Law School Courses | New England Law

Law School Courses | New England Law
New England Law Courses
Find the courses that will prepare you to become the lawyer you aspire to be.
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Civil Procedure (4 credits)
Contracts I (2 credits)
Property I (3 credits)
Legal Research and Writing I (2 credits)
Torts (4 credits)
Responsible Lawyering (0.5 credits)
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Contracts II (3 credits)
Property II (2 credits)
Legal Research and Writing II (2 credits)
Constitutional Law (4 credits)
Criminal Law (3 credits)
Responsible Lawyering (0.5 credits)
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Criminal Procedure (3 credits)
Evidence (3 credits)
Electives (6–9 credits)
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Law and Ethics of Lawyering (3 credits)
Electives (9–12 credits)
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Electives (12–15 credits)
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Advanced Legal Writing Requirement (1 credit)
Advanced Legal Analysis (3 credits)
Electives (7–10 or 9–12*)
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Civil Procedure I (2 credits)
Contracts I (2 credits)
Legal Research and Writing I (2 credits)
Torts (4 credits)
Responsible Lawyering (0.5 credits)
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Civil Procedure II (2 credits)
Contracts II (3 credits)
Legal Research and Writing II (2 credits)
Criminal Law (3 credits)
Responsible Lawyering (0.5 credits)
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Property I (2 credits)
Constitutional Law (4 credits)
Evidence (3 credits)
Electives (0–3 credits)
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Property II (2 credits)
Criminal Procedure I (3 credits)
Electives (3-6 credits)
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Law and Ethics of Lawyering (3 credits)
Electives (6–9 credits)
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Electives (9-12 credits)
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Electives (9-12 credits)
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Advanced Legal Writing Requirement (1 credit)
Advanced Legal Writing Requirement (1 credit)
Advanced Legal Analysis (3 credits)
Electives (5–8 credits)
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Civil Procedure I (2 credits)
Contracts I (2 credits)
Legal Research and Writing I (2 credits)
Torts (4 credits)
Responsible Lawyering (0.5 credits)
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Constitutional Law (4 credits)
Contracts II (3 credits)
Legal Research and Writing II (2 credits)
Criminal Law (3 credits)
Responsible Lawyering (0.5 credits)
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Property I (2 credits)
Criminal Procedure (3 credits)
Evidence (3 credits)
Electives (0–3 credits)
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Property II (2 credits)
Law and Ethics of Lawyering (3 credits)
Electives (4–7 credits)
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Electives (9-12 credits)
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Electives (9-12 credits)
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Electives (9-12 credits)
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Advanced Legal Writing Requirement (1 credit)
Advanced Legal Analysis (3 credits)
Electives (5–8 credits)
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Search by legal focus or alphabetically
Constitutional Law
Law and Ethics of Lawyering
Legal Research and Writing I, II, or III
electives
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All New England Law Courses
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Tax Law
Trusts and Estates
Designed to give students a familiarity with accounting and business theory and terminology. Heavy emphasis is placed on planning and analyzing various business transactions from an accounting and legal perspective using financial data and incorporating tax implications. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.
This course is designed for students interested in regulatory law and those who seek additional coverage of pertinent constitutional law topics. Coverage includes the sources and nature of agency authority, agency rule making and adjudication, and judicial review of agency action. Constitutional issues addressed include the interplay of power among the three federal branches, procedural due process, and justiciability issues such as standing, ripeness, and mootness. Special emphasis is placed on the federal Administrative Procedure Act; state analogs may be studied as well. Attention also may be given to the internal functioning of typical administrative bodies and to the relationship between regulators and the regulated community.
Placements inside agencies or in organizations or offices that work before agencies are within the broad scope of the clinic. Students in this clinical component spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours per week on fieldwork. Given the broad range of possible placements, students’ experiences can range from acting as a law clerk to an administrative law judge or hearing officer to advocating before an agency. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. NOTE: ELIGIBILITY FOR SOME PLACEMENTS IN THIS COURSE IS DEPENDENT ON SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF A BACKGROUND CHECK. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
Students in this clinical component course spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours a week in the same or a similar setting in which they have successfully completed work in a prior clinic. Although students seeking further clinical experiences generally are better served by expanding their resumes and taking a different clinic in a different setting, for a few students where continuing in the same or equivalent setting will be more beneficial educationally, the Advanced Clinic provides the mechanism for continuing in a placement and receiving credit. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. Students will need approval both from the Clinical Director and the course instructor for the relevant subject area clinic, and will further need to develop with their course instructor a plan for the student’s participation in seminars to reflect the advanced nature of the learning. Please note that students approved for the Advanced Clinic, which would be their second semester in the same placement, may not be approved through any additional semesters in the same placement through any vehicle, including the Practice Credit. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This course is designed to help students transition from law school to the legal profession. Students are only eligible for this class in their final semester of law school. Advanced Legal Analysis will use a problem-solving approach to teach legal analysis and writing skills that are critical to new lawyers’ success in the profession and on the bar examination. Students will receive instruction, guidance, and feedback to refine foundational legal analysis skills that are tested on all state bar examinations and useful for beginning practitioners. Substantively, the course will focus on core multistate bar exam subjects: civil procedure, constitutional law, contracts, property, evidence, torts, and criminal law and procedure. In addition to bar exam test-taking skills, students will learn time management skills and effective study techniques to help them succeed on the bar exam. The course exposes each student to all bar examination testing formats, including essays, performance tests, and multiple-choice questions. The final grade will be based on completion of assigned work, including in-class exercises, out-of-class assignments, tests, class participation, and a graded final exam, administered during the exam period. Designed to simulate the bar exam, the final exam will consist of multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions. This course is required for students graduating in May 2020 or later.
This course will expand on some of the research techniques taught in the required Legal Research and Writing courses, as well as introduce new, more sophisticated, research resources and strategies vital for practitioners and those taking judicial clerkships. This course will cover all aspects of legal research, from case law and codes, to international law, using primary and secondary resources, both online and in traditional print-based media. The course also will focus on formulating different research strategies based on different types of research tasks. Students will be evaluated based on a number of research assignments, an in-class project, and a take-home examination. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.
Considers the major federal antitrust laws (Sherman, Clayton, and the FTC acts) and the “classic” antitrust offenses, e.g. combinations in restraint of trade, monopolization, price fixing, trade association activities, “tying” practices, territorial divisions, and other horizontal and vertical offenses, boycotts, and mergers. This course may be offered every other year.
This is a course for upper-level students. Teaching will be by way of lectures and discussion, covering topics such as preparation of the record, standards of review, techniques and ethics of brief-writing and oral advocacy, and post-decision practice. The students will view oral argument on cases before the Supreme Judicial Court or the Massachusetts Appeals Court, and prepare commentary on effective and ineffective argument. Each student will prepare an appellate brief and then orally argue the case before a panel of three judges. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the appellate process in Massachusetts, obtain practical experience of appellate advocacy, and learn persuasive and effective writing. The students also will develop critical thinking, learn to assess legal authority, and understand appellate court jurisdiction. Lastly, the students will learn professionalism and ethical lawyering, understand the Massachusetts Rules of Appellate Procedure, and learn skills in preserving error in trial work. Grading is based on three short reports, the final brief, oral argument, class attendance, and class participation.
This course, designed for students in the fall of their final year, addresses heavily tested concepts on the bar exam and reinforces critical test-taking skills. Emphasis is placed on learning how to write successful bar exam essays and methodologies for multiple choice testing. The course also focuses on sharpening legal writing and analysis skills, including how to write a passing Multistate Performance Test (MPT), a component of the Uniform Bar Exam that is not emphasized elsewhere in the curriculum. Multiple opportunities to practice simulated bar exam questions are provided. This course serves as a precursor to the required Advanced Legal Analysis course, which is the course all students must pass in their final semester of law school.
Placements in settings that expose students to the practice of business and/or intellectual property law are within the broad scope of the clinic. Students in this clinical component spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours per week on fieldwork. Given the broad range of possible placements, students might work in government agencies, private law firms, nonprofit organizations, the legal department of businesses, or in placements through which students may work in the area of compliance. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. While Business Organizations is the co/prerequisite for all placements, certain Intellectual Property courses may additionally be required by the course instructor for eligibility for placements in the Intellectual Property area. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This course is a broad overview of the US Bankruptcy Code and Rules, including the history and philosophy of bankruptcy law, focusing on business bankruptcy under Chapters 7 and 11. The course deals extensively with the rights and obligations of debtors and creditors, including secured and priority creditors. In addition, the course addresses the mechanics of filing, administration, and dispute resolution in Bankruptcy Court, including strategic planning for both debtors and creditors. Major conceptual analysis will include the automatic stay, claims, the estate, discharge and its limits, avoidable transfers, executor contracts, and related topics. Jurisdiction and appellate procedures may also be covered. This course may be offered every other year.
This seminar focuses on the evolving legal framework for holding businesses to account for activities that negatively impact human rights. The course is largely structured around the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) which were approved by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. The UNGPs have created an evolving normative framework that aims to prevent and remedy human rights abuses committed by companies and has become an important area of legal compliance work. The seminar is designed to provide students with a general overview of the general framework established by the UNGPs and will include coverage of: the international human rights legal regime; the development of international, domestic and voluntary corporate initiatives designed to bring corporations in line with human rights norms; the best practices for corporations to incorporate measures to assure respect of human rights; the potential liability of corporations for alleged violations of international human rights law; and the available judicial and nonjudicial remedies for vindicating violations of these rights. The course focuses on both the legal, practical, and political challenges that all stakeholders face in this new area of emerging international law while building the skills needed by a professional in this field. This course may be offered every other year.
The world of immigration in practice can be divided into family, court, and business immigration. Business immigration addresses both temporary and long-term solutions for individuals who need permission to remain in the United States where the purpose is related to an employment opportunity, one’s professional accomplishments, or investment opportunities. Business Immigration will offer detailed information regarding business immigration law and practice, with a focus on current practice and procedures in the administrative law system of the federal agencies regulating immigration. During each class, students will put their knowledge into practice by working through increasingly complex problems designed to orient them around business immigration issues and problems. Additionally, students will be assigned a short research project of immigration requirements of other countries which serve as the basis of a discussion of US immigration in the context of a global market. Students should come away with a working knowledge of representing employers and employees in Business Immigration law.
Examines the similarities and differences among various types of business organizations (sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and limited liability companies). Important issues studied include organization and formation requirements; roles, responsibilities, and potential liabilities of persons acting on behalf of the business organization and/or owning the business organization; the procedures and most frequent grounds for litigation involving business organizations; corporate social responsibility; and a brief introduction to the law of securities regulation and corporate control.
This capstone course focuses on typical issues lawyers face in representing closely-held and private businesses. These issues track the life cycle of the business from formation through operation and growth and ending with an exit from the business. The approach of the course integrates issues from substantive corporation law, partnership law and limited liability company (LLC) law with federal business income tax and federal securities law issues. Specific issues addressed include: choice of entity; determining governance structure; financing the business; compensating the owners and manager; operating and growing the business; exit strategies including selling the business, merging the business, or going public. Additional topics include practical and ethical issues involving who the lawyer represents, distinguishing legal issues from business issues and alternatives to traditional hourly billing. This course may be offered every other year.
The Business Practice credit provides an opportunity for students to gain practical legal experience in a setting outside the law school; it is an externship credit for students interested in business law. Each student works in an appropriate placement that has been approved by a faculty member who teaches a related subject and the Clinical Director. Students spend an average of five hours per week, totaling a minimum of 65 hours per semester, assisting attorneys in handling matters involving various areas of business law. Because of the differing types of work in these placements, the number of hours of field work may vary somewhat from week to week, as determined by the student, the faculty member, and the field supervisor. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet periodically with their faculty advisor to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. Prerequisites/corequisites are various business law courses, based on the subject matter of the fieldwork.
Although marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under federal law, many states have decriminalized or even legalized its use for adult and/or medical use, and Congress has descheduled hemp and hemp products. This course will broadly survey the current state of marijuana and hemp regulation in the United States, including both law and policy. Topics examined will include how states can legalize the drug while federal law forbids it, challenges in potential federal legalization, and emerging issues such as social equity, environmental impact and protections for public health and public safety as the industry evolves.
The theme of this seminar is the manner in which tensions related to the division of power and control play out between children and parents, children and the state, and parents and the state in a wide variety of contexts. Topics include, but are not limited to, the right of parents to make medical, educational, and other decisions about their children without state intervention; First Amendment rights of children; rights of young children in school; children’s economic relationship within the family; child abuse and neglect; child custody; corporal punishment; and the nature and scope of constitutional rights and privileges in delinquency proceedings.
