OLDFall 2022 Law School Course Evaluations

sessions clarified a lot of the issues with the class, and the midterm showed us clearly what she is looking for on the final. The TA, Nathan, enhanced my learning. If it was not for him, I think I would have struggled a lot more. Overall, this class with Burstein was unorganized and there was not a good learning atmosphere. Questions at times felt discouraged which was not good, especially for 1L. I think the TA sessions were extremely helpful and helped clarify any questions that I had. I feel that our TA basically taught our class, was there for us when we were frustrated and confused and actually wanted us to succeed. I thought the textbook and our teaching assistant helped enhance my learning because both sources help explained the material required for this course. The way that Prof. Burstein goes through cases helped with the way that I analyze cases. She goes through the case in a story-like manner and I found that this helped with understanding the process of how judges came to their decision. She asks a lot of questions in cold calls, which can be nerve-wracking, but overall effective to think of different perspectives of the cases and think in a different legal manner Unfortunately, I, like a lot of my classmates, feel completely lost, even though we tried very hard to understand the material. I always leaved more confused and with more questions. The teaching assistant is definitely helping us the most when it comes to enhancing our learning. There is no doubt Professor Bustein is absolutely brilliant and a top attorney. However I feel as though I haven’t learned anything in the class, even if I try very hard. I review, I do all of the readings, I study the TA’s slides. But the material is not being conveyed properly in class. During this year, I have taught myself civil procedure and use the TA as my other source. The classes were mainly reading more than 20 pages and instead of focusing on the importance of the rules and how they could apply to different facts. She will hard very hard questions to students on cold calls by focusing on facts that really have nothing to do with a civil procedure class. The review sessions really helped me tie all of the pieces together The review sessions with our TA I do not think Professor Burstein was an effective educator for this particular subject. I am sure she is a wonderful patent law professor, but I found her civil procedure class disorganized. She responded to questions in a hostile and at times borderline disrespectful manner, most notably at our mock midterm review where it appeared that much of the class was confused and Professor Burstein was not responsive to feedback or questions from students, and was defensive . Her slides are unhelpful (photos only essentially), and in many classes she flew through the material, ending up to 1 hour early. She appears to become frustrated by questions yet flies through material. As someone who was looking forward the most to civil procedure given my professional background, I was very disappointed.

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