Course Descriptions - (Courses A-E)

Course Descriptions F-J
Course Descriptions L-Z

( * required course )

Accounting & Finance from a Lawyer’s Perspective
9200:621, three credits
Prerequisite: cannot have more than six hours of undergraduate accounting. An introduction to accounting, financial statement analysis, the time value of money, valuation, and auditing from a lawyer's perspective.

Administration of Criminal Justice
9200:622, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Primary focus is on United States Supreme Court cases dealing with the rights of criminal defendants and the obligations of the government in criminal cases. The criminal procedure course covers the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments in depth in the context of criminal cases.

Administrative Law
9200:623, three credits
Prerequisite: None. An examination of the role and operation of government agencies, including the procedures agencies are required to follow, public participation and hearing requirements, and the standards and mechanisms governing judicial review of agency decisions.

Advanced Legal Applications
9200:673, three credits
This course is required for certain students  by virtue of their grade point averages. If space permits, the course is available to students who are not required to take the course, with preference given in inverse relation to grade point average. This course is designed to enhance student ability to reason and write analytically and to apply legal principles to facts to reach an appropriate outcome. The course will address the critical skills, techniques, and strategies necessary to pass the bar examination. This course is intended to supplement, not replace, commercial bar preparation courses.

Advanced Legal Research *
9200:618, one credit
Prerequisites: 619, 620, minimum 28 credits. The purpose of this course is to further develop the legal research skills of law students beyond basic legal research to prepare them for the practice of law by covering legal research materials in greater depth and by introducing students to specialized legal sources.

Advocacy Teams
9200:694, 695; one or two credits, credit/non-credit
Prerequisite: None. Practice training in legal advocacy. Each person enrolled for credit will be required, at a minimum, to do substantial research on the problem and participate in practice rounds for oral presentations. The faculty advisor of the relevant team will decide whether the team will receive 1 or 2 credits, with final approval residing in the Director of Competitions. Total credits for courses Advocacy Teams (694 and 695) not to exceed four (4) credit hours.

Alternative Dispute Resolution
9200:642 two-three credits
Prerequisite: None. Explores the main processes alternative to litigation of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration; lawyering skill focus on interviewing and counseling, fact gathering, negotiation skills, and legal writing. A survey of the alternatives to litigation available for resolving disputes.

Antitrust Law
9200:625, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Fundamentals of antitrust; questions of evidence in price fixing and boycotts under the Sherman Act, resale restrictions and tie-ins, scope of antitrust law and certain exemptions.

Appellate Advocacy
9200:689, one credit
Prerequisite: 688. Development of skills in written legal analysis through performance of drafting assignments, including preparation of a written exposition on a proposed solution to a drafting problem.

Bankruptcy Law
9200:635, three credits
Recommended: 629. Provisional remedies and enforcement of judgments. Fraudulent conveyances. General assignments for benefit of creditors. Creditor's agreements. Bankruptcy.

Basic Business Associations
9200:626, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Elements of partnership and other unincorporated business associations. Vicarious liability. Employment relationships and scope. Authority and apparent authority. Misrepresentation by an agent. Undisclosed principal. Ratification.

Civil Procedure I, II *
9200:601, 602; three credits each
Personal and subject matter jurisdiction; venue; ascertaining the applicable law; rulemaking; pleading; motions; joinder of claims and parties; discovery; pretrial; trial; judgments; appellate review; res judicata and collateral estoppel.

Clinical Seminar I, II
9200:696, 697; two or three credits each
Prerequisites: Successful completion of 28 credit hours and permission of Clinical coordinator. Students participate in the practice of law under the supervision of a lawyer in an in-house clinic or in a non-profit organization or public law office (e.g., prosecutor, city attorney). Clinical Seminar I (696), the first clinical course a student may take, may be taken without taking Clinical Seminar II (697) and may not be repeated. Students who have taken 696 may take 697 in connection with other law school clinics. 697 may be repeated to a maximum of 12 total clinical course credits (including credits from 696). The 12 credit limit encompasses Advocacy Teams and Law Review as well as clinics. Application of legal knowledge to practical problems in supervised public law office contexts. May be taken independently of 697. Credit for 696, 697 not to exceed six (6) credits and may not be repeated.

Commercial Paper, Sales & Lease Transactions
9200:627, three credits
Prerequisite: 629. The Law of Negotiable Instruments, Bank Collections, and other Payment Systems under Articles 3, 4, and 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code.  

Computer Law
9200:711, two or three credits
Study of various forms of intellectual property protection for computer programs and computer related inventions.

Interstate Practice: Conflict of Laws
9200:631, three credits
Prerequisite: None. This course deals with the problems that arise in interstate practice, i.e. the practice involving cases where the parties, the transaction, or other crucial facts are connected to more than one U.S. state or country. This includes questions such as: What law applies to the parties’ transaction? What court has jurisdiction over the parties’ transaction? Under what circumstances will a state recognize and enforce the judgments of another state or country.

Constitutional Law I *
9200:603, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Governmental authority and its distribution under the Constitution with an introduction to individual rights and liberties.

Constitutional Law II *
9200:604, three credits
Prerequisite: 603. Continuation of 603. Rights, privileges and immunities under the Constitution.

Contracts I, II *
9200:605,606; two or three credits each
Nature and purpose of contract law. Formation. Consideration. Contractual alternatives. Reality of consent. Capacity. Statute of Frauds. Construction. Breach and associated remedies. Resolution of disputes. Discharge of obligations. Third party interests.

Contracts Law Lab
9200:624, two credits
This course covers formulating a rule of law from one or more legal authorities, placing the rule in a rule-structure, analyzing application of that rule to a set of facts, and organizing a legal discussion of that analysis.

Copyright Law
9200:703, three credits
A study of the law and policy protecting intellectual property through copyright, and enforcing the licensing of copyrights.

Corporate Taxation
9200:641, three credits
Prerequisite: 640. Survey of federal income tax law applicable to corporations.

Corporations
9200:633, three credits
Prerequisite: None. An introduction to the law relating to the typical American enterprise. Principal emphasis is on financing, control, management and regulation of corporations, both publicly owned and closely held.

Criminal Law *
9200:607, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Nature and source of criminal liability studied in light of modern developments. The criminal act. Mental conditions requisite to criminal responsibility. Specific crimes and defenses thereto.

Current Policy Issues Affecting Intellectual Property Law
9200:714, two or three credits
Study of current policy issues affecting intellectual property law and practice.

Employment Discrimination
9200:637, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Legal developments, primarily federal, affecting discrimination in employment.

Employment Law
9200:651, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Developments in employment law: legislation, regulations, judicial decisions, and changes in the social and economic structure of the workplace.

Entertainment Law
9200:611, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Covers the law and business of the entertainment industries. It also examines recent national and international developments and trends in the entertainment industries.

Environmental Law
9200:661, three credits
Prerequisite: None. An examination of major federal environmental statutes and pollution control programs, common law remedies for environmental damage, and policy issues involved in decisions concerning the environment.

Estate and Gift Taxation
9200:639, three credits
Prerequisite: None. A survey of federal estate and gift taxation; relation between federal income tax and federal taxes on gratuitous transfers; the place of federal taxes in estate planning.

Evidence *
9200:608, three credits
Prerequisite: None. Covers basic evidence law with emphasis on the Federal Rules of Evidence and state rules patterned .

Expert Evidence
9200:687, three credits
Prerequisite: 608. Surveys courtroom use of expert and scientific evidence beginning with a foundation in science and the legal process and moving into specific areas such as forensics, DNA, medical causation, and accident and crime scene reconstruction.

( * required course )