Law (LAW)
This course is designed as a full-semester legal research and writing course for international students in the LL.M. programs, many of whom are non-native English speakers. The course exposes students to research materials and techniques commonly used in the U.S. legal system, and introduces students to various forms of legal writing including office memoranda, court filings (e.g., complaints, motions) client letters, contract and transactional documents, and academic legal writing. The students are expected to complete six major writing assignments, several legal research exercises and projects, and an oral presentation throughout the semester, and the professor provides comprehensive written feedback on each written assignment. Other aspects of writing are also covered such as language style, usage, and grammar, and legal citation. (3 credit hours).
Students on Law Review, or who are taking Appellate Advocacy (Moot Court Honor Society), Criminal Litigation 2, Pretrial Litigation, or are doing Judicial Externships, may satisfy the Legal Writing 4 requirement either by taking a regular Legal Writing 4 class in the Spring, or by taking a Legal Writing 4 Equivalency Class this semester. If you take a Legal Writing 4 Equivalency Class this semester, you may take Legal Writing 3 in either Fall or Spring. Please note: The Equivalency Class must be taken in the same semester as the activity that qualifies you to take the Equivalency Class - you may not defer the Equivalency Class to a later semester. Credit: 0.
This course focuses on the claims of discrete cultural groups, nations, and indigenous peoples to both tangible and intangible forms of cultural property. It covers a range of topics including ownership of antiquities, protection of cultural heritage during times of war, repatriation of cultural property and art looted during war, historic preservation, cultural property of indigenous people, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expression. (This course was formerly entitled "Property and Culture.")
Businesses in every sector rely on some form of software innovation to distinguish their products from the products of their competitors. There is an ongoing public debate about whether software should be protected by patent law, and, if so, how. In this course, we will track this public debate as we discuss how the patent laws have changed to accommodate software innovation. We will discuss various reasons that businesses decide to obtain software patent protection, as well as learning the steps businesses take to protect software innovations as intellectual property. Students will learn how to detect and avoid common defects and design-around opportunities for software patents, and students will learn how software patents are affecting businesses and consumers. This course does not require a background in software or patent law. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
In the study of law, we devote a lot of time to reading judges' opinions, but we spend little time thinking about the role of the judge, even though the judge is essential to the American legal system. This course will remedy this oversight by examining the role of the judge from a variety of perspectives. To explore the role of the judge, we will consider a number of questions, including the following: How do judges describe their role when they write or speak about it? How do empirical studies describe what judges do when social scientists and political scientists examine judges' verdicts or demographic characteristics? How is the judge's role portrayed in popular culture, including newspapers, movies, and television shows? This course will examine the different expectations that we have of judges. We also will consider what characteristics make for a good judge and what tools judges think they need in order to perform their job more effectively. Finally, we will look at judges in other countries to see how they perform their job and how they are regarded to see if judicial practices in other countries suggest any reforms that we might try in our own country. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This course concentrates on the law of sales and, to a lesser extent, leases. The main focus will be on Articles 2 and 2A of the Uniform Commercial Code, but we will also cover other state and federal statutes that affect the sale or lease of goods. The class will utilize a problems-based approach and will emphasize core concepts, including formation, terms, performance, and remedies. You should not take this course if you have previously taken Commercial Law: Survey. However, you may subsequently take Commercial Law: Survey. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This practicum will examine the work and institution of the Supreme Court of the United States, with particular emphasis on explaining the Court and its decisions to the general public and on the use of informatics to analyze the role and influence of the Court. To start, the practicum will examine some contemporary literature on the Court and its activities. Working in pairs, students will be required to develop and deliver a detailed project on a single decision, providing all the relevant elements that culminated in Supreme Court review. Assuming that the finished projects meet the highest standard for creativity and completeness, they will become part of The Oyez Project corpus; student developers will receive website attribution. This practicum requires the permission of the instructor. If you are interested in this practicum, please submit your résumé and two short writing samples demonstrating your ability to write simple, declarative English for non-lawyers. Send these materials to jgoldman@kentlaw.iit.edu. Following a preliminary review, you will be invited for an interview to determine your admissibility to the practicum. Students admitted to the practicum will be required to participate in a Washington DC field trip; The Oyez Project will underwrite most of the costs. The class will meet every other week. Credit Hours One credit hour.
This course is designed to introduce students to real-world professional responsibility dilemmas faced by lawyers representing business organizations, engaging in transactional practice or working as in-house counsel or as compliance personnel. From the organization-as-client rule to Upjohn warnings and beyond, ethical issues are more common, relevant and subtle than one might think. Moreover, appropriately resolving professional responsibility questions is crucial to both individual career success and the reputation of the legal profession as a whole. Through a variety of teaching techniques, including simulations, this course will give students the opportunity to explore these issues with their practical ramifications and will seek to arm students with the tools and knowledge to tackle tough ethical questions with confidence. Business Organizations is a prerequisite. This course satisfies the Professional Responsibility graduation requirement. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This class provides an overview of design rights in the context of other intellectual property rights (e.g.copyright law, device marks, 3D-marks, topographies, patents); discussion of the international framework for design protection (e.g. the Paris Convention, Trips); analysis of legal requirements for design protection on a comparative level (U.S. perspective; E.U. design law); strategic aspects of design portfolio management, including tips for design applications; and the use of designs in combination with trademarks, patents and other IP rights to achieve best results. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The ground rules of ethical advocacy are key to becoming an effective and respected litigator. This problem-based class will allow you to practice advocacy skills while learning about the Rules of Professional Conduct and other ethical issues that govern your practice. Using a problem all semester, you will learn and practice skills including: client and witness interviews, preparing your client or witness for depositions, preparing and presenting actual conflict waivers, conducting direct and cross examinations, presenting opening and closing statements, and handling other ethical issues, for example what to do if a witness or your client lies in a matter before a tribunal. The semester will conclude with an actual trial conducted by the students. Class will meet twice a week with a portion devoted to presentation of course materials, by lecture, video and film clips, and class discussion of the assigned reading. The remaining portion of each class will be devoted to role play exercises by the students. Our objective is for you to learn while enjoying the experience, doing it yourselves with our guidance. Taking this class will satisfy the graduation Professional Responsibility requirement. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
There are over two trillion dollars invested in hedge funds—investment giants that move and shape today's international financial markets. Yet many do not understand their significance or their complex workings. This course is designed to give you a practical understanding of hedge funds and the documentation that supports the formation and operation of these funds. We will examine the regulatory, compliance and business issues surrounding hedge funds and provide tools for successful fund implementation. We will also explore practical concerns with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940 as well as current changes to the regulatory scheme, including Dodd-Frank. Prerequisite: Business Organizations. Securities Regulation is not a prerequisite but will be helpful. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course will address the various substantive laws of trademarks in various Latin American countries for the purpose of comparison and contrast. The course will include discussion of the international treaties and trade agreements that exist among and between the United States and the various countries. Particular attention will be paid to the strategies that might be considered in registering trademarks in Latin America and in enforcing those trademarks. Additionally, the procedural differences of the trademark/intellectual property offices in the countries will also be covered. Credit Hours One credit hour.
Emerging markets have been and will continue to be important sources of growth for multinational companies and other foreign investors. However, with the potential rewards of doing business in developing states come significant risks associated with navigating unstable political-economic systems and volatile regulatory frameworks. While cross border transactions in developed countries present myriad risks, many of the perils associated with projects in developing countries are more pronounced. Companies doing business in and with emerging market countries need to identify and manage political/economic risks and regulatory/legal risks that can destroy successful foreign direct investments and international trade projects. The type and scope of these risks vary by country and by project. Whereas a mining company extracting silver in Bolivia is exposed to expropriation risks, an international bank with branches in emerging markets might be more vulnerable to breaches of anti-money laundering regulations. As a U.S. exporter's risk analysis might focus on potential violations of international trade sanctions, global insurance companies are often more concerned about potential breaches of domestic and international anti-corruption laws. This course will introduce students to some of the risk analysis methods that multinational companies and their advisers use to identify the potential pitfalls of investing in emerging markets. These methods include but are not limited to political and economic risk analysis, reviews of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK's Bribery Act, identification of existing or future business practices that potentially violate international economic sanctions, and understanding how domestic and international anti-money laundering laws affect a parent company's subsidiaries around the world. International risk management tools safeguard multinational companies from significant losses that threaten the sustainability of cross border transactions in emerging market countries. This course will familiarize students with some of these risk management strategies. Examples of these tools include international trade and investment treaties, political risk and trade credit insurance, and in-house strategies and policies for managing exposures to financial crimes. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The wine industry is the subject of intense activity in many substantive legal areas, including constitutional law, intellectual property, environmental and land use regulation, trade protectionism, and interstate commerce. This course surveys the legal landscape of this multibillion dollar industry, focusing on contemporary debates and developments in the judicial, legislative, and administrative arenas. Course materials will consist of a blend of judicial opinions, governmental materials, and secondary sources. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The practice of law is being transformed by technological innovation and intense economic pressures to deliver more legal services for less. This course will provide students with a grounding in the ethical rules governing the legal profession with a special focus on the challenges presented by these developments in law practice. E-Discovery, electronic communications, and document recognition software are fundamentally altering not only the work that big law firms do but how they price it. Corporate clients are demanding changes to price structures as they grow increasingly unwilling to pay for any lawyer who is not already experienced or whose work can be performed adequately by a computer or a paralegal. Comparably, the commodification of routine legal documents for smaller, less complicated transactions, is allowing non-lawyers to perform many of the services traditionally performed by lawyers. Attorneys serving the market for personal legal services and small businesses need to learn how to provide and explain the unique value that they can provide as lawyers. Meanwhile, legal services agencies that serve low-income people are using technology vastly to increase the number of clients served. These technological innovations and the ways in which they affect the pricing of legal services inevitably affect lawyers' ethical obligations, particularly with regard to marketing, confidentiality and conflicts of interest. This course will draw on regional and national experts to help explain how technological change affects how law firms operate and then help students learn to anticipate next steps in the ethical delivery of legal services. This course fulfills the general graduation requirement that all students must take a course in Professional Responsibility. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This is a practice-oriented skills course that will introduce students to techniques for interviewing and counseling legal clients. Law practice is above all a professional service that requires strong interpersonal skills and efficient problem-solving on behalf of a client. Through oral and written assignments that simulate real-life scenarios, students will practice identifying client needs, analyzing problems, developing legal strategies, and communicating advice. The course will cover counseling individuals as well as corporate clients, and will be of interest to students contemplating a wide variety of legal careers, from personal legal services to in-house corporate practice. Because of the practice-oriented nature of this course and the emphasis on in-class exercises, the professor will enforce a strict attendance policy. Students must attend all classes unless they have obtained pre-approval from the professor for an unavoidable absence, such as a serious illness or competition team travel. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
A lawyer's fundamental task is to persuade. However, seldom do lawyers explore persuasion as a field of study. More's the pity as the field of has exploded over the last twenty years with new insights from psychology, economics, analytics, statistics, and rhetoric to name a few. The goal of this course is to acquit the students with some of these tools so they may fulfill their fundamental tasks. Students taking the course as a seminar (LAW 636) will write a well-researched paper, under careful editing, that is a rigorous exploration of one of these tools. Students taking the class as a course (LAW 146) will write a series of shorter assignments. All students will be called upon to make presentations. There will be no final examination. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This class examines many facets of the U.S. Supreme Court, including practice before the Court at the certiorari and merits stages, oral argument, the methods by which the Court processes cases, and popular and scholarly debates over the Court's role. In addition to class participation, students are graded on a legal brief (generally 15-25 pages in length) and on their performance in a moot court. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course provides a basic general overview of major U.S. intellectual property laws: copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. It explores (1) the historic development, underlying policies, and fundamental concepts of these laws, and (2) how these laws interrelate and interact with each other. The course may include a simulation project where students learn to assess the patentability of an invention, assert a claim over own creative content, and/or protect a trademark or a trade secret. If time allows, we may also discuss the current hot issues in these laws and/or these laws' interactions with international intellectual property law regimes. This course is especially well-suited for students who do not necessarily want to practice in intellectual property, but who want some familiarity with IP laws given their importance for businesses. No science or technical background is required. No prior I.P. course is required or expected. This course is not open to students who have taken two or more IP courses such as courses in Patents, Copyrights, or Trademarks & Unfair Competition. However, students who take this class will be allowed to take these and any other IP courses later if they wish. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This course will introduce students to some of the methods that multinational companies and their advisers use to identify the potential pitfalls of investing in emerging markets. While the course will identify and explain many of the political and economic risks associated with projects in volatile markets, it will focus on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. More specifically, the course will introduce the rules behind the FCPA, review some of the most complicated concepts, and explain the importance of compliance, due diligence and corporate oversight. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with internal accounting controls and how they minimize exposures to potential violations of the FCPA. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course explores the history of the Constitution of the United States from the late eighteenth century through today. We will study the ways in which the Constitution has developed-its framing and ratification, the inclusion of the Bill of Rights and later amendments, subsequent judicial interpretations-in response to particular social and political circumstances. Through an examination of major episodes from American history, students will be exposed to central themes of constitutional development: the concept of a written constitution, judicial review, the balance of power between the central government and the states, the problem of slavery and racial equality, free speech, gender equality, and the role of law in shaping cultural norms. Although much of the course is dedicated to analyzing the ways in which the courts, particularly the United States Supreme Court, have interpreted and applied the Constitution, we will also give close attention to the efforts of individuals and groups outside the judiciary to shape the Constitution and define its role in American society. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
Each student enrolled will chose a current project of the Institute of Illinois Business Law and work with the members of that project sub-committee. The Institute has been located at Chicago-Kent for the past four years, under the Directorship of Prof. Philip Hablutzel. Over the past 30 years, the Institute and its predecessor has written all the major business statutes in Illinois. Each year, the Institute has six to eight law reform projects in various states of drafting or submission to the Illinois General Assembly. One or more students will work with a project sub-committee and do legal research and other assistance. The time commitment is four hours per week. Supervision will be by Prof. Hablutzel and the project chair. Credit Hours One credit hour.
This course will provide practical education on business skills that help achieve success for lawyers, whether the student intends to work in a small or large firm, own a firm, or take a position in a corporate or government legal department. It focuses on recent trends and challenges of the legal industry. Designed to prepare law students for the realities of the practice of law, it will address the economics of the law business, work place communication skills, management quandaries, ethical problems, client service and development fundamentals, and how junior lawyers can be the most valuable to their law firms, corporate law departments, or agencies. The course will use a text on law practice management and additional case studies, court decisions, and articles. The class is highly participatory, with simulations and frequent class discussion and presentations. There may be modeling or papers to be developed during the semester. The final exam will be in class, closed book, dealing with problems that are encountered when managing, operating, owning, or working in a law firm or law department. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course will explore the implications of recent social science research on human behavior for law and legal decision-making. In the past few decades, new discoveries in psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and economics have challenged fundamental ideas about how people think and decide. We will consider their application to a variety of areas of the law including criminal and civil law and jury decision-making. Topics will include happiness and hedonic psychology, the role of emotion and reason in decision-making, creativity, risk assessment, and free will. Students in the seminar will write a substantial research paper. Students in the course will write a series of short (2–3 page) analysis papers. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The growth of multinational companies has led to a need to coordinate liquidations and reorganizations across country borders. This course will focus on how the U.S., the European Union, and other countries have addressed this growing area of the law. The course will begin with a brief survey of business bankruptcy and debt reorganization law in the U.S. and other major commercial jurisdictions and then focus on cross-border matters. A basic course in bankruptcy will be helpful but not needed. Classes will involve some lecture, with an emphasis on hypothetical situations and open class discussion. Mid-way through the semester, each student will be expected to identify a topic of interest that will be the subject of a scholarly article to be produced by the end of the semester. This should be a helpful course for anyone interested in international law, business finance, or business bankruptcy. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Attorneys play an active role in business transactions every day in connection with mergers and acquisitions, estates and gifts, divorce, filings with the SEC, etc. This includes attorneys who are in private practice or in with a company. Understanding business valuations and financial statements form a cornerstone of most of these transactions. In fact, the business world today and the financial work involved demands that today's lawyer understand the value and financial reporting of a business. This course will help attorneys to better understand the methodology and techniques involved in business valuations. This will also include basic financial statement analysis. Topics will include the proper standards for valuation, valuation methodology, cash flow analysis, financial analysis techniques, financial reporting issues, international standards, and specific uses of valuations. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course will focus on various ways in which law and food interact. Specific topics will be chosen in consultation with the students but may include food regulation, intellectual property and food, government food subsidies, geographic indications of origin, state and federal control of alcohol, food torts, and prisoners' last meals. The grade will be based on presentations by the students and class participation. Credit Hours One credit hour.
Critical theory attempts to answer the age-old question, "what is law?," by asserting that law is the reflection of the political values of the dominant group within society. After a brief introduction to the more traditional theories of justice; such as natural law, legal positivism, and legal realism, students will take up the challenge of Critical Legal Studies. Subjects covered include an economic analysis of law; gender and sexual orientation; and critical race theory. Other possible topics include an evaluation of law and economics; the emergence of Sharia law; and the role of feminism in the 21st century. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This class explores the overlap and apparent tension between intellectual property and antitrust laws. We will discuss how substantive antitrust law constrains owners of intellectual property rights. The class will not discuss how to obtain a patent or copyright (which is taught in substantive Intellectual Property courses); rather, we will determine when the acquisition, licensing, and/or enforcement of intellectual property rights may violate the antitrust laws. The class is designed and intended for: (1) students of intellectual property law who want to understand how antitrust law limits the exercise of intellectual property rights, and/or (2) students who have taken antitrust and want to study how this body of law operates in the context of intellectual property rights. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This innovative course will explore the crucial role of compliance in financial institutions. It will examine the essential elements of effective compliance programs, the regulatory expectations for investment advisers and investment companies, how to create a culture of compliance, and how to establish adequate monitoring systems. This course is particularly relevant as new laws, rules, and regulations stemming from the financial crisis dramatically affect a wide range of financial institutions. This class is highly recommended for students who are contemplating careers in financial institutions, in regulatory agencies, or in law firms that work with financial institutions. It is also relevant for those who are thinking about careers in compliance outside of the financial industry. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course is designed for students with a foreign legal education. The course covers all topics traditionally covered in a typical contracts course for JD students such as issues of contract formation, interpretation, breach, defenses, and remedies. Contract formation doctrines such as "consideration" and "offer and acceptance" and modern deviations from the traditional model are presented, as are various defenses to the prima facie case of contractual obligation. These include the traditional defenses of duress, misrepresentation, mistake, impossibility, commercial impracticability, unconscionability, and frustration. The contract remedies of monetary damages, specific performance, rescission and reformation are also explored. Among the other issues that may be studied are the parol evidence rule and the statute of frauds. The course examines both common law contract rules and the UCC. In addition to the conventional contract law topics above, this course also incorporates several short drafting exercises intended to demonstrate how contractual language is affected by the rules of contract law.
