Should I take business law during law school for the bar exam?

[fruitjam]

Hey everyone! I'm still in 2L but as a ~constant worrier~, I've been thinking of ways to maximize my success for the bar exam. I was wondering if I should take business law in my 3L to understand the concepts for the bar exam or if it's feasible for someone without a business background to learn the rules during bar prep. For context, I couldn't even tell you what securities are :') (I know, I'm actually clueless).

[LMP]

Hundreds of people pass every year having never done a single business law class. 

I'm actually reading through that section of the bar matierals right now and it all seems fine. If you're interested take it, but don't do it for the bar.

[Dinsdale]

I am old school, so I believe all law students should take basic business law (and tax, and evidence, and remedies, and family, and wills, and employment -- probably others).  It's part of a basic legal education.  Having said that, business law is fairly statute-based so it is probably one of the easier ones to "teach yourself" if you have to go that route.  Lots of books on the topic.

[Turtles]

I never understood the impetus to take a specific class for bar prep purposes given how differently certain subjects may be taught by a particular prof. My business associations course was fairly policy-based with little focus on any bar-tested content (academic led). In contrast, we covered a lot of the bar-related "what does the Act require for X to happen?" type stuff in an unrelated seminar (adjunct led). If you have no intrinsic interest, you would have come out of the former class pretty disappointed to find you just put in so many hours to be nowhere closer to your goal of learning the bar content.

But I agree everyone should be taking some business law in law school. Even if you're not working in corporate law, you'll likely be running a business at some point in your career.

[Psychometronic]

I took a few classes covered in the Bar Exams but not all of them. You'll learn what you need to know from the Bar materials and the exams themselves are mostly about how fast you can find information in the materials anyways. The courses I took helped a bit in that I went in somewhat already oriented to the subject matter. With that said, Real Estate was completely different in the Bar materials than what I learned in class (far more emphasis on the practical and less on legal principles). 

[SNAILS]

I did not take a business law course (at Osgoode: "Business Associations"), and I do somewhat regret it for the bar exam. It's not going to make me fail the Solicitor's Exam or anything, but it means that I have to read that section of the prep materials a bit more closely, and probably review it a second time.

Echoing what @Dinsdale wrote, I do believe every student should cover the basics in 2L/3L which for me included Family Law, Real Estate, Wills and Estates, Employment Law, Evidence, and Criminal Procedure. I could see Tax Law being considered an essential as well, but for me, I considered it to be unnecessarily difficult and specialized for a person with no intent to practice in that field.

If you have a pretty firm idea what field of law might interest you as a career, I would suggest picking several courses in that area. For me, I chose some Criminal Law Related courses. 

[fruitjam]

I was only able to read your responses today (cause of exams). Thank you so much, everyone, for your input! I'll take business law in my 3L 🙂