonable conduct that foreseeably causes another to suffer unintended harm or injury). A common element of torts is that the persons committing them (called the tortfeasors) are at fault for some reason.

During the second part of the year, strict liability torts are usually examined. Under such torts, an entity (such as a manufacturer of products or conductor of ultra-hazardous activities) or person is deemed liable for injuries caused by product defects or as a result of his or her conduct, even if the conduct was reasonable and performed with due care, for reasons of public policy and regardless of fault. The defendant s exercise of due care is thus deemed irrelevant to the determination of liability when rules of strict or absolute liability apply.

As proven by lawyers such as San Francisco's flamboyant Melvin Belli (the so-called "King of Torts"), tort law is certainly colorful and sometimes quite lucrative. Class discussions evoke mental pictures of ambulance chasers, exploding soda bottles, mischievous children, airplane crashes, and neighborhood fender benders, and of huge jury verdicts and contingent fees. With the possible exception of criminal law, tort law is probably the one area of study that most laypeople associate with lawyers. For this reason, most law students pay attention and enjoy this class, and consider it to possess some sort of intrinsic value as the real "stuff" of lawyering.