OLDFall 2022 Law School Course Evaluations

typically would arrive at the end of the lecture 30-50 minutes early. Civil Procedure is a lot to consume, and speeding through each topic and reading directly from the book and rules so that we are left with a half hour to ask questions on material we just blew through is not effective. This instructor was rude and condescending. She wasted precious learning time by discussing personal topics completely unrelated to the coursework. When asked if she would be providing extra study materials or mock quizzes for us to gauge our understanding in practice, she said "No." and moved on to discussing patents. When giving us the mock midterm she refused to even explain the rubric she would be using to grade them, let alone show us an outline. If I ever had a question, I would go to the TA because his explanation, patience, and understanding made the material 100% more digestible and he broke it down in incredibly simple ways so that I was able to learn the material. If every professor had been the same as this one, I would have left Suffolk law school by now. I do not think Professor Burstein should be teaching Civil Procedure. I feel that I am paying far too much money to attend class and get absolutely nothing out of it. I am lucky to have great professors in all of my other classes who are able to bolster what I have learned from each reading during class time. That is not the case in Professor Burstein ' s class. Students leave confused and upset after every class period. The midterm was extremely disorganized and unhelpful. Professor Burstein specifically told us not to worry about or read the section of our textbook regarding state court venue and subject matter jurisdiction. She said the law varies from state to state so we would just be focusing on federal court. We show up to the midterm and the hypo is in state court, not federal. During the midterm review, she told us she expected us to write "We did not learn about state court" on the midterm in order to get points on that section. I have never in my life had to write on an exam that I do not know something in order to get points. That is absurd. After the midterm review, Professor Burstein told us to give her back the syllabus which we had just written notes all over to review for the final. After seeing the panicked look on people ' s faces, she reluctantly agreed to let us keep it, although she was visibly angry. I understand that in law school, many questions do not have a "yes" or "no" answer. Professor Burstein has explained that to us a few times as if we are stupid because people were complaining that she wasn ' t answering their questions. But people are not asking yes or no questions. People ask her to give an example of something she is teaching, or a hypothetical, or just some clarity, and she is never able to answer those questions. Sometimes she even answers questions incorrectly, or if someone asks her to clarify the meaning of something, she simply tells them "page 575." We know what is on page 575 because we read it before class. We want to know what it means and would like our professor to teach it to us. There have been times where Professor Burstein has asked us not to come to see her in office hours unless we have waited a week to see if we can figure it out, or ask the TA for help first. There has also been a time where she sent us an email saying that we

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