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Klick: Fall 2013 - Torts I: Section B (13001 : B)

Number of Enrollments: 51

Number of Responses: 41

Notes on Responses:

Question 1-7 responses are averages. The average is calculated by: Sum of all Responses / Total # of Responses

Question 8 is a percentage of the responses recommending the course. The percent calculated by: # of YES answers /Total # of Responses) * 100

Questions for: Torts I: Section B ( Klick: Fall 2013) Responses

1 Overall, how would you rate the quality of the class materials for Torts I: Section B? 3.08

2 Compared to other YLS classes, how much out-of-class preparation, reading, and writing does Torts I: Section B require? 2.19

3 How would you rate the professor(s)'s management of class discussions? 3.02

4 Overall, how would you rate the professor(s)'s responsiveness to student comments, questions and concerns? 3.95

5 How would you rate the professor(s)'s availability to students outside of class 4.11

6 Compared to other YLS classes, how valuable was in-class time in Torts I: Section B? 2.49

7 In your opinion, compared to other YLS professors you've had, how good a teacher was the professor(s)? 2.98

8 Would you recommend Torts I: Section B to other students? (% of YES responses) 55.56%

Comment(s)

I did not attend many torts classes, so my opinions may not be an accurate assessment of the class.That said, I appreciated how Professor Klick did not

cold call. Considering my other three 1L classes had cold calling, having one relaxed class was wonderful. I also liked his laid-back approach to attendance

- he basically left it up to us whether we attended class or not. The downside is that maybe only 1/3 of the class showed up to each lecture, and many

students did not keep up with the reading, leaving to awkwardness when he would ask about certain cases and few students raised their hands.As an

instructor, Professor Klick was very clear about explaining the facts and holdings of cases, and I liked his empirical approach to torts, especially since most

professors at YLS are more theoretical.

Klick was a really great professor. Unlike some of the other professors I have had, he was not arrogant at all, and seemed like a nice, normal person

(though obviously brilliant). We focused a lot on economic theory and empirical economics. Students had mixed reactions to this. Some thought we didn't

spend enough time on torts, whereas others thought that it was a good use of time given that most of us will not become torts lawyers in the future, and a

good understanding of the law and econ approach would serve us better long term. I fell into the second camp, and found class time to be very productive.

Class discussions were useful, and while Klick clearly looked at things from a law and econ point of view, he would also entertain other suggestions. The

only complaint I have about the course is the casebook. Lots of the topics were not very well-introduced and some of the doctrine was not very well-

explained. Overall, though, a great experience. I hope YLS hires Klick after this semester.

I loved Professor Klick. He covered the cases and doctrine, but also led interesting discussions of big-picture aspects of torts, and interesting empirical

studies. He always was very well-prepared for class, and managed to make the classroom atmosphere very relaxed and welcoming. If he were to teach

another class here, perhaps a small seminar, I would DEFINITELY take it with him.

Professor Klick was an engaging and kind professor. He taught Torts from a strongly law and economics perspective, and it was sometimes hard to learn

the black letter doctrine. This wasn't helped by the Epstein casebook. I also found myself wishing that we had covered the basics of torts in a shorter time

period, and then spent some time on current topics like mass environmental/human rights torts, products liability, multi-national corporations as

defendants, etc.

I don't feel that I learned the subject of torts well from this class. My major criticism was the lack of structure, which was made worse by the casebook.

Neither in class nor through the casebook did we ever get a good overview/outline of the doctrine of torts. We went in-depth in many areas of torts --

causation, duty, etc. -- but we had no framework to help bring these disparate areas together. The casebook mentions a framework very briefly, in a note

in Chapt-3. That type of framework seems essential for this subject, but it was also largely ignored during the class.I think Prof. Klick would have been

better served by introducing the course in a different way. The first few classes were less focused on tort law, andmore focused on economics and first

principles. He also made it clear that attendance was mandatory, and that he would not be learning our names. The combination of that attitude&the lack

of focus on the assigned materials/doctrine led many students to stop attending. After the first few classes I think the course got better, but many people

Yale Law School | YLS Course Evaluations

http://oce.law.yale.edu//CourseEvaluations_review.aspx?crn=13607&termCode=201303[4/28/2014 4:11:11 PM]

had already made up their minds not to attend.Class discussion was dominated by a handful of people presenting their ideas about various things, some

closely related to the material at hand, others further afield. I would have preferred class time to be more focused.We did learn to question / think

critically about the materials, which I think was valuable. But I think I would have gotten more out of the class if that had come second, after learning the

materials in a more structured way.

As a regular attendee of torts class, I think Professor Klick would be a great professor for a seminar class on empirical research or a law/econ theory class.

His approach to class, however, was not a good mesh for a credit/fail intro to torts class.

