Academic

So, the past six weeks I have branched out and done something I've always wanted to do:  I've taught bar review classes.  (Kaplan, if you're interested, but this isn't a plug.)  It's both freeing and limiting from a teaching aspect.  Merely lecturing is a breeze compared with leading a discussion or using the Socratic method.  However, sticking to "just the facts" is hard; sometime the "why" might help test-takers remember the rule, but it may just be extraneous to the task at hand.  I've also enjoyed re-entering the fascinating world of for-profit businesses for awhile and thinking about the intersection of pedagogy, product and competition.

As a Business Associations professor, teaching what is tested on the bar for Agency, Partnership and Corporations has been insightful.  I don't think I'll be rewriting my syllabus to mimic the bar review, but it was satisfying to know that the time I spend on agency is well-rewarded.  However, I do think that just thinking about legal entities for a semester may be helpful when trying to learn even "vestigial" doctrines for the first time, like the ultra vires doctrine and the de facto corporation doctrine.  Several times this month, a test-taker has expressed to me concern that he or she did not take any type of BA or Corporations class and wonders if this is a mistake and what to do now.

I took the bar so long ago I can barely remember the bar review, and there probably wasn't as much to learn.  I do know that I studied for topics that were unfamiliar to me:  Texas Oil & Gas, Georgia Civil Procedure.  But these topics were a little analogous to other topics like Property and Federal Civil Procedure.  Are the Business Associations topics so unlike other topics?  It may be that some topics are completely self-contained that one should either take them in law school or resign yourself to learning them over the summer or play the percentages.  From talking to test-takers and bar review professionals, it sounds like Wills & Estates may also be hard to grasp in a day or two if you didn't think about it for a semester.

(Of course, this is all academic because everyone should take BA.)