This course provides students with an introduction to the law governing the futures and derivatives markets. Topics include the history of the futures markets and their regulation, the mechanics of trading and clearing futures and other derivatives instruments, the use of these markets for hedging, speculation and price discovery, the organization of contract and derivative markets, and the dramatic and on-going reforms called for by the Dodd-Frank Act and the practical application of related regulations. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This intensive intersession course will immerse students in complex, contemporary legal problems that demand creative, sophisticated analysis and prompt action. Working entirely in groups, students will delve into different subject areas, including employment relationships, environmental law, human rights and relational contracts. Each of the four problems that we work on will include intensive, practical research training; in particular, the course will be covering free, practice-related research, empirical data research, government document research, international law and business research. The course aims to simulate decision-making challenges that you often don’t face in law school, but frequently face in the real world. Students will produce several kinds of written work product, including client letters, informal inter-agency memos, corporate policy papers, and negotiation outlines. Students will also give oral group presentations to a "client," a "commissioner," and an "executive board." The course is graded pass/fail. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This course will introduce students to key aspects of pharmaceutical patent law. Topics may include types of pharmaceutical patents, the Hatch-Waxman regulatory framework, the impact of patent issues on the FDA approval process, FDA and development documents commonly encountered in pharmaceutical patent litigation, "pay for delay" antitrust issues, and recent case law developments. Prerequisite: Patent law completed or taken concurrently. A science background is not required. One credit, meeting two hours every other week. Grading based on class participation and a brief final exam. Credit Hours One credit hour.
This course will cover a broad range of transactional topics that are important to entrepreneurs, including entity selection and organization, intellectual property concerns of a new company, corporate governance and control issues, employment issues and confidentiality, service and other business contracts, raising money, and exit strategies. Special attention will be given to the unique business needs of the entrepreneur and how attorneys can tailor legal counseling to help the entrepreneur succeed while managing legal risks. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course analyzes American racial dynamics past and present, focusing on relationships between law, politics, and identity. Critical Race Theory (CRT) begins from the perspective that racism is an everyday, "normal" component of American social and political relations, rather than a set of aberrant individual attitudes and behaviors that can be muted by anti-discrimination law. As such, this course seeks to highlight the salience of race in society and everyday life. It focuses on systems of racial subordination, the creation and transformation of racial categories, and the social and psychological development of racial identities. In doing so, the course also constitutes a broad historical survey of major racial groupings in America, delving into the nuances of identity, classification, and subordination for each. Finally, while the course is rooted in law and legal scholarship, it draws significantly from a variety of academic disciplines-including sociology, psychology, history, ethnic studies, and education. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course examines the basics of patent law and the fundamentals of biotechnology and provides an in-depth look at the special problems associated with biotech patents. The course will include a study of biotech patent prosecution and enforcement, as well as agreements related to biotech inventions and the role of patents in biotech product strategies. Prerequisite: Patent Law. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
Regulation across the entire consumer finance industry has been, and continues to be, restructured in the wake of the Great Recession and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. This course will introduce students to the increasingly complex compliance demands and requirements of the various consumer finance industry laws, regulations and regulators. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This class examines selected topics in intellectual property law, approaching them from a comparative perspective. It looks at the way controversial issues of IP law and policy are being handled in Europe (the EU and some of its Member States) and in the US in order to identify similarities and differences and to analyze their causes and their implications in a globalized world. The course takes a particular interest in the actors involved in IP law and policy-making and in the design of alternative decision-making processes, in which IP law and policy are shaped and enforced (political, judicial and administrative processes). The goal is to provide a better understanding of how the dynamic of actor participation influences substantive outcomes and the scope of IP rights and obligations. Among the themes to be discussed are: digital copyright and the responsibility of Internet Intermediaries for copyright enforcement; the changing role of collecting societies; copyright exceptions and limitations; and the position of the digital consumer. The emphasis is on copyright law and institutions, but the course also explores other IP controversies within the area of patent, trademark and unfair competition law. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course looks back to the major cases and events of the most recently completed term of the United States Supreme Court. Students will engage in an in-depth analysis of 5-8 of the most significant cases decided the previous term, drawing on briefs, oral arguments, media reports, as well as the decisions themselves. Students will also examine recent events and debates relating to the Supreme Court. Potential topics include confirmation hearings, the question of cameras in the Court, and off-the-bench statements and activities of the justices. A portion of the course will be devoted to examining the upcoming term in the Court and looking ahead to issues the Court is likely to face in the coming years. The focus of this course is not only on the Supreme Court's decisions, but also on the institution of the Supreme Court and the individuals who serve on the Court. Student evaluation will be based on several writing assignments. Students enrolled in the course will be expected to participate in various events organized by the Chicago-Kent Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States (ISCOTUS). Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The proliferation of electronic data recording personal information has prompted extensive legislative and enforcement activity at both the federal and state level. This course will provide an introduction to the principal federal statutes protecting consumer and patient data, data breach notification laws, enforcement by federal and state agencies, and current trends in class action data privacy litigation.
This course will focus on the practice of IP law before administrative bodies of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and before appellate courts. The course will cover practicing before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and trademark appeals to other circuit appellate courts. The subject matter covered will include ex parte appeals, inter partes reviews, patent appeal issues, trademark appeal issues, and oral advocacy. The goals for the class will be to introduce students to the administrative and appellate options available for trademark and patent issues, provide practical information for being successful before the administrative and appellate bodies, and begin to develop the skill sets needed to be successful advocates for clients. This course will meet on Mondays from 7:30 PM to 9:20 PM, but will require two to three Fridayafternoon and Saturday sessions for classes from current PTAB and TTAB judges. Grades for the course will be based on an appeal brief for a trademark or patent problem and an oral argument presentation. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course explores the past, present, and future role of lawyers as architects of social innovation. It also provides students with practical experience in serving as counselors to social enterprises. Lawyers representing nonprofits and businesses with a social purpose alike (as both in-house and outside counsel) play an increasingly important role as legal, business, and strategic advisers who not only protect the interests of the organization, but who also creatively contribute as productive members of business, operations, and program teams. This course will explore the roles, responsibilities, and practical considerations these attorneys manage. The guidance and tools that lawyers provide their social enterprise clients will be a core focus of the course. The course will also explore emerging areas for social innovation, including new and hybrid organizational structures, innovative financing mechanisms, and considerations unique to charities engaged in increasingly popular cross-sector partnerships - from donor intent to cause marketing to social investment approaches. Taught from the perspective of an in-house attorney for a global charity that works around the world on multiple initiatives with diverse cross-sector partners, this course will introduce students to the most commonly addressed issues and most frequently used tools and approaches for developing, implementing, and assessing new and dynamic social enterprises. As an experiential component, the course will allow students to take on the role of a client that has developed a new idea for a social enterprise and to also serve as counsel that provides both practical tools and strategic program guidance to these endeavors. Students will develop the ability to properly assess and advise on legal and business issues, effectively offer guidance, and develop skills in utilizing the most commonly used tools, approaches, and insights necessary to help organizations build sustainable operations and impactful programs. This course counts as an elective course toward the Public Interest Law Certificate and the Praxis Certificate. Students who wish to apply the course toward one of these certificates may not take this course Pass/Fail. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This class asks: how does gender (that is, concepts regarding what it means to be a man or woman) construct law, and how does law construct gender? Over the past thirty years a rich and exciting body of scholarship regarding gender and the law has developed. It poses a significant challenge to traditional ways of thinking about law, questioning some of the basic premises of what constitutes justice and equality in a democracy. This course examines the main tenets, methodologies, and controversies in this body of literature including the meaning of equality, the intersection of race and law, the public/private divide, concepts of objectivity and neutrality, and how law reproduces hierarchies while also having the ability to participate in significant social change. We will also analyze debates regarding sex work, domestic violence, reproductive rights, the nature of the workplace, and concepts of the family. The goal of the course is to think broadly and critically regarding the interaction of law, society, and gender while exploring the potential and limitations of our legal system.
This course is concerned with the structuring and use of transactions in which personal property-automobiles, computers, rights to payment, wheat, etc.-is used to secure business and consumer debt. It examines the rights of the parties to a secured transaction (i.e., debtor and creditor) as between themselves and as against third parties. The emphasis is on security interests created under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code.
This course will investigate the origin in law of the corporate form and explore the challenges presented by the modern corporation, both from the standpoint of its legal structure as a business organization formed by law, and the rights and privileges afforded corporations under case law that interprets the corporation as a jural ¿person.¿ Readings will be considered from colonial charters to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC (2010).There will be special emphasis on the contracts and commerce clauses of the Constitution, as well as the 14th Amendment. This course is not so much concerned with corporate responsibility as it is with corporate governance and accountability. We will explore the concept of limited liability, trace the evolution of legal personhood, examine the original public purpose requirement of the corporate entity as contemplated in law, and consider the role of public law in the world of the self-regulating market.
This course examines the legal aspects of the music business. We will cover the esoteric language, deal structures, and issues in the music business. Topics include copyright related to music and recordings, music publishing, recording agreements, artist representatives, intra-group agreements and business structure, live performance and touring, and the impact of new technologies on the music industry. Gues speakers will address the class from time to time, including talent agents, talent buyers and managers, recording artists, music publishers, an artist's webguru, record company executives, and performing rights organizations.
Advertising is everywhere and matters to almost all businesses. This class will explore the laws and regulations associated with how companies communicate with the public, including truth-in-advertising, promotions, content clearance and licensing, publicity and privacy considerations, false advertising and advertising disputes, sponsorships, and endorsements. Having taken previous classes in trademark or copyright law will be helpful, but is not required. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course provides an introduction to the creation, implementation, and interpretation of statutes. Topics addressed in the course include: how a statute works its way through the legislative system; the roles that different institutions play in a statute's passage, interpretation, and enforcement; alternatives to our legislative processes; the ways in which statutes embody public policy; theories and doctrines of statutory interpretation; and the role of coures in the interpretive process. (This course was formerly entitled "Legislative Process.")
Students taking this course (a special section of the basic Evidence course) will also take a designated section of Trial Advocacy 1 in the same semester. Students will receive a total of six credit hours and will receive one grade for the entire six credits. Pass/fail is not available. The course is designed for students who have a serious interest in litigation and wish to be trial lawyers. The goal is that the students receive a clear mastery of the rules of Evidence at the same time learning to master the practical application of those rules in the courtroom. You will be applying the rules of evidence as they are discussed each week in class in your Trial Advocacy sections that same week. The Evidence component will be taught by Justice Erickson, and the Trial Advocacy 1 sections will be taught by three experienced trial lawyers. The course will be limited to twenty-four students for the Evidence portion; students will be assigned, in groups of eight, to one of the Trial Advocacy sections. There will be an Evidence final, a midterm bench trial, and a final jury trial. We believe this integrated hands-on approach will provide each student with a superior knowledge of the rules of evidence as well as the application of those rules.
Transportation and logistics is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Every item you purchase or use in your everyday life was delivered by a truck or other mode of transportation (rail, ocean, air). America could not function without the transportation industry. There have been a series of deregulations affecting the transportation industry over the years. After September 11, 2001, cargo security became an important issue for the United States, which lead to many new laws and regulations. This constant roller coaster of deregulation and regulation makes being a transportation attorney very exciting. This course will briefly describe the different modes of transportation and the regulating bodies for each. We will be focusing our class on the surface modes of transportation, namely trucking and rail. The main topics discussed will be contracts, tariffs, liability for loss and damage to cargo, tort liability of shippers, carriers, customers, and brokers during and after the transportation of freight and a comprehensive understanding of insurance and the various policy forms that exist.
International Humanitarian Law (IHL), also known as the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) or simply the Laws of War (LOW), is a set of rules intended to limit the negative effects of war. The principle thrust of the law is to limit the methods of warfare (e.g., by banning certain weapons) and to protect people not engaged in combat, such as POWs, the sick and wounded, and civilians. This class will focus on the most important sources of IHL, which include the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their two protocols, the 1907 Hague Regulations, and various other rules contributing to the customary international law of armed conflict. Most of IHL applies only to international armed conflict. The class will also consider the special challenges raised by the application and adaptation of these rules to internal armed conflict and to the so-called ¿war on terror.¿ Finally, the class will briefly consider the use of international tribunals as an enforcement mechanism. The course may be taken either as a seminar, requiring a seminar paper, or as a course with an exam.
This course provides an overview of American constitutional and procedural law, with an introduction to the U.S. judicial system, legal methodology, and government structure. The course is open only to exchange students and students in the LL.M. Program in International and Comparative Law.
Students will examine major issues of substantive law and strategy facing a lawyer involved with patent litigation. The class sessions will focus on the leading cases in emerging areas of patent law. Such areas include venue and transfer, protective orders, claim construction, infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, the scope of remedies available to a patent owner, and the role of a jury in deciding complex technological issues. The class will also address procedures for analyzing patent infringement disputes and for considering when, where and why to bring patent infringement lawsuits. Prerequisite: Patent Law.
This is an advanced course in constitutional law that examines (1) the source and content of voting rights; (2) redistricting, reapportionment and gerrymandering; (3) recent legislative efforts to counter voting fraud; (4) direct versus representative democracy; (5) the role of political parties and the extent to which the existing legal regime entrenches the existing two-party system; and (6) alternative democratic voting structures (including at-large versus districting; cumulative voting; and others). Throughout the term we will carefully consider the proper judicial role in addressing these issues, as well as the roles appropriately played by other institutions (i.e., Congress, the States, and independent commissions).
This course covers Internet contracting both domestically and internationally; payment systems and related privacy concerns; Internet business torts and anti-trust in e-commerce. Legal issues are examined against the background of the nature of e-commerce.
This course will address sports, society, and law as a dynamic function of history, economics, and culture in America. The focus will be on legal issues unique to professional and amateur sports, including (a) the paradox of sports as a business that embraces competition on the field but not off, (b) the entertainment value of sports as a function of hero worship and the vicarious pursuit of personal identity, (c) the history and influence of society on sports, and (d) the effect of sports on society, including politics (Muhammad Ali), business (the Jordan effect), and sociology (such as the 18-year continuum from Jesse Owens to Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and ultimately Brown v. Board of Education). Topics will include the baseball antitrust exemption, athlete eligibility, due process, sports injuries and violence, the evolution of sports broadcasting, Title IX, disabled athletes, drugs, and such contemporary issues as the Cubs rooftop cases, baseball steroids, and sports violence.
This course surveys the intersection of the American legal system with the finance, delivery, organization, and regulation of health care. Topics to be covered include health care cost and access issues, health care policy and financing, and health care regulatory issues. Each of these broad subjects brings to the field of health law a number of fascinating and at times controversial legal and ethical problems which we will selectively explore.
This is an advanced practicum examining selected topics in the litigation of civil rights cases involving allegations of police misconduct. We will undertake a detailed examination of an actual police misconduct case as a vehicle for understanding the doctrines and practice problems arising in civil rights litigation. The practice problems will involve a variety of legal tasks from a hands-on, practical perspective that will require class members to engage in different forms of legal writing and speaking, designed to develop your litigation skills. The class will be jointly taught by two practing attorneys, one who represents plaintiffs in civil rights cases and one who defends police officers and municpailities in such cases. These attorneys have gone head-to-head against each other in multiple police misconduct cases and their experience will bring a unique real-world perspective to the class. Grades will be based on a combination of your written work product, skills practice exercises, and participation in class discussion. There will be a number of written and oral project assignments of different lengths during the semester. These projects are intended to expose you to the litigation process in the specific context of a police misconduct civil rights case, including pleadings, the development of discovery, briefs, and various motions. At some point during the semester, all students will be required to observe a portion of a civil rights trial in the United States District Court.
This course will cover the fundamental aspects of a class action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23. We will study the class action through the lens of several of civil RICO cases that have generated district court and appellate decisions nicely highlighting why they are suitable for class action treatment. In parsing these decisions, students will learn the basics of civil RICO and how class actions can be an efficient way to adjudicate certain types of damage claims, and why others are not suitable for such treatment, i.e., mass torts involving personal injuries.
This course is an introduction to a rapidly-expanding field in international commercial law. An increasing percentage of all international business contracts contain a clause for binding arbitration in cases of dispute. The reason is simple: In June 1958, the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards was signed and has now been adopted by over 100 countries, including all the major commercial countries. This Convention ensures that an arbitral award, rendered anywhere in the world, will be enforced in the courts of the signatory countries. Judgments of courts do not receive this treatment: court awards are very difficult to enforce in other countries. Students will gain a working knowledge of the various international treaties which provide the structure of international commercial arbitration. The course will explore the ways in which arbitrations can be structured: either ad hoc or under the umbrella of an international organization. The course will examine several umbrella organizations and their "Rules," including The American Arbitration Association, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC ¿ Paris), The London Court of International Arbitration, UNCITRAL (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law), the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, and UNCITRAL's Convention for the International Sale of Goods. Topics to be covered include: under each regime and each set of rules, how does an arbitration panel obtain jurisdiction, how are the arbitrators chosen, what is the process, the rules and the costs, where does the arbitration take place, which language is used, how is evidence obtained and admitted, etc. No prerequisites.
Appellate courts make important case law decisions and supervise courts below them in the judicial hierarchy. This course will examine the functions of appeals and appellate courts, and process of appellate review: appellate jurisdiction, standing to appeal, timing of review, vehicles for obtaining review, and appellate lawmaking. The course also will consider the structure of our appellate courts, and how those courts and Congress have responded, and may in the future respond, to the threat to function posed by the increasing volume of appeals. The course will acquaint students with the contemporary role of appellate counsel and with the U.S. Supreme Court's certiorari policies and practices. Although federal courts will be the main focus, many of the matters discussed also will be pertinent to state appellate systems.
Computer technology will play an increasingly important role in legal practice, as the use of computers advances beyond word processing, simple data retrieval and document assembly systems to encompass various approaches to representing legal knowledge and modeling legal reasoning. This course employs a hands-on approach. Students will (1) learn about and work with the emerging technology, (2) focus in detail on a self-selected area of law, hopefully working with a faculty adviser, and (3) gain a deeper, practical understanding of the nature of law and legal reasoning, through reflective engagement in the process of attempting to formally model legal knowledge and legal reasoning the selected area of law. Each student will use a provided, easy-to-use program to develop, through a structured series of exercises, his or her own legal expert system of the selected area of law. No computer programming expertise is assumed or required. The grade in the course will be based on the exercise, the completed expert system, and final report which critically describes and assesses the assumptions, methodology, content and limitations of the expert system.
Students will work in teams to examine specific labor and employment law issues that a private employer and its employees experience during the company's life. Students will assume the role of attorneys, either in a law firm, general counsel's office/corporate legal department, or human resources. In their roles, students will identify and analyze various workplace issues that attorneys and their clients often confront. They will learn how to quickly respond to situations as they arise. Students will make presentations to company leadership and/or boards of directors, discussing various labor and employment law matters and possible solutions. Solutions presented will take into consideration the relevant law, ethics and the clients' business needs and interests. Additionally, students will explore various ways to influence decision-making while managing conflicting stakeholder interests. A few guest speakers—business owners, HR leaders and attorneys—will share real life workplace challenges and work with students to find possible solutions. Finally, students will engage in drafting employment documents, including but not limited to, policies, training outlines, contracts, termination documents, responses to administrative charges, etc. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course will examine the efforts of the People's Republic of China to impose a new western legal system and to promote the creation of a socialist market economic system on a centuries old tradition of imperial and Communist administration. Traditional Chinese administration does not recognize the western concept of rule of law. The course will examine the historical and philosophical basis of Chinese law and then survey selected aspects of modern PRC law. Topics include the PRC constitution, foreign enterprise and commercial, environmental, consumer protection and international law.
