What courses should law students take if they want to boost their employment chances?

Three Harvard Law School professors have conducted a survey among 11 law firms that are historically the biggest employers of HLS graduates, asking what courses at Harvard students should take.

The results are of interest both for Harvard LL.M. students (given that most of a Harvard LL.M. student’s program will be drawn from the regular Harvard Law School curriculum) and for law students and LL.M. candidates in general.

The authors summarize the study’s outcome as follows:

The most salient result is that students were strongly advised to study accounting and financial statement analysis, as well as corporate finance. These subject areas were viewed as particularly valuable, not only for corporate/transactional lawyers, but also for litigators. Intriguingly, non-traditional courses and skills, such as business strategy and teamwork, are seen as more important than many traditional courses and skills.

In the are of business methods courses, the most highly recommended choices were:

1. Accounting and Financial Reporting
2. Corporate Finance
3. Negotiation Workshop
4. Business Strategy for Lawyers
5. Analytical Methods for Lawyers
6. Leadership in Law Firms
7. Statistical Analysis/Quantitative Analysis

The most useful Business/Commercial/Finance courses were:

1. Corporations
2. Mergers & Acquisitions
3. Securities Regulation
4. Capital Market Regulation
5. Securities Litigation
6. Corporate Taxation
7. Bankruptcy/Corporate Reorganization
8. Antitrust
9. Secured Transactions
10. Individual Taxation
11. International Finance
12. International Investment Law
13. Insurance Law
14. International Trade

Outside the are of business law, the following courses were most recommended:

1. Evidence
2. IP
3. Federal Courts
4. Administrative Law
5. Patent Law
6. Conflicts of Law
7. Copyright Law
8. Employment Law
9. Constitutional Law (Separation of Powers)
10. Labor Law
11. Constitutional Law (First Amendment)
12. Environmental Law

The full survey, entitled “What Courses Should Law Students Take? Harvard’s Largest Employers Weigh In” can be downloaded from SSRN.

 

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