Intro and Seeking Advice for (Hopefully) Future Lawyer

[Kh Wolfgramm]

Hi all,

I'm a rising 2L at Yale Law School interested in working in the Real Estate practice group at a large law firm in Houston (exclusively commercial, representing buyer and lender sides). I've also started looking into residential real estate for my own investments. Along with reading the handful of books often recommended on this forum, I've also taken the core 1L curriculum which included Contracts and Property. I'm in the process of selecting classes for 2L. I have a couple questions for the attorneys who frequent this sub:

1. Any classes or subject areas that were particularly helpful in law school for REI? (secured transactions, federal tax, contract drafting, finance, etc)

2. For those with biglaw experience, how applicable was that training to building your own RE portfolio?

3. If I decide to pivot away from biglaw eventually, what are the practice areas related -- even tangentially -- that would be good for a solo practitioner? 

3a. How is the solo/small firm practice in Houston or other Texas markets?

4. Most directly applicable law school experience? (class, clinic, internship, research project, etc)

5. Any other advice/tips/experiences that you have!

Feel free to answer any/all of the above or chime in with additional thoughts and advice! 

[Ethan G.]

1. Any classes or subject areas that were particularly helpful in law school for REI? (secured transactions, federal tax, contract drafting, finance, etc).  All of those and anything related to real estate or real estate finance

2. For those with biglaw experience, how applicable was that training to building your own RE portfolio? Not applicable, probably detrimental to entrepreneurship/investing locally overall.

3. If I decide to pivot away from biglaw eventually, what are the practice areas related -- even tangentially -- that would be good for a solo practitioner?  Stuff that you won't learn in biglaw.

3a. How is the solo/small firm practice in Houston or other Texas markets?  Fragmented.

4. Most directly applicable law school experience? (class, clinic, internship, research project, etc) Rare that anything in law school is applicable to anything in real life, particularly a place like Yale.

5. Any other advice/tips/experiences that you have!

Feel free to answer any/all of the above or chime in with additional thoughts and advice!