This course offers a basic overview of the legal framework within which the production, distribution and sale of energy takes place. It is offered as part of the Program in Environmental and Energy Law but is open to all students. After a brief introduction to scientific concepts of energy and the history of energy technology, the course will survey the major sources of energy. The traditional sources have been oil, natural gas and coal converted to consumer products such as electricity and gasoline. Newer sources include nuclear and solar energy. Each source and delivery system has its own network of property rules and contract relationships. National energy policy will be reviewed and the impact of interregional competition on the regulation of energy will be studied, as will constitutional and economic concepts affecting the pricing of energy. Particular emphasis will be placed on energy issues in environmental law.
This course covers the tax treatment of personal and business investment decisions. We will discuss a variety of assets, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities and life insurance, commodities, and financial derivatives (options, futures contracts and swaps). Different tax rules for similar economic activities and assets influence how you and your potential clients might use these assets for routine saving, planning for retirement, executive compensation, saving for education, family wealth transfer, trading and business hedging. Note: This course is designed for generalists although Personal Income Tax is a prerequisite; if you are considering a business law practice and do not want to take both this course and Taxation of Business Enterprises, it is recommended that you take Taxation of Business Enterprises.
This course will examine international commercial litigation from the investigation of transnational disputes through the enforcement of judgments in the United States and abroad. Topics studied will include, among others, case analysis, jurisdiction over non-U.S. defendants, service of process on foreign defendants, obtaining evidence abroad, extraterritoriality, trial of trans- national cases, and enforcement of judgments. International arbitration will also be examined. The course will be taught from both an academic and practical perspective, using actual court documents where appropriate.
This course will examine issues related to the international protection of intellectual property. The course will survey various international agreements and treaties for copyright, patent, and trademark, focusing on the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organization. In addition to exploring the basic concepts of territoriality, national treatment, and minimum standards, we will consider political and policy concerns related to efforts to secure and strengthen protection of intellectual property around the world. Prerequisite: any one of Copyright Law, Trademarks and Unfair Competition, or Patent Law, taken previously or during the same semester as this course. This requirement may be waived only with permission of the instructor (for example, based on a student's familiarity with intellectual property).
This course examines trade secret law, a fourth intellectual property regime. It will include the common law development of trade secrets as well as the philosophical underpinnings in contract, property, and tort law, and the development to the present through the Restatement and the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. It will also examine the relationships between federal and state trade secret law, the relationships between trade secret law and the other three intellectual property regimes, and the relationships between trade secret law and other areas of law, such as employment law and law governing business relationships.
The Chicago Legal Clinic (not affiliated with Chicago-Kent) represents more than 12,000 clients a year, including victims of domestic violence, people with social security problems, clients with immigration issues, and organizations with environmental concerns. Students in the practicum will support the work of the newest program of the Chicago Legal Clinic, Legal Advocates for Seniors and People with Disabilities, which offers legal assistance to people whose assets and sources of income are protected by law and who have significant financial problems. Students will work on one or more of the following types of projects: creating web-based educational materials for the benefit of caseworkers, caretakers and potential clients; presenting workshops to caseworkers, caretakers and potential clients; counseling seniors and people with disabilities who have limited sources of income and significant financial problems; researching potential cases against collection agencies that violate the Federal Fair Debt Collection Act; and assisting with the litigation of cases against collection agencies that violate the Federal Fair Debt Collection Act. A 711 license is not required. Students are expected to work an average of 8 hours a week, in addition to a weekly meeting with the instructor.
This class examines the various types of business and personal transactions that implicate or center on intellectual property assets, particularly where business and legal considerations tend to collide. Topics include the securitization of intellectual property; intellectual property valuation for various purposes; tax consequences of intellectual property transfer; strategic use of intellectual property through licensing and litigation; due diligence in assessing intellectual property portfolios for mergers and acquisitions; and the role of intellectual property in bankruptcy. Prerequisites: Intellectual Property in the High Tech Era, or completion of two of the following courses: Copyright Law; Patent Law; Trademarks & Unfair Competition; Law of Trade Secrets.
In an era of free trade and globalization, it has become increasingly important for business owners to obtain, protect, and enforce their marks globally. This course will cover the international norms (the Paris Convention and TRIPS) that now dictate the substantive trademark laws according to which nations can protect trademarks, as well as regional trademark harmonization instruments such as the EU Trade Mark Directive. It will also examine some of the international mechanisms that facilitate the acquisition and enforcement of trademark rights-¿specifically focusing on the Madrid Protocol & Agreement--and the Community Trade Mark system.
In 1805 there lived a total of approximately 5.3 million people in the United States B far fewer than the 6 million people who today live in Massachusetts or any of 15 other States of the Union. In 1828 James Fenimore Cooper, an American born commentator on American life, took note of the burgeoning population growth and projected that in one hundred years America's population might reach "near or quite 100 million." Continue Cooper, "the first impression that strike the mind is the impossibility that 100 million people should consent to live quietly under the same government." Today's population, of course, is not only much larger but is far more diverse than Cooper imagined. One of the reasons our country has been able to grow and still remain united, ironically, is that under our federal system much political power is decentralized at the state, local, and other subfederal levels. And that is what this course is about: the decentralization of power. The course explores the conflicts inherent in the allocation of power between the national, state, and local governments. It tries to answer questions like: Why do we still have states? What are the maximal powers that states and local governments have, and should have, to create environments that both shape and reflect their citizens' desires? In answering these and related questions the course will look to both law and political theory. Explored in detail will be many of the constitutional doctrines that define our country's federal structure. Also examined will be vital doctrines concerning local government formation and annexation, statutory and home rule powers, the relationships between local governments (including city : suburb), participation in local government, as well as important issues in taxation and finance.
This course focuses on the federal prosecution of fraud, with a particular focus on health care fraud, securities fraud and bank fraud. The course will also explore civil prosecution of fraud and prosecutorial discretion in corporate criminal liability.
Law and the legal system anticipate and also respond to changes in technology in ways that may enhance or inhibit the development of new technologies and new applications of old technologies. This course examines these changes from a historical perspective using the telecommunications technologies and regulations as a case study. It then moves into current technological developments in genetic engineering, surrogate parenting, interactive cable TV, DNA testing, nanotechnology, facial recognition technologies, and the like. Legal issues involving intellectual property, contractual relationships, constitutional rights of individuals, rules of evidence, negligence, and products liability will be discussed in the contexts of a variety of emerging technologies. Questions revolve around the ways in which the legal system responds to changes with analogies to the "known and understood," with fear of the unknown, with conflict between legal and moral issues, with new law, and with the attorney's role in formulating change.
As intellectual property has become critical to the success of many businesses, intellectual property disputes have become more frequent and more significant. This class combines doctrinal intellectual property law with a practical, skills-oriented approach to litigation practice. Specifically, it will explore the life cycle of an intellectual property dispute, including pre-suit strategy, jurisdiction and forum selection, pleadings, fact and expert discovery, summary judgment and other pretrial motions, trial, damages, injunctive relief, and appeal. We will use case law, cutting-edge intellectual property scholarship, and a case study of a current intellectual property dispute as vehicles to explore these issues. Prerequisites: You must have completed, or be taking concurrently, at least two of the following courses: Copyright Law, Trademarks & Unfair Competition, Patent Law, Patent Litigation, Law of Trade Secrets, I.P. in the High Tech Era, or Practice Before the Federal Circuit. Recommended but not required: Federal Courts and Remedies.
This course will examine the development of feminist legal theory by focusing on several cases, writings of theorists, and novels that provide further illustration of the theories. The early advocates of women's rights argued in court cases for equality; this theme is also developed in Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. The Supreme Court case focusing on maternity leave raised the question whether women should be arguing for equality or difference; Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye asks a similar question. Catharine MacKinnon and Carol Gilligan gave the debate a slightly different turn, with MacKinnon focusing on the need to rectify an existing power imbalance and Gilligan emphasizing an appreciation of difference. Both these approaches intersect in Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place and Cristina Garcia's Dreaming in Cuban. The course will require attendance, participation, four ungraded writing assignments (1-2 pages), and a take-home final exam.
A study of issues of contract formation, interpretation, breach, defenses, and remedies. Both the common law and the Uniform Commercial Code's approach to contracts are explored. The evolution and modern understandings of contract doctrines such as "consideration," "offer and acceptance" and "conditions" are presented, as are various defenses to the prima facie case of contractual obligation. The class includes analysis of expectation, reliance and restitution as remedies for breach. ᐧ.
Privacy may be one of the most pervasively discussed issues in this decade as a result of the increased concerns for security in travel, the openness of the Internet, the consolidation of information in massive databases both by corporations and by governments, high incidence of identity theft, and the development of more and more highly sophisticated "listening and viewing" devices. This class examines privacy as protected by statute B through a patchwork of privacy acts B and the concomitant freedom of information requirements of a democratic government, as developed through tort doctrine in the courts, and as articulated through the Constitution of the United States and those of the various states. All aspects of privacy are considered, including wiretapping, government-required personal and business information, personal, family, and reproductive autonomy, the "right to be let alone," and the right of publicity.
An introduction to the basic principles of liability for harm caused to the person or property of others. The basic topics covered include the general elements of the plaintiff's prima facie case (legal injury, tortious conduct, actual causation and proximate causation), the various types of tortious conduct (intentional negligence, etc.), the relevant privileges and defenses that can be raised by the defendant (e.g. defense of self or others, contributory negligence, and consent or assumption of risk), and the underlying principles or policies justifying and limiting liability. Additional topics may be covered, such as various types of traditional strict liability (e.g. liability for nuisances and ultra hazardous activities), an introduction to modern products liability, vicarious liability, immunities, types of damages and other remedies, and allocation of liability among multiple responsible parties.
This course will teach law students interested in becoming trial lawyers how to integrate technology into their trial presentations. Students will learn how to apply principles of persuasion to the creation of courtroom visuals which they will then present in the trial advocacy portion of the course. The course will use hypothetical problems and cases to allow students to develop presentations that persuade and will include computer lab sections, some lecture, and student participation with instructor critique. Students will try civil cases and criminal cases. Students should own their own laptop computers and be prepared to bring them to class every week. The machine should be Windows-compatible. The class may run longer than three hours when students try their mock trials. Maximum class size is 16 students. Prerequisite: one semester of Trial Advocacy.
Nonprofit organizations -- including churches, hospitals, universities, cultural institutions, social service charities, advocacy groups, unions, trade associations, and social clubs -- make up about 10 percent of the economy. Their operations and role in society raise important and difficult issues that cut across a variety of legal fields. In addition, as "ownerless" enterprises serving the public good, nonprofits present challenges for good governance, public oversight, and appropriate public subsidy. We will study the relevant aspects of constitutional law, trust and property law, corporate law, and tax law.
This course addresses foundational topics in commercial real estate transactions, including sales and purchase, leasing, financing, and distressed properties. The course also provides an introduction to skills in negotiation and drafting and incorporates a substantial simulation component, including one Saturday all-day deal simulation workshop (the date of the workshop will be announced in the first class meeting).
A study of the general principles of criminal liability, including the justification of punishment, general concepts of act and fault, principles of justification and excuse, the significance of resulting harm, and accountability for acts of others. Certain specific crimes, such as murder and manslaughter, are also examined. Modern statutory developments provide a significant focus for study.
A study of basic restrictions upon the procedural systems of both the federal and state courts, and various aspects of civil litigation in the federal system. The course focuses on the requirements of due process as a limitation upon the personal jurisdiction that courts may exercise over defendants and on the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts imposed by Article III and congressional legislation. The course also addresses pleadings, challenges and amendments to pleadings, pretrial discovery, adjudication without trial, and other procedural issues.
An introduction to legal analysis, research, and writing through the preparation of legal memoranda, client letters, and other assignments. This course emphasizes the basic skills and tools of analysis and research, and the fundamentals of good writing. Students research and write legal memoranda and other documents of increasing length and complexity; develop research skills, both individually and in group projects; and learn editing skills and the basics of legal ethics. Students rewrite several assignments after written comments from and in-person conferences with the professor.
This course provides additional instruction in legal research, analysis, and writing, with a focus on written and oral advocacy. Students write both a trial and an appellate brief, and are introduced to oral advocacy through preparing and presenting a mock appellate argument.
An introduction to the law of property. Topics include: the meaning of ownership, including the right to exclude and the right to use reasonably; methods of acquiring ownership; the division of ownership into present and future interests; landlord and tenant law; multiple ownership; non-possessory interests and private arrangements for the control of use.
Mental illness is still stigmatized in our society, even though a large number of people personally use or have family members who receive counseling or therapy over the course of their lives. Because of the stigma, the law has evolved in somewhat different ways from other health care. This course will examine the legal framework for this special form of health law affecting the mentally ill and also the developmentally disabled. Generally, a national perspective will be maintained, but specific attention will be given to Illinois law and practice before state agencies. The student will get a comprehensive exposure to the major legal issues involving mental illness and its treatment, the various mental health professions, the structural features of the financing and delivery systems for both mentally ill and developmentally disabled, the law governing voluntary and involuntary treatments, and the doctrine of informed consent as applied to mental health treatment in medication. Additional topics include confidentiality and appropriate procedures for release of mental health information, competencies, including special competencies in criminal cases (competency to stand trail, the defense of insanity), the laws and procedures regarding eligibility for benefits under various federal and state programs geared for the mentally.
An examination of the legal regulation of various methods of payment, with primary emphasis on checks and wire transfers and some consideration of letters of credit, credit cards, debit cards, stored-value cards, and cash. The course also deals with promissory notes, primarily as a means to explore the concept of negotiability. Coverage includes Uniform Commercial Code articles 3, 4, 4A, and 5.
Corporations, public interest groups, government entities and other business clients frequently seek advise on legislative matters. Lawyers need to know how-to access and communicate legislative information to their clients, and be adequately informed about the legislative process. This course is designed to train students in effective advocacy techniques to competently present matters to policy makers and work within the legislative process. The course is divided into four general modules: the law of politics; the legislative process; lobbying; and effective advocacy techniques. In addition to the traditional lecture format, students will learn through the use of role-playing, research assignments and a hands-on advocacy assignment involving actual legislation. Students will learn how to research legislation, present initiatives to policy makers, and influence the process.
A study of the legal rules, premolar constitutional, governing the operation of the criminal justice system from investigation to trial. Among the topics included in this course are: the meaning of due process; arrest, search and seizure; wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping; police interrogation and confessions; eyewitness identification procedures; the scope and administration of the exclusionary rules; and grand jury investigations.
This unique course will focus on the practice of law before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). The CAFC has exclusive appellate jurisdiction to hear patent cases and appeals from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as cases involving several non-patent related issues. Prerequisite: You must have taken, or presently be taking, Patent Law. Course Requirements: (1) The course will begin in September, but will also include several classes in January. Students will be required to attend class on most Mondays during the Fall semester from 7:35 - 9:25 p.m. (2) Students will be required to compete in the Chicago-Kent intramural Giles Rich Moot Court Competition, submitting an appellate brief and presenting an oral argument on a Saturday afternoon in January. The problem used for the intramural competition will consist of the Giles Rich Moot Court Problem. Such problems frequently involve patent law and occasionally trademark or trade secret law. Why take this course? This course will teach you appellate advocacy, both with respect to how to identify the issues and write a convincing appellate brief and how to prepare for, and present, a winning oral argument. Top students in the class will be invited (but not required) to represent the school in the Giles Rich Moot Court Competition. Chicago-Kent students taking this course last year placed second in the Midwest Regional Competition and advanced to the National Competition in Washington, D.C.
This course takes a hands-on, practical approach to pretrial civil litigation in the federal courts. The objective is to bridge the gap between first-year civil procedure and practice as an associate following graduation. Using recent case studies and classroom simulations, the course prepares students for a commercial litigation practice by exploring issues such as preserving the attorney-client privilege, disclosing expert reports and taking and defending expert depositions, managing electronic discovery and preserving electronically stored information, drafting motions to compel discovery, and moving for summary judgment in complex disputes. Students will be graded on both class participation and written assignments that will apply the classroom instruction to drafting motions and briefs. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
A study of the rules of evidence and the reasons underlying these rules, with particular emphasis on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Among the topics included are: competency and examination of witnesses, including impeachment; relevancy ; the hearsay rule and its exceptions; privileges; writings; opinion, expertise, and experts; notice; scientific and demonstrative evidence; and other issues.
This course provides an introduction to the fundamental law of the United States as set forth in the Constitution and developed primarily by the United States Supreme Court. It addresses Supreme Court review, separation of powers, federalism, and protection of individual rights under the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. Specific topics include the Commerce Clause, race and sex discrimination, abortion and the right to privacy, and the concept of state action. These topics are explored in the context of the historical and theoretical foundations of American constitutionalism, including the role of the Supreme Court in American government and the controversy over different approaches to constitutional interpretation.
A study of the federal income tax laws as they affect individuals. Major topics include: identification of income, deductions, exclusions, and credits; assignment of income; timing principles; capital gains and losses; and deferral and nonrecognition provisions.
This course addresses basic principles of agency law, particularly the doctrines associated with authority, vicarious responsibility, and fiduciary duty. It also addresses how agency principles and doctrines are applied in such areas as legal ethics, corporation law, contract law, civil procedure, criminal law, torts, and constitutional law.
A study of accounting and finance and their practical application in the practice of law. Topics include the accounting treatment for assets, liabilities, capital, income and expense accounts; the preparation and analysis of financial statements; and the fundamentals of finance. Some high-profile accounting scandals such as Enron will also be explored. Students with more than three hours of undergraduate accounting may not take this course. (This course was formerly titled "Accounting and Finance for Lawyers.")
This course will explore the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), which was enacted to combat organized crime but with the allure of triple damages and attorney's fees has been used in all manner of business and contract disputes. This expansive trend has met resistance from many federal judges, most notably Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, sometimes referred to as the "tenth Supreme Court justice." We will examine Judge Posner's economics and "pragmatic"-based methods of deciding RICO cases. Is this what Congress intended in enacting RICO? Or has he usurped the legislative role? Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The course addresses the forms of relief available through the judicial process. Among the topics covered are equitable remedies such as injunctions and specific performance; damages; restitution; remedies for injuries to tangible and intangible property, personal injuries, breach of contract, and invasions of civil rights.
This course emphasizes the management of intellectual property. The intent is to provide the future corporate practitioner with important information about managing, marketing, selling, buying, and licensing corporate intellectual property assets (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, data, trade secrets, software, know-how, and other types of valuable information), and limiting corporate liability with respect to those assets. The course places particular emphasis on software and other emerging technologies, but will also cover traditional intellectual property issues. (This course was formerly entitled "Intellectual Property for Corporate Lawyers.")
A study of the constitutional protection of speech and religion under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The course will explore the history and theory of freedom of speech and religion; the constitutionality of regulating seditious speech, pornography, hate speech, and commercial speech; the permissibility of state support for religion; and other topics.
This is a survey class in intellectual property law in the context of the current high tech era. It covers all four intellectual property regimes ¿- copyright, trademark, patent, and trade secret. Questions related to the use of intellectual property with the current technologies will be explored, including, for example, issues of the availability of generic drugs to developing countries and the relationship to the patented pharmaceuticals, the use of peer-to-peer file transfers across the internet, re-broadcast of copyrighted works through internet streaming as well as new digital satellite technologies, and the relationships among the regimes to protect a variety of products. The course is a survey of intellectual property law for students who are not pursuing the Intellectual Property certificate; we do not expect or advise I.P. certificate students to take the course. However, certificate students are not prohibited from taking the course. Students who take the course and later decide to pursue the I.P. certificate may take any I.P. course in the future. This course will not, however, count towards the credits needed to earn the certificate.