This course covers advanced concepts in civil litigation, including the finer points of forum selection (jurisdiction, venue, removal), choice of law, pleading and motion practice, class actions, multi-district litigation, preclusion, and settlement. Emphasis will be placed on the strategic application of rules and doctrine in a litigation setting. The course is intended to serve as a capstone for students completing the Litigation Concentration and others who are interested in litigation practice.
This course is devoted to the study of the procedures that govern civil lawsuits in the U.S., from commencement to closure, including some of the challenging problems our state and federal courts encounter as they work side by side in our multistate federalism. Students will become familiar with such procedural devices as pleadings (preliminary court papers); motions (requests to the judge, for example, to dismiss a case before trial); joinder (of multiple parties and claims in a single suit, including class action lawsuits); and discovery (the legal obligation to share information with the other party or parties). Students will also address such questions as whether a state or federal court is available to a litigant (subject matter jurisdiction); and whether a forum has jurisdiction over the defendant. For students in the full- or part-time day programs, civil procedure is taught as a single, four-credit course in the fall semester; for students in the part-time evening program, the course is taught as a two-credit course in the fall semester and a two-credit course in the spring semester.
One semester is devoted to studying the procedures by which US civil lawsuits move from commencement to closure, and the other semester to exploring the challenging problems our state and federal courts encounter as they work side by side in our multistate federalism. During the process segment of the course, students familiarize themselves with such devices as pleadings (preliminary court papers); motions (requests to the judge, for example, to dismiss a case before trial); joinder (of multiple parties and claims in a single suit, including class action lawsuits); and discovery (the legal obligation to share information with the other party or parties). Thereafter, students focus on the trial and appellate processes and resolve such issues as when a litigant has a right to jury trial and the circumstances under which a losing party has a right to appeal as opposed to the mere possibility of a discretionary appeal. During the federalism segment, students address such questions as whether a state or federal court is available to a litigant (subject matter jurisdiction); in which forum a plaintiff may bring suit (personal jurisdiction); and which state’s law is to be applied, or a variant of the problem whether state or federal law is to be applied (choice of law). While learning the content of mainstream procedural doctrines, students come to appreciate that failing to follow prescribed procedure can result in waiving important substantive rights they are studying in courses, such as contracts, property, and torts. Throughout the course, students also cultivate the invaluable lawyer’s discipline of carefully analyzing tightly drafted rules and statutes.
One semester is devoted to studying the procedures by which US civil lawsuits move from commencement to closure and the other semester to exploring the challenging problems our state and federal courts encounter as they work side by side in our multistate federalism. During the process segment of the course, students familiarize themselves with such devices as pleadings (preliminary court papers); motions (requests to the judge, for example, to dismiss a case before trial); joinder (of multiple parties and claims in a single suit, including class action lawsuits); and discovery (the legal obligation to share information with the other party or parties). Thereafter, students focus on the trial and appellate processes and resolve such issues as when a litigant has a right to jury trial and the circumstances under which a losing party has a right to appeal as opposed to the mere possibility of a discretionary appeal. During the federalism segment, students address such questions as whether a state or federal court is available to a litigant (subject matter jurisdiction); in which forum a plaintiff may bring suit (personal jurisdiction); and which state’s law is to be applied, or a variant of the problem whether state or federal law is to be applied (choice of law). While learning the content of mainstream procedural doctrines, students come to appreciate that failing to follow prescribed procedure can result in waiving important substantive rights they are studying in courses, such as contracts, property, and torts. Throughout the course, students also cultivate the invaluable lawyer’s discipline of carefully analyzing tightly drafted rules and statutes.
This course examines statutes that Congress has enacted to protect civil rights. Topics addressed include the right to equal educational opportunity; the right to vote; discrimination in the administration of justice; the rights of language minorities and immigrants; and enforcement of rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This course may be offered every other year.
Communicating effectively with clients is a fundamental skill for practicing lawyers. Regardless whether one’s practice focuses on litigation, transactions, regulatory matters, or any other area, an attorney’s effectiveness will necessarily depend, in part, on the complex nuances of legal counseling. The goal of this course is to help students develop skills that will enable them to enter practice confident in their ability to work closely with clients to achieve their goals. The course will regularly employ the use of simulations, placing students in the position of representing clients and working with them to analyze legal problems, develop strategies for resolving those problems, and manage clients’ expectations.
This is an advanced course that emphasizes the practical application of principles and rules of evidence. It is founded on the premise that trial lawyers should know the rules of evidence and understand how to use them in the courtroom to their advantage and on the realization that the rules affect both tactical and substantive decisions about the presentation of a case. This course is for students who seek either a more thorough and practical foundation in the field of evidence or who plan to become trial advocates. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirements.
The course provides students with an introduction to selected topics in federal constitutional law. The subjects covered include: judicial review, executive power, the commerce clause, the first amendment’s free speech and religion clauses, due process of law, and equal protection of the laws. In addition, the course examines the role of the US Supreme Court in interpreting the federal constitution and the ways in which its interpretive approach has changed over time.
This course studies relief for individual debtors under Chapter 7 (liquidation) and Chapter 13 (rehabilitation). Topics covered include prebankruptcy planning; the means test; eligibility; property of the estate; the automatic stay; exemptions; lien avoidance; nondischargeable debts, including domestic support and other marital obligations; jurisdiction issues in concurrent divorce and bankruptcy proceedings; reaffirmation and redemption rights; the trustee’s avoiding powers; avoidance actions; Chapter 13 plans; and the bankruptcy discharge. This course may be offered every other year.
This course will focus on a series of realistic commercial transactions, with particular attention to the incorporation of the business terms into various agreements, as well as a review of how the standard key legal provisions and concepts interact within an agreement. Students will consider how business terms affect the legal provisions in an agreement and how precise drafting can convey the deal terms as intended. Students will analyze term sheets and letters of intent from a corporate, real estate, or other deal-making context for purposes of incorporating deal terms into transactional agreements, which may include asset, stock or purchase and sale agreements; assumption and assignment agreements; employment agreements; shareholder agreements; leases; operating agreements; loan agreements; escrow agreements; settlement agreements; closing agreements, and the like. Students may work in groups and draft documents based upon real transactions. Additionally, students will be exposed to the types of drafting assignments that a law firm setting might provide or require.
In legal terminology, “contract” refers to promises that courts will enforce. Contracts I and II survey the kinds of promises that qualify for enforcement, the meaning of enforcement, and the many doctrines relating to breach, remedies, and excuses for nonperformance that have been developed over centuries. There is a strong emphasis on analyzing cases and significant exposure to relevant statutory law, primarily Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The student is expected to gain a solid grounding in basic concepts and rules, as well as some understanding of contract theory, and should begin to develop skills necessary for solving legal problems arising from contracts in commercial and noncommercial settings.
In legal terminology, “contract” refers to promises that courts will enforce. Contracts I and II survey the kinds of promises that qualify for enforcement, the meaning of enforcement, and the many doctrines relating to breach, remedies, and excuses for nonperformance that have been developed over centuries. There is a strong emphasis on analyzing cases and significant exposure to relevant statutory law, primarily Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The student is expected to gain a solid grounding in basic concepts and rules, as well as some understanding of contract theory, and should begin to develop skills necessary for solving legal problems arising from contracts in commercial and noncommercial settings.
This course is a detailed examination of the entire range of copyright law, including protection for literary, musical, artistic, and other works of authorship. The course is centered on a consideration of the 1976 federal copyright statute, as amended by several recent pieces of legislation, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA). Topics covered include what kinds of work are protected by copyright, ownership of copyright, and the rights and remedies provided by copyright law.
This course focuses on the role of counsel to business organizations. This role may be filled either by an attorney employed by the organization (in-house counsel) or through a law firm (outside counsel). Corporate counsel’s work is largely driven by the overarching principal of risk management. Accordingly, the course will focus on the interaction of risk management with legal analysis in the areas of governance and compliance. Course coverage in the area of governance will include issues involving shareholders, board of directors, and executives. Specific issues may include shareholder proposals and “say on pay” voting, as well as the roles of the Board chair, independent directors, and crucial committees (Audit, Risk, Compliance, Governance and Nominating, and Compensation). Course coverage in the area of corporate compliance will broadly cover the history and connection to the increase in scope and complexity of regulation. The coverage will turn to corporate counsel’s role in major aspects of corporate compliance: internal investigations, regulatory matters, and criminal matters. The course will also discuss the various roles played by corporate counsel in governance and compliance and various ethical dilemmas that arise frequently, such as the business organization as client, attorney-client privilege in corporate investigations, confidentiality, and work product protection. Grading will be based on projects assigned during the semester and a final project due at the end of the semester.
This course is a hybrid covering topics from both a financial and legal perspective. In this way, students can learn the skills to become effective business/law advisors. This course examines the different components of a corporation’s capital structure: senior debt, subordinated debt, convertible securities, preferred stock, and common stock. The course introduces basic accounting and business corporate finance principles to enable students to calculate the value of a corporation as a going concern and in liquidation. Students also learn to calculate the value of a corporation’s debt, equity and hybrid securities and to calculate the change in that value from different corporate strategies. Students learn how to challenge the assumptions behind adversaries’ calculations of value. Building on these finance skills, the course adds a legal framework by examining the competing rights of holders in different levels of the capital structure, the corporate issuer’s various obligations to these holders, and how the different holders may protect their interests under adverse circumstances and during bankruptcies and mergers and acquisitions. In this way, the course encourages students to learn how to advise clients by combining the practical financial skills with an appreciation of the legal policy and reasons underlying courts’ decisions. This course may be offered every other year.
This simulation course uses oral and written exercises from a case file to show the relationship between strategic and tactical decisions of counsel in the processing of a criminal case. The course will explore the relationship between issues of substantive criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, ethics, and trial advocacy. Students will examine a variety of questions, such as challenges to the charging decision, suppression of evidence, discovery questions, motions in limine and motions to admit. Each issue will be addressed in two-week segments, with one week devoted to brainstorming approaches, and a second week of presenting written and oral arguments and conducting hearings on these questions. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirements.
This course examines the ethical responsibilities and associated constitutional obligations of criminal defense lawyers. Topics will include the role of defense counsel in the adversary system, client confidentiality, perjury and the duty of candor, duties to third parties, physical evidence, conflicts of interest, and the jurisprudence of ineffective assistance of counsel. Heavy emphasis will be placed on weekly readings and discussion of multimedia materials, including film and TV portrayals of practicing defense lawyers. Students will be evaluated on class preparation and participation, as well as a course paper. This course may be offered every other year.
Designed to broaden understanding of the potential and the limitations of social control, by examining the basic principles of substantive criminal law. The course explores the common law of crimes, as well as major statutes and appellate opinions that reflect modern attitudes regarding criminal culpability. Crimes against person and property are examined by considering essential elements of offenses, mitigating factors, defenses, and theories of punishment.
Explores the procedural limitations placed on police practices by federal and state constitutions and statutes. In particular, the course examines the law of search and seizure, pretrial identification, electronic surveillance, the right against self-incrimination, and such pretrial interrogation concerns as Miranda rights and the right to counsel. The development and present application of the exclusionary rule constitutes the central unifying theme of the course.
Examines the legal issues that arise in the various stages of criminal adjudication, including standards for pretrial release, prosecutorial discretion, the right to a speedy trial, discovery, pleading, restraints on publicity, the right of confrontation, jury composition, sentencing, double jeopardy, and collateral attack. When appropriate, the effect of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure are studied. Prerequisites or corequisites: Criminal Procedure I and Evidence. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This clinical component enables students to handle aspects of the actual prosecution or defense of misdemeanors in the state District Courts. Students spend 15 hours per week handling cases under the supervision of assistant district attorneys or public defenders. By court rule, this clinic is limited to students in their last year of law school. Students must keep at least one full day, and preferably two, clear for their fieldwork, since they must be available an entire day to handle cases. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. NOTE: ELIGIBILITY FOR SOME PLACEMENTS IN THIS COURSE, AND FOR SJC RULE 3:03 CERTIFICATION, IS DEPENDENT ON SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF A BACKGROUND CHECK. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This course addresses the historical and contemporary relationship between criminal and immigration law. Intended for students interested in practicing Immigration or Criminal Law, the course will explore how various pleas, sentences, and convictions impact foreign nationals. The course covers criminal grounds of deportability and inadmissibility, categorization of crimes under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), types of immigration relief available to foreign nationals with criminal history, and postconviction relief for foreign nationals in criminal court. The course is practice oriented. Students should come away with an understanding of how criminal attorneys should handle cases involving noncitizens. It also will provide a toolbox for immigration attorneys for advising criminal defense attorneys in criminal proceedings, for practice before the immigration courts, and for seeking postconviction relief in criminal court.
