Recommended Courses

While there are no formal pre-requisite courses for law school, the American Bar Association has identified the following core skills that will help you be successful in law school and your future legal career:

• Problem Solving: Engages critical thinking about important issues, challenges beliefs, and/or improves tolerance for uncertainty and criticism.
• Critical Reading: Requires close reading and critical analysis of complex textual materials of substantial length.
• Writing and Editing: Requires rigorous and analytical writing, including preparing original pieces of substantial length and revising written work in response to constructive criticism.
• Oral Communication and Listening: Involves engaging in debate and/or making formal presentations.
• Research: Requires significant library research and the analysis of large amounts of information obtained from that research.
• Organization and Management: Requires preparation and assimilation of large amounts of information in an effective and efficient manner, this includes research and writing and preparing reports and presentations.
• Public Service and Promoting Justice: Service, equity and/or improving fairness and the quality of justice in our legal system.
• Relationship Building and Collaboration: Collaborative work aimed at achieving a shared goal.
• Background Knowledge: This includes a broad understanding of societal factors, basic math and financial skills, and an understanding of human behavior and culture.
• Exposure to the Law: Builds greater familiarity with the legal system - its institutions, concepts and vocabulary.

UC courses that help you build these skills are listed below. To learn more about these courses and when they are offered, please visit the Course Catalog.