This course focuses on the substantive and procedural requirements for preparing and prosecuting patent applications. Strong emphasis is placed on drafting patent claims and preparing effective responses to rejections of applications by the U.S. Patent Office. The course also covers other aspects of practice before the Patent Office, including interviews, appeals, and applications for the reexamination and reissues of a patent. The nature of nonobviousness, the doctrine of equivalence, and the patent applicant's duty of candor are reviewed in detail. Patents is a prerequisite.
The prevalence of internet-enabled technologies in everyday devices are enabling third parties to collect, use, and share increasing amounts of sensitive consumer information without them ever knowing. This not only poses serious privacy risks for consumers, but it can also be dangerous. Emerging technologies are being used to defraud consumers, track their movements, and commit identify theft, among many other things. This course will focus on the significant legal and policy issues related to complex tech fraud and privacy-related violations. Specifically, the course will cover these areas: overview of prevalent data collection practices, uses, and methodology; privacy implications of and dangers associated with collecting and using sensitive consumer data; legal framework/overview of consumer protection and privacy law landscape; case studies; and policy challenges. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The process of accumulating, managing and transmitting wealth raises important issues for individuals and families. This course will expose students to personal finance and wealth management, which will help them make informed decisions for themselves and those whom they advise. This is a practical course that covers the following subjects: wealth, financial assets and investing; home ownership and mortgage financing; life and disability insurance; property and succession; income taxation of the family; wealth transfer taxation; credit, debt and asset protection; planning for the costs of higher education, retirement security, and end of life issues. Many of these topics are the subject matter of specialized courses in the curriculum, including: Bankruptcy, Disability Law, Elder Law, Employee Benefits Law, Estates and Trusts, Estate Planning, Family Law, Gift and Estate Tax, Insurance, Personal Income Tax, and Secured Transactions. Family Wealth Management is a survey course that is not intended to be a substitute for any of these courses.
This course is designed as a general introduction to the legal system of the European Union (EU). It covers both its constitutional and institutional structure and focuses on specific key areas of substantive law. The course starts by introducing the EU's legal order, and then moves briefly into the EU's legislative process, where it concentrates on the political and legislative functions of the various institutions and the division of competences between the EU and its Member States. The course pays particular attention to the role of the judiciary in shaping the EU's legal order. The European Court of Justice developed the fundamental notions of direct effect and supremacy of European law. Those notions, through which rights are created for European citizens, are examined, and the course subsequently turns to how those rights can be enforced. The area of European Trade Law is then chosen as a 'test case' to analyse the legal, political and social developments of the European system. In particular, the provisions on free movements, competition, and state aids are thoroughly analysed with reference to the case law of the European Court of Justice and to relevant secondary legislation. This part of the course, by focusing also on specific issues such as the tension between market forces and values (public health, European culture, and social prerogatives), is not confined to legal themes only but indirectly examines the role of the EU and the values and polices upon which the European constitutional architecture is founded. Therefore, although the course is not a comparative one, a discussion on the US and EU institutional and judicial system is warmly welcome in each lecture. Three credit hours.
This class is useful for any lawyer who wishes to practice business law and plans to work in any of the following areas: corporate, real estate, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, securities, finance, investment banking, or privae or public business enterprises. Students will learn about basic business concepts and fundamentals, structuring, negotiating and documenting the deal, letters of intent, purchase and sale agreements, buy-sell agreements, organizing and funding, choice of equity, business and real estate valuation, capital structures, fund formation, securities law considerations, and employment agreements.
Design is an essential feature of nearly every product and online service. Product manufacturers are investing record amounts to capture eye appeal. In the age of online marketplaces, where consumers can’t touch and feel a product, the appearance of a product is often pivotal in the consumer’s purchasing decision. Increasingly, the aesthetic appearance of products is a leading driver of sales. All of this interest begs the question: How are product appearances protected and enforced under existing intellectual property laws? This class studies the various intellectual rights used to protect design under U.S. law, including trade dress, design patents and copyright law. The course will also briefly consider sui generis design rights, as exemplified by the European Union design right, which have for many years been proposed for introduction in the United States. No prior IP course or knowledge is required or expected to enroll in the course. Three credit hours.
This reading group explores legal and theoretical issues relevant to Latinx in the United States. Topics of study will likely include the definition of Latinx identity, the relationship between Latinos and other minority groups, Latina feminism, the legal regulation of language and accent, immigration and citizenship law, employment discrimination, policing and incarceration, and education law. Students are required to write reaction papers to the assigned readings and to participate actively in group discussion. One credit hour.
As scientists unravel the health and behavioral implications of the 30,000 genes in the human body, legal issues abound. Genetic tests are being offered to let people know if they are at risk of having a child with a genetic defect or if they will later in life suffer from cancer or other diseases. Genetic predispositions are also being investigated for certain behaviors, such as intelligence or anti-social behavior. This course, which requires a paper rather than an exam, will cover the tort law, family law, health law, constitutional law, criminal law, employment law, and insurance law implications of developments in genetics.
This course involves detailed examination of the legal issues arising in connection with the purchase and sale of real property. Topics include: the role of brokers in real estate transactions, the contract of purchase and sale, instruments of conveyance, warranties of title, recording acts, title insurance and other forms of title assurance, warranties of condition and other forms of quality assurance and the financing and closing of real estate transactions. The course examines real estate transactions from a practitioner's perspective, as well as from a more theoretical standpoint.
This timely course explores the historical backdrop to modern immigration law and policy, its unique status in American law, and post-9/11 issues. Topics include immigrant status (family and employment), non-immigrant visas, citizenship, bases for exclusion and removal, and current refugee/asylum policy and procedures. Students may also visit the immigration court in Chicago.
This course is one of the three ways in which students participating in the Intellectual Property certificate Program can satisfy the requirement of a Capstone Experience. (The Capstone Experience requirement may also be satisfied by participation in the Intellectual Property Law ¿ Patent Clinic, or the completion of an Intellectual Property Externship). The course may be taken only by J.D. students enrolled in the Intellectual Property Certificate Program. It is intended to be taken in the last year of legal studies. This is a problem-solving course that will bring together learning from different intellectual property courses and from non-intellectual property courses, bringing home the inter-relationships between different bodies of law and asking students to apply that knowledge to a concrete problem faced by a fictional client. The course will be taught by several faculty members. During some class meetings, the class will meet as a group. Between these "team" meetings, the class will break into smaller groups (of approximately 8-12 students). These smaller groups will work with teams of two faculty in researching and discussing particular parts of the overall problem, will make oral reports to other members of the small group, and after the small group decides on the appropriate strategy will make oral and brief written reports to the entire class. The entire class will then discuss how best to advise the client to proceed and how best to effectuate the social and commercial objectives of the client. The course is intended to allow students to develop an appreciation of the contexts in which intellectual property problems arise, how to apply knowledge developed in intellectual property and other courses to a concrete problem, the considerations (legal and non-legal) that guide how lawyers approach those problems, and the real-life dynamics that affect the practice of intellectual property law. The class will be graded on a pass/fail basis, based upon performance in class (both when the entire class is present and in small groups) and based upon oral and written presentations.
This course provides an introduction to the U.S. tax structure that applies to international transactions, i.e., investment and business undertakings by U.S. persons overseas and similar undertakings by foreign persons in the U.S. The first part of the course will use a problem approach to examine the basic U.S. tax principles governing international transactions (including a discussion of treaty implications). The second part of the course will examine strategies in the formation, acquisition, financing, operation and disposition of international business activities.
A study of the law relating to the gratuitous transfer of property at death and in trust. The course will examine the formalities required for execution and revocation of a will, will contests, the problems incident to intestate succession, will substitutes, the creation and enforcement of private express trusts, the creation and enforcement of charitable trusts, and the use of class gifts and powers of appointment to introduce flexibility into estate plans. The course will also explore certain issues of elder law, such as living wills and health care powers of attorney.
The course involves both a definition of human rights as well as enforcement procedures for the implementation of human rights. The historical and philosophical bases of human rights are examined starting with the works of various thinkers from the diverse schools, particularly natural law, positivism, Marxism and the sociological school. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the later International Covenants are looked at in terms of the influences of the various schools. The course addresses the question of whether there is agreement as to fundamental human rights. Recent developments and tensions in the field of human rights, particularly since the increased membership of countries from the "third world" and socialist bloc countries, are investigated. This is highlighted by focusing on the later two covenants of the United Nations particularly the Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, which enlarges the scope of human rights to include welfare, cultural, and economic rights. Finally, the course focuses on the contribution of international and non-governmental organizations in the protection and implementation of human rights.
A study of the law of commercial banking with special emphasis on banking as a "regulated industry." Among the topics included are the history and structure of the American banking system and of the federal regulatory agencies; the regulation of traditional banking activity, including lending limitations; discrimination based on sex or marital status; usury; reserve requirements; capital adequacy; interest limits; the formation of a new bank or branch; branch banking; management interlocks; criminal liability; attainment of competitive markets; banks' trust powers; and failing banks and the FDIC. The course will include a description of the banking industry and the regulation of banks in several foreign countries and major international financial centers. Included are several topics of ¿international banking¿ such as the methods by which banks of one country can operate in another country.
This course covers substantive criminal law issues either omitted from the required criminal law course or not covered in depth. There will likely be four main topics: punishment, focusing on the death penalty; defenses, focusing on self-defense, necessity, duress, and insanity; inchoate crimes, including conspiracy and solicitation; and specific crimes, particularly rape and offenses against property.
This is a not-for-credit/non-graded course and is taught in an intensive pre-semester format for 30 hours over a two-week period. The course is designed for foreign, non-native English speaking students with the aim of improving their understanding of legal terminology commonly used in the U.S. legal system. Another primary goal of the intensive course is to ensure that foreign students are well-prepared to undertake their regular semester coursework in the law school. Students read cases, statutes, and other legal materials, engage in in-depth class discussions on the readings and a range of other legal topics, perform written analyses and other short writing exercises, and deliver short oral presentations on a legal topic. Students receive comprehensive feedback by the professor on their work and in-class speaking abilities.
This course deals with the important subject of constitutional torts, specifically 42 U.S.C. 1983 and Bivens actions, whereby state, local and federal officials, as well as local governments, may be held liable in damages when they violate peoples' constitutional rights. Constitutional torts is a subject that is fascinating at both a theoretical and practical level. It raises deep issues of federalism and justice as well as real-world problems of how to make governments accountable to their citizens without undermining their effectiveness. Thousands of constitutional torts cases are filed annually, and they generate considerable controversy, e.g., Rodney King filed a section 1983 damages action against Los Angeles and certain of its police officers. Those who should take this course include persons who expect to do federal litigation of any kind, as well as any students who hope to clerk for federal or state judges or work for state and local governments. Not only does the course deal with constitutional law but it also addresses federal courts issues, damages and injunctive relief and attorney's fees, among other important subjects.
Employment Litigation is a simulation course, designed to introduce students to the representation of a client in an employment discrimination case, from the initial client interview through a motion for summary judgment. Students are assigned as members of either the plaintiff or defense law firm, and work with a ¿senior partner¿/professor in interviewing the prospective clients; preparing engagement letters; drafting a Complaint or an Answer; drafting and responding to written discovery; preparing for, taking, and defending depositions; and preparing or opposing a motion for summary judgment.
This course is designed to present evidence from the perspective of a trial lawyer and is aimed at students who plan a career in criminal or civil litigation. The material will cover a traditional evidence curriculum while demonstrating how the rules are actually used and argued in the adversarial process. It will be an interactive class in which students will spend a great deal of time on their feet solving evidentiary problems, arguing opposing sides, while mastering the rules. Preference will be given to students newly-accepted onto Trial Team.
A study of complex litigation involving multiple parties and multiple claims. By way of background, we consider joinder of parties and of claims generally, and treat transfer and consolidation of civil actions. We then emphasize all major aspects of class action litigation. The facets covered include ethical considerations, history and philosophy, federal subject matter jurisdiction, due process considerations, requirements for bringing a class action, notice, settlement, administration of judicial relief, appealability, binding effect of the judgment, attorneys' fees, and trying complex cases. This advanced course serves to round out a student's background in civil procedure, and demonstrates clearly in what respects and why complex litigation has presented special problems requiring special treatment.
This course examines federal and state laws and cases involving juveniles. The Illinois Juvenile Court Act is covered in depth. Areas covered include delinquency. neglect, adjudications, dispositions, sentencing alternatives, social service agencies and constitutional safeguards for minors.
We live in a global economy that has compelled labor advocates to increasingly seek international sources for labor rights. Business leaders, on the other hand, are also requesting legal advice regarding the regulation of labor in foreign countries as they attempt to expand their businesses around the globe. International and comparative labor law is therefore more than an academic curiosity-¿it is becoming an important aspect of business and labor law practice and advocacy today. With the forces of globalization as a backdrop, this course comprehensively develops labor and employment law in the context of international and comparative national laws important to the global economy. Sources of international labor law surveyed by the course will include the International Labor Organization (ILO), rulings and standards that emerge from the labor side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), labor clauses of free trade agreements and global corporate codes of conduct. The countries surveyed will include the U.K., Germany, France, China, Japan and India.
This course explores the contract, labor law and antitrust problems facing professional and collegiate athletic institutions and athletes. Principles of negotiation and ethical considerations are also considered.
This course will examine various topics relating to medical malpractice litigation. Among the topics to be considered are: pleadings, discovery, expert testimony, damages, statutes of limitations, res ipsa loquitur, informed consent and independent contractor issues.
A study of the legal problems involved in the formation, continuation, and dissolution of the relationship of husband and wife, and the legal problems arising from the relationship of parent to child. Among the topics that may be discussed are are engagements; marriage requirements; marital rights and responsibilities; divorce; property distribution; child support; maintenance; parental rights; paternity; legitimacy; custody; adoption; and modern methods of conception.
This course and Criminal Procedure: The Investigative Process are a study of the legal rules governing the operation of the criminal justice system from investigation to trial. Among the topics included in this course are: the right to counsel, transcripts and other aids; discovery and the failure of the state to disclose; pretrial publicity and change of venue; the right to a speedy trial; plea bargaining and guilty pleas; the right to a jury trial and problems of jury selection; ineffective assistance of counsel; sentencing; entrapment; double jeopardy; hearings into probable cause; and pretrial release.
Business Entity Formation and Business Entity Transactions are two three-credit business courses that are offered as part of the Law Offices clinical education program. Both courses are taught with extensive use of simulation exercises. Business Entity Formation provides an opportunity for students to form various types of business entities including partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations. In Business Entity Transactions, students implement various business transactions such as employment and consulting agreements, shareholder agreements and agreements in connection with the purchase and sale of a business. In both courses, the students apply the legal doctrine learned in Business Organizations and other courses to a series of progressively more sophisticated simulation exercises and prepare the documents necessary, in Business Entity Formation, to create and organize the entities; and in the case of Business Entity transactions, to implement the various business transactions required by the exercises. In both courses the students utilize information gathering, planning, counseling and negotiating skills in the development of the documents.
Many people submit to the law simply because they believe that the institutions administering it are just. But what if a law itself is unjust? The duty to obey law presupposes that laws are both consistent and just: because they sometime aren't, difficult cases arise in which appeals to a higher political morality become necessary if justice is to be served. But what is this higher political morality and what is its connection to the institutions we rely upon to do justice and protect our human rights as well as to the laws that are actually produced? Is this higher political morality the morality of our society or something broader? And, if it is something broader, how do we discover what it is? In this course, we will attempt to answer these and other questions by considering the relationship between legal and political philosophy, showing how the former is incomplete without the latter. Taking the problem of how to solve difficult cases as our point of departure, we will look at the inherent incompleteness of conventional theories of law with the idea of developing a meta-theory that would enable judges to decide difficult cases by drawing upon the best available theory of politics appropriate to the case's level of abstraction. By so doing, it is hoped that we will be able to produce resolutions for some kinds of controversial cases and open doors to the way we should think about others. It is also hoped that the course will provide an avenue for a broad critique of the way legal and political institutions operate including the way law schools educate and judges actually decide cases.
A traditional and problem approach to planning business transactions, focusing on choice and formation of a business entity, capital formation and financing, corporate restructuring, and purchase and sale of a business. The course will examine a cross-section of substantive law areas in planning and implementing business transactions.
A study of the source, development, and limits of the law of products liability, including theories of liability rooted in negligence, warranty, and strict liability and the liability of sellers, manufacturers, and others to users, bystanders, and other parties for "defective" products.
A study of contractual relations among participants in the construction process; legal disputes arising out of the bidding and construction process; and the customs of the construction industry as they relate to legal problems. There will be some discussion of the bidding process and bonding requirements. The contractual interrelationships among the owner, the architect, contractors, and subcontractors as defined by the "contract documents" and as implied by law will be fully discussed. Finally, an analysis of typical construction disputes arising from contract interpretation, change orders, time problems, and payment issues will be made. An understanding of how contract, and tort principles discussed in substantive courses are applied and interrelated within the construction industry will be derived from the course.
This course explores substantive concepts involved in employee welfare and pension plan design under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), relevant federal Tax Code provisions, other relevant federal statutory and constitutional law, and relevant state law. The course also monitors executive and legislative actions affecting the Affordable Care Act and reviews litigation concerning benefit denials, benefit reduction disputes, discrimination issues relating to benefit plans, and fiduciary responsibilities and fiduciary breaches. It also addresses cutting-edge issues for the next decade, including without limitation the interstices of federal and state labor and employment laws with benefits law, standing, federal preemption, standard of review, conflicts of interest, the creation of federal common law, and equitable and other remedies. Three credit hours.
In this course, students will be introduced to the concepts of professionalism, professional identity, and practice for lawyers. A key objective of the course is to assist students in beginning to cultivate a reflective mindset about professional life in the law and to develop the habits needed to exercise sound professional judgment as lawyers. The course will provide students with the basics of professionalism in the legal profession, a framework to assist them in forming their professional identity, and concrete career strategies in achieving their professional goals. Students will develop the skill of practiced self-reflection in legal settings, explore the kind of lawyer they want to become, and deepen their ability to apply their professional values in the practice of law. By participating in a variety of exercises, both within and outside the classroom, students will have the opportunity to cultivate the sense of professionalism that will serve them well throughout their legal careers. Credit hours: One credit hour.
A study of the basic principles of accounting and the accounting cycle, including the interpretation and meaning of financial statements and the application of these principles to legal problems. Not open to students who have had more than three hours of undergraduate accounting; no prior knowledge of accounting is expected.
This course is intended to provide a basic understanding of how stocks and bonds are utilized in the capital formation process, how businesses raise capital, and how the capital formation process is regulated. In addition, the course covers some fundamental concepts of financial analysis and investment techniques.
A study of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Among the topics included are: the registration and distribution of securities by issuers; exemptions from the registration requirements; offerings by underwriters and dealings; reorganizations; federal disclosure obligations; regulation of the securities markets, broker-dealers, proxy rules, tender offers, and civil liabilities for insider trading, Rule 10b-5 and short-swing profits.
This course is intended to introduce practical legal issues confronting healthcare organizations, including nonprofit and tax-exempt hospitals, health systems, physician groups, and other regulated providers of health care services. The class will be augmented by guest speakers from the field, and there will be assigned readings including selected cases and other materials. The course will cover the legal framework within which healthcare organizations are formed and operated, issues relating to access to healthcare and tax exemption controversy, regulatory issues governing the delivery of healthcare services, state and federal regulation of healthcare and enforcement trends, evolving corporate governance, compliance and ethics standards applicable to healthcare, legal issues in the operation of healthcare organizations, and healthcare reform and other current issues.
