UPenn Class of 2011

[Team Pam]

People love Burbank -- he's one of the most respected and beloved teachers at Penn.  Finkelstein has a reputation for being mean, but she was on sabbatical last year so none of us 2Ls know anything firsthand.

Seconding what m1 said about textbooks.  Especially for classes like Civ Pro, where the rules were updated last year, you absolutely need the latest edition of the book.  And every Civ Pro professor either requires or recommends Glannon's Examples and Explanations supplement -- and there's a new edition this year, which you should make sure to get instead of buying an old one at the EJF sale.

Personally, I don't like E&E for everything -- for IP, I much preferred the Emanuel outline.  Torts you might also want a more straightforward outline, or even flashcards.  m1 and I both had a very non-traditional crim professor, so we couldn't use a supplement, but everyone else seemed to use the Dressler one.  And for con law next semester, the Chemerinsky book is unparalleled and the best $50 you will ever spend during 1L.

[Ding me I dare ya!]

thanks m1 and team pam!

yea i knew i was going to hafta to buy new book cuz i didnt want to deal with other peoples highlights just hoped there was some other way to save a little money

anything on professors
Morse
Struve
Baker
Johnston?

[Ding me I dare ya!]

one more question... is it necessary/useful to have a hardcopy of the blue book for legal writing or we going to have access to an online version through the school?

grazie!

[Team Pam]

You can check Amazon for textbooks -- they sometimes have cheaper prices.  Or if you have a Barnes & Noble membership, any books they carry will be 20% off on their website (but not in the campus store).

The online version of the bluebook wasn't out when we started last year, so I don't know if you'll get access through the school, but either way you should probably invest in a hard copy.  You don't want to be stuck if the online one goes down when you're in the middle of a legal writing assignment the night before it's due. 

As for those professors, the only one I'm familiar with is Struve -- she's supposed to be completely awesome, brilliant and very nice.  Section 1 had Morse last year, but I don't remember what people thought of him.

[Slumdog Lovebutton]

thanks m1 and team pam!

yea i knew i was going to hafta to buy new book cuz i didnt want to deal with other peoples highlights just hoped there was some other way to save a little money

anything on professors
Morse
Struve
Baker
Johnston?

Morse --> YOU WIN!!

[another_prelaw]

One day of legal writing will be a lecture from your 3L legal writing instructor, and the other day will be library sessions. 

I had Morse - he inspired some mixed opinions because he thinks very highly of himself and has a strong, distinct point of view.  I think he's pretty uniformly regarded as a very capable teacher independent of that, however.  Some of you may have had his mock class during ASW.  His final is entirely multiple choice, and is top secret because he reuses most (if not all) of the questions every year - he regards them as flawless but I recall there being typos and some ambiguities.  There is a small set of sample questions that left me more scared than anything else, but it turned out fine.  He loves to talk about how the textbook he uses is the toughest out there - take his suggestion and get the Dressler book, it's like a condensed version of the text that was very helpful.

He has a psych background and does a lot with mental health law, and so a lot of his lectures are informed by that.  He will tell you that the mens rea lecture is the most important of the year, and that's pretty true - know the four levels and it will help you out.  Also pay attention to his glass/diamonds mistake of law/mistake of fact example - a lot of people had trouble with it and spent a lot of time later trying to figure it out, so it will probably save you time and aggravation to learn it up front.

[another_prelaw]

Also, if you end up with Madison, that would be good.  She was like a class mom.  Very nice, friendly, a fair teacher all around.  Her lectures can tend to be a bit dull, however.  Also good about Madison is that she has a rotation system for calling on people - any given day a third of your section (alphabetically) will be on call, and the days rotate too (so a certain group doesn't have, say, Fridays off all semester).  The last few weeks everyone will be on call though.  We often didn't cover all the cases in the reading - maybe i'm not supposed to suggest things like this (and keep in mind I didn't have Contracts til spring), but if you're not on call maybe wait to do all the reading until you see how far you get in class.  Adjust as necessary to meet your study style.  I also found her assignments to be uneven in length some weeks so you can adjust for that too.

[m1]

I should probably throw in the same Q for the unrepresented section here!  We've got:

Wolff for Civ Pro
Perry for Torts
Somin (visiting) for Property
Madison or Katz (our half-section class) for Contracts
Robinson for Crim
Goodman for Con Law

Ooh, another scheduling question!  Our schedules list both the large legal writing lecture and our small group LRW classes, each having 1h15min blocks twice a week.  I thought I read something about some variance in the format each week... am I imagining this (ie. we should expect to have each lecture 2x/week), or does it indeed vary weekly?

Man, you lucked out with that schedule.  Awesome profs all around.  Wolff is great.  People either love or hate perry- he's a philosophy guy, so his torts class can stray a bit, from what i've heard, into philosophical areas.  Somin is famous from the Volokh conspiracy blog.  Madison, as was said above, is amazing.  Goodman is hard, but one of those profs everyone should take once.  Robinson elicits VERY strong feelings of either love or hate - but if he's the worst you have, then you've done extremely well for yourself professor-wise

[Terrible Ivan]

Some more notes:

You will hear him say several times over the semester that you ought to focus on learning the theory behind criminal law and NOT to memorize the black letter rules for the common law and the Model Penal Code. Do not believe him. When finals come, be sure you can map out every major crim topic from class (mens rea, murder, rape, intoxication, etc.) and how they differ between cl/mpc. Of course, know the theories, but really know the black letter law. It will help you manage the multiple choice final.

Madison for K: class mom is a good moniker for her. Class is often a bit slower (she often goes slowly), but resist the urge to gchat.

Burbank: great guy who really knows his stuff. Make sure you prep for class.

Be sure to ask your Morris Fellows and their friends for greater insight.

Ivan

[m1]

anything on professors
Morse
Struve
Baker
Johnston?

Morse - great crim professor, scares you to death re: his exam, but its apparently not too bad.
Struve - universally loved
Baker - a bit crazy/eclectic, but some people love him for his complete acceptance of other people's viewpoints
Johnston - its sad, but the only thing I know about him is that a lot of women have crushes on him (he's apparently pretty good looking).  other than that, I know nothing