INTRODUCTION
Inclusion of a course in this catalog does not guarantee it will be offered in the upcoming year, please see Self-Service for the most current listing of the particular courses available each semester, along with their specific times, rooms and instructors on the UC Law SF website. Visit the Registrar’s Office Intranet site on Sharknet for Course Schedule, Alphabetical Listing of courses offered, Day/Time Block Grid, and Registration Resources. For a calendar view of the courses (listing courses by day of week and time), please also visit the Office of Student Services Academic Planning & Advising page on Sharknet.
LLM, MSL, and CSL students should consult degree-specific segments of the Catalog and meet with staff of Global Programs (LLM students) or the MSL Program (MSL and CSL students) for advising on course selection and degree/program requirements. HPL students should meet with HPL advisors if they have questions about the curriculum in that degree program, which is jointly offered with UCSF.
JD STUDENTS
When planning your personal curriculum, keep in mind that you must complete 86 units and six semesters in residence (subject to exceptions in the Academic Regulations), pass or otherwise receive required minimum grades in all required courses, and earn a cumulative grade point average of at least a 2.5 in order to receive a Juris Doctor degree. For students matriculating in Fall 2022, there is also a new professional development co-curricular requirement as described in Academic Regulation 708. The College reserves the right to modify the specific courses or minimum grades required for completion of a student's degree.
Please visit the Academic Planning & Advising page on Sharknet. On the site you will find information to help you plan your remaining semesters. You will also find detailed information regarding experiential opportunities, UC Law SF courses that cover subjects tested on the Bar Exam, and concentrations. The site is designed as a self-help resource. You may also wish to take your career ambitions into account when planning your course schedule. To aid you in that project, you can consult requirements for concentrations even if you do not plan to pursue a concentration, or can visit with faculty members with relevant subject matter expertise. You may also wish to consult with career advisors in the Career Development Office.
Information regarding the number of units a JD student can be enrolled in each semester can be found in the Academic Regulations. Please be sure you are reviewing the Academic Year 2024-2025 version of the Academic Regulations.
AN OVERVIEW
The practice of law is virtually unlimited in its breadth and diversity. The UC Law SF curriculum responds to that diversity by offering a large number of courses, including those that are fundamental to all forms of practice as well as those that reflect increased specialization. The first-year curriculum incorporates the fundamental courses best suited for introductory purposes. Students have the opportunity in the second and third years to take additional courses, seminars, and clinics, some of which have prerequisites. Accordingly, you should plan your schedule carefully to achieve an appropriate sequence and allow for the optimum selection of courses.
CHOOSING PARTICULAR COURSES
Your goal in planning a class schedule should be to select a combination of courses that will provide insight into several areas of substantive law, advocacy, and research. No single field of law can be understood or practiced to the exclusion of all others. And in practice, seemingly disparate fields of law intersect in ways that students often find surprising after they graduate. Thus, even though you may intend to specialize in a particular field, you should make additional selections outside that field to acquire the breadth of knowledge and variety of skills needed for effective representation of your clients. For example, a student interested in general private practice may wish to become familiar with subjects as diverse as administrative law, federal jurisdiction, family law, selected aspects of commercial and corporate law, taxation, criminal procedure, wills and trusts, consumer protection, and real property security.
Further, nearly all students should plan to take some courses that provide training in advocacy skills, even if they do not intend to pursue a litigation career, because those basic skills apply to many of a lawyer's functions. Much of the practice of law involves the important tasks of research and counseling, skills that are of equal applicability in any type of legal career. Courses that study those skills therefore are particularly pertinent.
The perfect combination of substantive courses is not easily predicted. Students who plan on a particular career while in law school frequently later find themselves deeply involved in fields, they once considered remote. Thus, criminal law practitioners are likely to find that their cases involve problems of tax law and accounting, while corporate lawyers may find a need for knowledge of fields such as labor, antitrust, legislation, and administrative law. These unforeseen changes in career needs and plans reinforce the benefits of designing a course schedule that spans many areas and provides a basis on which to practice in a variety of circumstances.
Bar examination requirements are described in a separate heading at the back of this book, and on the Bar Passage Support page on Sharknet. As discussed there, the designation of a course as “bar-tested” does not necessarily mandate you take it. However, our analyses suggest that each additional upper-division bar course taken by a student increases the probability of passing the Bar Exam. Also, many bar-tested subjects represent core legal competencies for nearly all lawyers, and others may be desirable on their own merits. Students contemplating JD-advantage careers or who are thinking of taking the bar exam in a state other than California may have special considerations when selecting classes.
All JD students are required to complete the JD First Year Curriculum, including taking in their second year either Constitutional Law I or a Statutory Course – whichever they did not elect to take in the spring 1L semester.
All JD students are required to take a course in professional responsibility or legal ethics, which is a subject tested both on the Essay portion of the bar examination and responsibility Exam (which, like the bar exam, is a licensing prerequisite) and to earn at least a C. In addition, all JD students are required to take Evidence, Criminal Procedure, and Constitutional Law II and must earn at least a C in each of these classes in order to graduate.
CHANGING YOUR MIND
A common experience among law students is that a significant change in their perceptions of law practice will occur sometime in the first two years of school. Students enter law school with varied—and sometimes inaccurate—impressions of the law, and later find that their perceptions of the content and work setting of various fields have been substantially influenced by course work and faculty members. Many students discover new areas of interest, which may displace other areas in which they previously had expected to be interested. Exposure to types of practice is affected further by placement interviews, externships and clinical placements, and part-time employment. Finally, interest in various types of work settings also is affected by each student's relative success in particular types of substantive courses, research experiences, and advocacy training. Don’t let this distress you. You should expect that your career plans may shift, sometimes dramatically, before graduation. You should try to maintain considerable breadth among the courses you choose, both to maximize the opportunity for change and broader exposure, and to explore specialized areas as your interests develop.
NARROWING THE CHOICES
Your greatest problem in planning your personal curriculum will be to reduce the number of courses to a feasible workload. Information on elective courses is set out under separate headings. Looking at those materials as they relate to the areas of study and practice described in this Catalog may provide some insights for that process.