A study of antitrust law concerning problems of monopolies, price fixing, horizontal and vertical restraints on trade and mergers. The major federal legislation in the field, including the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act, are considered in detail.
An in-depth examination of the federal law concerning discrimination in employment on the bases of face, sex religion, national origin, age, and disability. Topics covered include: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, The Equal Pay Act, and The Americans with Disabilities Act. The Illinois Human Rights Act also falls within purview of this course, as does the common law development regarding wrongful discharge.
This class explores numerous legal aspects of the Holocaust, including the Nazi legal system, Nazi and modern war crimes trials, restitution efforts, Holocaust denial, freedom of speech, and other issues. The purpose of this exploration will be to address current issues, such as the rise of authoritarianism and the responsibility to ensure that “Never Again” remains relevant. 2 cr. hours.
This course deals with the federal taxation of gratuitous property transfers during life and at death and with the techniques for structuring transactions so as to minimize such taxation. The emphasis will be on gift and estate taxes, but we will also study the income taxation of trusts and estates and the generation-skipping transfer tax. These tax rules will be examined in the context of the kinds of transactions that give rise to their applicability: transactions that typically include outright gifts, so-called "living" trusts, irrevocable trusts, joint tenancies, powers of appointment, life insurance, and employee benefits.
This course will complete the overview of civil litigation in the federal system. It will focus on judicial supervision of pretrial conferences, the promotion of settlements, and incentives to settle; the trial-including the Seventh Amendment right to jury trial, judicial control of the verdict through judgments as a matter of law, new trial orders, remittitur and additur, different kinds of verdicts, and juror impeachment of the verdict; the preclusive effects of judgments; and pre-and post-judgment remedies.
A study of the powers of , and restraints upon, the federal judiciary, derived largely but not exclusively from Article III. Specific issues addressed include: the concept of judicial supremacy-the role of courts in a representative democracy; Article I tribunals; permissible congressional control of the original and appellate jurisdiction and remedial arsenal of the federal judiciary; abstention; sovereign immunity; and federal review of state court decisions.
A study of the legal problems that arise when the domiciles of the parties or other significant facts of a controversy are connected with states other than that where the litigation occurs. Among the topics included are: the choice of applicable law, jurisdiction of courts, the effect of out-of-state judgments, and the rules of decision applicable in multi-state transactions. International conflicts are becoming increasingly frequent and important, and thus the class will include discussion of the international aspects of each of the three main areas of inquiry (choice of law, jurisdiction, and enforcement of judgments). Similarly, the application of these rules in the context of cyberspace is given attention.
A study of the legal problems involved in the creation, functioning, and control of government agencies (other than courts or legislatures) that engage in rule making or adjudication. Particular attention is given to the constitutional constraints on agency action, including those imposed by due process, separation of powers, and nondelegation doctrine. The investigative functions of agencies and the timing, method, and scope of judicial review of an agency's actions also are covered.
A general survey of the legal principles and business customs and usages of the entertainment industry. Topics include: contract, labor, copyright, trademarks and unfair competition, privacy and publicity rights, and constitutional law cases and material involving the motion picture, live theater, television, music, and print publishing branches, and the production, distribution and retail sectors of each branch. Students interested in intellectual property and those who may represent individuals or entities in the entertainment industry should consider taking this course. The Copyright Law course is recommended preparation.
This course examines the international aspects of the U.S. regulation of banking and securities; the international systems of regulating banking and capital markets including payments, settlements and capital adequacy; and the capital markets of the European Union (particularly U.K., Germany and France), and of Canada, and Japan. The course covers special instruments and techniques including Eurodollar deposits, Eurobonds, Global Bonds, international asset securitization, futures, options, swaps, offshore trusts, and project finance. Included are materials on second-tier markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, several of the emerging markets such as Mexico, Argentina, etc. and the special problems of the "offshore" centers such as Lichtenstein, Cayman Islands, Antigua, Jersey, and the like.
This course examines law as a dynamic force in American society from the American Revolution through the New Deal, and seeks to place legal doctrine and institutions within their social, political, and cultural context. Particular attention will be paid to selected topics such as the law of free and bound labor, the legal regime governing family and sexual relations, the role of the legal profession, and the regulation of the market economy.
This course briefly explores the historical underpinnings and the source of state and federal power relating to an entitlement that we take for granted: free public education. Additional topics include many issues that are continually in the news and in the courts: church-state conflicts (especially school prayer and school vouchers); desegregation, school financing, student disability accommodations, free speech issues (both students and teachers); and other student rights (including locker searches, dress codes, and due process).
This course is designed to expose students to some of the legal and policy issues that confront individuals/consumers in our health care system. The course will explore the basics of our unique system of health care financing and delivery, focusing on how that system affects the consumer/employee/patient. Among the topics that are explored are employer-provided benefits; managed care; HMO liability; ERISA preemption; litigating benefit coverage denials; eligibility, funding, and benefits in the Medicaid and Medicare programs; COBRA benefits; and health care reform. There is no exam and students are evaluated on the basis of a paper and class participation.
An examination of the theory and practice of the law governing the relationships between labor unions and employers. Among the topics covered are: the historical background of labor relations law; procedures for the selection of union representation; the law and process of collective bargaining; strikes; boycotts and picketing; and grievance and arbitration procedures.
This course introduces students to the key concepts and doctrines of international law. Students learn the sources of international law such as custom and treaty, the role of international organizations such as the United Nations, the bases of international jurisdiction, laws governing the use of force and the protection of human rights, and the constitutional structure of U.S. participation in the international legal system. An understanding of these core concepts, rules and institutions is vital to more advanced and in-depth study of world events, such as the Persian Gulf crisis and war in 1990-91 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991-92, and places these events in the context of the development and application of international law. The course also examines the development of regional organizations such as the European Union and North American Free Trade Agreement and the role the institutions of these arrangements play both in international and municipal legal systems.
This course involves a comprehensive study of the international trading system, with attention to the role of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the IMF, and regional and bilateral trading arrangement (e.g. the European Union and the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement). The U.S. legal system with respect to international trade will be considered in detail, including discussion of constitutional issues, treaty-making, and Congressional and Executive authorities. Attention will be given to specific legislation and regulations involving export and import controls, as well as remedies against unfair trade practices. Current issues such as the implications of the EU's 1992 plan, the treatment of nonmarket economies, trade-related aspects of intellectual property, trade in services, and controls on the use of economic sanctions will be analyzed.
Harassment, bullying, trafficking, and violence complaints in private and public sector workplaces (including schools, prisons, and the military) have increased in the post-Weinstein era, often against serial harassers. Complaints allege harassment and violence based on sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, religion, age, disability, association, sexual orientation, sexual non-conformity, gender identity, multiple statuses, and/or intersectionality. Alleged harassers include CEOs, C-suite executives, senior management, supervisors, lower-level managers, co-workers, bystanders, and third parties. Such allegations threaten the brands and often the very survival of employers. This course, taught by a co-editor of the 2018 Bloomberg Workplace Harassment Law (second edition), will explore landmark cases and cutting-edge issues in an increasingly diverse workplace. Three credit hours.
An examination of the legal environment of business, focusing on the legal considerations specifically related to transactions having transnational elements. Among the topics discussed are: national laws relating to aliens and foreign transactions, the extraterritorial reach of American laws, international contracts, international technology transfers, international and commercial arbitration, and international investment. The respective roles of foreign law, foreign lawyers, and foreign clients in international business processes are also considered.
This course will focus on the legal relationship between employer and individual employee. It will cover the common law aspects of that relationship, particularly contracts and torts. It will them examine statutory modifications of the common law. Statues that may be examined include, ERISA, the Civil Rights Acts, whistle-blower protection legislation, unemployment and workers compensation acts, Fair Labor Standards Act and OSHA. The course is recommended for students contemplating a labor law, corporate or general practice.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates products comprising over 25% of the consumer spending in the United States, yet its practices and mechanisms are not commonly understood. This one agency regulates most of the nation's foods, and all of its dietary supplements, pharmaceuticals, biological products, medical devices, cosmetics, and other products. It does so with a variety of legal tools and varying degrees of control over different product types, and yet its actions are guided by just two key goals -- to protect the public health and to help new products get to market -- and a small number of deceptively simple concepts. This course will examine the primary powers of this important agency, how the agency has changed over time in response to crises, business trends, and evolving public policy considerations, and will address some of the key concepts common to all federal regulatory agencies.
This course will study the rights and responsibilities of injured employees and their employers under workers' compensation and occupational diseases statutes. Third-party actions also are examined.
This course covers legal and policy issues raised by the impact of the internet on existing law. Topics considered include: freedom of speech, privacy, intellectual property, trademark and copyright, commercial transactions, computer crime, and jurisdictional issues. Course materials are available only on the internet. It is a prerequisite of this course that students have a laptop with ability to connect to the Internet from home and the class-room.
A course exploring land use controls such as zoning and subdivision regulations as exercised by local and state governmental units. The course analyzes the history of land use controls and explores topics such as flexibility and discretion, improper influence and corruption, alternative land use control schemes, suburban zoning and racial/economic exclusion, environmental protection by land use schemes, and growth control. In the process of exploring land use controls, the course analyzes the local institutions and procedures, constitutional issues, and the question of when an improper taking of property occurs in our legal system.
Public policies underlying various invention protection systems are analyzed as background for understanding the fundamental concepts of U.S. patent law. The nature of patentable subject matter in the U.S. and the statutory requirements of utility, novelty, and nonobviousness are examined in detail. Students also consider the process of obtaining and enforcing patent rights. Such consideration includes an overview of the disclosure, enablement and claim requirements for a patent application, as well as the scope of protection granted to the owner of an issued patent. The interpretation of patent claims is covered, with special emphasis placed on constructing claims under the evolving doctrine of equivalents. Remedies for patent infringement are also reviewed, as well as the defense of patent misuse.
This course is designed to familiarize students with contemporary scientific evidence and expert witnesses. Acknowledged experts will present their specialties with an eye towards what the lawyer should know about the scientific area and how to select and utilize an expert witness. Emphasis will be on topics suitable to both civil and criminal cases. Topics include: pathology, toxicology, toolmark and firearms identification, questioned documents, fingerprints, forensic photography, and the polygraph.
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. In addition to exploring basic questions about the purposes, nature, and scope of copyright raised by the federal legislation, this course gives special attention to current controversies concerning the extension of traditional copyright principles to the online environment, the legality of peer-to-peer networks, protection for computer programs, Internet service provider liability, the constitutionality of new and greater forms of copyright protection, the interaction of copyright and free speech principles, and the effect of international treaties upon U.S. copyright law.
This is a required course for new members of the Chicago-Kent Moot Court Honor Society. The goal of the course is to provide students with advanced training in appellate litigation, and as such will concentrate on developing professional skills in brief writing and research, and oral advocacy. In addition, the course will include an introduction to various aspects of appellate procedure. Students will prepare a brief and will be required to participate in an intramural oral advocacy competition. The Moot Court Honor Society will choose members for Chicago-Kent's spring interscholastic competition teams based in large part on students' performance in this course.
This course will examine the history of the commodities industry and the Commodities Exchange Act as amended. It will also discuss the operations and duties of the CFTC, the NFA and the commodities exchanges, including their enforcement and investigatory activities, their structure and their current and proposed regulations; the use of the futures markets by hedgers; the jurisdiction of the CFTC versus the SEC and the states; the registration requirements of various entities with the CFTC; arbitration and reparation procedures; the types of records and reports used by the commodities industry ; tax consequences for investors; forum-shopping and litigation strategies; and how to prepare a commodities case.
This course examines how businesses are organized in the United States and the variety or legal regulations they face. It considers the different forms of business organizations, including sole proprietorships, general and limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and the various forms of incorporated business enterprises, with the goal of establishing which form of organization is best suited for a variety of business goals. The course emphasizes the rights and obligations of the various parties in the business relationship-employees, promoters, partners, and corporate officers, directors investors, and stockholders, as well as their attorneys. Special focus also is devoted to the question of control of closely-held corporations. These general themes are examined in the context of specific corporate issues, including executive compensation; proxy contests; basic securities fraud and insider trading; and mergers, acquisitions, and tender offers. The course also includes an introduction to basic principles of corporate finance.
Across the United States, courts, legislators, and policymakers continue to grapple with the concept of privacy and its many dimensions. While the Fourth Amendment plays a well-known role in protecting against undue government intrusion, the proliferation and adoption of new technologies has tested the limits of such protections. This course will explore these concepts, and interrogate our understanding of other essential formulations of privacy – such as reproductive privacy, consumer privacy, and freedom from surveillance – within the broader constitutional framework in the United States. 2 credit hours.
This is a cross-disciplinary course that will bring together students from several IIT departments. The class will take students through the process of defining an unmet need in the market through customer research. Students will form teams and complete low-fidelity prototyping and vetting of their solutions with end users. 3 credits.
This is a cross-disciplinary course that will bring together students from several IIT departments. The class will teach students about the investor mindset in an implied learning environment and will give students the opportunity to interact with Chicago startups, industry professionals, and venture capitalists. Students will learn how to evaluate startups for investment and identify business risks, and will prepare and negotiate investment term sheets with entrepreneurs. 3 credits.
This course focuses on the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure and the Illinois Supreme Court Rules. Topics covered include: personal and subject matter jurisdiction, venue, and pleadings and motion practice, with an emphasis on how Illinois procedural rules differ from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
An analysis of the various methods of achieving proper life-time and testamentary planning, include the preparation of documents in connection with estate plans such as wills and trusts.
This course is designed to prepare students to recognize and deal with ethical issues in the practice of law. Topics investigated include: conflicts of interest, actual and potential, and the limits on representation required; confidentiality in the context of an adversarial system; lawyers' responsibilities as advocates in and out of the courtroom; ethical problems encountered by corporate and government lawyers; special problems facing prosecution and criminal defense lawyers; advertising and solicitation; and admission to the Bar. Actual and hypothetical problems are analyzed in light of the Code of Professional Responsibility and the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, subjecting both sets of rules to critical analysis.
This course covers the creation, maintenance, and enforcement of trademark rights, as well as related forms of protection under principles of unfair competition law. The course includes an examination of the public policies and economic considerations underlying trademark law, as well as all the basic issues (such as the prerequisites to trademark protection, the registration process, the grounds for excluding signs from protection or registration, the scope of trademark rights, restraining the distribution of imitation and counterfeit goods, and remedies available in trademark litigation). The course will also cover protection available under the general rubric of unfair competition law (including prohibitions on false advertising), as well as publicity rights afforded by state laws. In addition to these basic issues, the course will address issues of current interest, such as: protection of non-traditional subject matter such as product designs or colors; conflicts between trademark protection of non-traditional subject matter and the copyright or patent laws; protection of trademark rights against dilution, and the conflicts with free expression that this and other protection might precipitate; licensing of trademark rights; and reconciling the rights of competing users of trademark terms. Throughout, the course will address the application of trademark principles in new as well as traditional media, and will consider the problems raised by online use of trademarks.
In this course, students will work closely with students in the Start-Up Accelerator Program at the Kaplan Institute to identify legal and ethical issues and reduce risks for emerging companies. Students will learn and apply legal concepts regarding the formation of business entities, the protection and preservation of intellectual property and other rights, and employment and contract issues. Students will gain a practical understanding of business law, particularly as it pertains to start-ups, and develop problem solving skills to prevent and resolve legal issues faced by entrepreneurs. Each student team will select a start-up “client” from the Start-Up Accelerator Program. Students will be expected to meet weekly with their start-up clients and submit regular written reports and presentations regarding assigned topics as they pertain to their client. Each group will be expected to tailor legal analysis and problem solving for their particular client. Class sessions will entail an overview of specific legal issues (e.g. business formation) and student presentations of how that particular legal issue applies to their client (e.g. selecting the appropriate business form for the client).
An exploration of the mediation process as an alternative to traditional litigation. The course explores the role of the mediator as well as the role of attorneys in the mediation process. This is a simulation course in which students participate in several mediations.
The Labor/Employment Law Externship Program is offered through the Labor/ Employment Law Certificate Program. The externship is available to students enrolled in the Labor/Employment Law Certificate Program during their last year of the law school and is used to satisfy the experiential learning requirement of the certificate program. The educational objective of the externship is to provide the student externs with a well supervised lawyering experience in labor or employment law by enabling each of them to extern with a law school approved placement. Student externs are placed with a law firm, corporation, union or government agency. Externs spend approximately fifteen hours per week during the fourteen-week semester at their designated placements and attend periodic meetings with the faculty supervisor. Students in the program enroll in a three-credit field-work course grades on a pass/low pass/fail basis and a one credit graded classroom course.
"Not less than ten percent of every dollar you earn should be yours to keep forever." Despite this simple rule of thumb, data indicates that less than half of working age Americans actively save for retirement, and that white males have access to, and take advantage of, retirement savings opportunities at a greater rate than other demographic groups. Through reading about the laws that govern saving for retirement, this class is structured to explore one central question: can the law be used to diminish this retirement gap? The class will analyze the simple concepts and behavioral patterns that constitute saving for retirement, as well as the history of retirement plans and the laws that govern them. The goal of the class is to provide students with the language they need to not only intelligently discuss retirement issues but also view them through a lense of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This course examines the scientific, economic, and ethical foundations of environmental law and policy and introduces the student to many of the major biodiversity conservation and pollution control regulatory programs. The role of courts in policing environmental regulation and decision-making is also covered. The course will take an interdisciplinary approach, looking at history, economic theory and analysis, and other disciplines. The course covers the common law origins of environmental protection, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and Superfund. The course examines the substance of the Acts and uses them as vehicles for exploring complex statutory schemes, administrative policy-making, market environmental controls, the interplay of federal and state environmental programs, benefit-cost analysis, risk analysis, and environmental litigation. This is the first semester of a two-semester course sequence. While it is required for students concentrating in Environmental and Energy Law, it is open to all students. The course can be taken without the second semester course.
This will be a practical class covering employment-related alternative dispute resolution both in the union setting, focusing on collective bargaining and arbitration, and in the non-union setting, focusing on mediation and arbitration.
This course examines and compares the federal income tax treatment of the various forms of business enterprises and their owners. We begin with the traditional corporation, which is treated as a taxpayer separate from its owners. Because of the important changes made by the Tax Reform Act of 1986, we devote the second half of the course to the conduit business vehicles- partnerships, S corporations, and limited liability companies. Topics covered include: organizing and setting up the capital structure of the entity; how operations are taxed; transactions between the entity and its owners; taxable or tax-deferred sales or termination of the entity, and exit strategies for the owners; and the choice of entity for various business purposes.
This course examines the negotiation process engaged in by lawyers. It is intended to increase a students' understanding of that process and to develop skills as a negotiator. Experts in various fields discuss negotiations as they apply in those areas of the law. Students engage in mock negotiations in a variety of contexts, such as divorce, real estate, contracts, commercial law, labor law, and criminal law. Not all instructors cover each of these areas of substantive law and different instructors emphasize different areas of substantive law.