This seminar will investigate key cutting-edge issues in US patent, copyright, trademark, and trade-secret law, using a mostly theoretical approach. For the first of half of the semester, we will simultaneously read theoretical works on intellectual property, as well as case law and articles discussing major current debates in US intellectual property law. We will then try to use the theoretical insights we gain from the former to help us solve the doctrinal problems raised in the latter. For example: Should we let celebrities control use of their names, even in the absence of consumer confusion? Should fashion designs be protected by copyright? Should human genes be patentable? Starting in the middle of the semester, students will each present on a key issue in intellectual property of interest to them, and then develop that presentation into a research paper submitted at the end of the course. Students are required to have completed at least one other course in the intellectual property field as a prerequisite. Any of the following courses will serve as a prerequisite: Copyright Law, Intellectual Property, Internet Law, Patent Law, Patent Litigation, or Trademarks and Unfair Competition This course may be offered every other year
This course will explore legal and policy issues raised by computers, the Internet, and the digital age, such as electronic security, privacy, free speech, online crime, online contracts, jurisdiction, trademarks, copyright, and patents. Many of these issues are familiar in other contexts, and this course will address whether and how the legal doctrines change when extended to an online context. Although class discussions will include computer and Internet technology, no prior technical background or knowledge is required. Any technology concepts required for the discussion will be explained in class.
Examines the legal protections and status of people with disabilities. The course explores issues relevant to the workplace and to access to public accommodations and services. Particular focus is on rights conferred under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and Massachusetts antidiscrimination laws. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the professional skills requirements. This course may be offered in alternative years.
This course is designed to explore the fundamental aspects of diversity and inclusion with an emphasis on how they play a role in the legal profession. Discover how issues related to diversity and inclusion impact the practice of law and the legal industry through history, policies, and laws. Topics to be discussed include, among others, identifying ongoing issues and systemic challenges, the marketplace demand for diversity and inclusion, understanding and recognizing implicit bias, and management tools to forward diversity and inclusion efforts in the profession. The course will give students the opportunity to learn from guest speakers and experts in the legal profession.
This course is designed to prepare students for handling divorce cases through the trial phase. This course presumes prior knowledge of the substantive law areas covered during the first two years of law school, especially family law. The course itself concentrates on divorce and the development of skills in trial advocacy as applied to the field of family law. Problems faced by students acting as counsel include client interviews, investigation, discovery, pleadings and amended pleadings, motions, opening and closing statements, examination of witnesses, offers of opinion, evidence, offers of exhibits into evidence, objections, the impeachment of witnesses, and preserving rights on appeal. Simulation exercises are critiqued by the instructors and class. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirements.
The course addresses partner-violence issues in the legal system, including the consequences for children, focusing, initially, on those issues relating to civil orders of protection; prosecution and defense of criminal charges; and divorce, custody, and child support, along with the role of the Department of Children and Families. In the final third of the course, students choose other legal issues in partner-violence cases to present to the class. Presentations in earlier years have included such topics as immigration, cyberstalking, religious law, housing, and evidence issues that are significant in partner-violence cases. Students will be encouraged to consider how issues of race, class, ethnicity, and gender affect the analyses.
Concentrating on public education, this course examines the increasing number of federal and state laws and regulations and court decisions that influence or control schools. Special attention is given to current issues, for example, students’ freedom of speech and press, school prayer, school integration, discipline, school funding, bilingual education, special education, and the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process, as they affect students and faculty. Utilizing a problem-based approach, the respective rights and responsibilities of the various constituencies in an educational setting are examined.
In Elements of Legal Reasoning (ELR), students train in effective learning strategies that result in structured, elaborated legal knowledge and develop problem-solving protocols to enhance their essay-format legal analysis. Through a series of learning modules and participation in one-on-one conferences with ELR faculty, students engage in complex analysis and develop skills broadly applicable to legal scholarship. ELR is taught in the context of Criminal Law, reinforcing learning of key legal doctrine.
This course deals with the employer/employee relationship when the employee is not represented by a labor union, but rather seeks protection under state or federal legislation. Among the topics are legal restraints on employer screening of employees, wage and hour legislation, occupational health and safety legislation, restrictions on employee discharge, employment discrimination, retirement, and other employee workplace rights and protections. This course may be offered every other year.
Focuses on the legal and business aspects of entertainment related to the music industry. Topics include artist personal management agreements, recording agreements, production agreements, music publishing, film music, band agreements, and new technologies. Emphasis is placed on the role of the entertainment lawyer in the areas of negotiating and drafting contracts, copyright and trademark, and the formation of legal entities. This course may be offered every other year.
This course introduces students to policies, statutes, and common law addressing our relationship with the natural environment. Students study the major federal environmental statutes, including the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Federal Superfund Act, among others. The class explores key provisions of those acts, case law interpreting their applicability, and their impacts on environmental conditions, economics, and politics. In addition, students discuss legal and political theories of environmental protection, its constitutional grounding, and its administration by the US Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and state agencies. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
Students in this clinical component spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours each week working at government agencies, private firms, or public interest organizations in the area of environmental law. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This is a two-credit seminar course in Environmental Litigation. The first half of the course aims to broadly provide a background on different kinds of environmental litigation—toxic torts, climate change, etc. The second half of the course is a deep dive into two different pieces of environmental litigation where we follow those cases from inception through trial, judgment through appeal. The focus of this seminar is on the litigation strategies, decisions, and, perhaps, mistakes that shape an environmental case. Assessment is based on class participation as well as two written assignments that allow you to put yourself in the shoes of a litigator. Although the course is centered on environmental issues, no prior environmental experience is necessary.
Covers both estate planning for smaller estates and tax-oriented estate planning. After a consideration of planning techniques for the smaller estate, basic concepts of federal estate and gift taxation are introduced through the study of relevant estate and gift tax code sections and regulations. Thereafter, the course considers various problems involved in planning for the preservation and disposition of wealth. Among the tools studied are wills, revocable and irrevocable inter vivos trusts, and various gifting techniques. Careful analysis is given to the impact of estate, gift, and income tax laws on the disposition of property under different types of plans. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirements.
Surveys the law of evidence applied in the federal trial courts with some comparison with state courts of superior jurisdiction. Case law and code sources are considered with special emphasis placed on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Among the topics treated are the mechanics of presenting and objecting to evidence, relevance, competency and privilege, character evidence, impeachment, hearsay and the major exceptions thereto, expert testimony and scientific evidence, judicial notice, and the burdens of proof and presumptions.
This class will discuss the law of evidence in the context of a jury trial. Along with discussing major topics in the law of evidence in more depth than in an introductory evidence class, we will discuss evidentiary topics that arise frequently at trial but receive scant attention in most evidence classes. While the “The Law of Evidence and the Craft of Advocacy” is not a clinical class, we will incorporate a discussion of the practical application of evidentiary law in a trial setting. Being a successful trial lawyer requires more than just a command of black-letter evidence law; it also requires an understanding of the doctrinal principles behind the rules of evidence and how the rules are just the first step in utilizing the law of evidence to control the process of proof at trial.
Surveys many legal problems of the family. Students taking this course will learn about the effect of the constitution on reproductive activity and family formation and structure. They also will learn about procedures for family dissolution, custody, and support, regardless of whether there has been a marriage or not. In addition, students will learn about the various ways in which members of families can use contracts to create their own relations and the settings in which the state does not permit self-determination. Finally, the course explores the lawyer’s role in family counseling and litigation. One or more written exercises are sometimes required during the course, in addition to a final examination.
Students in this clinical component spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours a week in settings that expose them to the practice of family law. Most placements will be in settings such as legal services offices, including New England Law’s in-house clinic, in which students will handle family law cases pursuant to Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:03, the student practice rule. Since most legal services offices take family law cases primarily where there are issues of domestic violence, the family law placements typically will expose students to issues covered in the Domestic Violence and Family Law courses. Settings beyond legal services offices will be appropriate placements as well, as long as the substantive work in the field will expose students to issues covered in the courses recognized as the corequisites/prerequisites. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. Prerequisite/corequisites include Domestic Violence and Family Law. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
Deals with the Article III courts, with special emphasis on the relationship among constitutional, statutory, and judicially imposed restrictions on the jurisdiction of federal courts. The relationship between state and federal courts is analyzed, as is the historical growth of federal judicial remedies for civil rights violations. The law-making authority of the federal courts and their relationship with the federal legislative and executive branches also are considered.
Students will be placed in the Civil Division of the US Attorney’s Office in Boston and will be under the supervision of a designated assistant US attorney. Students will work with assistant US attorneys on a wide variety of matters that fall within the jurisdiction of the Civil Division. The bulk of the work will involve research and writing on litigation-related legal issues that are directly pertinent to the subjects covered in the Federal Courts class (e.g. justiciability and immunity defenses, government enforcement actions, civil rights litigation). Students will prepare memoranda and drafts of arguments to be included in briefs, may assist in discovery or case investigation, may attend court hearings, and will generally assist in the normal work of the office. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. The US Attorney’s Office only accepts students for the 15-hour (3-credit) version of this clinic. NOTE: ELIGIBILITY FOR THIS COURSE IS DEPENDENT ON SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF A BACKGROUND CHECK. Prerequisite/Corequisite FC379. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This course will examine the role of compliance within the financial sector, specifically focusing on the investment management industry. Emphasis will be given to the delicate balancing act of responding to business needs while acting as an interpreter and enforcer of rules, regulations, and industry best practice. Students will work to define the role of compliance, build a successful compliance program, and appropriately navigate the key relationships and inherent tensions existing between internal and external business partners, legal counsel, and regulatory agencies. At the end of the course, students should have a clear understanding of the scope of compliance and the role of a compliance officer in the financial sector and be able to navigate common issues inherent in the role, such as maintaining independence while being a good business partner, handling regulatory exams, and integrating regulations into the business. The course will employ a real-world, hands-on approach through a variety of small projects and discussions leading up to a final written work and presentation. Familiarity with the financial industry or previous course work such as Securities Regulation is recommended but not required. An overview of the industry, applicable regulations, and key players will be covered at the start of the course.
Examines the speech, press, and religion clauses of the First Amendment. Speech clause topics include incitement to illegal conduct; defamation; obscenity; hate speech; commercial speech; student speech; use of public property for expressive activities; and symbolic conduct. Religion-clause topics include prayer in public schools; displays of religious symbols on public property; government aid to religious schools; religious exemptions; and government accommodation of religious exercise. This course may be offered every other year.
This clinical course gives students an opportunity to participate in and to analyze the work of a lawyer in a government setting. Participants will spend 12 hours per week working in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office under the supervision of assistant attorneys general or another government agency. Students may assist with various aspects of litigation, such as research, investigation, pleadings, discovery, motions, trials, and appeals. Students must attend a weekly, two-hour class that will explore the skills required in representing the government as well as such policy issues as defining the “public interest” and the conflicts between representing the public and defending the government. NOTE: ELIGIBILITY FOR THIS COURSE IS DEPENDENT ON SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF A BACKGROUND CHECK. Prerequisites/corequisites include Evidence or Trial Practice. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This course analyzes the historical developments and policies that have influenced and shaped the development of the health-care system in the United States, at both the state and federal level. Weekly reading assignments will include health-care policy articles, case law, and reports and studies on various health-care topics. Areas of coverage will include health-care financing, the regulation of health-care providers, patient access to health care, and the doctor-patient relationship and conflicts of interest.
This introductory course will cover the principles that govern the interaction and influence of patients, payors, and providers in the field traditionally referred to as “health law.” Through the health policy frames of access, cost and quality of care, this course will cover a myriad of topics including the health professional-patient relationship, the regulation of health professions and institutions, health care financing programs, and public health law.
Students in this clinical component will spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours per week working in a placement with legal work in the area of health law. Placements may include one or more hospitals, government agencies, legal services offices, and private law firms. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. Students must have taken or be currently enrolled in at least one of the following: Health Care Law, Hospital Law, Mental Health Law, or Public Health Law. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
Offers a small number of highly qualified students an opportunity to sharpen research and writing skills and to observe and work on the judicial side of the profession. Each student in the program works for a semester as a law intern for a state or federal judge. The number of credits earned depends on the placement and the number of hours spent working on the internship. Students ordinarily spend between 10 and 20 hours per week in the internship and, in addition, meet regularly with the faculty supervisor of the program. Each student engages in legal research and writing for the assigned judge and maintains a journal detailing the experience in the internship. Selection is very competitive. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
The health-care industry has become perhaps the most regulated industry in the United States, resulting in a dynamic and complex area of law for legal practitioners. This course will utilize federal and state statutes, regulations and case law in addressing areas such as hospital structures, licensure and accreditation, fraud and abuse, physician credentialing, peer review, hospital governance, tax exemption, joint ventures, and antitrust issues. Students also will consider various scenarios routinely encountered by lawyers who represent hospitals. This course may be offered every other year.
