THE FIRST-YEAR COURSES
Okay, time to jump off the soapbox onto some brass tacks. (Ouch.) What can you expect from your first year in law school? You're a One-L, so you get very little choice in your courses, if any. Let's take a look at your course schedule and see what you've got: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, Property, and Torts. (Your courses may differ slightly from those listed here. If so, we advise you to buy another copy of this article and hope that one has the same courses as you have. If necessary, repeat.) Toto, I don't think we're in college anymore.
CIVIL PROCEDURE
In Civil Procedure (or, as it's commonly known, Civ Pro), you'll learn about the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which are the rules by which federal courts conduct civil litigation. (Most state courts have rules similar to the Federal Rules, and some law schools teach the rules specific to their states.) You will also read a number of cases from the United States Supreme Court that deal with some very basic and very important questions. For instance, who can be sued? When can you sue? Where can you sue? What techniques can you use to discover evidence in your case? How and when can a court dispose of a case?
These questions sound simple, right? You say, "These questions do sound very simple. The answers must be too, right?" The professorial reply, "In law school, you will learn not to sound so foolish." You mutter under your breath, "Lousy smart-ass." Sorry to be so rough on you. This little dialogue is meant just to get you used to the idea that some of your professors may use the infamous Socratic Method, which in theory means they never tell you anything straight out, but instead try to elicit everything from the class by posing questions and leading an ongoing intellectual dialogue. Done well, the Socratic Method is nerve-wracking, unpleasant, and surprisingly effective; done poorly, it just means that the professor acts like an ass and makes you feel bad when you don't know the answer.
For some reason, a lot of the more traditionally Socratic professors teach Civ Pro; indeed, in a lot of ways, Civ Pro is the most law-schoolish of all your first-year classes. This is a very nuts-and-bolts class. There are rules. You learn them. You apply them. You explore various doctrines that can be surprisingly interesting and a lot of fun to say. You can wow your mother: "Mom, today I learned about offensive non-mutual collateral estoppel!" "That's nice, dear. And are you eating well?" "Yes, Mom." Yes, you will learn that normal people are not interested in offensive non-mutual collateral estoppel or Civil Procedure in general, but you're not a normal person anymore, are you? Taking Civ Pro is in a (very remote) way like losing your virginity: You can never go back to those bygone days of innocence.
Civil Procedure was my favorite class. I was probably the only one who thought that way. Civ Pro is about learning the rules and language of being a lawyer. And you can't really begin to think and act like a lawyer until you know what you can and can't do. That's Civil Procedure. There's no other first-year class like it.
-TRICIA SIMPSON, FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL
PROPERTY
Property is about ownership, which, as you'll soon find, is not such a simple concept. You learn about what kinds of property interests people can possess in both land and goods, about how they acquire those interests, and about how they can convey them.
Property, even more than the other courses, scares people. Perhaps that's not surprising; not only is it a common law class, but it's an old common law class. The cases and doctrines you learn in Property date way back-back so far that they come from Jolly Olde England many, many centuries ago. Unfortunately, property law has been constantly prodded and poked over the centuries to accommodate various historical trends. Now, it is a near-hopeless morass of outdated doctrines like the destructibility of contingent remainders, the rule from Shelley's Case, and, of course, the infamous Rule Against Perpetuities. (Don't ask; you'll learn soon enough.) Yes, they're ridiculous, but that's not the point: Every lawyer before you had to learn them, and you will, too. It's kind of like a hazing ritual, but with the doctrine of worthier title instead of tequila Party down!
At the same time, a surprisingly high number of people really like property law. It's kind of like a big puzzle. They give you the rules, tell you the facts, and ask you, in the end, who owns the property. (Resist the urge to answer: who cares?)
