Advice About this Path

Email Dan Thompson  Dean of Students

Email Sally Zusman 

Help Using Pathways

The Minnesota Bar exam tests the subjects listed below in the essay and multiple-choice portion[s] of the exam. We offer the accompanying list of “bar courses” for your information. We recommend that you take as many bar coureses as possible, but it is ultimately up to you to decide how many of these courses to take.  If you want to make bar preparation a priority, the General Bar Preparation Pathway will help you plan. 

Subject Tested Comparable William Mitchell Course(s)
Civil Procedure Civil Procedure
Constitutional Law  Constitutional Law–Powers and Liberties
Contracts Contracts
Criminal Law Criminal Law
Criminal Procedure Criminal Procedure
Ethics and PR Professional Responsibility
Evidence Evidence
Family Law Family Law
Federal Individual
Income Taxation 		Taxation-Income Tax
Partnerships, Proprietorships
& Corps.		 Business Organizations OR
Business-Agency, Partnerships, and LLCs
  and Business-Corporations
Real Property Property I and Property II
Torts Torts I and Torts II
Uniform Commercial Code, Art. 1, 2 UCC-Sales
Wills, Estates and Trusts Estates and Trusts
Bar Preparation Strategies Bar Preparation Strategies

Some helpful information about this curriculum guide

All of the required first-year courses (including Property I and II) are also bar courses.  Because we assume that you will take those courses at the normal time we have not included them in the curriculum guide.  They do appear in the sample schedules linked to the curriculum guide, however. Here are some guidelines to help you determine when you should begin thinking about courses not listed in the curriculum guide: 

  • Bar courses that serve as prerequisites to other bar courses, or that tend to serve as prerequisites for a larger number of other electives, are listed as courses to consider in the first semester of the bar preparation pathway. 
  • Courses that have other courses as prerequisites, or that tend to serve as prerequisites for relatively fewer other elective courses, are listed in the second semester of the bar preparation pathway. 

Bar Preparation

Of course, you are free to take any course earlier than suggested if you are particularly interested in the course or it best fits into your schedule. We have also included general reminders to consider clinics and other skills courses, comparative and international law courses, and small group seminars as you plan for upper-level electives.

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