Fed Court or T&E

[u/Little_Estimate4939]

Need advice on whether I should keep fed courts (the class) or trusts and estates.

T&E would be the lighter lift and will help me for the Feb 2026 bar. Fed courts is notoriously hard and has all of the gunners.

Not sure if I want to clerk. Will be going to big law after grad (litigation).

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[u/alandbeforetime]

If there’s any chance you want to clerk, take Fed Courts. Otherwise, doesn’t matter.

[u/Cool-Brick5806]

Fed courts is probably the most illuminating course you can take in law school—it’s incredibly edifying and I’d recommend taking it

T&E might not even come up on the bar and it’s not hard to learn what you need to for the bar.

That you may want to clerk only makes the decision more obvious.

[u/mookiexpt2 → u/Cool-Brick5806]

Federal Jurisdiction (what my school called Federal Courts) is probably my second-most used class in practice after Civil Procedure. And it might be first—it increased my understanding of Civ Pro by a lot.

I’ve used Dead Law exactly once. Ironically while clerking for a federal judge.

[u/FoxWyrd]

Fed Courts is probably the best class I've taken, not in law school, just in general.

I don't think I went into that class a single day feeling prepared despite reading for it like I was still in 1L and I don't think I ever left it feeling like, "Wow, I really understand what's going on. I've got this." It was a monster from the first day until the last day. There were numerous points at which I questioned if I was just too dumb to be in the class.

I wasn't too dumb; the class is just really hard. I heard someone describe it as the "Law school of law school" and that's not an unfair description.

If you have even the faintest interest in the theory behind Con Law or Civ Pro, I'd take it and not look back TBH.

[u/TPDC545]

Can you take Fed Courts Pass/Fail? If you've got an offer locked in then P/F shouldn't be an issue. If you're doing Big Law litigation it will definitely be more useful than a lot of your law school classes, and certainly more useful than T&E.

And I wouldn't expect classes to help you THAT much on the bar, you're likely getting a bar prep course paid for by your firm and the T&E section of that course is going to be plenty to get you ready for the bar.

What's a little more concerning than the classes is hearing you're sitting for the bar in February and whether the fall semester classes are going to cut into your bar prep time.

[u/JusticeBrennanBurner → u/TPDC545]

I disagree — there are some classes I really wish I took when I was studying for the bar. Even with a bar prep course, it makes studying much easier and less stressful.

To OP’s point, I would say that fed courts is also immensely helpful for the bar and it gets you familiar with some really nuanced areas of constitutional law that also happen tested on the bar exam. When I took it, there was an essay that made me very thankful I took fed courts.

I’d take fed courts independent of that because it’s genuinely a very interesting class, but it’s definitely difficult and will force you to come in prepared every class.