Do not take this class. There is little to no organization other than the case assignments. Professor Orren assigns 5 cases a week for review and there is a quiz on 5 cases during the discussion period. Professor Orren has no slides and no recordings, she stands at a podium and just talks, sometimes it is related to the cases, other times it is not. If you are looking for any sort of guidance from her or the TA, do not. No hate to Professor Orren but she must retire.

I joined the class fairly late, in week three to find that the professor refused to record lectures since she felt it encouraged "laziness" and had no understanding for international students, let alone students that had work during her class times. I understand people should plan accordingly, but during the pandemic, most professors have recorded their lectures, so it was surprising to find that she refused to, especially her reason. Her lectures were often very confusing, she would have her notes out and would mostly talk at us and rarely wanted to be bothered with questions, towards the end of the quarter she was more open to them. She would go on tangents that rarely made sense, and loosely tied back into the actual text of the cases. Perhaps it was just her personality, but she sometimes came off rude and it was discouraging, at least for me. She requires cameras be on, if they are not, she will randomly call on you (this happened a few times). Participation in section is 25% of your grade, and its cold calling on five Supreme Court cases, this happens during section. The midterm is worth 25%, a written essay, two questions are offered, 75 minutes and on camera. The final is worth 50%, a written essay, two questions, and three-hours, on camera. We were assigned five Supreme Court cases (three would have been more reasonable) and had to know several details about the case to discuss in section. Our TA, Bradley, was spectacular. He was very helpful and straightforward, he gave meaningful feedback that would also challenge our intellect. He will be a great professor some day, I recommend taking him in section for Orren. Overall, I would not take this class again not because of the material, but because it granted me excessive stress and took away from the interesting aspects of the class. I give professor Orren the benefit of the doubt because of the format, I truly hope she has an easier time in spring 2021.

If you've already taken any undergrad law classes at UCLA, this class should be a breeze. There are no textbooks, just five case excerpts per week that you must read and basically know the ruling, what the court's basis for the ruling was, and how it fits into the weekly themes that are on the syllabus. There are also supplemental cases Orren talks about in class that provide background for the assigned reading. I highly recommend a laptop because Orren's lectures are very disorganized. I took notes by hand for the first couple weeks and it was a mess. Bought a Chromebook online for a hundred dollars and it was definitely worth it. There are five quizzes dispersed randomly throughout the quarter in section, and my TA was very helpful in tolerating my schedule outside of class. The midterm and final are both essays, but you get to choose one prompt out of three which makes them very easy. I would've gotten an A but I overslept for the final. Take this class if you're interested in going to law school and don't wanna blow your brains out in another class (any class Lebow teaches).

Her lectures are just her talking to herself in front of people. You have to be an extremely independent student to get through this class.