Course Offerings

Race and Law is a 3 hour course that meets twice a week. It focuses on historical and current issues that illustrate the critical and systemic ways in which law has been used to define race, to construct racial identity and to justify racial discrimination in the United States, as well as the attempts to utilize law to deconstruct those same structures. Topics include, for example, the Black Lives Matter movement, policing, mass incarceration, voting rights and processes, educational opportunity, affirmative action, language and accent discrimination, and generally the intersection of race and law with gender, sex, ethnicity, religion and other routes along which discrimination often travels in combination with race.

A comprehensive overview of issues involved in developing real estate projects and representing real estate developers, from finding and securing a site, structuring the acquisition agreement, understanding development financial metrics, professional service agreements, financing agreements and construction contracts through sale or refinancing of the project.

Residential and commercial real estate transactions, including contracts of sale, brokerage arrangements, deeds of conveyance, the recording system, and methods of title assurance; financing of real estate acquisition, including installment land contracts, mortgages, and other financing methods.

The world's refugees - persons forced to flee home countries - topped 15 million in 2014. This course will examine laws and policies governing forced migration. To be studied: international and U.S. legal systems and institutions; substantive, procedural, and evidentiary aspects of an asylum claim; causes; and trafficking and other refugee experiences.

Digital abuse is on the rise. People are increasingly using networked technologies to engage in harassment, stalking, privacy invasions, and surveillance. The law will often adapt to deal with harmful technologies, and one of the pressing challenges of our time is deciding whether and how to regulate digital abuse. This seminar will consider responses to the harms enabled by networked technologies, exploring issues related to civil rights, consumer protection, cybercrime, free speech, privacy, and private self-governance.

Remedies is a transubstantive course that crosses the traditional boundaries within private law, and between private and public law. The course requires students to reconsider from a new perspective the fundamental tort, property and contract law doctrines they learned in their first-year. In particular, they are asked to focus on the relief they are seeking for their clients and the alternative forms of relief that might be available. After all, remedies are the denominator common to every area of the law that imposes liability. The objective of this course is gain an understanding of the relationship between liability and remedy across many areas of the law, looking at both regularities and divergences.

This course will introduce students to the legal and policy issues currently arising in the ongoing transition to renewable energy resources in the U.S. electric power sector. Following an introduction to utility regulatory basics, the course will focus on conflicts and challenges in development of solar and wind energy resources, and discuss legal issues related to grid modernization initiatives (e.g., energy storage, demand side management, smart meters), and other renewable energy resources (e.g., biomass, renewable fuels, geothermal). The course is designed to be accessible to students regardless of background familiarity with the subject matter.

The course will be designed to equip students with a starter of skills and perspective to create immediate capacity to function effectively in state governmental lawyer capacity.

This course will explore the history and law of reproductive rights in the United States. The majority of the term will be spent analyzing the constitutional framework governing forced sterilization, contraception and abortion and the substantial changes made to that framework by the current Supreme Court.  We will consider the historical, ethical, social and religious context; gender, race and socioeconomic class issues; impact on health and the U.S. health care system; the rationales for the protection of reproductive rights; and the practical impact of the regulations. We will also look ahead to the future of reproductive rights jurisprudence in the U.S. in the post-Dobbs era and discuss broader, intersectional areas of reproductive justice, including issues of access, parenting, maternal health and criminalization of pregnancy.  This course is pass/fail.

This commercial law course focuses on one of the most important devices in facilitating credit: secured financing when the collateral consists of personal property. The term “personal property” for the purpose of the course includes tangible and intangible items such as motor vehicles, goods in store inventories, rights in copyrights, trademarks and patents, agricultural products and commodities, contract rights, payment intangibles, accounts receivable, and equipment. Focus is on Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The course should help students to develop their skills in statutory analysis and in understanding and planning business transactions.

This course will examine the enforcement of the federal securities laws and related white-collar crimes from the perspectives of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff, the Department of Justice, and defense counsel. An important focus of the course will be discussing the relevant statutes, regulations, case law, and other legal principles, and applying them to practical situations that arise in government investigations. The required weekly reading will consist of securities enforcement cases, statutes, regulations, and other relevant documents. Given the highly evolving subject matter, many classes will include a short discussion of recent developments. As events occur during the semester, we may supplement or replace the reading materials to account for current events and changes in the law. Additionally, at points throughout the semester, we will have 'practical' classes that will involve workshops in which students will be expected to demonstrate their understanding of the course material in simulated real-world settings.

