Pre-Registration

Before Pre-Registration begins ensure that you do not have any holds on your student account as these can prevent you from participating in Pre-Registration. Check your hold status via Student Services Online (SSOL), where you will find guidance on the types of holds that will prevent Pre-Registration when placed on a student’s record:

The first step in Pre-Registration is to identify the courses you might want to take.

Up-to-date course information can be found in the course guide. Course evaluations are available in LawNet under "Course Evaluation Reports."

Once you perform a search you have two options for saving the course information: create an excel spreadsheet or create a "favorite courses" by clicking the heart icon next to the next course (you will need to log in.) You will also be able to access it. For the latter, this information will be in LawNet when you add courses to your Pre-Registration choices

JDs should also review their Degree Requirement Status (DRS) Report in LawNet.

You can only rank lectures and seminars during Pre-registration. All other courses can be manually registered by Registration Services (with the appropriate permissions) or registered during Add/Drop via Digital Registration forms.

Pre-Registration is NOT time-sensitive. You can change your selections at any time during the Pre-Registration period.

Once you log into LawNet, select ‘Pre-Registration.' You will then have three options for identifying courses to add to your Pre-Registration choices:

• Browse all available courses – this will show you all the semester courses;
• Add from My Favorites – this will show you all the semester courses you identified as your favorites in the Curriculum Guide
• Search courses – this enables you to reproduce the search functionality of the Curriculum Guide.

Identifying Primary and Alternate Choices

The Lottery will try to register you for up to 15 points of academic credit (notwithstanding the Clinics, Externships, permission courses and Journals into which you have been accepted) and you can pre-register for multiple courses up to these maximums:

• 3Ls and LLMs – can pre-register for up to 6 primary and 6 alternate courses
•  2Ls – can pre-register for up to 8 primary and 8 alternate courses
• The lottery can register you for primary course choice and alternate course choice
• The lottery can waitlist you for your primary course choice only. 

Adding Primary and Alternate Choices

Having added one primary course choice to your Pre-Registration selection, you can continue to add primary and alternate courses up to the limits based on your class standing:

• 3Ls and LLMs – can pre-register for up to 6 primary and 6 alternate courses
•  2Ls – can pre-register for up to 8 primary and 8 alternate courses

Primary course choices:

• To add – click on the green plus button to add a new course
• To change the order of priority of a primary choice – click on the course box and drag it above or below other classes on your Pre-Registration List

Alternative course choices:

• To add – click ‘add alternative’ option in the primary course box
• To change the order of priority of an alternate choice – click “delete” to remove the course from the relevant primary course choice and add it to a different primary course choice by clicking “add an alternate”.

You can continue to add, move, and delete primary and alternate course choices until the close of Pre-Registration. At that time, your Pre-Registration choices will be finalized and you can access the record through LawNet.

The Lottery was established by the Faculty of Law Resolution on the Allocation of Scarce Instructional Resources and all students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with these rules. Simply stated, the Lottery assigns class registrations on the basis of student preference and class standing (i.e. 2L, 3L, or LLM), along with a randomly assigned Lottery number. 

There are four possible outcomes for each of the steps identified below:

1. A student is registered in their primary choice and not waitlisted for their alternate choice; OR
2. A student is waitlisted for their primary choice and registered for their alternate choice; OR
3. A student is waitlisted for their primary choice and not registered for their alternate choice because no seats are available; OR
4. A student is neither registered nor waitlisted for their primary or alternate choice because the student has been registered for a higher ranked course that meets at the same time.

Because an individual student’s chance of being registered for any individual class is dependent upon both the randomly assigned lottery number AND the expressed preferences of other students, no lottery outcome is guaranteed and so you should focus on what is in your control:

• (JDs) If a course has a pre-requisite and you have a written waiver from the instructor (i.e. email permission), please forward it to our office [email protected], so we can manually add the course to your rankings.
•  (JDs) If a course has a co-requisite, you must first add the co-requisite to your rankings and then email [email protected], so we can manually add the course to your rankings.

(LLMs) It is strongly recommended that you check with the instructor to ensure you have the requisite knowledge, but a pre- or co-requisite will not prevent you from pre-registering for a course.

Because Professional Responsibility (PR) is a graduation requirement for JD students and necessary for LLMs who must cure deficiency for the NY Bar Exam, there is a special lottery for PR in the fall.

Fall Pre-Reg Mini-lottery:

• Open to 3Ls and LLMs only (2Ls can add PR to their general Pre-Registration selection of courses)
• Both fall and spring PR courses are included
• All PR courses must be ranked in order of preference

Steps

1. Log in to LawNet Select "PR Lottery" under the "Registration Services" Menu
2. Click on the plus sign to add your PR course and confirm via the pop-up on your screen.
3. Once you select ‘OK’ your PR Registration is complete.

Note: You will be able to adjust your general Pre-Registration choices on the basis of the PR Lottery result. You will also be able to change your PR registration during Add/Drop.

Because Legislation and Regulation (LegReg) is a graduation requirement for JD students, there is a special lottery for LegReg in the fall.

Fall Pre-Reg Mini-lottery:

• Open to 3Ls ONLY
• Both fall and spring LegReg courses are included
• All LegReg courses must be ranked in order of preference

Steps

• Log in to LawNet Select "LegReg Lottery" under the "Registration Services" Menu
• Click on the plus sign to add your LegReg course and confirm via the pop-up on your screen.
• Once you select ‘OK’ your LegReg Registration is complete.

Note: You will be able to adjust your general Pre-Registration choices on the basis of the LegReg Lottery result. You will also be able to change your LegReg registration during Add/Drop.