When eighty students showed up last week at the first meeting of Dudley 108--a House seminar on "Thinking Like A Lawyer"--William L. Bruce '46, vice-dean of the Law School decided to forego the enrollment limit of 20 and admit all the applicants to the course.

Bruce, who attributed the class's popularity to a "current keen interest in law-related courses," said yesterday he still intends to run Dudley 108 as a discussion course.

Light Load

Several students in the class said yesterday although the course is inherently interesting, its relatively light workload contributed to the high enrollment.

"A lot of people are taking it for a gut," Jay Petschek '80 said yesterday.

Another student, who asked to remain unidentified, said a large group of people in the class have no particular interest in the course, and are attracted by the "undemanding" requirements.

He also said he recognized a "preponderance of athletes" in the course as well as a large body of students who had taken VES 107("Gas Stations") last year.

Although the course description explicitly discourages pre-law students from taking it, some members of the course said yesterday many "lawyer types" were enrolled.

"There are a lot of closet pre-laws there; you can tell by the way they answer the questions," one student said.

A pre-law student in the course, who asked to remain unidentified, said yesterday she was taking the course because "it's useful for anything. It teaches you how to think analytically, which is very important."

Bruce said yesterday he believes the "overwhelming majority" of the class is not pre-law.