This overview of the federal securities laws focuses primarily on the Securities Act of 1933. Topics covered include the definition of a security, the registration of securities offerings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, exemptions from registration, secondary distributions, and civil liabilities.

Selected areas of judicial administration and judging that are too narrow for a full-semester course. Topics may include judicial case management, the judicial role in criminal and civil matters, the role of judges or courts in society and literature, comparative approaches to judging in different legal systems, etc.

This one-week course will examine various aspects of the sentencing process, with an emphasis on the federal system. We will cover a variety of topics, including an overview of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, how the federal system contrasts with non-guideline sentencing systems, the legal and societal objectives underlying the imposition of sentences, and the factors deemed relevant to sentencing decisions.  We will also discuss various aspects of sentencing from the perspectives of the key players involved: the prosecution, defense, the court, and victims. Last we will cover the forms of punishment that comprise sentencing; the role of mandatory minimums; and sentencing policy reform.

This semester you and your classmates will engage in class discussions and exercises related to case preparation, pre-trial procedure, jury selection, opening and closing statements, witness examinations, and the appeals process.  The goal will be to learn more about how to persuasively argue cases before judges and juries.

International Civil Litigation - This class builds upon concepts developed in the basic civil procedure course and explores their implications in the transboundary setting.  Topics include international human rights litigation, personal jurisdiction over foreign corporations, suits against sovereign governments, foreign forum selection clauses, foreign antisuit injunctions, international discovery, and foreign judgment enforcement.  Additionally, the course offers a brief comparative assessment of international litigation and international arbitration as various forms of dispute resolution.

This seminar will explore the criminal regulation of sexually-based offenses and sexualized violence. The course aims to examine the rationale for the criminalization of certain sexual behaviors, the definitions of harm, and the collateral consequences for sex offenders. We will explore the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the development of sex crime laws and their interconnection with race, class, power, and privilege. We will also reflect on issues relating to agency and consent as well as the balance between protecting the public and comporting with constitutional due process in the context of surveillance and registration of sex offenders. Class topics will include rape, sexual assault law, human trafficking, prostitution, child sexual abuse, revenge porn, sexting, and sex offender registration laws. Students will gain an understanding of the unique issues facing prosecutors and defense counsel, such as rape shield laws, how to work with victims, how to defend the accused, the admissibility of hearsay evidence in limited circumstances, and how to work with experts. Students will debate policy issues concerning victimization, redressing harm, and the role of sex crime laws in the context of mass incarceration.

This course will examine the evolving constitutional and legal rights of the LGBTQ community. We will begin by exploring the historical evolution of the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians, examining doctrines of privacy and equality as they have evolved to protect LGBTQ individuals. The course will explore ongoing legal battles over religious freedom and nondiscrimination laws, the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming people, employment discrimination, and family law questions (including parentage, adoption, divorce, and alternatives to marriage). We will examine these issues critically, including by addressing concerns over federalism, free exercise, the democratic process, and the proper role of the courts. Throughout the course, students will explore key due process and equal protection concepts and learn how to frame and develop constitutional arguments. This course will focus on numerous procedural and justiciability issues that are critical in civil rights litigation.

Characterized by a scientific rather than normative emphasis, legal sociology focuses on empirical patterns of legal behavior, such as initiation and winning of law suits, origins and content of rules, and the development of legal institutions. Most literature has addressed case-level variation and the course will reflect this. But instead of analyzing cases in terms of the applicable rules and policies, lectures and readings will invoke the social characteristics of participants (e.g., social ties, status, marginality, reputation and organizational affiliations) to predict and explain case outcomes. Sociological techniques by which social differentials in cases (discrimination) might be minimized will also be studied. Modern American materials will be emphasized.

This course teaches the skills and prioritized steps necessary to thrive either as a solo practitioner or a young associate in a small firm. It will focus on efficient, daily tasks that cover all eight departments of a law firm essential for success. Students will learn how to pick the right practice area, create a blueprint for growth, which reports to monitor and how to read them, how to originate client work by increasing the value of client service, how to know the return on investment for all marketing verticals offered to law firms and how to delegate to technology through workflows and automation. Students will study how to profitably build their own virtual law firm, combining theory, pragmatic implementation and real life examples from small firm owners.

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.