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Robert Ragazzo (“Bobby Raggs”)
Civil
Procedure Outline Fall 2015 - added 09-29-2016
Civil
Procedure outline Spring 2014 - added 09-02-2015
Civil
Procedure condensed outline Spring
2014 - added 09-02-2015
Anonymously
contributed Civ Pro outline from Fall 2011 added 01/02/2013
Anonymously
contributed condensed Civ Pro outline from Fall 2011 added 01/02/2013
Anonymously
contributed Civ Pro A
outline
added 08/16/2009
Anonymously
contributed Civ Pro A outline
added
01/26/2009
Anonymously
contributed Civ Pro outline - added May 2008
Ragazzo Civil Procedure "Script" (anonymously
contributed)
Ragazzo Civ Pro Outline (thanks
to Jamie Mitchell)
Anonymously
contributed Civ Pro outline 2006
Anonymously
contributed Civ Pro comprehensive case brief
compilation 2006
Civil
Procedure
The
following review was anonymously sent to me on March 1, 2012:
Ragazzo is very knowledgeable about civ pro. The reading is very time
consuming and often confusing, but take good notes in class as Ragazzo makes everything much more clear.
No computers were allowed, and Ragazzo won't repeat
himself if asked, so learn how to write really fast and be able to de-code your
messy handwriting. Ragazzo will only answer
"legal questions" but often you can phrase it as a legal question. He
is very intimidating, but a wonderful professor. He does not have office hours
and does not check his email, so he is very hard to get ahold of outside of
class. He also does not reveal his exam format until the last day of class -
but this year (and the past 20 years I think) have consisted of multiple
choice, short answer, issue spotter, and jurisprudential. He give
test taking tips on the last day before the exam - TAKE GOOD NOTES.
The
following advice was contributed for Ragazzo:
Some
good advice for Ragazzo is to tell him if you're not
prepared. He is pretty lenient if it appears if you're nervous but speak
up), but if it becomes apparent that you haven't read (i.e. You
can't answer simple questions about the disposition of the case), it can get
pretty nasty. If you go up to him before class and say you're not
prepared (obviously not something to do every day...) he will usually cut you
some slack.
Here's
an explanation of the Ragazzo "Script"
included below (from an email a 2L sent to her mentor group along with the
script):
Legend
has it, a student typed a transcript of everything Bob
says in class--what questions he asks, the answers he gives to the questions,
what cases he covers, etc. Two summers ago, somebody let the existence of
said script slip to Ragazzo, and he suddenly
instituted a textbook change and a "no outlines or notes" policy on
the final.
Here is the infamous script, most of which he still uses to this day, though it
is not nearly as coherent as it once was. It will help you in a pinch if
you are hella lost in the discussion or,
occasionally, when you get called on and need the answer. Also, here are
some other outlines that came along with it when it was passed to me.
One caveat: don't crap your pants trying to cram all this stuff into your
outline. It is more of a tool for helping you keep
up with the discussion when your mind wanders or you just don't understand what
the hell is going on. While most profs don't
write their finals until the end of the semester, they have a pretty good idea
of what areas they are going to hit on the big test. If there is something
in these materials that you didn't cover much in class this semester, guess
what--It's probably not going to be a big deal on the final.
Business
Organizations
As
taught to us at least, this is a class you need to give pretty serious thought
to before taking.
Pros: Substantively you'll
learn a great deal about corporate law in this class. A lot of material is
covered and for the most part, the pertinent points of
You're only called on when you're on panel, and you'll be on panel twice in a
semester. There are 3-4 people on panel on a given day. If you're not prepared
for panel Ragazzo will penalize you 1/3 of your final
grade (B+ becomes a B). If you don't know or you're floundering, he'll move on.
Cons: The reading assignments
for this class relative to all others I've taken were burdensome. 30+ pages per
class was commonplace, 40 pages not unheard of. There are other professors who
teach this class that set lighter loads, so if reading time is a deal-breaker
for you, Ragazzo is probably not your guy. I heard
from folks that took Saver or Moll for Biz Org that they covered about half as
much material.
Neutral Points: Our experience was that Ragazzo
will not repeat himself (whether he's talking to you or not) and if you ask him
to he'll say "No, I said it perfectly clearly the first time." Students speaking loudly is important in this class, and if
your voice volume doesn't make the grade, he's not above telling you to stand
up. If you like checking email during class, this one isn't for you - we were
warned on day one that if he caught any student using their laptop for anything
other than taking notes, everyone loses their computer privileges for the rest
of the semester. Ragazzo wanders around the room a
lot when talking. If you're particularly thin-skinned, you should ask around
about this class before taking it.
Exam: You can write whatever
you want into any of the books; there's a casebook, a statute book and a
supplement, so there's no shortage of blank pages. You may not bring in
typed outlines, commercial outlines, insert pages into the books or remove
existing blank pages, write on them and then reinsert them. Our final exam was
difficult but fair in that it reflected the amount of emphasis given to the
material during the semester. I believe the other Biz Org classes (Moll, Saver)
had a 3 hour exam (although it was a 4 credit course) - Ragazzo's
exam was 4 hours. There were no sample exams online for this class as of Spring '04. On the last class Ragazzo
explained the format of the exam, what he looks for, what he doesn't want to
see, etc. but he did not narrow the field or clue us in as to
substantive content.
Summary: If you're looking to
take it easy in 2L or 3L, I don't know that this professor and this class is for you. Even controlling for the fact that it's a 4
credit course if you want to do well you will have to invest substantially more
time and energy into this class than others. If you know you're headed down the
corporate law path though, you can learn a lot. It's hard to compare amongst
professors because you only ever take the same subject once, but from taking to
Moll and Saver's Biz Org students it seems that Ragazzo
teaches substantially more material than they do.
Tipoff: Right at the end of the
course if Ragazzo stays true to form he'll cover
three cases that relate to defensive actions taken by a corporation's board of
directors facing a hostile tender offer. The cases are Unocal, Revlon,
and QVC. QVC will probably be the last case you read in the semester.
Without boring you with the details, Ragazzo will
probably leave you with a cliffhanger as to what effect the QVC holding had on
the standards set out by the other two cases. It's a tricky area of the law,
and you'll probably be left scratching your head. Maybe this'll help: Ragazzo wrote a law review article on the very issue (a
member of our study group found it). The article is called "Unifying the
law of hostile takeovers: The Impact of QVC and it's
progeny" and the cite is 32 HOULR 945.
Biz Org
Outline - A Grade - Anonymous added 07-05-2010
Anonymously
contributed A outline
Carter's Ragazzo Biz Org Outline
Carter's
Redux Biz Org Outline (this is a stripped-down version of the above, and
was what I handwrote into the back of my casebook as exam notes)
Carter's
Biz Org "flashcards" (these are one-sentence-answer practice
questions useful for study groups)