Boston College Law School offers a wide variety of programs to ensure all students achieve their academic potential. Our programs begin from the time of admission to the law school and continue through admission to the bar.
Our goal is to promote positive learning strategies and help students develop the skills essential to success in law school and as a practicing attorney. We provide courses, workshops and individual coaching that furthers meaningful engagement with course materials inside and outside of the classroom.
Services We Offer
While many of our programs are geared to the special challenges first year students face as they adjust to law school, we provide a variety of offerings for students throughout their years at BC Law.
Our Services
- Lawyering Fundamentals: A pre-orientation course offered in August that offers a realistic preview of the law school classroom experience and gives incoming 1Ls the opportunity to practice key skills and get substantive feedback on writing and legal analysis before the semester begins. The course is designed to support a smooth transition from typical undergraduate thought processes and study habits to lawyer-like thinking, reasoning, analysis, and problem solving.
Peer Coach Drop-In Hours
EW Room 335 A & B
Monday - Friday 12:00-1:30 pm
Students can also book an appointment with any one of our six Peer Coaches for help with study skills, including case briefing, note taking, outlining and exam preparation. These successful law students are here to help and provide advice from the perspective of someone who has recently survived the 1L year and developed superior study habits. Our peer coaches can be reached at aspeercoaches@bc.edu.
1L 101 Workshop Series
Our Director of Academic Success, Nina Farber, leads this series of interactive workshops in the fall semester. It is designed to help students transition to legal education and develop skills critical to law school success. Topics include:
- Case Reading & Briefing
- Outlining
- Exam Writing
Peer Coach Panels
Our six Academic Peer Coaches lead a variety of informal panels on topics including time management, best practices for the law school classroom, creating attack outlines, choosing 1L electives and life after the 1L year.
The Academic Success Canvas page is a “go to” resource for all students. It includes:
- Tip sheets: Helpful tutorials on topics such as:
Class preparation
Notetaking
Outlining
Exam preparation
Time management
Wellness - Guides to law school study aids and recommended reading lists
- Slides and videos from past workshops
- Bar admission Information
- Bar prep resources
Already enrolled? Login
Legal Analysis for Practice: This course focuses on critical legal analysis skills that support development throughout law school as well as in practice. Students have multiple opportunities for hands-on practice of these skills through realistic assignments typical of the responsibilities of beginning lawyers. The small class size allows for regular, individual feedback to help students learn how to evaluate their work and continually improve.
Bar Strategies Course: This course provides second semester third year students who plan to sit for the Bar exam early preparation for the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), and the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). The course helps students hone legal analysis skills, practice test performance techniques and develop the strategic mindset necessary for success on the Bar Exam.
Book an appointment with Nina Farber for counseling regarding the bar application process, your character and fitness application, or bar exam preparation.
-
Meet Nina Farber
Prior to joining Boston College Law School as Director of the Academic Success Programs, Nina Farber had a diverse career as a law professor and in private practice. She was an Assistant Professor of Legal Writing at Brooklyn Law School and also taught advanced writing courses at Northeastern University School of Law and Stockholm University, where she was a Fulbright Specialist. In addition to teaching, she regularly presents at conferences throughout the United States on legal writing and academic success pedagogy and has given workshops to international students at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Spain and the University of Lyon in France. Before joining academia, she was an attorney at the law firms of Allegaert, Berger & Vogel LLP and Patterson, Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, both in New York. Her practice areas included complex litigation arising out of the 2008 financial crisis, as well as pharmaceutical, employment and death penalty litigation. She clerked for the Hon. James R. Browning on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Hon. Edward R. Korman on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn Law School where she was the valedictorian of her law school class.