This course examines the problems and issues that arise when a lawyer deals with foreign clients, foreign lawyers, or foreign law. It focuses on the differences in substance, procedure, methods, and ways of thinking between the United States and other countries, revealing the many ways in which the United States legal system is unique and evaluating the implications of this uniqueness. The course examines foreign laws and legal institutions and identifies ways in which lawyers can learn about and better understand systems other than their own and develop strategies for dealing with the effects of differences between systems.
This course provides an introduction to non-litigation oriented transactional issues and documents, through shorter assignments than are the norm in Legal Writing 1 and 2, and on oral communication with colleagues and clients.
This course focuses on specialized legal research in areas such as environmental law, intellectual property, labor/employment law, and international law, and on drafting legal instruments common to these areas. Students are introduced to research resources and techniques in the particular area of focus, as well as in legislative history, administrative materials, international legal materials, and empirical research. Students typically will prepare several legal instruments for the specialty area and may be assigned a major paper in the subject area.
After surveying the rights of creditors under non-bankruptcy law, this course focuses on how the Bankruptcy Code deals with those rights and other relationships involving the debtor. Topics covered include initiation of bankruptcy proceedings, the stay and its consequences, definition of the bankruptcy estate, claims, priorities, exemptions, discharge, avoidance powers, executory contracts, liquidation, reorganization, and other issues.
The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has become the model for many countries’ privacy/data protection laws. This course provides a basic, practical understanding of the requirements and the practice of the GDPR through the content of the GDPR itself, a few cases interpreting the GDPR, and a case study. The case study, as the facts develop throughout the course, calls for the drafting of documents often used when personal data is processed in the EU. An important goal of the course is to provide practical experience in implementing the requirements of the GDPR. Having taken previous courses in privacy/data protection is helpful but not required. The course will be taught online.
This course examines statutes and cases concerning people with mental and physical disabilities. Most of the relevant law has developed in the area of schooling, insurance, employment, access to public facilities, and estate planning and guardianships. The course also explores the processes of administrative and judicial review as they have adapted to resolve these cases. Preparation of disability cases, the use of expert witnesses, and the role of attorneys in disability negotiations also are covered.
This is the second semester of a two-semester course sequence. While it is required for students in the Program in Environmental and Energy Law, it is open to all students. Environmental Law and Policy 1 is not a prerequisite. The course emphasizes the Clean Air Act as a vehicle for exploring complex statutory schemes, administrative policy-making, market environmental controls, the interplay of federal and state environmental programs, benefit-cost analysis, risk analysis, and environmental litigation. The course will also examine global warming and the broader concept of climate change.
This course is designed to familiarize law students with the practical, hands-on practice of family and employment-based immigration to the United States. In an increasingly international world, the ability to obtain and maintain lawful immigration status in the U.S., permanent and temporary, is very important. This course focuses on the ways foreign-born persons can obtain permanent immigration status in the U.S. through their family and/or employment, both from abroad and from within the U.S. itself. However, it does so from a practice standpoint - how to analyze a client's situation, how to determine the best route to permanent resident status for a particular client, what resources are available, and how to navigate the maze of the Immigration Service and determine which form needs to be used, and where to file it. We will also examine the temporary statuses available to persons seeking to enter the U.S. to work or study, also from a practice standpoint. There are no prerequisites, but we strongly recommend that you have previously taken an Immigration Law class or have practical experience in immigration law. If this is your first exposure to immigration law, we welcome you to the class but please be aware that the assignments may be more time-consuming than you would normally find in a two credit hour course.
This course will focus on the question of what literature can teach lawyers. Can reading literature about legal themes provide lawyers with perspectives on legal relations that cannot be learned from cases? Can techniques of literary criticism be useful in analyzing legal texts? Can students learn how to be better lawyers by studying the narrative conventions and style of great literature? In seeking the answers to these questions, a variety of literary works, including novels short stories and plays, as well as some cases and scholarly articles will be read. Students will also view some films. The syllabus may include traditional works by authors such as Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Camus, Kalka, and Melville, as well as more contemporary works by authors such as Toni Morrison and Norman Mailer. Students will be required to keep a weekly journal reflecting on the works they have read. There will be no final exam.
The digital world turns global competition into local problems. Drivers in the Age of Eternal Breach include state and non-state actors who tend to obfuscate malicious cyber activities in the grey zone of international law below the use of force threshold. This course examines the spectrum of “cyber-attacks” against a range of targets and entities and contextualizes them using the international and domestic law applicable to the cyberspace domain. Students will learn why the Law of Armed Conflict, a subset of International Humanitarian Law, does not necessarily protect civilian, retained organizations, and private sector businesses from cyber targeting, intellectual property theft, and big data exfiltration. Special consideration will be given to role, evolution, and practicality of methods aimed at deterring cyber aggression. Students will also examine domestic cyber and privacy law. Topics include the balance between privacy and security interests, the relationship of the Fourth Amendment to emerging technologies, smart city defense networks, fusion centers, the protection of critical infrastructure, and post-boom resilience methodologies. The focus of the class is law and not the technical aspects of cyber. A background in information technology or computer science is not necessary to take the course.
The first-year Torts course is limited, mainly by credit-hour-restrictions, to covering concepts related to attempted recovery for physical injuries to the person caused by one's negligence, intentional acts, or abnormally dangerous activities. In Advanced Torts, students will analyze actions that seek to protect against intangible or economic injuries. Among the topics that may be considered are: Defamation, the Right of Privacy, the Right to Publicity, Fraud and Deceit, Interference with Contractual Relations, Interference with Prospective Advantage, Injurious Falsehood, Malicious Prosecution, Abuse of Process, and various Statutory Torts. In addition, there will be a review of the so-called "tort reforms" enacted by Congress and state legislatures in recent years. Two credit hours.
TThis course provides a survey of the Uniform Commercial Code and is designed for those students who either do not want to take the individual commercial law courses (Payment Systems and Secured Transactions), or have not decided whether to take these courses. Commercial Law is clearly the most significant substantive subject appearing on the Illinois Bar Examination, appearing on all four parts of the exam (the Multistate Bar Examination, the Multistate Essay Examination, the Illinois Essay Examination, and the Multistate Performance Examination). In light of the above, it is advisable that students planning to take the Illinois Bar Examination should have some exposure to the Code. This course is not a prerequisite for any other commercial law course. If you take this course, you will be able to subsequently (or concurrently) take Payment Systems and/or Secured Transactions. If you have already taken both Payment Systems and Secured Transactions, you may not take this course. Four credit hours.
This course will look at juries and judges as decision makers, but will focus primarily on the jury. As background, the constitutional right to a civil or criminal jury trial is examined, and then the focus shifts to such features of the jury as venire, voir dire, peremptory challenges, instructions, deliberations, and differences in perception, We will consider the scope of jury authority, including jury nullification, as well as various models for the proper role of the jury in our society. There will be a take-home exam at the end of the course.
This course explores the commission of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity across the world. We will discuss the origins of the crime of genocide and historical evolution of war crimes and crimes against humanity; the perpetration and development of policies leading to mass atrocity crimes and ethnic cleansing; and the attempts by the international community to prevent and punish those most responsible for these crimes with the broader goal of ending impunity for serious violations of international humanitarian law. The class sessions will cover major trials from Nuremberg, the United Nations ad hoc Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Court. May be taken either for regular course credit or for seminar credit.
This course examines issues of constitutional design and adjudication in comparative perspective. We will compare various constitutional systems, focusing on the role and structure of constitutional courts, approaches to judicial review, the relationship between different branches and levels of government, and the constitutional protection of individual and group rights. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law completed or taken concurrently. (This course was formerly entitled "Comparative Constitutional Law.")
This is a theoretical course about the law, divided into two parts. In part one, we explore general jurisprudence (or sometimes “analytic jurisprudence”), the field of inquiry where thinkers try to determine what makes a norm a law and what makes some social arrangement a legal system. In part two, we explore approximately one dozen highly influential concepts for contemporary legal thought. These concepts were first developed in diverse fields such as social theory, political science, philosophy, economics as well as the legal academy. The course may be taken either for regular course credit, or for seminar credit. All students will be required to submit regular short response papers. Those taking it as a regular course will also write a 12-15 page paper due at the end of the semester. Those taking it for seminar credit will write a paper meeting the seminar requirements.
[Prof. Baker's section] This course will examine the legal treatment of sexual orientation. We will begin by studying the non-legal texts that have helped construct contemporary understandings of sexual behavior and attraction. We will then move on to explore (i) the extent to which the law regulates same-sex sex itself, (ii) the constitutional treatment of gay men and lesbians as a class, (iii) the extent to which expressions of sexual identity can be protected as speech, and (iv) the state of the law of workplace discrimination as it pertains to gay men and lesbians. We will conclude by evaluating gay and lesbian families, paying particularly close attention to the legal treatment of gay couples and legal treatment of gay parents. Three credit hours . [Prof. Samar's section] Despite important recent changes at the local, state, and national levels, and in some foreign countries and the European Union, to protect gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons (LGBT) from discrimination and to recognize same-sex relationships, society's attitude toward homosexuality and transgendered issues continues to be ambivalent. This is especially true in respect to marriage and child rearing, as we see in the current debates over same-sex marriage, but it is also found in the attitudes of states that fail to protect against public and private employment discrimination, and in the federal government's "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy to keep openly gay persons from serving in the military. This course/seminar will explore the possibility of finding a legal, philosophical or political framework for approaching LGBT issues by critically looking at various conceptions of homosexuality and society's purported justifications for affecting this behavior, against its broader concerns for guaranteeing social liberty and human equality. It will then apply this understanding to the interaction between gays and the criminal justice system; discrimination in public employment (including military service) and private employment; first amendment issues posed by gay teachers in public schools and universities; the legal problems faced in establishing same-sex relationships (especially marriage) in Massachusetts and elsewhere; and the legal problems gay people confront in matters pertaining to child custody and visitation rights. Central to the course will be locating possible interpretations for the Supreme Court's 2003 interpretation in Lawrence v. Texas, and its 1996 decision in Romer v. Texas. This particular area of the law is really several areas as they relate to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people. LGBT have been a kind of exception to the way the law traditionally operates, and this exception cannot usually be made sense of in terms of traditional legal thinking. For this reason the course will engage a certain degree of theoretical abstraction to undersand, clarify and hopefuly improve the law in these areas. Two credit hours.
This course offers an overview of the issues faced by lawyers representing low income clients and lawyers who serve under-represented and disenfranchised groups. The course will begin with an investigation of the meaning of public interest law. The bulk of the course will cover the key cases decided and legislation passed since the 1960s when the Johnson Administration launched its war on poverty in the United States. These cases may include court decisions and legislation affecting income support for low income people including federal welfare programs, social security and state general assistance programs. Low income housing, medical care, nutrition and access to courts may also be explored. In addition, the course will explore ethical issues that arise when lawyers represent low income clients and professionalism questions that are raised by the special role lawyers play in providing access to justice.
In this course, we will explore how lawyers gather, analyze, and present facts. While law school does a marvelous job training students to find the law, it has ignored the vital role lawyers play in discovering the facts. This role has garnered much attention lately as lawyers have been accused of breaching ethical duties thru techniques, such as pretexting, used in the Hewlett-Packard scandal. While criminal litigators have focused extensively on this role, civil lawyers also do a great deal of investigating. Lawyers will do more of these as more regulation is imposed on corporate America thru legislation, such as Sarbanes Oxley. Accordingly, students will learn how to: (1) develop physical evidence; (2) conduct interviews and interrogations; (3) process physical evidence; (4) retrieve electronic evidence; (5) use investigators and experts; and (6) utilize formal discovery. Students will be required to develop two investigation plans - one for a criminal case, one for a civil case. Students will also be required to do several presentations to the class. Class participation will also count toward the final grade - there will be no final exam.
This course will take a practical approach to understanding current issues in real estate. Covered topics will include syndications, tax and securities law implications, real estate financing, zoning and land use, title and survey review, leases, condominium development, closing and post closing issues, Forcible Entry and Detainer, and commercial real estate asset management.
This course will introduce students to "real life" business transactions through a series of simulations. The transactions covered will include business acquisitions and combinations (M&A), joint ventures, project finance and other financings, purchase and sale arrangements, licensing arrangements, distribution arrangements, and dispute resolutions. Students will work in teams on opposite sides of a transaction and will walk through all stages in the evolutions of a transaction (planning, negotiating, drafting, closing). Time permitting, ancillary issues such as tax and regulatory matters will also be considered.
This course is a "capstone" course that will review basic doctrines covered in the first year courses (property, contracts, torts, criminal law, and procedure), and possibly other topics, with the purpose of exploring the extent to which those doctrines and areas of law can be explained, justified, criticized, or revised from the perspectives of economic efficiency and justice. Students who take the course should benefit from a more systematic analysis and review of the basic legal doctrines that form the foundation for most of the law, an understanding of basic (microeconomic) efficiency theory as applied to the law, a better understanding of the principles of justice and their application to various areas of the law, and an ability to recognize, employ and criticize efficiency and justice arguments in and outside the law.
This course covers the legal regimes that control the choices that individuals and society make about the use of natural resources. These resources include water, public lands dedicated to mining, timber production, recreation and preservation, and renewable living resources such fish stocks. The course will emphasize the tension between regimes put in place in the 19th century to encourage the exploitation of natural resources for human benefit and legacy of the environmental movement with emphasis on conservation, mitigation, and preservation.
Comparative law is important for at least two reasons. First, law and legal disputes are increasingly becoming more global, so that knowledge of other legal systems with different procedural and doctrinal structures, especially those based on the European civil law tradition rather than the Anglo-American common law tradition, as well as law promulgated by international organizations such as the European Court of Human Rights, is becoming increasingly important to everyday legal practice. Second, studying how other legal systems deal with various substantive and procedural issues can provide useful insights for how those issues might be better dealt with in our legal system. The premise of this course is that the benefits of studying comparative law can be best obtained by focusing on a specific area of law, which however encompasses issues and doctrines that are fundamental to all of law. Tort law is such an area.
This course focuses on the modern real estate transaction. The course consists of two basic parts. Part 1 will examine the process of land transfer. Topics covered include the real estate contract, risk of loss, title assurance and deed formalities. Part 2, which constitutes the bulk of the course, deals with the law of land finance. Topics covered include installment land sales contracts, sale and lease backs, mortgage formation, environmental and other due diligence requirements, foreclosure, and equity participation. New, advanced forms of land security will also be covered. Some attention will be given to the federal tax consequences of different transactions.
This course, which will be offered in intensive format, covers European approaches to digital rights management, the exploitation of works in computer networks (P2P, databases, software, etc.), the scope of fair use, liability for infringements in the digital environment, and the enforcement of rights. It considers not just the present state of regulation but looks at future challenges as well. Available as a course or seminar.
This course is designed to introduce foreign lawyers to legal issues facing international organizations wishing to invest in the United States. From the planning phase to the actual implementation of the investment, students will be involved in all practical aspects of strategically counseling international clients to identify issues, prevent liability, and overcome legal barriers associated with their business pursuits in the U.S. The course is open only to exchange students and students in the LL.M. Program in International and Comparative Law.
More and more, both practice and the job market require lawyers who understand the interface between law and technology. This course provides a unique opportunity to understand that interface. No technical knowledge is required. Everything is explained in plain English. The course addresses the issue of privacy in an age of surveillance. How much privacy should we demand? Why does privacy matter? How is privacy to be defined? The course addresses security issues because in the Internet age there is no privacy without security and security failures may yet lead to the end of the Internet age. The course provides a unique opportunity to really understand the interface between law and technology.
This course will investigate some of the most famous trials in history. Included with be the Scopes trial on the teaching of evolution, the Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial, the Leopold and Loeb murder trial (including Clarence Darrow's argument against the death penalty), the O.J. Simpson murder trial, the Rosenberg trial, and other controversial trials. The course will be taught in a seminar format (although it may not be taken for senior seminar credit), with no final exam or paper. Professor Brill will begin the course with a multi-week investigation of the Sacco/Vanzetti case, its after-effects, and recent revelations about the case. Thereafter, students will be assigned, in teams of two, to prepare and present multi-media presentations of highlights from other significant trials, and lessons learned from that trial that may have relevance for current controversial cases. Grades will be based on the quality of the presentations.
This course will provide an opportunity for students to develop and implement a complete Policy Action Plan. This advanced course will focus on a thorough understanding of researching, understanding, and drafting legislation, as well as administrative rules and regulations. Students will select a topic to work on for the semester, which may be a continuation of the topic they addressed in the basic Legislative Advocacy course. Students will be expected to prepare a comprehensive policy review of their topic, with an in-depth analysis of the existing laws and regulations pertaining to the topic. Students will also be expected to develop a sophisticated research base for their topic, which will include drafting expert testimony on behalf of a researcher. Students will also complete research including legislative history, relevant policy makers, and agency officials and administrators. Prerequisite: Legislative Advocacy.
This course will examine some of the most contested topics in U.S. legal history, such as how law shaped the transition from slavery to freedom, how it participated in creating the modern nation, the ways in which it defined and created citizenship, and how various social movements used the courts as part of wider grass roots campaigns. We will treat law as reflecting and shaping politics, society, the economy, and culture. We will study not only case law and the specific facts that gave rise to particular court cases, but also how law shapes people¿s identities. Readings will include a wide-range of secondary scholarship and primary documents, including briefs, trial transcripts, and items of popular culture. The class also will be particularly concerned with what methodologies various authors have used and the stories that they tell (or do not tell).
The Entrepreneurial Law Clinic will help students develop their lawyering skills by giving them the opportunity to work with individuals and small companies to address issues commonly arising out of the entrepreneurial environment, including but not limited to: LLC formation and conveyance of membership; contracts; protection of trade secrets; and trademark protection. Students are required to perform five hours a week of fieldwork in addition to a weekly one-hour class meeting. Activities will include interviewing entrepreneurs, preparing a preliminary issues assessment memorandum, presenting such memoranda to a practicing attorney and the class; researching legal issues raised and preparing a proposed course of action; and executing such action as appropriate. Students will receive feedback throughout the course from entrepreneurs, other students, and practicing attorneys. Students must have completed 30 credit hours.
This course will cover the following topics: the legislative process in enacting tax legislation; the intended and unintended consequences of legislation (e.g., the alternative minimum tax and the estate tax); comparisons of the U.S. tax system with other countries, addressing issues of fairness and compliance; how tax policy has been used, and will be used in the future, to address economic and social issues (global warming, energy conservation, subprime mortage, poverty); and how the judicial system affects tax policy.
This course will investigate the legal issues that state legalization of marijuana has brought to the fore. The class will begin with an overview of the current state and federal laws governing marijuana and the historical lead-up to those laws. The class will then delve into the intersection of marijuana laws with other legal topics, including federalism, product liability, employment law, intellectual property, social justice, and more. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Whether undertaking work for a large institutional client, a small business or a single individual, legal project management and process improvement (such as Lean Six Sigma) can be effective for ensuring both quality and efficiency in the delivery of legal services. This course will expose students to legal project management and legal process improvement tools and techniques complemented by actual industry use cases. There will also be instruction on effective facilitation and change management techniques which are essential to managing and leading legal teams. Students will have the opportunity to learn from industry leaders through both direct instruction, hands-on exercises and actual legal project matter scenarios. If you have questions about this course, please contact Professor Katz. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This class is designed to help future lawyers understand the shoots, ladders and traps that exist in the world of Electronically Stored Information (ESI). Students will learn what an attorney needs to consider when handling ESI in the litigation process; how both the federal rules of civil procedure and the federal rules of evidence affect this aspect of litigation; what e-discovery is and why it is so different from paper evidence; and when to bring in forensic specialists to advise them about electronic data or when to use an e-discovery coordinator to manage a project. This course will also discuss how to manage cost of production and processing, and how those considerations should affect an attorney¿s thought process when working with this type of information. Students will learn how preservation obligations and spoliation claims can come into play. This class will include hands-on experience with real ESI and will require a class project/presentation and final exam. Students must have a laptop with access to the school network in class. Students will to learn how to use different software packages as part of the class.
