Legal Commentary

I am considering hiring a teaching assistant for Civil Procedure next year, picking one of the top performers from this year?s class. My vision is for someone who can hold weekly office hours/review sessions to answer questions, particularly questions some students may feel to shy to ask me directly. I would like them to provide a ?student perspective? on the material?how they should be studying and preparing (for class and for the exam), what they should be getting out of the material, what I am looking for (on exams, on class participation), how to respond to my particular class and my particular teaching style. All of this is stuff I could do and will continue to be available to do for students. But I am starting to believe it might resonate more, at times, coming from a student who just a year ago was sitting where these students are and who did very well.

We had TAs for first-semester 1L classes when I was in law school and I found it helpful. Do other folks use TAs? How? What do you have them do? Have you found it beneficial? Have students found it beneficial?