This course takes a close look at federal and state fair-housing law by examining its statutory bases; constitutional challenges posed by the First Amendment; issues involving coverage, proof, and liability; and the various enforcement mechanisms and remedies available. The scope of the course is broad insofar as fair-housing law prohibits discrimination in private-sector and public-sector housing on the grounds of physical or mental disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, receipt of public assistance, age, and familial status (families with children under 18), as well as race, color, national origin/ancestry, and religion. The course also considers current patterns of residential segregation and discrimination in housing and mortgage lending, the effectiveness of fair-housing law, and how fair-housing requirements interact with such developments as local and community opposition to affordable housing or to group homes for persons with a disability. The course is recommended both for students interested in civil rights and public interest law and for those intending to pursue careers in the real estate or mortgage lending industries. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement. This course may be offered every other year.
This course provides an overview of the theory and framework of international human rights law and procedures. In particular, we will examine the historical development of human rights; the basis of human rights law including treaties and customary law; the different types of human rights protections and enforcement mechanisms; the global and regional institutions that protect human rights; the rights of particular vulnerable populations; and the role of civil society in their protection. The course emphasizes contemporary issues and case studies to offer students skills in practical application.
The course surveys relevant international laws, the convention and protocol, as well as U.S. laws and procedures governing human trafficking, and compares those to the European Union approach. Students review an array of civil and criminal cases, and the domestic legislative history to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and its reauthorization acts to understand how human trafficking laws and regulations have evolved since first promulgated in 2000. Students will gain a broad understanding of factors that drive trafficking, the routes used by traffickers, and the means by which law enforcement officers find victims and prosecutors make cases against traffickers. Finally, through use of a simulation, students will learn how to prepare a T-visa application for a victim of human trafficking in the United States.
The objective of the course is to provide the student with a general knowledge of immigration laws and procedures in the United States. Focus is on the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the specific procedures established for the processing of affirmative applications for status, as well as defending against removal. The course covers the constitutional authority of the federal government to legislate and regulate immigration, nonimmigrant and immigrant visas (including family and employment based), grounds of inadmissibility and deportability, and defenses against removal. It also touches on asylum law and issues impacting those present without documentation. The course is practice oriented, with theory grounding and contextualizing aspects of the course, as relevant.
Students in this clinical component will work in law offices or agencies that provide representation to aliens involved in proceedings before the INS or in court cases originating from such proceedings. Students will spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours per week in the field, assisting attorneys who are specialists in immigration law. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
Provides an opportunity for individual senior students to perform an independent legal research/writing project under the supervision of a faculty member who has expertise in the area studied. The project must culminate in a written report. Students are given the opportunity to investigate in detail an area that is either not covered or touched on merely in passing in the remainder of the curriculum. To register for Independent Legal Research, the student must obtain and present to the Office of the Registrar written permission from the director of the program and the supervisor of the student’s research. No student may add this course after the period designated for adding courses has expired. Registration forms for Independent Legal Research will not be accepted by the Office of the Registrar unless accompanied by permission as described above. This course is open to third-year day and fourth-year evening students. No student may do more than one independent legal research project.
Examines the international law principles that have been applied to indigenous peoples and how indigenous peoples have been treated by international organizations and by the domestic laws of different nations. Topics addressed include property rights; economic development; religious and cultural preservation rights; and the right to self-determination. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement. This course may be offered every other year.
Covers contemporary insurance issues in property, liability, automobile, health, and life insurance. These areas are studied in the context of disputes, such as coverage for pollution, discrimination, or sexual abuse. Emphasis is given to rules of policy interpretation and applicability of public policy. Background issues are incorporated into the course and include fraud, extracontractual damages, the duty to defend, conflict of interests, and the role of legislatures and regulators. The purpose of the course is to familiarize the student with traditional insurance principles, theories of insurance law, and the approaches to insurance issues that underlie tort and statutory remedies. This course may be offered every other year.
This course will survey the three major fields of intellectual property: patent, trademark, and copyright. The primary objective will be to examine the fundamental principles of each discipline. Students will read cases and statutory materials relating to topics such as registration, protection, and infringement. Although class materials will emphasize the essentials of intellectual property doctrine, the course also will explore important societal issues, such as the impact of technology (for example, television, computers, and the Internet) on the development of these critical areas of 21st-century law.
Teaches the fundamentals of intellectual property litigation, including pre-filing considerations, discovery, specialized proceedings, the use of liability and damages experts, summary judgment practice, trial preparation, and trial. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement. This course may be offered every other year. Please note that students must be currently taking or have previously taken at least one of the corequisite courses.
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute in London, England, works with the global legal community to promote and protect human rights and the independence of the legal profession worldwide. Applicants must be in good academic standing, entering their third year of law school, and have taken at least one of the following courses: Public International Law, International Criminal Law, International Prosecution (Nuremberg) or Human Rights Law, or have comparable, relevant experience. The application process will require each student to submit a letter of intent, including a description of international and/or criminal law classes taken, official transcripts, a list of references, one letter of recommendation, and a writing sample. Students will be interviewed by a selection committee, and those chosen must provide proof of a valid passport, health insurance, and a visa, if necessary.
The trade law of the United States, including treaties, and some law of foreign countries will be examined from the perspective of an American lawyer. Transactions examined include transnational sales licensing and other business arrangements, such as financing and insurance. Potential clients from whose perspectives the alternatives are explored include the US firm doing business abroad, the US firm seeking government assistance in protecting it from unfair foreign competition, the foreign firm doing business in the United States, and state and local governments seeking to buy foreign products, forbid the purchase of foreign products, or promote exports. Treaties and local law designed to protect special interests or to promote competition in an increasingly global market, such as the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA), the European Union (EC, Common Market), and the World Trade Organization (WTO, GATT), as well as other trade arrangements concerning the so-called Third World and the Pacific Rim, are used to demonstrate the critical role of law in structuring international trade. This is an increasingly important and fast-changing field, with ample scope for individual research papers.
This course focuses on major international crimes, including war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, aggression, and terrorism. In addition to discussing these crimes, the course will focus on general legal principles of criminal liability such as joint and indirect perpetration, superior responsibility, and the defense of obedience to orders, and will compare these international crimes and theories of liability with traditional crimes in domestic courts. The course will also examine the relationship between humanitarian law and human rights law in the international criminal setting. Finally, the course will examine the various international, quasi-international, and domestic forums where these crimes are prosecuted as well as jurisdictional issues. The course will be conducted with both synchronous and asynchronous portions. In the asynchronous portion of the course, students will be assigned specific readings and problem scenarios and asked to submit written responses. Synchronous class meetings, which will be held once or twice a week, will be focused on doctrinal understanding of the material and application through a discussion of the assigned problems. After the initial synchronous classes, student teams will be assigned to be the discussion leaders for the remaining classes. Each student will write a 12-15 page paper on a topic of their interest.
Judges are often imagined merely to apply the law to the facts of the case, or (in Chief Justice Roberts’ famous words) simply call “balls and strikes.” Not all cases, however, neatly fit this description. This seminar will consider the factors that influence judicial decision making in difficult cases. Among other things, we will examine the process of judicial selection, different theories of adjudication, limitations on judicial expression, the independence/accountability debate, judicial performance evaluation, legislative-judicial relations, and internal court dynamics. Grading will be based primarily on reaction papers throughout the semester and a paper at the end of the semester. This course may be offered every other year.
Explores the primary methods by which the state defines and controls juvenile delinquency in our society. Through the study of case law, students are exposed to the history and philosophy of the juvenile justice system and to the concept of juvenile delinquency. In particular, focus is given to the unique juvenile court, its roles as a legal system and as a social welfare system, and a comparative analysis of juvenile law and process. Also explored are dependency, neglect, and diversion programs.
Focuses primarily on regulation by the National Labor Relations Board and the federal courts of union/management relations in private industry. Much time is devoted to gaining an understanding of the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act. Specific topics surveyed include union organization tactics, including use of company and union propaganda, representation elections, determination of bargaining units, contract negotiations, arbitration proceedings, strikes, boycotts, pickets, the rights of striking employees, and a union’s duty to employees. This course may be offered every other year.
Students in this course explore various common law principles, constitutional and regulatory issues, and practical skills required for the practice of land use law. The law of nuisance, takings, substantive and procedural due process, zoning, subdivision development, and area planning are all likely topics of coverage. Practice-skills development may be a prominent component of the course, and students should emerge with practical knowledge of the processes for seeking variances, special permit, and site- plan review, among other development-related processes. Timely issues such as affordable housing, growth management, green development, environmental impact review, and energy alternatives may be covered, depending on student interest. Research, writing, and presenting may be components of the course, which may or may not include an exam. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
Students in this clinical component spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours each week working primarily for suburban Boston city and town counsel offices, zoning boards, or private firms. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This class examines the relationship between residential property owners and their lessees, and focuses on Massachusetts law and practice. The course takes an in-depth look at issues such as the formation of the landlord-tenant relationship, including terms of tenancies (for years and at will), required and prohibited terms of a rental agreement, payments at the start of a tenancy (paying close attention to rules governing security deposits), tenant protections and landlord obligations related to rental unit conditions (implied warranty of habitability, covenant of quiet enjoyment, and state sanitary code), termination of tenancies (with a special focus on summary process evictions), protections for tenants in foreclosed buildings, housing discrimination, homelessness as a consequence of eviction, rental housing affordability, and landlords’ tort liability.
Examines the legal and ethical issues that practicing lawyers face regularly as they perform their unique, and often conflicting, responsibilities as representatives of clients, public citizens, and officers of the legal system. Particular attention is given to the laws regulating lawyer conduct, including common law standards, statutes, and formal rules of professional conduct. In addition, lawyers’ legal duties are examined in light of concepts of ethical individual behavior, and the history, values, and goals of the legal profession. Ethics is scheduled as a required, second-year day course offered in the spring semester and as a required, third-year evening course offered in the fall semester.
This class presents a broad overview of the legal and policy questions relating to aging individuals and an older society. As our elderly population continues to grow faster than the population as a whole, the legal profession must be prepared to address the wide range of legal issues that particularly affect the elderly. Topics that are explored include how the elderly live when they retire and their income drops, health-care options and access to care, housing alternatives when a person ages and becomes frail, and long-term care policies. Students also study health-care decision making, planning for incapacity, legal considerations when individuals can no longer make decisions for themselves, and elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. This course involves frequent use of simulations, and problem-solving extrapolated from actual situations encountered by elderly clients. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.
Law Practice Management teaches students how to set up and run a small law firm or a solo practice; however, the skills and lessons learned in the class are transferable to any law practice, large or small. The class focuses on what is needed to launch your practice, how to generate business, how to establish a fee structure, how to actually handle the substantive work, how to manage clients, how to deal with opposing counsel, and how to fire a client. The class also discusses law firm economics, which is critical to understand, whether you are hanging your own shingle or working for someone else. Ethical considerations and malpractice traps in the context of the day-to-day practice of law are weekly themes. Additional elements of a law practice that are examined include 1) forming a business plan; 2) incorporation/partnership, employment/independent contracts; 3) insurance; 4) tax liabilities, annual and other filings and deposits, IOLTA; 5) space; 6) equipment; 7) management; 8) rainmaking and networking; 9) computer software; 10) banking: client funds, trust accounts, operating accounts, conveyancing accounts, IOLTA requirements; and 11) marketing and advertising. Former and current practitioners are guest lecturers, and in the past, they have included a disbarred lawyer to speak of his ethical missteps, bar counsel from the Office of Bar Counsel, a panel of seasoned practitioners, representatives from LOMAP and LCL. The course also involves a “shadowing” program, where students are matched with local practitioners based upon substantive law and geography. Each student meets with a local practitioner to discuss his or her practice and start to build the student’s network. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.
Legal professionals in law firms, legal departments, courts, legal tech companies, and a range of other legal contexts need to identify and solve problems by thinking holistically about the intersection of law, innovation, and technology. During this course, students will enter current conversations about legal innovation, including implications for legal ethics, access to justice, legal professional wellbeing, ALSPs, Web 3.0, LaaS, and other possibilities; investigate theories of change and process/project management, innovation, and design thinking; take core samples or snapshots of past and present legal technologies to study their effectiveness; learn to communicate possibilities clearly and concisely; and practice solving a real-world problem facing legal professionals in law firms, legal departments, courts, or the people they serve. To do so, students will complete weekly reading/watching assignments; prepare, deliver, and critique short, weekly presentations; and submit a final project. As a result, students who take this course will be able to improve the experience of law for legal professionals and everyone else. While this course is open to every student, full or part-time employment, clinic, internship, or clerkship experience in law firms, legal departments, or courts will be very beneficial. Prior coursework in legal ethics, compliance, accounting, and other applied disciplines will also be beneficial.