Research under the supervision of a member of the faculty leading to the completion of a substantial paper fulfilling the seminar requirement. One credit hour per semester.
This is a specialized doctrinal course in alternative dispute resolution for students in the LADR Certificate Program. The course focuses on the statutory and case law affecting arbitration, mediation and negotiation and studies the theories underlying ADR mechanisms. The class considers the ethical and legal ramifications of ADR practice both as the neutral mediator or arbitrator, and as an attorney representing a client in an ADR procedure. Students take part in drafting ADR contract provisions, engage in specialized simulated exercises and write a research paper.
Students who intern in the Family Law Clinic work on cases dealing with legal separation, divorce, and child custody. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Business Entity Formation and Business Entity Transactions are two three-credit business courses that are offered as part of the Law Offices clinical education program. Both courses are taught with extensive use of simulation exercises. Business Entity Formation provides an opportunity for students to form various types of business entities including partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations. In Business Entity Transactions, students implement various business transactions such as employment and consulting agreements, shareholder agreements and agreements in connection with the purchase and sale of a business. In both courses, the students apply the legal doctrine learned in Business Organizations and other courses to a series of progressively more sophisticated simulation exercises and prepare the documents necessary, in Business Entity Formation, to create and organize the entities; and in the case of Business Entity transactions, to implement the various business transactions required by the exercises. In both courses the students utilize information gathering, planning, counseling and negotiating skills in the development of the documents.
Students will explore access to justice issues, including the use of technology in law practice and legal services, alternative legal services delivery models, e-lawyering, unbundling and pro se litigant assistance. Class meets for one (1) hour each week to discuss assigned readings on these topics. Additionally, for twelve (12) hours a week students work on client service and drafting projects with the Center for Access to Justice & Technology (CAJT), whose mission is to provide low-income individuals with greater access to the legal system through the use of internet technology. The practicum provides students with experience in assisting self-represented litigants and providing legal information to low-income individuals. Students will also draft automated court forms and instructions for pro se litigants and the public. A variety of legal topics are available for student projects, including landlord/tenant, domestic relations and consumer rights. These drafting projects include the following activities: researching, drafting, and editing Web-based legal education materials and legal forms with instructions for the public, and developing plain language user interfaces for Web based document assembly. Some audio/video production may be used in creating these materials. The practicum requires twelve (12) hours per week spent on practicum activities outside of class. No prior technical training is required beyond normal computer familiarity with word processing. Students may earn additional credit the following semester by arrangement.
Students who intern in the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic address issues that frequently arise for companies, including but not limited to choice of entity, entity formation, contract review and drafting, corporate governance issues, review of leases, researching legal issues as appropriate, trademark searches and filing, and other transactional matters. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Students who intern in the Health Law Litigation Program work on social security/disability matters; Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cases; child care/abuse issues and access to health care matters.
Students who intern in the ADR Program engage in training and practice in mediation, arbitration and other ADR techniques. They become certified as mediators over the course of the semester. Typical cases include juvenile court cases, criminal misdemeanor cases, employment discrimination cases, landlord-tenant disputed, and small claims court disputed. They also assist the clinical professors in arbitrating cases and drafting arbitration opinions.
Students who intern in the Criminal Defense Litigation Program work on criminal defense matters in the trial and appellate courts in both the federal and state legal systems. The program represents clients accused of felonies and misdemeanors of all types.
Students who intern in the Employment Discrimination/Civil Rights Litigation with some General Practice Program work on employment discrimination disputes and civil rights cases in the federal and state courts and at administrative agencies; the work also includes some general civil practice. A unique feature of this program and the Criminal Defense Litigation Program is their fee- generating practice which enables their student interns to receive their clinical practice experience in non-poverty as well as poverty cases and have the opportunity to work in a realistic practice environment.
Students who intern in the Tax Litigation Program assist taxpayers with their tax disputed, including collection matters, audits, appeals and litigation before the Internal Revenue Service, United States Tax Court and the United States District Court.
Students who intern in the Health Law Litigation Program work on social security/disability matters; Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cases; child care/abuse issues and access to health care matters.
The Rule of Law Externship Program seeks to develop externships in emerging democracies such as Bosnia, Poland and Macedonia. Students spend some time prior to the externship familiarizing themselves with the relevant law of the country in which they will extern and they then spend two or three weeks in the country in which the externship placement is situated performing their assigned tasks. Students receive two externship credits, graded on a pass/fail basis. After they return to Chicago-Kent, students write a scholarly paper on a topic related to their externship for which they receive graded credit.
This program is open to a limited number of students in their second or third year of law school. Students enroll in the program for three credits, graded on a pass/low pass/fail basis and devote a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. To be eligible to participate a student must be in the upper twenty-five percent (25%) of the class, have successfully completed or be currently enrolled in at least three designed commercial, tax or business-related courses by the time the placement begins. After the student had been accepted into the program, the clinical professor will work with the student to procure placement. The Tax, Corporate Tax, Business Law Externship Program currently has a limited number of available placements at the Internal Revenue Service, as in-house corporate legal department, a bank trust department, a law firm and an accounting firm. Three.
The Environmental Law Clinic will help students develop their lawyering skills by giving them the opportunity to represent individuals and community organizations with environmental concerns. Students will interview clients, represent clients in meetings with corporations and government officials, and represent clients in court. Cases range from assisting an individual who discovers she has lead paint in her home to helping communities with problems arising from active facilities, abandoned sites, and proposed facilities. The class sessions will provide an opportunity to observe and practice lawyering skills, develop an understanding of the key substantive environmental law areas involved in the clinic's work, and discuss ongoing cases. Students are required to perform 10 hours a week of fieldwork for the 3-credit version of the clinic, and 12 hours a week of fieldwork for the 4-credit version, in addition to the classroom component. Students are required to perform 5 hours a week of fieldwork for the 1-credit version. The clinic is open to 8 students each semester. If a selection process is necessary, you will be notified regarding the interview process after you register for the class. There are no course prerequisites for this clinic. Students must have completed 30 credit hours to take the Clinic. One, three, or four credit hours.
The Rule of Law Externship Program seeks to develop externships in emerging democracies such as Bosnia, Poland and Macedonia. Students spend some time prior to the externship familiarizing themselves with the relevant law of the country in which they will extern and they then spend two or three weeks in the country in which the externship placement is situated performing their assigned tasks. Students receive two externship credits, graded on a pass/fail basis. After they return to Chicago-Kent, students write a scholarly paper on a topic related to their externship for which they receive graded credit. Credit Hours Two credit hours (fieldwork component); one credit hour (writing component).
Students who intern in the Family Law Clinic work on cases dealing with legal separation, divorce, and child custody. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
This course will offer a clinic-style experience working with clients who have been victims of domestic violence. The class will meet intermittently throughout the semester on Fridays, from 12:00-2:00 p.m. However, the first three weeks of class will feature extended class and training on Friday afternoons; thus, for the first three weeks of the semester, students must be available from noon until 5:00 Fridays. After initial training and instruction about the dynamics of domestic violence, the Illinois law governing protection orders, and the operation of the domestic violence courthouse, students will work with clients at the courthouse (555 W. Harrison, two blocks from the law school) for six hours per week. Students may choose when they will perform their hours week by week. Work with the clients at the courthouse will include helping clients fill out petitions for emergency protection orders, advising clients on their cases, and perhaps even speaking for clients in court. In addition, we will periodically meet on Friday afternoons to discuss the issues and challenges students confront.
Students who intern in the Immigration Law Clinic work on cases in all areas of immigration law, including professionals, aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts and business, individuals seeking immigration benefits for family members, asylees and individuals threatened with removal from the United States by the government. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Students who intern in the Criminal Defense Litigation Program work on criminal defense matters in the trial and appellate courts in both the federal and state legal systems. The program represents clients accused of felonies and misdemeanors of all types.
Students who intern in the Employment Discrimination/Civil Rights Litigation with some General Practice Clinic work on employment discrimination disputes and civil rights cases in the federal and state courts and at administrative agencies; the work also includes some general civil practice. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Students who intern in the Tax and Probate Clinic participate in one of the country's leading tax clinics, aggressively representing clients in a wide variety of disputes with the Internal Revenue Service. A full-service federal tax controversy and transactions practice, the Tax and Probate Clinic primarily serves middle-income individuals and small business taxpayers in connection with IRS audits, administrative appeals, asset seizures and other debt enforcement actions, and trials before the United States Tax Court and the United States District Court. Under the supervision of an experienced federal tax litigator, students receive hands-on practice negotiating settlements with revenue agents, appeals officers, and attorneys for the IRS; drafting petitions, discovery, motions and legal memoranda in connection with pending Tax Court trials; interviewing clients and securing information from third parties in order to defend a taxpayer's return position; preparing offers in compromise to reduce a taxpayer's outstanding debt; and taking an assortment of intervention measures to minimize or avoid immediate hardship resulting from IRS collection actions. Students also assist the supervising attorney and his staff with providing tax and business counseling services to sole proprietorships, corporations, partnerships and tax-exempt organizations. Beginning with the Spring 2014 semester, students will also have the opportunity to assist the supervising Professor and staff attorney with drafting wills, living trusts, durable health care and financial powers of attorney, advising clients on property disposition and asset protection strategies, representing and counseling personal representatives in all facets of probate administration; defending interests of heirs and beneficiaries in connection with trust and estate disputes; and preparing all required decedent and estate income tax, trust and estate tax returns. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Student interns in the IP–Patent Clinic assist faculty and students at Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and other tech-transfer or school-related companies or institutions on selected "real-life" patent related matters. The student interns work with and are supervised by adjunct clinical faculty who are patent lawyers at K&L Gates in providing patentability opinions, performing clearance searches, and guiding clients through the range of intellectual property legal issues that typically face start-up inventors and companies. In addition, the student interns make presentations to Illinois Institute of Technology faculty and students on patent issues in an attempt to educate and market the IP–Patent Clinic to the faculty and students. Prerequisites: Prior completion of Patent Law required. Because the IP–Patent Clinic experience will involve working with technology, it is very strongly recommended that students possess a technical background, and preference will be given those students in selecting clinic interns. The IP-Patent Clinic is a 3-credit course that will be offered in the fall and spring semesters, and approximately five students participate each semester. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Student interns in the IP–Patent Clinic assist faculty and students at Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and other tech-transfer or school-related companies or institutions on selected "real-life" patent related matters. The student interns work with and are supervised by adjunct clinical faculty who are patent lawyers at K&L Gates in providing patentability opinions, performing clearance searches, and guiding clients through the range of intellectual property legal issues that typically face start-up inventors and companies. In addition, the student interns make presentations to Illinois Institute of Technology faculty and students on patent issues in an attempt to educate and market the IP–Patent Clinic to the faculty and students. Prerequisites: Prior completion of Patent Law required. Because the IP–Patent Clinic experience will involve working with technology, it is very strongly recommended that students possess a technical background, and preference will be given those students in selecting clinic interns. The IP-Patent Clinic is a 3-credit course that will be offered in the fall and spring semesters, and approximately five students participate each semester. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Students who intern in the Immigration Law Clinic work on cases in all areas of immigration law, including professionals, aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts and business, individuals seeking immigration benefits for family members, asylees and individuals threatened with removal from the United States by the government. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
he purpose of this intensive trial advocacy course is twofold. Exercises in this course are designed to introduce the students to the basic skills of trial advocacy in a primarily "learned by doing" format. Secondly, the course will expose the student to a variety of issues in the context of intellectual property cases. The course will necessarily include substantive intellectual property law as it pertains to the assigned a cases. The case files used in the course have been developed from actual intellectual property cases. In some case files, the actual legal memoranda discussing the substantive law issues presented in those cases have been included for the students benefit. Each student will be required to provide one juror for the final trial in which he or she is the trial attorney. Each student will be graded on the basis of daily performance throughout the course, a preliminary injunction hearing, and the final trial. You will be graded on objective performance; and upon your performance improvement during the course. Students must attend each class session from the class session start to the class session finish, and must be prepared to perform the exercises listed in the syllabus. Students will be expected to both conduct the exercise as counsel and to play the role of witness when called upon to do so. Prerequisite: Evidence and two of the following: Patent Law, Trademarks & Unfair Competition, Copyright Law, Law of Trade Secrets. Pass/fail not available. Students who have taken Trial Advocacy 1 (including the intensive version of the class) are not eligible to take this course. See the Schedule of Classes for scheduling and other information.
This is an intensive one-week version of Trial Advocacy 1 (see separate description). The course is offered every August prior to the start of the Fall semester and every January prior to the start of the Spring semester. Students who take Intensive Trial Advocacy are required to take Trial Advocacy 2 in the semester immediately following completion of the Intensive course.
Students may obtain one credit of independent research by joining a university wide team to work on projects furnished by industry. The IPROS offered vary from semester to semester. Recent IPROS have included: Project Bosnia, where students have helped design computer and telecommunications packages for linking Bosnian government officials together through use of intranets creating internet access for media and providing government information on the web; Project Poland where students have helped establish a technological infrastructure that supports the continuing development of the rule of law in Poland: The International Rights and Asylum Project, which used information technology to help educate and inform attorneys, refugees, and other audiences, all over the world about international human rights; and the Justice Web Collaboratory, a Internet project of Chicago-Kent and the National Center for State Courts designed to support judges' use of the web and improve access to justice using the tools of the Internet.
Preparation of articles and comments upon current legal and social problems for inclusion in the Chicago-Kent Law Review. Open only to members of the Board of Editors and the staff of the Law Review. One credit hour per semester. (maximum credit not to exceed five credit hours).
Instruction in, and preparation of, appellate briefs and appellate oral arguments in intramural and national competition. One credit hour per semester.(Maximum credit not to exceed five credit hours.)
An introduction to litigation taught by leading trial attorneys and judges. The course uses hypothetical cases to teach the student trial preparation, strategy, and conduct in a courtroom setting. Although the instructor will demonstrate from time to time, primary teaching method is student participation with instructor critique. Classes often run longer than three hours.
An in-depth study and performance of litigation skills in certain trial settings. The course is a continuation of Trial Advocacy 1. classes often run longer than three hours.
The Legal Externship Program is a four-hour pass/fail program that enables a law student to receive academic credit (without pay) for working 16 hours a week in an approved legal placement under the supervision of a designated attorney. The program is unique in that it enables students to gain practical experience and develop their legal skills while at the same time making themselves more marketable to prospective employers. Legal Externship consists primarily of a fieldwork experience under a supervising lawyer, supplemented by individual meetings between the extern and his/her faculty advisor throughout the semester. Externs interested in civil law may select to work in corporations, firms or government agencies, specializing in such diverse legal areas as immigration, tax, commodities, securities, health care, medical malpractice, or general corporate law. Externs in criminal law may choose to work with the States Attorney's Office, Public Defender's Office, or the U.S. Attorney's Office. Some externships offer the opportunity to obtain a 711 license and appear in court. For permission to do an externship or for more information about available externship opportunities, please contact Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu).
Preparation of an appellate brief for the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Students must have taken, or be taking concurrently, the course in International Law.
Research under the supervision of a member of the faculty.
The Clinical Rotation (2 credits, graded pass/fail) aims to help first-year students refine their career interests by providing early exposure to diverse areas of law practice. It allows students to rotate through three in-house clinics exposing them to three distinct practice areas and lawyering styles. Students enrolled in the Clinic Rotation will spend four weeks with each of the three practice areas led by an in-house clinical faculty member/attorney. Practice areas include criminal defense, employment/civil litigation, entrepreneurial law, family law, health and disability law, and tax and probate law. During each four-week rotation, students may be given the opportunity to gain exposure to the inner workings of a law practice and they may be exposed to or participate in any of the following: legal and factual research, client interview simulations, document drafting, discovery review, simulations of administrative hearings and negotiations, trial strategy sessions, and observation of court and motion calls. Due to the differences among the practice areas and the nature of the practice of law, student experiences will vary between practice areas and individual rotations. Students will be required to put in a total of 112 hours over the course of the semester. This includes weekly attendance for 14 weeks at a two-hour plenary session (28 hours total), which will expose students to various aspects of practice, lawyering ethics, and law offices management. Students will spend their remaining 84 hours (seven hours a week) during the 3 Clinical Rotations working independently, in groups, and in collaboration with the clinical faculty members, including a weekly two-hour group discussion session taught by the clinical professor to whom they have been assigned for the four-week period. The three four-week Clinical Rotations will end after the 13th week of the semester. The weekly plenary sessions will meet on Thursdays from 1:55 to 3:45 pm. The weekly group discussion sessions with individual clinical professors will meet either Tuesdays 4:00-5:50pm or Thursdays 4:00-5:50pm (depending on the professor). The remainder of the student's hours (five hours per week) will be scheduled so as not to conflict with the class meeting times for the student's other courses. Students enrolled in the Clinic Rotation will be graded on a pass/fail basis and will receive a grade of Pass, Low Pass, or Fail. Attendance at all 14 plenary sessions and all 12 group discussion sessions is mandatory. If a student is absent from one or two plenary sessions or group discussion sessions or a combination of one or two such sessions his or her grade will not be affected; if however, a student is absent from a combination of either three or four such sessions, he or she will receive a grade of LOW PASS; and if a student is absent from a combination of more than four such sessions he or she will receive a grade of FAIL. In addition, if a student does not satisfactorily complete his or her weekly Clinic Rotation assignments he or she will receive a grade of LOW PASS or FAIL. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Students who intern in the Immigration Law Clinic work on cases in all areas of immigration law, including professionals, aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts and business, individuals seeking immigration benefits for family members, asylees and individuals threatened with removal from the United States by the government. The In-House Programs of the Law Offices constitute one of the largest In-House clinical programs in the United States. In most of the programs, students are given the option of enrolling for three or four credits. Students who enroll for four credits put in a minimum of sixteen hours per week and students who enroll for three credits put in a minimum of twelve hours per week during the fourteen-week semester. Each of the In-House clinical programs provides classroom as well as field-work instruction to the students enrolled in that program as part of their weekly hourly requirement. Credit Hours Three or four credit hours.
Judicial Externship is a four-hour pass/fail program open to second- and third-year students only, and is offered Fall, Spring, and Summer terms. The prestigious fieldwork component of the program provides externs with the opportunity to work with a federal judge and/or the judge's law clerks by researching law, writing memoranda and drafting opinions. The judicial extern becomes involved in particular legal problems and is able, through research and writing, to contribute to the resolution of those problems. Depending upon the judge, an extern may have the opportunity to observe the day-to-day routine of the courtroom and to discuss with the judge or the judge's law clerk those legal problems which judges confront in their courtroom. There is an accompanying discussion component that focuses on various aspects of federal judicial decision-making and, where appropriate, how those aspects affect the extern's work product. Selection of an extern is made by the individual judge through the application process which the law school oversees. To apply, students must meet the minimum G.P.A. requirement, which is approximately the top 22% in the second- and third-year classes, respectively. The exact G.P.A.'s will vary from year to year. For more information, contact Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.iit.edu). Credit Hours Four credit hours.
