LAWS 8550
Trial Practice · 8 instructors on record · 26 sections
That is the class itself, averaged across everyone who taught it. Who taught it, and how each of them scored, is the board below — that is what a student picking a section is actually choosing between.
Boston College's own “intellectually challenging” question for this class only — students answer it positively about courses that stretched them, so it measures intellectual challenge and NOT grading, workload or quality. Almost every BC class scores high on it, which is why it is shown as a rank rather than a score.
Boston College reports workload for this class only as one of five bands, not as a number of hours, and it does not publish what the bands mean — so this site will not translate it into hours. Higher means more work, which is not the same as worse.
There are several sections of trial practice, which are taught by adjunct faculty who are judges or practitioners. Each instructor selects his/her own readings and exercises, but the coverage of the sections is quite similar. All require students to prepare and to perform aspects of jury trial -- opening and closing arguments, and direct and cross-examination. The course is designed to develop practical skills and to build an appreciation for the relationship between substantive law and strategy and tactics in litigation. This section includes both civil and criminal trial exercises. Students also participate in a mock trial held in a real courtroom. All sections focus on trial advocacy; some also consider some pre-trial skills, such as discovery depositions. All sections have limited enrollments. Evidence is a prerequisite.
Scores are real averages. The order also accounts for how many records back each one — the count is under every score — so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. 1 of the 8 rows carry a mark saying so.
| Rank | Instructor | Overall | Workload | Challenge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meghan SpringLaw Provisional | 992 records | 25th | 85th |
| 2 | Helene KazanjianLaw Provisional fewer records | 1001 record | 78th | 48th |
| 3 | Edward GinsburgLaw Provisional | 972 records | 39th | 62nd |
| 4 | Andrew LellingLaw Provisional | 962 records | 39th | 74th |
| 5 | Jeffrey LockeLaw | 933 records | 78th | 85th |
| 6 | Christopher MuseLaw | 935 records | 43rd | 53rd |
| 7 | Paul ChernoffLaw | 936 records | 29th | 32nd |
| 8 | Paul WilsonLaw | 905 records | 25th | 17th |
How this board is orderedPositions account for how many records stand behind each number, so one perfect review does not outrank a semester of them. Every score shown is the real average — only the ordering is adjusted. The comparison here is the class itself: a thin record is read against how this class was rated overall, not against the university.
Every instructor with an evaluation record for this class is on this board — it is not a top ten, and nothing is hidden behind a “show more”. Overall is the instructor's blended score for THIS class only, and its one contributing source is Boston College's evaluations for the sections in the row's record count — nothing on this board is an average across the other things they teach. Workload and Challenge are RANKS against every class we hold, not scores: BC's questions all sit near the top of the 1-5 scale, so a raw number would put almost every row in the high eighties and tell you nothing. Challenge is BC's “intellectually challenging” item, which students answer positively about courses that stretched them — it is not a measure of difficulty or grading. Neither column is ever marked better or worse. 4 of 8 rows are marked provisional: fewer than 3 records stand behind the number. That is thin evidence, not a bad instructor — the record count is in every row.
The line
All 13 items · means across 26 recordsBar length is the rank against every comparable record we hold, not the raw score: BC's questions all have a median around 4.5, so a raw-scale bar would be nearly full on every row and would tell you nothing. Every bar is one ink colour — nothing here is graded green or red. The hatched bars are not ratings at all: a higher number on either describes a different course, not a better one.
Game log
26 sections · newest first| Instructor | Term | Sec | Instr | Course | Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Wilson | Spring 2026 | 01 | 84 | 78 | — |
| Meghan Spring | Spring 2026 | 02 | 98 | 93 | 40 |
| Christopher Muse | Fall 2025 | 02 | 83 | 82 | — |
| Paul Wilson | Spring 2025 | 01 | 89 | 89 | — |
| Meghan Spring | Spring 2025 | 02 | 100 | 98 | 40 |
| Jeffrey Locke | Fall 2024 | 01 | 98 | 95 | 60 |
| Christopher Muse | Fall 2024 | 02 | 97 | 92 | 60 |
| Paul Chernoff | Spring 2024 | 01 | 88 | 80 | 40 |
| Andrew Lelling | Spring 2024 | 03 | 97 | 97 | 60 |
| Paul Chernoff | Fall 2023 | 01 | 93 | 93 | — |
| Paul Wilson | Fall 2023 | 01 | 95 | 93 | — |
| Christopher Muse | Fall 2023 | 02 | 89 | 87 | — |
| Edward Ginsburg | Spring 2023 | 01 | 96 | 80 | 40 |
| Paul Chernoff | Spring 2023 | 01 | 97 | 80 | 40 |
| Jeffrey Locke | Spring 2023 | 02 | 89 | 93 | 60 |
| Andrew Lelling | Spring 2023 | 03 | 95 | 93 | 40 |
| Paul Chernoff | Fall 2022 | 01 | 91 | 91 | — |
| Paul Wilson | Fall 2022 | 01 | 93 | 91 | — |
| Christopher Muse | Fall 2022 | 02 | 94 | 96 | 40 |
| Edward Ginsburg | Spring 2022 | 01 | 97 | 94 | 60 |
| Paul Chernoff | Spring 2022 | 01 | 97 | 94 | 60 |
| Jeffrey Locke | Spring 2022 | 02 | 92 | 96 | — |
| Paul Chernoff | Fall 2021 | 01 | 89 | 88 | 40 |
| Paul Wilson | Fall 2021 | 01 | 89 | 88 | 40 |
| Christopher Muse | Fall 2021 | 02 | 100 | 93 | 60 |
Showing the first 25.
How to read this boardInstructors are ranked on their record in this class only, never on their average across everything they teach. Scores are out of 100 — Boston College's 1–5 agreement scale, ×20, the way these numbers were printed for years. Workload is BC's own five-band figure, not a number of hours, and is shown as a rank. A dash means the question was not reported, and is never a zero.