Picking the right law school courses requires some strategy. A lot of your curriculum will be set in stone for you. In fact, during your first year of law school, it is set in stone. You will have your 1L requirements (contracts, criminal law, property, torts, constitutional law, legal writing, etc.).
You will have more freedom your second year of law school. Yes, you will still have graduation requirements, such as trusts and estates, corporations, evidence, and other subjects that you must know in order to pass the bar (remember that law schools want high bar passage rates). However, you will have the freedom to take elective courses and, if you have picked the right school, clinics.
The key to rising to the top of applicants at public defender agencies, even before your public defender interview, is knowing what to take and when.
WHAT LAW SCHOOL COURSES SHOULD I TAKE?
I always feel bad for law students when they come in for their one-on-one interview, or even their phone screening, and they sheepishly acknowledge that they haven’t taken courses that I believe are critical to being a successful intern or first year attorney.
This is more of a problem for intern candidates because by the time you get to your third year of law school and are interviewing for staff attorney positions, you have taken pretty much everything.
So what are those courses you must take as soon as possible? Here they are:
- Professional Responsibility (AKA Ethics)
- Evidence
- Criminal Procedure (AKA Con Crim)
- Trial Practice (AKA Trial Skills)
WHEN SHOULD I TAKE THESE LAW SCHOOL COURSES?
It always pains me to hear a law student say “I figured I would wait until my 3L year to take ethics or evidence. Why would you wait???? If you are applying for a 2L summer internship, in many states you will be able to represent clients under law student practice rules. See:
Under these student practice rules you may need certain law courses under your belt. And even if you don’t need all four courses, your interviewer at the public defender will want to seem them on your transcript.
Why You Need To Take These Courses
How can you be entrusted to appear before the court, as an officer of the court, representing another human being? You take ethics for starters. Ethics is about learning the rules set forth by the American Bar Association (ABA). Most of those rules have been adopted, in whole or in part, by state supreme courts.
Without evidence and criminal procedure, how can you effectively represent a client in court?
No reputable public defender agency is going to throw you into court without any training. And student practice rules require that you have a supervising attorney. You will get some training before you go into court, but it is not new lawyer training. It’s crash course intern training. If you don’t go into that summer with those critical courses under your belt and in your brain, you will sink. You probably won’t get an offer to begin with.
Last but not least, trial skills. I am not talking moot court; though that is also a good idea as you will have opportunities to get on your feet in a simulated courtroom and further develop your in court advocacy skills.
What you need to take is a trial skills course. They are usually half a semester and will be taught by a former judge or current trial attorney. Here is an example of the kind of course I am talking about: Trial Practice Course
You walk into your 2L summer internship interview with the ability to say “I will have taken Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Professional Responsibility, and Trial Practice” by the end of my 2L year, you are going to stand out. As an interviewer, that tells me this student not only wants to become a public defender, but they understand what skills are needed for the job.
Stay Focused
Now, I know that you may have other interests, such as immigration, international law, environmental law, and human rights. This is all good stuff and if you can, you should certainly take such law school courses. It will make you a better public defender, (especially if you take a course on immigration law!). But don’t take these courses at the expense of the four critical courses I have outlined above.
If your goal, your focus, is becoming a public defender, then your selection of courses and the timing of that selection, speaks volumes to your commitment to that goal. It also puts you in a position where you will be able to get your foot in the door at a public defender agency through an internship.
CLINICS AND CO-OPS
As you finish up your 2L year and start thinking about your third and final year of law school, it is time to think about clinics. What are clinics?
Law school clinics are half or full year programs where law students practice law in one particular area. There are prosecutor clinics, intellectual property clinics, landlord-tenant clinics, and most importantly for you, criminal defense clinics.
These clinics are vital to you obtaining a staff attorney position with a public defender agency. Especially a position in a highly ranked program, such as those in Washington D.C., New York City, Colorado, and New Hampshire.
Think about, being in a clinic is like having a year long internship where you are in the officer reading discovery, meeting with clients, devising an investigation, devising plan of defense, and importantly, in court experience. If I don’t see a clinic on your resume, you are going to inevitably have a harder time getting in front of the applicants who do.
Pick The Right Law School!
If you are reading this prior to choosing which law school you plan on attending, I have two(ish) things to say to you. First, AMEN. I am so glad that you landed on this site and want to, or at least are thinking about becoming a public defender. Second, try to pick a law school which a strong criminal defense clinical program. Here is an example.
Some schools that so not have clinical programs, may have an externship or co-op program that would place with with a local public defender’s office for a semester. Having a co-op, perhaps preferred over an externship, at a reputable public defender agency, is of equal merit on a number of important levels, as a clinic. In fact, one of the best public defenders I know was the product of this co-op program.
Beyond clinical programs, I have found at least one law school that has a faculty sponsored program. to help mentor students who may want to become public defenders.
You Got This!
At the end of the day, this is not easy stuff. You have a lot on your mind entering your first year of law school and setting up your schedule for the next two years and doing so in a strategically advantageous manner can be tough.
If you have any questions about this, or anything else for that matter, send me a message!
Down the road I will have consulting services available for cover letter writing, resume composition, and interview preparation. While that service is being constructed, I will do my best to answer your individual questions. And the best part? It’s free! (of course, donations to keep this site running are always accepted).