This one-semester course serves as an introduction to civil litigation. Students attend a 2-hour weekly class and perform 16 hours per week of clinical work, working on civil cases through the Clinical Law Office or other legal services offices, such as Greater-Boston Legal Services. Students represent clients under Rule 3:03 of the Supreme Judicial Court, the student practice rule, and may assume responsibility for all phases of cases they handle. Students meets on a weekly basis with their assigned supervisor to discuss progress and strategy on the student’s cases, and are responsible for handling cases until the end of the examination period. The major objective of the course is to develop a conceptual framework within which students can understand and evaluate their own experience in practice, both during the course and in future practice. The skills studied include client interviewing, case planning, investigation/discovery, client counseling, negotiation, argument, and the presentation of evidence. In addition to providing the opportunity to develop skills, the course examines institutional and ethical problems that arise in the student’s practice. Written work includes short papers and an examination. Prerequisites/corequisites include Evidence or Trial Practice. This course satisfies the Experiential Education Requirement.
This course is designed to provide in-depth training in legal analysis for law school exams, the bar exam, and practice. Students will receive extensive guidance and frequent individualized feedback regarding improving legal analysis skills on essays and multiple-choice questions. The Legal Analysis course serves to reinforce learning of evidentiary doctrines and is geared specifically toward helping students excel both in the Evidence course (taken contemporaneously) and in that subject on the bar exam. Students will develop expertise in the following three areas: (1) improving knowledge of Evidence law; (2) building analytical skills by practicing essay and multiple-choice hypotheticals; and (3) developing self-regulated learning skills critical for success both as law students and lawyers.
Legal Research and Writing I and II are designed to teach students basic professional skills needed for lawyering. These skills include legal research, legal analysis, legal writing, and oral advocacy. The course begins before the commencement of instruction in other first-year courses. This first week of instruction introduces students to the legal system and to case analysis. The remainder of the course focuses on the fundamentals of legal analysis, research, and writing. Students will learn to research and analyze law in the context of particular factual situations and to discuss the law in a variety of legal formats, including office memoranda, motion memoranda, client opinion letters, and oral arguments. Day Division students should note that this course generally is scheduled to meet once a week from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Legal Research and Writing III introduces students to appellate advocacy, both written and oral. In the intensive, simulated, appellate advocacy program known as moot court, each student will prepare a bench memorandum, an appellate brief, and an oral argument. The course focuses primarily on the different components of the appellate brief and how the components form a cohesive and persuasive document. This course was previously titled Legal Research and Writing II. Prerequisites: Legal Research and Writing I Legal Research and Writing II
This class will examine the legal structure and powers of cities and towns, and consider how the law interacts with municipalities’ ability to confront specific policy or transactional challenges. The class will be organized around a series of case studies through which students will confront an array of the types of questions faced by attorneys who represent, appear before, or litigate against local governments. Topics considered this year will include: a municipality’s role in enforcing federal immigration laws; local regulation of “sharing economy” businesses such as ride sharing and short-term rentals; selling a parcel of public property for large-scale private development; redistricting and managing a local election; funding the operation of a new public space; and structuring an incentive package to encourage a business to locate in a specific city. This course may be offered every other year.
Massachusetts Legal Research is an in-person course held once per week. Each week, students will be required to complete assigned readings and research exercises within a subject module. The exercises accompanying each module and corresponding feedback are an integral component of instruction. The purpose of this course is to prepare future Massachusetts practitioners to effectively conduct research. We will look at the sources of Massachusetts law and the unique secondary sources, websites, and databases available for research in Massachusetts. Students will obtain experience doing research online using both free and subscription research services. Discussions will focus on both the economics and the efficacy of various research databases and strategies. Students will gain proficiency in working with Massachusetts cases, statutes, regulations, administrative decisions, dockets, major secondary sources, transactional materials, and current awareness resources.
Students are introduced to the principles of conflict resolution through the mediation process and through evolving mediation hybrids, including learning about the legal, ethical, sociological, and procedural aspects of mediation through a series of simulated exercises. Students participate directly in simulations drawn from many areas involving conflict, such as family law, trusts and estates, land use and real estate, business, sports law, construction, entertainment, and employment. During the second half of the course, the focus is on the role of lawyers in the mediation process and the skills needed to be an effective and appropriate advocate in resolving disputes for clients. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirements.
Students in this clinical component course will spend 10 (2-credit) or 15 (3-credit) hours per week in settings that expose them to various aspects of dispute resolution, mediation. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet in a series of seminars with the course instructor and/or the Clinical Director to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. Prerequisites/corequisites include Alternative Dispute Resolution, Mediation, or Negotiation. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
This course provides an in-depth look at the tort of medical malpractice, from both a theoretical and practical perspective. The course will cover topics such as the treatment relationship, the elements of a medical malpractice claim, the standard of care, confidentiality, informed consent, loss of chance, causation, risk-management issues, and the role of insurance in medical negligence. The class will also delve into the mechanics of a medical malpractice lawsuit, from both the plaintiff and the defendant’s perspective, and cover potential theories of liability, pretrial discovery, depositions of medical experts, evidentiary issues at trial, defenses to medical malpractice actions, and allowable damages. This course may be offered every other year.
Explores the interrelations between law and mental disabilities. Topics include the insanity defense, use of psychiatric expert testimony, competence to stand trial, use of indeterminate sentencing for “dangerous” offenders and predicting “dangerousness” civil commitment, rights of mental patients, use of psychotropic medication, and psychiatrist/patient privilege. This course may be offered every other year.
Focuses on three principal areas: real estate sales, conveyancing, and mortgage law. In the area of sales transactions, the course covers such topics as the lawyer’s professional responsibility, duties owed by brokers to sellers and buyers, offers of purchase, purchase and sales agreements, remedies for breach, and closing. In the area of conveyancing, the course covers the requisites and construction of deeds, escrows, surveyor malpractice, recording procedures, liabilities of grantors for defective conditions, title searches, title abstracts, and title insurance. In the mortgage law component, the course covers the defining characteristics and standard provisions of a mortgage, mortgage substitutes, discrimination in lending, lien priorities and subordination of interests, assignments by mortgagees, transfer by mortgagors, foreclosures, redemption, waste, usury, and fixture security interests. The course emphasizes the negotiation and proper drafting of instruments.
Credit is offered for faculty-coached entrants in national interscholastic lawyering skills competitions, at the discretion of the dean. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.
This course explores some of the many legal issues that implicate national security in the United States. Among the topics we will consider are: the constitutional framework for national security and separation of powers; the authority to use force abroad; the authority to conduct intelligence operations abroad; and the effort to fight terrorism. This course will be taught as a colloquium; after an initial introduction to the constitutional framework, teaching will be undertaken by students: each student (or team of students, depending upon enrollment) will be responsible for leading discussion on a topic related to national security law. This course may be offered every other year.
Explores the theory and the art of resolving conflict through negotiation. Various styles are presented for comparison and analysis. Students are urged to evaluate their own intuitive style and to experience others. Practical experience is achieved through one-on-one and group negotiations exercises. The theory of conflict, strategic choice, ethical issues, and the negotiator’s dilemma are presented in a variety of substantive contexts. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.
Available only to those students serving as staff members or editors on the New England Law Review. The number of credits that may be taken varies from semester to semester. For information on Law Review membership, see the “Other Activities for Which Credit May Be Earned” registration material on the Office of the Registrar’s website. See also the Student Handbook of Rules and Regulations.
This course will examine nonprofit organizations and the sector in which they operate. The course will focus on the legal framework governing the operation of the nonprofit organizations, including issues of choice of form, governing bodies, and regulation of solicitations. The course also will survey the basic federal income and state property tax issues relevant to operation of the nonprofit organization. These issues include qualification for tax exemption, filing requirements, engaging in commercial activities, and the distinction between public charities and private foundations. This course may be offered every other year.
Surveys several topics that are essential to patent practitioners, such as the standards for patentability, patent applications, and patent infringement. These topics also are of interest to those who do not intend to practice patent law but who recognize that clients’ intellectual property needs occasionally require them to work with patent lawyers.
Teaches the fundamentals of patent infringement litigation, including pre-filing considerations, discovery, specialized proceedings, the use of liability and damages experts, summary judgment practice, trial preparation, and trial. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education requirement. This course may be offered every other year. Please note that students must be currently taking or have previously taken at least one of the corequisite courses.
This course covers the Internal Revenue Code provisions applicable to the tax treatment of individual taxpayers. Students also will study tax policy, case law, and the tax doctrines and principles applicable to the determination of an individual’s taxable income. This course provides the basic structure for understanding and interpreting the Internal Revenue Code, and serves as a foundation for upper-level tax and business-related law school courses. Areas of coverage includes: gross income; the tax consequences of property transactions; property acquired by gift, bequest, devise, or inheritance; scholarships, prizes, and awards; life insurance and annuities; discharge of indebtedness; personal injury damages; fringe benefits; divorce; and deductions related to a trade or business or profit-seeking activity. When offered as a distance-learning course, there will be required weekly readings from the casebook and online statutory and regulatory sources, regular mini-lectures on prerecorded video accompanied by PowerPoint slides, discussion forums to which students must make posts each week, and weekly quizzes. All course material other than the casebook will be accessible by any computing device through an Internet connection. While most of the course will be asynchronous, opportunities will be presented for synchronous digital chat. In addition to posing questions and providing guidance on the discussion boards and through the video lectures, the professor will be available throughout the course by e-mail, conference call, or live chat. Grading will be based on participation in the forums (including a qualitative component), performance on quizzes, and a final “open-book” examination.
The law of armed conflict, also known as international humanitarian law, refers to the laws and rules of war. In this course we will examine first the legal basis for the use of force generally and then we will examine in detail various laws and rules governing the application of that force. Topics include sources of the law of armed conflict, the triggers of the law of armed conflict, the treatment of prisoners of war, civilian protection, belligerent detention, targeting rules, the permissible methods and means of war, and prosecuting war crimes. Our synchronous class meetings will focus both on doctrinal understanding of these concepts along with application of the concepts in an operational context. The course grade is based on class participation, completion of short written assignments throughout the class, and the completion of an individual student thought paper at the end of the semester.
Students accepted into this course will have the opportunity to learn law firm culture, cultivate a variety of legal skills, develop a professional identity and learn how to navigate barriers unique to students from marginalized communities. A well-known intellectual property law firm located in downtown Boston will select students each semester for mentoring and instruction by highly experienced firm attorneys. The curriculum will cover on-line legal research, trial preparation, and drafting legal documents such as trademark applications and simple patent claims. In addition, students will be coached on resume writing, the job interview process, and the skills necessary for effective client communication. The goal of the practicum is to enhance the students’ legal skills regardless of their field of interest so that they will be better able to compete for law firm and other legal positions after law school.Selected students must be CHHEP members or non-CHHEP members who have demonstrated an interest in CHHEP’s goals, including diversifying the profession and providing a forum for discussions of the interactions between race, ethnicity and other points of identity with law school, the profession, and the law. No science or technology knowledge is required, and selection will not be based on grade point average or class rank. The practicum is open to 2L and 3L day, and 3L and 4L evening students. The law firm supervisor will evaluate the students’ work and the faculty supervisors will grade the students’ performance based primarily on the law firm supervisor’s evaluation. This is a pass/fail course. This course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.Pre-requisite or Co-requisite:Business Organizations
Climate change is a proven phenomenon, and humankind contributes to it in multiple ways, but primarily through our carbon emissions. Climate change has had severe impacts on all environmental media as well as human and animal populations around the world, with particular threats visited on remote places, dwindling species, and socially disadvantaged peoples. In this course, students will study the causes and environmental impacts of climate change even as we learn the law and legal ramifications of this global threat. Students will claim topics, develop readings, educate their peers, and write about legal issues related to climate change. We will work to develop creative research skills, write persuasively, and craft innovative arguments. Depending on enrollment and other factors, the course may or may not include a final exam, but students can count on a significant writing component and opportunities to present, lead class discussions, and have a voice in our decisions about coverage. Environmental justice, or the particular impacts of climate change on race, will be addressed.
This is a two-credit seminar course in Environmental Litigation. The first half of the course aims to broadly provide a background on different kinds of environmental litigation—toxic torts, climate change, etc. The second half of the course is a deep dive into two different pieces of environmental litigation where we follow those cases from inception through trial, judgment through appeal. The focus of this seminar is on the litigation strategies, decisions, and, perhaps, mistakes that shape an environmental case. Assessment is based on class participation as well as two written assignments that allow you to put yourself in the shoes of a litigator. Although the course is centered on environmental issues, no prior environmental experience is necessary.