I think the single worst experience I have had at YLS so far is the realization that 2/3rds of my classmates deciding either that Torts is not an important

body of law for their future or that our Professor, a visiting scholar, was not worth their attention.Professor Klick is an exceptional teacher, his classes

were extremely fun and provocative, and I believe the dismal attendance is unfortunately more a reflection of the type of people we as students are than

the type of Professor that Prof. Klick is. I would not want to be a visiting professor teaching 1L fall after seeing how the majority of the our class decided to

spend a quarter of their first legal education opportunity. Professor Klick told us at the beginning of thesemester that he could not incentivize us the

normal way a professor could, since we are on a pass-fail system and since he was a visiting professor whose letter would carry comparatively less weight

than a tenured professor. He told us that the primary incentive for attending class would be desire to learn the law. Nearly 2/3rds of our classmates took

that to heart and did not show up for another class. If ever someone wanted to expose the flaw in the psyche of the YLS student body, I would pick this

class as a seminal example. This man is a brilliant professor, and the way our students treated the opportunity they had to learn from him was shameful.

It reminded me of 7th grade mathematics, where the driving force behind whether a student paid attention was their conviction of whether or not they

would have to "use math" in their future.On the flip side, I was basically awarded an extra seminar because of my classmates' failure. Having Professor

Klick for a semester was an exceptional counterpoint to the onslaught of qualitative review that inheres law school. In no other class were we as regularly

confronted with the practical failings of our theories, or the challenges that must be overcome to make the law work for the vast majority of its

participants.I thought Professor Klick did a sterling job teaching us torts, and an equally good job teaching us about societal interactions.

This class really focused on the economic theory behind torts. Professor Klick covered the doctrine, but it wasn't really the focus of the class. Some people

found this frustrating, but I really liked it. This is probably because I'm interested in empirical economics, something that is near and dear to Professor

Klick's heart (as most of class time was spent talking about this). The reading load was manageable, and I enjoyed most of the class discussion. Professor

Klick is very good at explaining both economic theory and black-letter tort - the only caveat is sometimes you have to prompt him to explain the black-

letter rules if he gives short shrift to them. He's also very responsive to questions, but sometimes I feel like he relies too much on discussion time (which

means he invites useless or irrelevant comments). Overall, I really liked Professor Klick's style of explanation and teaching, and I feel like I learned what I

needed to learn about torts as well as a lot of interesting other things. Some might call this superfluous, but going to lecture made me think, which I liked.

I thought Klick did a fine job of teaching the material, and gave helpful interpretations to the concepts behind the doctrine. The best part of the class was

easily whenever he would discuss his own empirical studies. He's also about as un-intimidating a professor as you could ask for, which perhaps worked to

his detriment, but for those of us who actually showed up, I thought he gave us a very good class.

I've been hearing some rumors going around that the poor attendance in this course was a negative reflection on Prof. Klick and his teaching. I cannot

speak for everyone, but for me and most of my classmates/friends, I don't think that's accurate. I'd say the poor attendance was instead a consequence of

students, at the busier times of the semester, cutting corners with the class which they felt would have the fewest consequences. For many of us, that was

Torts, since we didn't expect to be cold-called, or indeed evaluated on our in-class performance/attendance in any way. Plus, Torts is a non-sexy subject

for a lot of YLS students. I think it shouldn't be overlooked that Prof. Klick, in addition to his obvious academic achievement, has a more approachable

and down-to-earth demeanor than a lot of his colleagues, which is refreshing and much appreciated.

Professor acted like his class didn't really matter, so students followed that lead.

Klick was a great professor, torts is just a hard sell to YLS students.

I'm recommending this class because I think that in a lot of ways, Professor Klick got the raw end of the deal. At the beginning of the semester, he

intimated that class was optionalâwhile of course encouraging people to come, since they'd get more out of the course. Of course, many students decided

not to come to class as a result. I went to nearly all of the sessions, and while I don't think that this class was my best class, Klick is actually a fairly

engaging lecturer. He's pretty heavily into law and economics, and Torts may not be his best course, but I think that purely as a lecturer, he's actually

pretty good. There are definitely some things that may not have been as goodâclassroom management being foremost among thoseâbut all in all, I think if

he had set expectations differently (which, given this semester's experience, he would in future semesters), the class would have turned out much better.

Professor Klick is a nice guy, but he and I did not klick. My issue with him was that he would go on and on about first principles. I think the first time he

introduced some first principles issues to us was fine, but then it came up over and over again, and I felt like he was repeating himself. It got to the point

where I would just check e-mail or do something else on my computer during the class. Perhaps it would have helped if he had banned computers, but all

I know is that I definitely felt like it was more productive to get my own things done than listen to him. Another issue is that he would sometimes let

students control the discussion. I would have enjoyed the class much more if he focused more on the cases we had to readthan on general ideas of torts.

His examples from economic research were always welcome, but I think he might have sacrificed too much doctrine for discussions on economics.

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Yale Law School | YLS Course Evaluations

http://oce.law.yale.edu//CourseEvaluations_review.aspx?crn=13607&termCode=201303[4/28/2014 4:11:11 PM]