Course Registration Instructions

Students will register themselves on Athena: http://athena.uga.edu. Detailed instructions on how to register for your courses can be found here. After you are registered, you must pay your tuition and fees. Payment of Fall 2024 tuition is due on August 16th. Please note that financial aid overage funds will not be disbursed until you have paid your tuition and fees.

Due to a vendor issue, access to Athena from off-campus locations is unavailable. If you are off campus and need to access Athena, please visit our How to Access Athena Off-Campus page.

Reading Assignments

*First day assignments can also be found on My Georgia Law.

Contracts

The assignment for the first day of class (Wednesday, August 21) is to read pages 3-22 of the required casebook, Randy E. Barnett and Nathan B. Oman, Contracts: Cases and Doctrine (Aspen, 7th ed. 2021).

Civil Procedure

INTRODUCTION TO PERSONAL JURISDICTION, SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION, AND VENUE

This class serves as a quick introduction to personal jurisdiction, subject matter jurisdiction, venue, complaints and answers, which we’ll return to in-depth this semester.  Think of this class as a movie trailer. 

Please fill out this getting to know you form on Google docs so I can learn a bit more about you:https://forms.gle/SjYbiYpCL8rckM3XA

  1. CB (“case book” – Yeazell & Schwartz, Civil Procedure) 1-14 United States ex rel. Mayo v. Satan and His Staff, 54 F.R.D. 282 (W.D. Pa. 1971), and How to Read a Legal Opinion, both of which are posted on eLC (be sure to go ahead and register for our class on eLC and read through the first 4 pages of the syllabus).  Note that the questions in the syllabus are not things that you need to turn in but are designed to help you check your understanding and apply the reading.
    • Hawkins v. Masters Farms, Inc.
    • Bridges v. Diesel Service, Inc.
    • Problem: Bonnie was born in Oregon to Oregon citizens and has lived in that state her entire 35-year life.  However, for as long as she can remember she has hated Oregon’s gray and dreary climate.  In fact, for the past thirty years Bonnie has intended to leave Oregon and relocate to Arizona.  Unfortunately, she still hasn’t saved enough money to make the change.  What is Bonnie’s domicile?  Does she even have a domicile?

o Rethink your answer in light of the following general principles of the law of domicile: (a) A person always has one – and only one – domicile; (b) An infant acquires a domicile at birth, which is almost always the domicile of her parents; (c) In order to change her domicile, a person must both establish residence in a new state and have the intent to remain in that state.  The residence and the intent to remain must exist at the same time, even if only for a moment.

    • Questions: Where can suit be brought? (overview of subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, venue, and service of process)

o Read U.S. ex rel. Mayo v. Satan carefully.  Part of your job as a lawyer is to advise your client regarding whether a lawsuit is worth the time and expense of bringing that lawsuit.  If Mr. Mayo had walked into your law office, what advice would you have given him?  (HINT: Why do you suppose that Mr. Mayo is proceeding without a lawyer?)

o What is the Western District of Pennsylvania?  Are we in federal court or state court?  How can you tell?

o What level of court is the Western District of Pennsylvania – trial court, court of appeals, or supreme court?  How can you tell?

o What statutes is Mr. Mayo relying on?  Are those federal statutes or state statutes?  How can you tell?

o This is your first (admittedly limited) encounter with 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which allows a private litigant to sue state and local governmental officials and municipalities for violations of the individual’s constitutional rights.  If this case had been resolved on the merits, would you foresee a problem with Mr. Mayo’s choice of a cause of action?

o What does Mr. Mayo most immediately want from the court – i.e., what motion is Judge Weber actually deciding in this opinion?  What does Mr. Mayo ultimately want from the court?

o How does Judge Weber use civil procedure to get rid of this case?  Why would Judge Weber want to resolve this case early in the litigation process, rather than proceed to the merits?

Legal Research

X1

Please complete the following readings and assignments.

Readings

  • Week 1 – Principles of Legal Research (click here to view)
  • The Legal Research Plan and the Research Log: An Examination of the Role of the Research Plan and Research Log in the Research Process (click here to view)

Assignments

X2

Looking forward to our class this Fall! For our first class please go to our eLC page https://uga.view.usg.edu/d2l/home/3246527), review our syllabus and post on the Introduction discussion board -https://uga.view.usg.edu/d2l/le/3246527/discussions/topics/2859040/View. 

There are three readings to finish prior to our first class that are available in Unit 1 of our eLC page. See you on the 20th!

Legal Writing

X1

Please read the introduction, Chapters 1, 2, and Parts I and II of Chapter 6 (pp. 59-68) in their textbook, Legal Writing: Process, Analysis, and Organization (8th ed.), by Linda Edwards.

X2

For your first day assignment, please read the Intro and Chapter 1-2 in our coursebook, Christine Coughlin et.al., A Lawyer Writes, A Practical Guide to Legal Analysis.

Lawyering

The first assignment for the 1L Lawyering Class is as follows:

  • The Formation of Professional Identity: The Path from Student to Lawyer, Second Edition by Patrick Emery Longan, Daisy Hurst Floyd, and Timothy W. Floyd:  Read Chapter 1
  • Complete Exercise #1: Self-introspection.  See here.

Property

For Session 1, the assignment is as follows: Read Eisenberg at ix (paragraph about Ch 1), 1-4; Merrill & Smith at 1-4; and the Readings #1 pdf that is also posted on the ELC page.