Prior to 2018, the U.S. system for taxing income earned in foreign countries was based on (1) residence, imposing U.S. taxes on the worldwide income of U.S. firms, while allowing a foreign tax credit to reduce double taxation, and (2) a territorial, or source-based system, which taxes income earned within the U.S. Because foreign-earned income is not subject to U.S. tax until it is repatriated, or brought back to the U.S., multinational firms have an incentive to invest in foreign countries with low-tax burdens and allow their foreign earnings to remain overseas in order to avoid U.S. tax. The recently enacted Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 addressed some of the issues inherent in the U.S. system by enacting provisions that shift the U.S. towards a territorial tax system, making the U.S. system similar to the tax systems used by most of the other major industrialized nations. This course is for students who want to have a better understanding of how our government taxes its citizens, residents, and domestic corporations on income earned outside of the United States, and how it taxes foreign individuals and corporations on income earned within the U.S. Issues covered in class will include residency requirements, source of income rules, foreign earned income, the foreign tax credit, tax treaties, and transfer pricing rules. The only prerequisite for this course is Personal Income Tax.
This course is intended for students who are looking for an introduction to UCC Sales and UCC Secured Transactions in a single course for basic knowledge and preparation for taking the bar exam. It is not for students who are considering a career in commercial law. Among the topics the course will cover from Sales are the scope of Article 2, rules on formation and modification, the statute of frauds, warranties and disclaimers, risk of loss, and remedies for buyers and sellers. Among the topics that will be covered on Secured Transactions are the scope of Article 9, attachment of security interests to collateral, different means of perfecting security interests, and priorities among competing claimants to collateral. Students who have already taken the 3-credit course in UCC: Sales are not eligible for this course. Students who take this course will not be eligible to take the 3-credit UCC: Sales course in the future.
This upper-level seminar will study a range of legal and ethical issues particular to the world of visual art and its many participants (artists, galleries and art dealers, auction houses, museums, collectors, museum-goers, and others). Specific topics include artists’ rights (including copyright, resale royalties, and moral rights), commercial art market transactions (including the artist-dealer relationship, auction rules, tax considerations, and questions of authenticity and authentication), constitutional freedom of expression issues, and rules governing the collection, donation, and display of visual art, particularly for museums and their donors. The course will also pay close attention to the fate of works of art in wartime, and the international trade in stolen and illegally exported cultural property. Either Copyright or Intellectual Property will serve as a prerequisite or corequisite for this course.
This course addresses the law’s regulation of sexual orientation and gender identity. We will cover topics such as constitutional law (i.e., due process, equal protection, cruel and unusual punishment, freedom of speech and association, the religion clauses), statutory exceptions to discrimination grounded in sincerely-held religious beliefs, and the intersection of several areas of law with sexual orientation and gender identity (e.g., public accommodations and housing, employment, healthcare and medical issues, international law, immigration, asylum, education, criminal law, prisons, military law, family law). Grades will be based on class participation and a final paper.
Bioethics & the Law is an introductory course that explores the nexus between medical ethics, research ethics, business ethics, and the law. The course will review ethical principles, dilemmas, and the legal issues that arise in the course of medical treatment and research. Course topics will include discrimination, reproductive rights, life and death decisions, research with human subjects, and topics in the news. In addition, the course will consider public health implications and the role of an ethics and compliance program.
Prerequisite: Constitutional law. The U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional law more generally have come to occupy a central place in debates about the health of American democracy. Contemporary commentators, including former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and current U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, recently have contributed their perspectives on the role of the Court—perspectives that offer a lens through which lawyers can consider numerous constitutional issues currently facing the Court and the nation. Students will gain insights into the current state of constitutional law and the Supreme Court through close reading and discussion of five books, including Justice Barrett’s Listening to the Law.
Legal professionals in law firms, legal departments, courts, #legaltech companies, and a range of other legal contexts need to identify and solve problems by thinking holistically about the intersection of law, innovation, and technology. During this course, students will enter current conversations about legal innovation, including implications for legal ethics, access to justice, legal professional wellbeing, ALSPs, Web 3.0, LaaS, and other possibilities; investigate theories of change and process/project management, innovation, and design thinking; take “core samples” or “snapshots” of past and present legal technologies to study their effectiveness; learn to communicate possibilities clearly and concisely; and practice solving a real-world problem facing legal professionals in law firms, legal departments, courts, or the people they serve. To do so, students will complete weekly reading/watching assignments; prepare, deliver, and critique short, weekly presentations; and submit a final project. As a result, students who take this course will be able to improve the experience of law for legal professionals and everyone else. While this course is open to every student, full or part-time employment, clinic, internship, or clerkship experience in law firms, legal departments, or courts will be very beneficial. Prior coursework in legal ethics, compliance, accounting, and other applied disciplines will also be beneficial.
Students will be divided into small groups or “firms” of 3-4 persons each representing either the Plaintiff or Defendant in a civil case. Complex Business Dispute, Personal Injury or Land Use litigation fact patterns will be utilized. Students will provide client advice on legal research and preliminary investigation, negotiation, and pre-litigation strategies. Each matter will advance through the demand and complaint writing, discovery and motion stages of litigation. Emphasis will be on collaboration, legal analysis, writing and oral presentation and advocacy. In class, students will discuss a range of strategic questions including developing viable causes of action, identifying critical facts, and using written discovery and depositions to obtain information. Case presentations will proceed through dispositive hearing process, including Contested Discovery Disputes, Motions for Preliminary Relief, and Summary Judgement. Students will be graded on their preparation and execution of assigned tasks, including critical peer review of presentations.
This 2-credit seminar studies post-conviction remedies in the U.S. criminal legal system. The class will focus on the ecosystem of legal remedies available to criminal defendants after they have been convicted at trial and their direct appeal has concluded with particular attention paid to how the processes that create the stark racial disparities are not isolated or unique, but occur system-wide and at-scale in the criminal legal system. Its focus is on learning how and why errors occur in the criminal legal system, why those errors have gone uncorrected for so long, who benefits from the status quo, who the errors primarily impact, and how certain prosecutors, legislators, activists, and defense lawyers are trying to address those issues in different parts of the country. Specific topics may include: implicit bias, parole & medical parole, clemency & commutation, victim’s rights, innocence statutes & M.G.L. c. 278A, collateral attacks and new trial motions, habeas petitions, conviction integrity, and resentencing and second look legislation.
Between 2008 and 2024, the population of in-house counsel in the US has doubled; the trend is likely to continue. In-house counsel are the primary care physicians in the industry dominated by specialists. This course is an engaging and practical introduction to the typical legal needs of a business, from startup to maturity, and the role of an in-house lawyer in ensuring the company’s legal viability. Students will learn the main parts of an enterprise and the common legal techniques from formation to operation, growth, and exit. Topics will include company formation and corporate matters, contracting, intellectual property, corporate financing, data privacy, employment law, and regulatory issues. These topics will be considered in the context of both startups and grown enterprises.
This course will survey the law governing state and local governments’ taxation of businesses, individuals, and transactions, which is a growing and dynamic area in the tax law field. The course focuses on the practical aspects of state and local taxation, while also giving attention to state and local tax policy concerns and evolving issues.
This advanced tax law course will explore the primary tax consequences to all stakeholders involved in a wide variety of corporate merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. These include tax-free reorganizations and dispositions, taxable acquisitions (including private equity transactions) as well as understanding certain limitations placed on corporate tax attributes (NOLs, etc.) resulting from an M&A transaction. This course will also cover negotiating the key provisions of a typical M&A agreement. M&A transactions involving flow-through entities (S corporations, partnerships, LLCs) and due diligence procedures will be explored as well.
The rule of law is a set of concepts underlying the legal systems of democratic regimes that American lawyers and judges largely take for granted. Practitioners and scholars in other countries, especially those that have experienced periods of authoritarian or totalitarian rule, regularly assess their own and other countries’ legal systems against it. In theory the rule of law enables a legal system to protect democratic activity from arbitrary or oppressive government action independent of ideology. It provides a useful lens for assessing legal systems and actions. This elective will develop a basic understanding of the concepts associated with the rule of law and will evaluate specific aspects of the rule of law using three principal comparative sources (the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission’s “Rule of Law Checklist,” the U.S. Constitution, and the German Basic Law).Specific topics may include aspects of Legality (supremacy of the law, compliance with the law, executive lawmaking, duty to implement the law, exceptions in emergencies, and private actors exercising public functions), Certainty (foreseeability of the law, accessibility of court decisions, stability and consistency of law, non-retroactivity, and legitimate expectations), Prevention of abuse of power and anti-corruption, Equality before the law and non-discrimination, and Access to justice (independence of judiciary and individual judges, impartiality of judiciary, prosecutorial autonomy, independence and impartiality of the bar, and fair trial rights). Materials will include cases from U.S. and non-U.S. courts, articles, and reports from a variety of sources that may require additional background reading for context. Students will be required to submit two reflection papers, participate in class discussion and prepare assigned problems, and take a final exam.
This course examines the historical development of U.S. immigration law. It begins with early colonial and state immigration control before 1875, moves through the federalization of immigration law in the late 19th century, and traces key moments in the creation of the modern immigration system, including the development of deportation policy, wartime immigration restrictions, the convergence of criminal and immigration law, the expansion of immigration detention, and U.S. southern border enforcement.The seminar emphasizes both historical analysis and modern application, asking students to connect historical developments to current issues in immigration law and policy. Topics include: the plenary power doctrine, the boundaries of U.S. citizenship, asylum and refugee policy, executive power over immigration matters, and ongoing constitutional questions concerning immigration detention and immigration enforcement practices. Readings are drawn from historical primary sources, statutes, cases, book chapters, law review articles, and other relevant materials. Assessment will be based on class participation and a final research paper.
The Practice Credit provides an opportunity for students to gain practical legal experience in a setting outside the law school. Each student works in an appropriate placement that has been approved by a faculty member who teaches a related subject. Students spend an average of five hours per week, totaling a minimum of sixty-five hours per semester, assisting attorneys in handling matters involving various areas of the law that are the subject of their Practice Credit. Because of the differing types of work in these placements, the number of fieldwork hours may vary somewhat from week to week, as determined by the student, the faculty member, and the field supervisor. Students will submit weekly journals, describing and reflecting on their experiences in the field, and will meet periodically with their faculty advisor to explore the relationship between the principles covered in the substantive class and the students’ fieldwork. In order to register for this credit, students must receive approval from their faculty advisor and designated oversight body, which will be either faculty from one of the three academic centers or a designated subcommittee of the Curriculum Committee. Please note that students may not take more than two Practice Credits courses overall, whether the Business Practice credit, this more general Practice Credit, or a combination of the two. Students may not take more than one Practice Credit per semester and may not take the Practice Credit in the same semester as they are taking a clinical course, the Honors Judicial Clerkship, or a Business Practice Credit. Prerequisites/corequisites are at the discretion of the faculty advisor and based on subject matter of fieldwork.
This course explores the many legal issues that concern information privacy in a world of big data, including such topics as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, federal and state financial privacy laws, consumer data privacy regulation, and First Amendment limitations on privacy regulation. This course will be taught as a colloquium. After an initial introduction to legal and philosophical perspectives on information privacy, teaching will be undertaken by students in the course: each student (or team of students) will be responsible for leading discussion on a topic related to privacy and law enforcement.
This course explores the many legal issues that concern information privacy in the law enforcement context, including the scope of the Fourth Amendment in the digital age, the privacy implications of emerging surveillance technology, and digital searches and seizures. This course will be taught as a colloquium; after an initial introduction to legal and philosophical perspectives on information privacy, teaching will be undertaken by students in the course. Each student (or team of students) will be responsible for leading discussion on a topic related to privacy and law enforcement.
An analysis of the various means for assessing responsibility for damages arising from products sold in commerce. Among the topics covered are theories of liability, including negligence, misrepresentation, warranty, and strict liability; the concept of defectiveness; and special types of defendants. Liability is analyzed under both common law and statutes. This course may be offered every other year.
Property I and II provide an introduction to the historical development of the oldest and most highly developed branch of Anglo-American law, real and personal property law. The system of estates in land and future interests is examined, as are court opinions addressing common law property concepts. Students also are introduced to modern property law and prepared for more specialized study in related areas (e.g. Wills, Estates, and Trusts; Environmental Law; Modern Real Estate Transactions; and Land Use Law). Some of the topics examined may include landlord-tenant law, marital and other shared property, mortgages, conveyances, recording systems, easements and other private restrictions on land use, government land use controls, eminent domain, and housing discrimination.
