My questions seem to overlap with many already mentioned on this thread, but here they are anyway:

1) Why are there certain classes that everyone seems to take before graduating from law school? Are these classes actually "required"? Is Corporations or Tax really necessary if you don't want to go work at a firm? Or is there something fundamentally important about what you learn in those classes? I remember Professor Strauss mentioning at the 1L Curriculum meeting that law students should not graduate before taking a class in Corporations. But I don't want to. Is everyone just blindly following what the 2Ls and 3Ls tell you to do or is there a real reason behind it?

2) How can we make our 2L and 3L years more focused on what we actually want to wind up doing? Is it more important that we take classes in what we're interested or is it better to try to pursue an internship/clinic? Or both?

3) How do we make 2L and 3L years feel more collaborative and less frustrating?

4) How important is networking in the public-interest legal sector? All the firm lunches and receptions suggest that networking in that sector is quite important. But does this pertain to the public-interest field as well?

5) On networking: I often find that it's hard to garner up the courage to avoid the firm track and actually pursue the things I want to do. I feel that I often lack the social/financial/institutional support. But if students with similar interests here actually pair up maybe our combined skills and dedication can actually move us away from Big Law. For example, if some of us don't have the courage (or the capital) to open up our own firms immediately upon graduating, maybe with one or two other qualified lawyers we could. How can law school be structured so as to facilitate such collaboration and networking?

6) When I search for legal jobs in certain fields that interest me (for instance, in education law or policy), they all say that 2-3 years of "experience" is necessary. What does this mean? How do I break into this field? Do I enter the private sector first? Would I get proper training at a firm?

-- CaseyBoyle - 14 May 2008