Course Offerings

In this minicourse, students will learn the legal and practical considerations concerning the welfare of companion animals. The course covers approaches to animal welfare taken by animal sheltering organizations; state and local laws governing the care of companion animals; and current topics in animal welfare. Students will complete short written assignments both during the term of the course and as a final project. Note: This is an undergraduate course.

In this minicourse, students will learn the legal and practical considerations concerning the welfare of companion animals. The course covers approaches to animal welfare taken by animal sheltering organizations; state and local laws governing the care of companion animals; and current topics in animal welfare. Students will complete short written assignments both during the term of the course and as a final project.

Analysis of any kind first depends on the ability to research and evaluate sources effectively.  This course will provide students with skills and vocabulary necessary for basic research in the modern American setting. In addition to providing students with skills that will help them on any research paper, this class will also expand upon other courses that discuss current laws or politics, including Modern American Legal Theory – JURI 4199/6199; Bureaucracy and the Law – PADP 4690; Sociology of Law – SCOI 4830; and any of the “Law as Professional Practice” courses.  

This course will cover legal issues concerning “sports law,” a wide-ranging topic that will include sessions on antitrust issues relating to sports league structures, stadium-development transactions, professional team counsel priorities (e.g., stadium operations), labor and employment issues (including collective bargaining agreements, strikes and lockouts), insights into broadcasting and media agreements in sports, athlete representation and agency law, NIL regulations for collegiate athletes, and intellectual property matters in sports law and related issues (e.g., rights of publicity).

Judge Britt Grant of the Eleventh Circuit will lead students in consideration of a range of issues in modern standing jurisprudence. The course will culminate with a class-wide mock oral argument of a recent case raising cutting edge questions concerning the law of standing.

This course explores common principles of state and local government with a strategic focus on key aspects of Georgia law. The course will combine practical advice with some theory. Issues addressed include organizational structures of local governments, authority granted to them by the U.S. and Georgia Constitution, and various ways they exercise (or attempt to exercise) their power. The class may explore these concepts generally and in the context of specific subject areas including but not limited to annexation, home rule, immunity, incorporation, intergovernmental agreements, employment, service delivery strategies, regulatory authority, taxation, and zoning. This course will introduce students to varied forms of writing and research associated with a professional practice in this area and reflect on professional roles and responsibilities.

This course will consider the role of state constitutions in the development of U.S. constitutional law. Particular attention will be paid to Judge Sutton's book, 51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law. Justices Blackwell, Nahmias, Peterson and Warren of the Georgia Supreme Court will lead sessions focused on the Georgia Constitution. Students will write short papers and make presentations based on their research. The course will be graded on a pass/fail basis.

The Summer Externship supports students working in governmental, judicial and private non-profit placements through a focused program of reading, reflection and professional development. Students gain direct exposure to the skills and methods of legal practice, focused application of legal concepts to real conflicts, and reflective appraisal of their own skills and abilities. each student engages in an ongoing conversation with the clinic supervisor through journals and interviews; together with readings, this contact expands and deepens the practical and jurisprudential learning gains in the field. Register for both 5965E (graded portion) and 5966S (pass/fail portion).

Supervised Research involves an in-depth written analysis of a legal issue under close faculty tutoring and supervision. It requires significant legal research, original thinking and analysis, and must produce final paper of a kind and quality similar to that found in law review articles.

Criminal tax investigations and prosecutions; constitutional defenses to the compulsory production of evidence; attorney-client privilege, confidentiality and other defenses available to taxpayers and third parties.

This course is a tax policy speaker series. It will feature presentations of works-in-progress by leading academics on a wide range of contemporary tax policy topics. Students will write a seminar paper related to the topics explored in the course.

This course will cover federal individual income tax issues that lawyers often deal with in practice. It will also cover tax policy issues that relate to incremental and fundament tax reform proposals that are under consideration at the time of the course.

The course will cover the taxation of various business entities, including (1) Partnerships (2) C Corporations, and, to a lesser extent, (3) S Corporations. The course will examine the tax consequences of formations, operations, distributions, and liquidations of these entities.

A focused, hands-on exploration of the use of technology in the practice of law. The course will cover the impact of technology on law and practice and the specific technology understanding and skills required of the modern lawyer. Students will complete hands on projects using practice management, document assembly, presentation and office productivity software.

Explores the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence in the modern death penalty era beginning with the court’s decision in Furman v. Georgia. Specific focus will be on the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments’ heightened requirements in the capital sentencing context. Students will also discuss systemic failures and challenges in the administration of capital punishment.

This course examines legal, social, and political issues surrounding the death penalty. History, race, mental health, geographical disparities are a few of the issues to be addressed. Capital punishment also affects individuals, perpetrators and victims, whose lives are forever altered. Individual cases illustrate issues raised by the death penalty.

This course deals with the ethical and legal principles that govern the legal profession. Topics covered include, among others, the attorney-client relationship, the duty of confidentiality, the attorney-client privilege, conflicts of interest, ethics in advocacy, ethical issues in representing organizational clients, admission to practice, the professional identity of lawyers, and advertising and solicitation. Particular emphasis is given to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and the Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers.

Examination of the United States health care delivery system as a regulated industry. A survey of a variety of legal issues affecting health care providers and their interactions with commercial insurers, government health care programs, and state and federal regulators.

MSL students will learn how a civil lawsuit plays out from beginning to end.

This course will take an in-depth look at the current United States Supreme Court. Topics of discussion will include the role of the Court, Court traditions and procedures, the selection and confirmation process, the backgrounds and jurisprudence of the current justices, and the attributes of effective Supreme Court advocacy. The class will also study several cases on the Court’s docket by having the students participate in mock oral arguments and by having them write their own appellate opinions. This course will satisfy the practical skills requirement.

Covers intentional torts, which may include battery, assault, and possibly false imprisonment, trespass to land, and others. Certain defenses to intentional tort, such as consent and self defense, may also be covered. The bulk of the course is devoted to the tort of negligence, including the content of the duty of reasonable care, issues bearing on whether the defendant has breached that duty, the requirement that the plaintiff establish a causal connection between the breach and the plaintiff's harm, and proximate cause limits on liability.

This course covers advanced topics in tort law, building on the coverage in the first-year Torts course.  Students are expected to increase their foundational understanding of the policy foundations of tort law, as well as how judges’ reason from common law principles in order to justify their holdings in tort cases.  In Spring 2025, this course will engage in a detailed exploration of the legal doctrines of privacy and defamation, including intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, false light, and appropriation of likeness along with defamation. This course will also examine how modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are reshaping these traditional torts, the influence of social media platforms on the evolving legal landscape, and important First Amendment considerations. Reading assignments will include landmark privacy and defamation cases, along with select scholarly articles.

Acquisition of trademark rights, registration, infringement, false advertising, dilution, remedies, and international aspects of trademark law. Students in the class of 2013 and later are encouraged to take the IP Survey course before taking this course. NOTE: One cannot take the IP Survey (JURI 5050) after having taken any two of the following courses: Copyright Law (JURI 4430), Patent Law (JURI 4920), or Trademark Law (JURI 4930). If the IP Survey course is taken first, any or all three of the advanced intellectual property courses can be taken.

Team members prepare for oral negotiations, practice negotiation techniques, and draft transactional documents under the direction of a faculty advisor for regional and national competitions. A student selected to compete is eligible for credit in the semester in which the competition is held. The faculty advisor(s) will approve course registration and assign a grade. Course is graded S/U.

How do law school, the bar exam, and legal practice connect? This course will review legal concepts and skills learned in law school through the lens of applying those skills to the bar exam and to legal practice. This class is pass/fail. 3L students only.