Property I and II provide an introduction to the historical development of the oldest and most highly developed branch of Anglo-American law, real and personal property law. The system of estates in land and future interests is examined, as are court opinions addressing common law property concepts. Students also are introduced to modern property law and prepared for more specialized study in related areas (e.g. Wills, Estates, and Trusts; Environmental Law; Modern Real Estate Transactions; and Land Use Law). Some of the topics examined may include landlord-tenant law, marital and other shared property, mortgages, conveyances, recording systems, easements and other private restrictions on land use, government land use controls, eminent domain, and housing discrimination.
Examines the ethical responsibilities and obligations of the criminal prosecutor. Each class will include a discussion of selected readings and issues related to the various stages of the criminal process. Students should be familiar with the pertinent Model Rules of Professional Conduct and ABA Criminal Justice Standards discussed in the text. This course may be offered every other year.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) comprises Machine Learning (ML), knowledge representation and knowledge engineering, and natural language processing (NLP). AI is rapidly transforming the landscape, and the ways in which we navigate business, social, and legal decisions, as well as the way in which we create and innovate. Our legal institutions are tasked with finding appropriate responses to these changes; and traditional legal frameworks are straining to adjust to many of the new challenges that are arising in virtually every corner of law and society.
This course will investigate the legal frameworks and mechanisms that are being developed to address the changing landscape of AI and ML. Students will survey laws at local, state, and federal levels in the United States, as well as engage in comparative analyses of approaches in other countries.
This course will begin by asking: how does AI disrupt, and potentially reshape, well-established common law doctrines? Some areas of inquiry will include: (1) do large language models (LLMs) encroach upon speech protected under the First Amendment?; (2) do algorithmic sentencing guidelines, facial recognition software, and other AI-enabled practices violate the Civil Rights Act?; (3) how do we regulate AI to ensure individuals’ privacy and protect their data?; and (4) can LLMs enhance creative production without violating intellectual property rights and undermining markets in original creative works?
A core premise of this course is that students must gain a solid understanding of the technological advances that are spurring the rapid development of AI. Although no prior technical knowledge is required, students should expect to dedicate several class hours to mastering the fundamentals of AI, which will deepen their ability to delve into current legal developments and forthcoming challenges.
This course offers a comparative exploration of housing, landlord–tenant, and property-adjacent law across the United States and selected European countries. The course will examine the legal and policy frameworks that govern security of tenure, eviction, habitability, discrimination, immigration, housing subsidies, and homelessness, analyzing how common-law, civil-law, and EU human-rights systems conceptualize the relationship between private property and public responsibility. Through statutory interpretation, case analysis and administrative records, students will compare approaches to housing scarcity, tenant protections, remedies, due-process standards, and social-housing structures, ultimately developing cross-jurisdictional insights that inform real-world legal problem-solving and policy evaluation.
Instructor: Ben Golden (Galway Program Director)
This course will focus on how AI is impacting the fields of evidence and ethics, and how different legal systems are responding to those changes. Readings will come from current literature on these matters; for example, Garrett and Rudin, The Right to a Glass Box: Rethinking the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Criminal Justice, 109 Cornell L. Rev. 561 (2024). Students will be assessed on a final paper and class participation. Classes will include a mix of lecture and small-group work, with some in-class simulations to test how the students would attempt to argue for and against the admission of various items of evidence. The course likely will more heavily emphasize the implications of AI in the criminal justice field, but there also will be plenty of discussion of the civil side as well.
Instructor: Erin O’Sullivan
This survey-style class will focus on children’s rights using a comparative model between the United States and other nations that have ratified the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child. While there have been several international agreements involving children’s rights for more than a century, the 1989 United Nations Convention of the Child is the most recent. There are 195 countries that ratified the treaty, but the United States is not one of them. This class will give students a framework covering the extent of the rights of children and take a deeper dive into certain areas of law, including rights enforcement. This class will feature a hybrid lecture and discussion format. Students will be required to do readings that will further their doctrinal knowledge and will prompt meaningful class discussions. The class will also include real world experiences and simulations to further the students’ learning. The final assessment will be a paper.
The ability to interpret legal texts is a critical skill for legal analysis and argument. Contemporary law is largely derived from statutory authorities, and lawyers will confront questions of statutory interpretation in almost any area of practice. As such, the course will focus primarily on the methods of statutory interpretation. That said, textual interpretation also arises in constitutional and contractual legal analysis, and we will discuss how interpretive tools apply in these different contexts. The methods of textual interpretation are a continual source of vibrant intellectual engagement, as scholars, Supreme Court justices, and advocates debate the methods and aims of finding the meaning of legal text. This course will stress both the practical and theoretical dimensions of interpretation. Students will learn and apply the methods of interpreting legal texts, including statutes, regulations, the Constitution, and private agreements. We will also spend time on contemporary debates about textualist, purposive and dynamic interpretation; the use of legislative history and canons of construction; and about the democratic and constitutional foundations of statutory interpretation itself.
This course covers the laws that protect computer software. It will address intellectual property issues such as copyright, patent, trademark, trade dress, trade secret, and contract protection. It also addresses legal boundaries on protection through antitrust, the doctrine of fair use, and preemption. Topics include protection for source code, user interfaces, and multi-media software; the role of standards organizations; and the importance of license agreements in development and distribution.
Teaches the fundamentals of patent infringement litigation, including pre-filing considerations, discovery, specialized proceedings, the use of liability and damages experts, summary judgment practice, trial preparation, and trial. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education requirement. This course may be offered every other year. Please note that students must be currently taking or have previously taken at least one of the corequisite courses.
This course will focus on the use of legal tools to improve the public’s health. It will survey the legal framework in which the government may regulate for the public’s health, analyzing the constitutional, statutory, common law, and regulatory sources of government authority, as well as the limits imposed on the government’s power to address public health concerns. The course will focus on current public health policy issues, which may include obesity prevention, tobacco control, and public health emergencies, with special attention paid to the inherent tension between public health regulation and individual rights. This course may be offered every other year.
This one-semester package includes both a clinical course and seminar. Students will spend 5 (1-credit), 10 (2-credit), or 15 (3-credit) hours per week in their fieldwork, depending on the number of credits for the clinical portion. In addition, all students will attend a weekly, 2-hour seminar (2 credits). The total package will therefore be offered for 3, 4, or 5 credits, with the 3-credit package offered only to Evening and Special Part-Time Program students. For the clinical portion, the core placements will include the New England Law Clinical Law Office and off-site placements, such as Greater-Boston Legal Services, where students will handle civil cases. Students will be practicing under Rule 3:03 of the Supreme Judicial Court, typically representing indigent clients. An explicit goal of this course is to provide our students with direct experience providing “legal services for the benefit of persons of limited means.” See MASS. R PROF. CONDUCT R. 6.1. Placements in governmental agencies will not be the focus of this clinic, since the placements in other clinical courses are so heavily weighted toward the government sector (e.g. Government Lawyer, Tax Clinic, Administrative Law Clinic, Criminal Procedure II Clinic, Federal Courts Clinic). The seminar portion of the course will focus on public interest law and the public interest lawyer. Classes, or units of classes, will include issues such as: introduction to substantive areas of public interest law (e.g., family law, housing law, government benefits); ethics (e.g. issues affecting public interest lawyers, regulation of the profession and delivery of legal services); clients (unmet legal needs, and issues of poverty, race and gender); the courts (dispensing justice to persons of limited means); and legal education (the role of law schools in preparing lawyers for practice). Issues from the students’ fieldwork will be incorporated into the classes, to strengthen the connections between classroom and fieldwork, as well as theory and practice. Prerequisites/Corequisites: Evidence or Trial Practice. This course satisfies the Experiential Education/Professional Skills Requirement.
Provides a basic introduction to the field of international law. Topics covered include interpretation of international agreements; international dispute resolution; international organizations; international jurisdiction over persons, property, and territory and limitations on such jurisdiction; law of the sea; international human rights law; international environmental law; and the law concerning use of force in the international system. The course is designed to expose students to the sorts of issues that arise in cases before international tribunals and organizations and in cases involving foreign parties and international legal principles in US courts.
The course will survey the relevant international laws and conventions governing refugees and asylum seekers, but the focus will be building the skills necessary to bring an asylum case in the United States. Each class will take students through one element of the complex categories available to asylum seekers (race, religion, nationality, political opinion, and social group) and review the points at which asylum law in the United States has intersected with politics in recent years (national security, international relations, immigration). Each class also will contain an exercise designed to prepare students to be practice-ready in preparing an asylum claim. Students should come away with understanding of the asylum law and process and be sufficiently prepared to bring an asylum claim. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirements.
Offers an integrated survey of the legal and equitable remedies available in contracts, property, and torts actions, with special attention given to temporary restraining orders, preliminary injunctions, and the contempt power; the components of and adjustments to compensatory damages; the limitations on punitive damages; and restitution.
Responsible Lawyering (RL) provides broad training to students in fundamental competencies and skills needed to succeed in law school and the practice of law. Students develop effective learning strategies that lead to proficient legal analysis on law school exams and beyond. Skill-building activities foster professional identity formation and inclusive, equitable practices. Topics include early career development, wellness, ethical values, and conflict resolution.
Responsible Lawyering (RL) provides broad training to students in fundamental competencies and skills needed to succeed in law school and the practice of law. Students develop effective learning strategies that lead to proficient legal analysis on law school exams and beyond. Skill-building activities foster professional identity formation and inclusive, equitable practices. Topics include early career development, wellness, ethical values, and conflict resolution.
This course offers an introduction to federal securities laws, primarily covering the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as the rules and regulations enacted thereunder. With a focus on SEC and criminal investigation and enforcement, topics include the definition of “security,” the concept of materiality, antifraud liability (such as insider trading), and the duties of industry participants in securities transactions. Although there are no prerequisites for this course, it is designed for students interested in securities litigation and not merely for the general corporate transactional practice.
Focuses on how the legal system treats victims of sexual violence and explores strategies for change. The class explores the historical development of the crime of rape and related criminal sexual violence laws. The class then examines modern evidentiary principles and trial strategies employed in sexual assault cases, including “special rules” applicable only to sexual assault cases, such as “rape shield laws” and “fresh complaint testimony.” The course ends with an exploration of strategies for change, focusing on particular classes of victims, including victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, and children. This course may be offered every other year.
Special education law governs the delivery of education and related services to students with special needs. Through a review of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (federal law) and M.G.L.c. 71B (state law), as well as the study of case law, topics such as the determination of eligibility for special education services; the provision of a free and appropriate public education; the evaluation and development of an individualized education program (IEP); the composition and role of a student’s team; and student discipline will be examined. Practical issues related to the representation of school districts and parents of students in need of special education services will be explored through simulated IEP team meeting and due process hearing exercises. This course may be offered every other year.
This survey of sports law investigates a wide variety of topics in the context of sports law. For example, the course considers the nature, operation, and evolution of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Both the equal protection and due process clauses of the Constitution also are studied, as applied in an athletic setting, as are the treatment and rights of women and foreign student athletes. The differing treatment by the courts of the worker’s compensation–e.g., is a recruited athlete an employee of his or her university?–are analyzed. Antitrust law, as applied to both amateur and professional sports, also is reviewed. Title IX and drug testing are considered, as are the role and ethics of lawyers involved at the various levels. Representation of the athlete by both lawyer and nonlawyer agents and the role of unions and collective bargaining in professional sports are considered, as are both tort and contract law.
Deals with the US tax system and the administration of the Internal Revenue Code. Topics considered include procedural problems, requests for rulings, assessment of deficiencies, penalties, closing agreements, tax liens, and statutes of limitations. Special emphasis is placed on handling audits, settlement hearings before the Appeals Office, litigation of tax cases, and civil and criminal fraud. This course may be offered every other year.
This course covers the federal tax treatment of the four main business entity forms. Students will study and learn the tax provisions and tax principles that provide for double tax treatment of C corporations and single-level tax treatment of S corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies. Emphasis will be on issues related to the formation, operation, and liquidation of those business entities. This course is intended for students with an interest in a business law practice, for students who have a strong interest in tax law, as well as for students who are interested in specializing in tax law.
Examines civil liability for interference with persons and property resulting in physical harm and emotional harm. Various theories of liability are considered, including intentional torts, negligence, and strict liability. Special attention is given to the intersecting issues of personal accountability, individual freedom, and social welfare.
In this course, students investigate the state and federal systems of trademark law. This study includes trademark creation, registration, protection, and litigation. The class also explores other, more general theories of unfair competition, including right of publicity law.
The course deals with legal, moral, social, and political questions that arise in countries emerging from periods of massive and systematic violation of human rights and international humanitarian law, such as armed conflict, apartheid, authoritarian, or repressive rule. The course will offer a comparative study of strategies chosen by governments to build democracy, the rule of law, and a culture of rights. The course will examine themes that include prosecutions, truth commissions, reparation programs, institutional reforms, and reconciliation programs. Cases will come from experiences as they occurred in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. Particular emphasis will be placed on the issues, dilemmas, and lessons arising out of these different experiences, especially as countries seek to balance their international legal obligations with national political realities. This course may be offered every other year.
