I had Mendelson for leg reg and loved her! She is thorough and makes concepts really clear. She teaches with a powerpoint and lectures with some cold calls throughout (I had her in person but I imagine this would be the same over zoom).
However, two caveats. First, if you’ve developed a learning style where it’s important for you to have your notes on your laptop in class, beware that her no-laptop policy is absolute. Some professors with the “41” footnote are willing to make exceptions. She is not, and it negatively impacted my learning in to the point where I regret taking the class from her.
Second, she always assigns more reading than she can cover in class (up to 50 pages a day), and then rolls over whatever she doesn’t cover into the next day. This can be annoying if you are taking a heavy course load.
A delightful human being. A few shortcomings as a professor: as others have mentioned, she assigns far too much reading and then doesn’t keep up with the syllabus; she can be soft-spoken so may not always be the most entertaining, but her passion for the subject matter is unmistakable; and she occasionally seems out of touch with how students are currently relating to this highly political subject matter, but she is definitely open minded and receptive. An underrated strength as a professor: she’s incredibly supportive of student research (of all kinds) and will give you really thorough feedback and/or point you toward other helpful resources.
I took Admin Law with Professor Mendelson and loved it. As another commentor stated, she’s very clear; there’s no hiding the ball in terms of what the black letter law or the test she expects you to apply on the exam is. On top of that, I think she does a good job engaging with the practical realities of the doctrine. I found her to be an engaging lecturer and the class was much more interesting than I expected.
I had Professor Mendelson for Environmental Law and she is one of the most underrated professors at this school. She’s extremely knowledgable, prepared, and respectful. She isn’t exactly a charismatic teacher, but she isn’t boring, either. She’s just her. Her office hours are very accessible. Her PowerPoints are short, but helpful when studying. You know before class if you are “on call,” and her cold calls usually don’t require doing the reading, anyway. She does assign a little more reading than other professors, but it’s not really that big of a deal, and certainly not inappropriate for a literal top ten law school. I’d recommend reviewing all of her practice/past exams before the final, because our final had some similar issues as prior finals. The final was four hours, with two issue-spotters (80%) and one policy question (20%).
You should take her classes and are losing out if you don’t. She’s simply an excellent teacher (look at her ratings on Atlas!).
MLaw Prof Reviews
I had Mendelson for leg reg and loved her! She is thorough and makes concepts really clear. She teaches with a powerpoint and lectures with some cold calls throughout (I had her in person but I imagine this would be the same over zoom).
Mendelson is great in the classroom.
However, two caveats. First, if you’ve developed a learning style where it’s important for you to have your notes on your laptop in class, beware that her no-laptop policy is absolute. Some professors with the “41” footnote are willing to make exceptions. She is not, and it negatively impacted my learning in to the point where I regret taking the class from her.
Second, she always assigns more reading than she can cover in class (up to 50 pages a day), and then rolls over whatever she doesn’t cover into the next day. This can be annoying if you are taking a heavy course load.
A delightful human being. A few shortcomings as a professor: as others have mentioned, she assigns far too much reading and then doesn’t keep up with the syllabus; she can be soft-spoken so may not always be the most entertaining, but her passion for the subject matter is unmistakable; and she occasionally seems out of touch with how students are currently relating to this highly political subject matter, but she is definitely open minded and receptive. An underrated strength as a professor: she’s incredibly supportive of student research (of all kinds) and will give you really thorough feedback and/or point you toward other helpful resources.
I took Admin Law with Professor Mendelson and loved it. As another commentor stated, she’s very clear; there’s no hiding the ball in terms of what the black letter law or the test she expects you to apply on the exam is. On top of that, I think she does a good job engaging with the practical realities of the doctrine. I found her to be an engaging lecturer and the class was much more interesting than I expected.
I had Professor Mendelson for Environmental Law and she is one of the most underrated professors at this school. She’s extremely knowledgable, prepared, and respectful. She isn’t exactly a charismatic teacher, but she isn’t boring, either. She’s just her. Her office hours are very accessible. Her PowerPoints are short, but helpful when studying. You know before class if you are “on call,” and her cold calls usually don’t require doing the reading, anyway. She does assign a little more reading than other professors, but it’s not really that big of a deal, and certainly not inappropriate for a literal top ten law school. I’d recommend reviewing all of her practice/past exams before the final, because our final had some similar issues as prior finals. The final was four hours, with two issue-spotters (80%) and one policy question (20%).
You should take her classes and are losing out if you don’t. She’s simply an excellent teacher (look at her ratings on Atlas!).