This skills course is designed to prepare students for the trial phase of litigation. Although it presumes prior knowledge of the substantive areas of law covered during the first two years of law school, especially evidence, the course itself concentrates on trial procedure and the development of jury trial advocacy skills. Students conduct complete mock trials in which they participate as parties, witnesses, and counsel. Problems faced by students acting as counsel include jury selection, opening statements, closing arguments, examination of witnesses-including opinion testimony, offers of exhibits, objections to evidence, and impeachment of witnesses. Mock trial exercises are critiqued by the instructor and class members. Consideration also is given to client interviews, investigation, discovery, pleadings, pretrial motions, and the preservation of rights to appeal. Please check the most recent course registration information to determine if this course meets the Experiential Education/Professional Skills requirement.
Devoted mainly to the sale of goods under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Major topics include the scope of Article 2, formation and modification of contracts for the sale of goods, implied terms, warranties, risk allocation, excuses for nonperformance, and remedies in the event of breach. Each student is expected to acquire a mastery of the guiding principles contained in Article 2. Because Article 2 covers sales to consumers, as well as commercial sales, the course includes an excursion into the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and product liability. Material covered in the basic course on Contracts is reviewed to a limited extent to highlight the changes made by the adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code. The subject matter of this course is heavily tested on bar examinations. Knowledge of the law of Sales is very helpful for lawyers advising on commercial transactions or engaged in commercial litigation. When offered as a distance learning course, there will be required weekly readings from the casebook, regular mini-lectures on prerecorded video, discussion forums to which students must make posts each week, and weekly assessments, including quizzes. All course material other than the casebook will be accessible by any computing device through an Internet connection. The course will be asynchronous, but in addition to posing questions and providing guidance on the discussion boards and through the video lectures, the professor will be available throughout the course by e-mail. Grading will be based on participation in the forums (including a qualitative component), performance on quizzes, and a final “open-book” examination.
Uniform Commercial Code discusses in detail the creation and perfection of security interests in tangible and intangible personal property under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Special attention is given to the need for, and the advantages of, secured credit and to the complex patterns of secured financing that have evolved to facilitate the flow of goods in commerce. The relative priorities of parties with security interests in the same collateral, the rights and obligations of secured creditors in event of default, and the relationship between Article 9 and the federal Bankruptcy Code also are considered.
This course provides an introduction to federal white collar criminal and civil practice. The course begins with a review of general principles such as corporate criminal liability, mail and wire fraud, conspiracy, and relevant provisions of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. DOJ and SEC policies encouraging voluntary disclosure, cooperation, and remediation in white collar investigations will be examined, followed by consideration of issues affecting federal grand jury practice including Fifth Amendment protections and immunity; corporate internal investigations; and Sixth Amendment protections related to the attorney-client privilege, the crime-fraud exception, and joint defense. Finally, the course will examine selected laws governing the prosecution of health care and securities fraud, foreign corrupt practices, and other areas such as cybercrime and research integrity, as time permits. Grades will be based on class participation, a mid-term exam, and a final exam. This course may be offered every other year.
This course is designed to give the student a grounding in the general law relating to donative transfers of property interests taking place at death. It covers intestate succession, wills laws, nonprobate transfers, and some trust laws. It is not jurisdiction-specific; instead, it focuses on majority and minority rules and trends in the law. Jurisdictional comparisons often will be made. When offered as a distance learning course, there will be required weekly readings from the casebook, regular mini-lectures on prerecorded video accompanied by PowerPoint slides, discussion forums to which students must make posts each week, and weekly assessments, including quizzes. All course material other than the casebook will be accessible by any computing device through an Internet connection. While most of the course will be asynchronous, opportunities will be presented for synchronous digital chat. In addition to posing questions and providing guidance on the discussion boards and through the video lectures, the professor will be available throughout the course by e-mail, telephone, in-person at New England Law Boston, and/or via Skype. Grading will be based on participation in the forums (including a qualitative component), performance on quizzes, and a final “open-book” examination.
This course is an advanced treatment of topics introduced in the Wills, Estates, and Trusts course, as a well as an overview of many of the tax issues arising in a trusts and estates practice. It covers such topics as fiduciary administration of trusts, remedies for trustee malfeasance, trust construction, and powers of appointment. Certain income tax concepts relating to trusts and estates practice will be addressed, and the course may include a brief overview of the federal transfer taxes.
Examines the theory and practice of workers’ compensation systems and their development through case law and statute reform, from A (assaults) to Z (zookeeper attacks). This course may be offered every other year.
This 2-credit seminar considers wrongful convictions in the US criminal justice system. Its focus is (1) assessing the significance of the risk that a person will be or has been convicted or punished for a crime he or she did not commit; (2) identifying systemic, case-specific, procedural, and other factors that may affect this risk; and (3) exploring roles police, prosecutors, defense lawyers, judges, politicians, and journalists may play in wrongful convictions. Specific topics may include: Civil Remedies, Innocence and the Death Penalty, Eyewitness Identification, Exculpatory Evidence, False Confessions, Forensic Scientific Evidence, Jailhouse Informants, Ineffective Counsel, Litigating Innocence Claims, Role of Race and Ethnicity in Wrongful Convictions, and Prosecutorial and Defense Ethics and Innocence. Readings include articles, book excerpts, reports, studies, and cases. Requirements: Students must (1) submit a one-page weekly response to the assigned readings; (2) lead class discussion on one topic or class meeting; and (3) submit a 15-20 page research paper on an approved topic, with grades to be based upon a combination of these components.
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Find Your Legal Focus
Prepare for a legal career in an in-demand field.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal framework governing commercial activity and business relationships. The specialty explores the legal principles that shape the formation, organization, and operation of business entities, as well as the regulatory environment in which businesses operate. Students examine statutes, case law, and regulatory materials that reflect modern approaches to corporate governance, commercial transactions, and market regulation. Key topics include the structure and responsibilities of business entities, contractual and fiduciary obligations, risk management, and the legal mechanisms used to address disputes and ensure compliance in the commercial marketplace.
Designed to broaden understanding of the processes and principles that govern the resolution of disputes in civil courts. The specialty explores the procedural framework that guides civil actions from the initiation of a lawsuit through trial and potential appeal. Students examine statutes, procedural rules, and appellate opinions that shape modern approaches to adjudicating private disputes. Topics include pleading standards, discovery, motion practice, trial procedures, and the strategic considerations involved in representing parties in civil litigation, with attention to both the practical operation of the courts and the policies underlying the civil justice system.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles governing commercial transactions and the movement of goods, services, and credit in the marketplace. The specialty explores the statutory and common law frameworks that regulate business dealings, with particular attention to the provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code and related legal doctrines. Students examine statutes, case law, and commercial practices that reflect modern approaches to facilitating trade while managing risk and resolving disputes. Topics include sales of goods, negotiable instruments, secured transactions, and the rights and obligations of parties engaged in commercial exchanges.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that govern organizational conduct and accountability. The specialty explores the principles and mechanisms through which businesses and institutions ensure adherence to laws, regulations, and ethical standards. Students examine statutes, regulatory guidance, and enforcement actions that reflect modern approaches to compliance oversight and risk management. Topics include internal controls, regulatory reporting, corporate governance, investigative processes, and the development of compliance programs designed to prevent, detect, and respond to violations within complex organizational environments.
Designed to broaden understanding of the potential and the limitations of social control, by examining the basic principles of substantive criminal law. The course explores the common law of crimes, as well as major statutes and appellate opinions that reflect modern attitudes regarding criminal culpability. Crimes against person and property are examined by considering essential elements of offenses, mitigating factors, defenses, and theories of punishment.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles governing educational institutions and the rights and responsibilities of those within the educational system. The specialty explores the statutory and constitutional frameworks that shape the operation and regulation of schools and universities. Students examine legislation, administrative regulations, and appellate opinions that reflect modern approaches to issues affecting students, educators, and institutions. Topics include student rights, equal access to education, institutional governance, disciplinary procedures, and the balance between governmental oversight and academic autonomy.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal issues affecting older adults and the systems that support their care, autonomy, and financial security. The specialty explores the statutory and regulatory frameworks that address the needs of aging populations, including health care decision-making, long-term care planning, and asset protection. Students examine statutes, administrative regulations, and judicial decisions that reflect modern approaches to safeguarding the rights and well-being of elderly individuals. Topics include guardianship and conservatorship, Medicaid and Medicare eligibility, estate and incapacity planning, elder abuse protections, and the legal mechanisms used to balance independence with appropriate support and oversight.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal frameworks that regulate the use, protection, and conservation of natural resources. The specialty explores the statutory and regulatory systems that govern environmental protection at the federal, state, and local levels. Students examine legislation, administrative regulations, and judicial decisions that reflect modern approaches to addressing environmental harm and promoting sustainable development. Topics include pollution control, land and resource management, environmental impact review, regulatory enforcement, and the balance between economic development and environmental stewardship.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles governing family relationships and domestic matters. The specialty explores the statutory and common law frameworks that regulate marriage, divorce, parentage, and the rights and responsibilities of family members. Students examine legislation, judicial decisions, and evolving legal standards that reflect modern approaches to family structure and child welfare. Topics include marital dissolution, child custody and support, adoption, domestic violence protections, and the legal mechanisms used to resolve disputes and safeguard the interests of children and families.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal frameworks governing the admission, status, and removal of noncitizens. The specialty explores the statutory and regulatory systems that shape immigration policy and enforcement in the United States. Students examine federal statutes, administrative regulations, and judicial decisions that reflect modern approaches to immigration control and humanitarian protection. Topics include visa classifications, lawful permanent residence, asylum and refugee protections, deportation and removal proceedings, and the rights and obligations of noncitizens within the immigration system.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles governing the protection and use of creative and innovative works. The specialty explores the statutory and common law frameworks that regulate the ownership and commercialization of intellectual assets. Students examine federal statutes, judicial decisions, and regulatory materials that reflect modern approaches to protecting inventions, artistic works, and brand identity. Topics include patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, as well as the legal mechanisms used to balance innovation, competition, and public access to knowledge and creative expression.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles that govern relations among nations and the conduct of states and international actors. The specialty explores the sources and development of international law, including treaties, customary international law, and the decisions of international tribunals. Students examine agreements, judicial opinions, and institutional frameworks that reflect modern approaches to resolving disputes and promoting cooperation among states. Topics include state sovereignty, human rights, international organizations, the law of armed conflict, and the mechanisms used to address global legal challenges.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles and practices that advance the public good and promote access to justice. The specialty explores the role of lawyers and legal institutions in addressing social, economic, and political issues affecting underserved communities. Students examine statutes, judicial decisions, and policy frameworks that reflect modern approaches to protecting civil rights and promoting social change. Topics include advocacy on behalf of marginalized populations, impact litigation, community-based legal services, and the legal strategies used to address systemic inequality and expand access to legal protections.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles governing the ownership, use, and transfer of real property. The specialty explores the statutory and common law frameworks that regulate land transactions and property interests. Students examine legislation, judicial decisions, and regulatory materials that reflect modern approaches to property rights and land use. Topics include the acquisition and conveyance of property, landlord-tenant relationships, financing and secured interests in real estate, zoning and land use regulation, and the legal mechanisms used to resolve disputes involving real property.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal, ethical, and practical considerations involved in operating an independent legal practice. The specialty explores the structures and systems necessary to establish and manage a solo law practice in a modern legal environment. Students examine professional responsibility rules, business practices, and administrative frameworks that shape the delivery of legal services by individual practitioners. Topics include client development and communication, practice management, financial and trust account administration, technology in legal practice, and the ethical obligations that guide attorneys in serving clients independently.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles governing the assessment and collection of taxes by federal, state, and local authorities. The specialty explores the statutory and regulatory frameworks that shape modern tax policy and administration. Students examine tax statutes, administrative guidance, and judicial decisions that reflect contemporary approaches to taxation and fiscal regulation. Topics include the structure of the tax system, income recognition and deductions, compliance and reporting obligations, and the legal mechanisms used to interpret, enforce, and challenge tax liabilities.
Designed to broaden understanding of the legal principles governing the transfer and management of property during life and at death. The specialty explores the statutory and common law frameworks that regulate wills, trusts, and estate administration. Students examine legislation, judicial decisions, and fiduciary doctrines that reflect modern approaches to wealth transfer and asset protection. Topics include the creation and interpretation of wills and trusts, fiduciary duties, probate and estate administration, and the legal mechanisms used to carry out a decedent’s intent while protecting the interests of beneficiaries.
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