Judicial Externship is a four-hour pass/fail program open to second- and third-year students only, and is offered Fall, Spring, and Summer terms. The prestigious fieldwork component of the program provides externs with the opportunity to work with a federal judge and/or the judge's law clerks by researching law, writing memoranda and drafting opinions. The judicial extern becomes involved in particular legal problems and is able, through research and writing, to contribute to the resolution of those problems. Depending upon the judge, an extern may have the opportunity to observe the day-to-day routine of the courtroom and to discuss with the judge or the judge's law clerk those legal problems which judges confront in their courtroom. There is an accompanying discussion component that focuses on various aspects of federal judicial decision-making and, where appropriate, how those aspects affect the extern's work product. Selection of an extern is made by the individual judge through the application process which the law school oversees. To apply, students must meet the minimum G.P.A. requirement, which is approximately the top 22% in the second- and third-year classes, respectively. The exact G.P.A.'s will vary from year to year. For more information, contact Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu).
This course provides an introduction to negotiation, mediation, and arbitration as alternatives to traditional litigation, and studies the ADR movement in general. The course will combine lectures and class discussions based upon assigned readings with a series of increasingly complex simulated exercises, with the goal of exposing students to the theory and practice of various ADR techniques. You may not take this course if you have taken either negotiations or mediation.
This course involves a study of the procedural aspects of the federal income tax system, with special attention to the tax controversy process. Topics include the organization of the Internal Revenue Service, professional responsibilities in tax practice, returns, statutes of limitations, interest, civil penalties, audits and administrative appeals, assessments, refunds, litigation forums, IRS investigatory powers, and collection procedures.
This is a practice-oriented class for Litigation and Alternative Dispute. Students participate in an intensive four-day mediation training program. Once certified as mediators, students mediate live cases under the supervision of the course instructor at the local courthouses and at the Center for Conflict Resolution. Typical cases include forcible entry and detainer, employment, juvenile, criminal misdemeanor, tort, contract and community disputes. One or two credit hours in Spring 1999; thereafter, two credit hours. Resolution Certificate Program students.
Students in the Program in Environmental and Energy Law have the opportunity to explore environmental opportunities in the public and public interest sectors. These externships help students develop their legal research and writing skills and substantive knowledge of environmental law. Externships are currently available at several government agencies and public interest groups: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Office, the Illinois Attorney General's Office (Environmental Division), the City of Chicago Law Department (Environmental Unit), the State's Attorney's office (Environmental Division), the Illinois Pollution Control Board, the Chicago Legal Clinic, the Lake Michigan Federation, the Illinois Commerce Commission, and the Environmental Law and Policy Center for the Midwest. Students should contact Professor Gross for more information about enrolling in this externship.
The Intellectual Property Externship Program enables third-year students enrolled in the Intellectual Property Certificate Program to receive academic credit (without pay) for working 16 hours a week in an approved legal placement under the supervision of a designated attorney. The program is unique in that it enables students to gain practical experience and develop their legal skills while at the same time making themselves more marketable to prospective employers. The externship consists primarily of a fieldwork experience under a supervising lawyer, supplemented by individual meetings between the extern and Professor Gross throughout the semester. For more information about available externship opportunities, contact Professor Vivien Gross (vgross@kentlaw.edu).
This is a Spring semester practical training course offered by Hearland Alliance's Midwest Immigration & Human Rights Center (MIHRC) for law students interested in immigration law. The course is offered through Chicago-Kent's Legal Externship Program. In addition to the Law School externship meetings, students must attend weekly evening classes at MIHRC's downtown office, and are assiged an asylum case to prepare for presentation before the Chicago Asylum Office. The class schedule will be arranged once students are selected. Students will prepare cases of asylum applicants previoulsy interviewed and accepted by MIHRC. Each student will interview and assist in the preparation of their client's affidavit. After researching domestic and international law, as well as country conditions pertinent to the claim, students will assemble an asylum application with supplemental documentatin and will draft a legal memorandum in support of their client's application. At the end of the program, students will file clients' applications with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and accompany their clients to their interviews at the Chicago Asylum Office. Prior immigration law experience is not required. Fluency in a second language is preferred, although not a requirement. Please contact Professor Vivien Gross for more information about applying to this program.
This seminar will explore the scientific concept of biodiversity conservation and U.S. and international conservation strategies, including the Endangered Species Act. The seminar will also explore the primary legal barriers, such as the taking doctrine, to effective conservation.
Law and the legal system anticipate and also respond to evolutions in technology in ways that may enhance or inhibit development. This seminar examines these changes from an historical perspective, using the evolution of telecommunications technologies and regulations as a case study. It then examines current technological developments in sectors such as green energy, transportation, genetic engineering, and social networks in the context of disciplines from the lawyer's toolkit: intellectual property, business organization, contractual relationships, constitutional rights of individuals, and theories of liability. This seminar will emphasize how future lawyers can and should anticipate or envision future legal impacts--including legislation, litigation, and corporate governance--of emerging technologies. Each student will select a particular technology, describe what makes it emerging, and explain its anticipated legal impacts in a class presentation and seminar paper.
This seminar will be organized around student papers exploring intelectual-property, contract, agency, business-organizations, and law-and-economics issues in the entertainment industries, with an emphasis on popular music, movies, television, theatrical works, and video games.
If you've ever wanted to know about the legal system of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the jurisprudential approaches used by Talmudic and later Rabbinic authorities in interpreting this ancient text and confronting new problems, then this is the seminar for you. The seminar will closely examine the relevant texts and the religious/moral/social/economic/political assumptions underlying the legal rules in those rules were (and are) to be applied and by whom. The comparative aspects of the seminar will emerge as we address the ways in which Biblical and Rabbinic law are both similar to, and vastly different from, American law, particularly constitutional law and tort law. The seminar has no language requirement beyond English, since we will be using translated texts. In addition, this seminar is open to everyone, regardless of religious belief or non-belief. Your attendance and active participation in class are essential.
This seminar examines the legal regime that governs the allocation and management of surface and ground water in the United States and on international rivers and aquifers. The class will cover the two basic allocation regimes in the United States -- riparian rights and prior appropriation -- and a variety of current topics. These include the capacity of the legal system to adapt to global climate change, the emergence of a human right to water, the impact of environmental laws on the right to divert water, the management of the Great Lakes, and the special rights of Indian Tribes.
This seminar, which will be offered in intensive format, covers European approaches to digital rights management, the exploitation of works in computer networks (P2P, databases, software, etc.), the scope of fair use, liability for infringements in the digital environment, and the enforcement of rights. It considers not just the present state of regulation but looks at future challenges as well. Available as a course or seminar.
Many people submit to the law simply because they believe that the institutions administering it are just. But what if a law itself is unjust? The duty to obey law presupposes that laws are both consistent and just: because they sometime aren't, difficult cases arise in which appeals to a higher political morality become necessary if justice is to be served. But what is this higher political morality and what is its connection to the institutions we rely upon to do justice and protect our human rights as well as to the laws that are actually produced? Is this higher political morality the morality of our society or something broader? And, if it is something broader, how do we discover what it is? In this course, we will attempt to answer these and other questions by considering the relationship between legal and political philosophy, showing how the former is incomplete without the latter. Taking the problem of how to solve difficult cases as our point of departure, we will look at the inherent incompleteness of conventional theories of law with the idea of developing a meta-theory that would enable judges to decide difficult cases by drawing upon the best available theory of politics appropriate to the case's level of abstraction. By so doing, it is hoped that we will be able to produce resolutions for some kinds of controversial cases and open doors to the way we should think about others. It is also hoped that the course will provide an avenue for a broad critique of the way legal and political institutions operate including the way law schools educate and judges actually decide cases.
This course involves a study of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). It considers the UCMJ's past, present, and future. The military courts-martial system is compared with its civilian criminal justice counterpart. The required materials are furnished (without charge).
This seminar explores the role of law in the development of professional baseball in the United States. We will examine the relationship between law and the national pastime from the birth of baseball as a business in the late nineteenth century through the enterprise of Major League Baseball today. Topics include: struggles over enforcement of player contracts; baseball¿s exemption from federal antitrust law; civil rights; player unionization; the fall of the reserve system; gambling; performance enhancing drugs; stadium construction and urban redevelopment policy.
This seminar will examine some of the major controversies and issues in copyright law, including (i) updating the Copyright Act for the digital world, (ii) the growth of user-generated content and remix culture, (iii) the role of intermediaries such as YouTube and Google, as in the Google Book Search settlement, (iv) how music file-sharing should be handled, and (v) whether fair use needs to be changed or clarified in some way so that the public can know in advance what constitutes a fair use. To enroll in this seminar, students must have completed Copyright Law, or be taking it concurrently; or receive the permission of the professor.
This seminar will explore the history and theory of the First Amendment freedom of speech and press. After examining some of the leading theories-which view free expression as essential to individual self-fulfillment, democratic self- government, and the search of truth-we will debate how the First Amendment should apply to a variety of contemporary issues, including flag burning, pornography, and hate speech.
During the past couple of decades, a variety of critical theories of law have been developed, e.g., critical legal studies, communitarianism, critical race theory, pragmatism, deconstruction, postmodernism, and different varieties of non-liberal feminism. The starting point for all of these theories is a rejection of classical liberal legal theory, which is criticized, on the one hand, for its alleged moral relativism and, on the other hand (and seemingly inconsistently), for its assumption that there are certain fundamental, universal moral principles which provide the foundation for any valid legal system. This seminar will explore and contrast the basic premises of classical liberal legal theory and the various critical theories. Is classical liberal legal theory morally agnostic? Do the critical theorists espouse certain moral values and principles and, if so, can they consistently do so while claiming to be anti-foundation lists? To what extent do the moral values and principles ( if any) espoused by the critical theorists differ from those (if any ) espoused by classical liberal theory ?.
This seminar will explore the relationship between law and globalization, especially economic globalization. As markets become more global and as legal mechanisms are developed to respond to these changes, it becomes critically important for lawyers and policy-makers to grasp these developments. They are already of major importance in areas such as competition law, intellectual property law, environmental law and the like, and they are of growing importance in many other areas of law. They are likely to increase in importance in these importance in each of these areas. The seminar will seek to develop tools for effectively examining globalization effects in a variety of areas, depending, in large part, on areas of student interest.
In this seminar, we will examine the problems of combining work and family from a variety of perspectives. We will discuss law governing the workplace, as well as the structure and culture of work. We will discuss the relationship between family law and work/family decisions and struggles, and we will also discuss the division of labor within families. In addition, the course will address work/family issues as they relate to class, welfare reform, single parent and non-traditional families, and the legal profession.
During the last few years, the role of law in protecting economic competition from restraints (¿antitrust law¿ or ¿competition law¿) has become an increasingly important factor in international business and in legal practice relating to international business. It is likely to become even more important as the globalization of economic activity advances. This course is designed to introduce students to this area of law and to the basic tools they will need to understand and provide legal services in it. We will examine U.S. antitrust law as it relates to transactional conduct. We will then look at antitrust law in Europe and, in a superficial way, other parts of the world. The final section of the course will deal with recent developments in international antitrust cooperation and with moves toward the development of a transnational antitrust regime.
This course will provide as understanding of the principal legal schemes and statutes that impact business and health care relationships within he health care delivery system. Specifically, participants will discuss and analyze each the federal antikickback statutes, state self referral laws, the impact of tax exemption and the rules related thereto, certificate of need laws, and the impact of the Medicare and Medicaid programs on the health care delivery system. The course will also examine other issues related to health care including antitrust, managed care, and specific business relationships between physicians ambulatory surgery centers, hospitals and other providers.
This course is an in-depth investigation of the current term opinions of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and their impact on contemporary jurisprudence. As part of the class, students will publish an on-line journal, tentatively titled the Seventh Circuit Review of Published Opinions. The Seventh Circuit Review will present and comment on current term published opinions in such areas of the law as civil and criminal procedure, administrative law, alternative dispute resolution, employment law, constitutional law, criminal law, tort, and contract. Upon successful completion of the course, students will receive both a course grade and publication credit as a member of the staff of the Review. During the semester, students will identify cases to be included in the Review, prepare initial drafts for discussion of the assigned cases based on in-depth analysis of the cases and background research, edit case discussions, prepare final publishable drafts of case discussions, integrate individual case discussions into the online journal, and "defend" analysis at a semester-end roundtable. This is an honors seminar. To enroll, students must meet one of the following criteria: (1) cumulative GPA in previous legal writing courses of 3.5 and class rank at the time of registration within top 50% of class, (2) recommendation of Legal Writing 1and 2 professor and/or Legal Writing 4 professor, (3) Law Review membership, (4) Moot Court Honor Society membership, or (5) approval of course instructor. If more than 15 qualified students register for the course, enrollment will be determined by random drawing among the qualified students.
This course will provide an opportunity for students to develop and implement a complete Policy Action Plan. This advanced course will focus on a thorough understanding of researching, understanding, and drafting legislation, as well as administrative rules and regulations. Students will select a topic to work on for the semester, which may be a continuation of the topic they addressed in the basic Legislative Advocacy course. Students will be expected to prepare a comprehensive policy review of their topic, with an in-depth analysis of the existing laws and regulations pertaining to the topic. Students will also be expected to develop a sophisticated research base for their topic, which will include drafting expert testimony on behalf of a researcher. Students will also complete research including legislative history, relevant policy makers, and agency officials and administrators. Prerequisite: Legislative Advocacy.
This course focuses on the claims of discrete cultural groups, nations, and indigenous peoples to both tangible and intangible forms of cultural property. It covers a range of topics including ownership of antiquities, protection of cultural heritage during times of war, repatriation of cultural property and art looted during war, historic preservation, cultural property of indigenous people, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expression. (This course was formerly entitled "Property and Culture.")
his course examines issues of constitutional design and adjudication in comparative perspective. We will compare various constitutional systems, focusing on the role and structure of constitutional courts, approaches to judicial review, the relationship between different branches and levels of government, and the constitutional protection of individual and group rights. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law completed or taken concurrently. (This course was formerly entitled "Comparative Constitutional Law.")
International Humanitarian Law (IHL), also known as the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) or simply the Laws of War (LOW), is a set of rules intended to limit the negative effects of war. The principle thrust of the law is to limit the methods of warfare (e.g., by banning certain weapons) and to protect people not engaged in combat, such as POWs, the sick and wounded, and civilians. This class will focus on the most important sources of IHL, which include the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their two protocols, the 1907 Hague Regulations, and various other rules contributing to the customary international law of armed conflict. Most of IHL applies only to international armed conflict. The class will also consider the special challenges raised by the application and adaptation of these rules to internal armed conflict and to the so-called ¿war on terror.¿ Finally, the class will briefly consider the use of international tribunals as an enforcement mechanism. The course may be taken either as a seminar, requiring a seminar paper, or as a course with an exam.
Our many and varied ways of using energy are the principal sources of the greenhouse gases that are affecting the world's climate. The seminar will examine the impact of energy on climate, and the impact of climate on energy; particularly the growing number of state laws and congressional proposals to mitigate climate change by changing the legal rules regarding the use of energy. (This course was formerly entitled "Energy and Climate.")
This course is a "capstone" course that will review basic doctrines covered in the first year courses (property, contracts, torts, criminal law, and procedure), and possibly other topics, with the purpose of exploring the extent to which those doctrines and areas of law can be explained, justified, criticized, or revised from the perspectives of economic efficiency and justice. Students who take the course should benefit from a more systematic analysis and review of the basic legal doctrines that form the foundation for most of the law, an understanding of basic (microeconomic) efficiency theory as applied to the law, a better understanding of the principles of justice and their application to various areas of the law, and an ability to recognize, employ and criticize efficiency and justice arguments in and outside the law.
This seminar offers a behind-the-scenes look at major class action litigation, covering how some of the nation's largest cases are prosecuted, defended, and ultimately settled. Topics include how class actions are generated and formed, litigation, legislative and media strategy, how class actions can potentially benefit consumers and companies, attorney's fees, and emerging issues.
This seminar will explore issues of domestic violence and stalking and will include an overview of state and federal laws, best practices in the criminal justice field, lethality indicators, orders of protection, and the effects of domestic violence on the workplace. The seminar will offer students an opportunity to understand the complexity of the prosecution of domestic violence cases, and an understanding of how pervasive this epidemic is in our society. Topics include: the study of the profile of domestic violence victims; society's response to this issue; criminal justice response; philosophies of arrest and prosecution of domestic violence; threat assessment and management; orders of protection and employment law and domestic violence.
This seminar emphasizes the management of intellectual property. The intent is to provide the future corporate practitioner with important information about managing, marketing, selling, buying, and licensing corporate intellectual property assets (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, data, trade secrets, software, know-how, and other types of valuable information), and limiting corporate liability with respect to those assets. The seminar places particular emphasis on software and other emerging technologies, but will also cover traditional intellectual property issues.
In today's global economy, world business leaders require advice regarding non-U.S. law, including the labor and employment laws that regulate their work forces. Moreover, and for similar reasons, labor advocates increasingly seek to hold countries accountable for failing to live up to international labor standards promulgated by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and other international bodies. They also try to hold lead firms that manage global value chains accountable to workers based on public and private sources of law, including corporate codes of conduct. Reformers also look at the labor and employment laws of other countries when they try to improve their national systems. International and comparative labor and employment law is therefore more than an academic curiosity. It is an important aspect of law practice and policy-making. In light of these considerations, this course surveys labor and employment laws and norms developed and promulgated by the ILO, the European Union, free trade agreements, and corporate codes. Comparatively, the course also focuses on the laws of the United States, Germany, and China, three leading world economies with vastly different labor and employment law systems. While the course does not aim to make students "experts" in any one jurisdiction, it teaches students to make informed questions, including to local counsel, when they encounter cross-border, employment-related legal issues. The course will also guide students to understand why countries have different systems of labor and employment protection despite the fact that they all try to solve similar problems, and how the U.S. is, or is not, unique. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Students will examine major issues of substantive law and strategy facing a lawyer involved with patent litigation. The class sessions will focus on the leading cases in emerging areas of patent law. Such areas include venue and transfer, protective orders, claim construction, infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, the scope of remedies available to a patent owner, and the role of a jury in deciding complex technological issues. The class will also address procedures for analyzing patent infringement disputes and for considering when, where and why to bring patent infringement lawsuits. Prerequisite: Patent Law. Three credit hours.
This seminar examines the law of the European Union. The institutions of the EU represent an extraordinary development in the role and function of the law as a mechanism for economic and political integration. Moreover, the law governing these institutions has acquired great practical significance which is likely to increase dramatically as the community moves toward further integration. The seminar focuses on the law of the EC as it is today, notably in the areas of competition law and regulation of investment, and explores the probable consequences of plans for the next few years.
What is law ? The discussion will contrast the points of view of the legal positivists, the American realists, and natural law adherents. The focus will include statutes passed during the Hitler era in Germany, some civil rights cases, and civil disobedience cases during the Vietnam war with references to Aquinas, Aristotle, Martin Luther King, H.L.A. Hart, Fuller, Rawls, etc. What is justice ? The focus here will be on the death penalty with reference to United States Supreme Court cases attempting to define justice in the criminal area. This seminar will also address decision- making in the criminal area-what legal reasoning models are used.
his seminar examines the development of, and still-open questions in, one of the newest and most complex areas of employment law. Students will write papers on one of a broad range of harassment-related topics.
This seminar will examine the varied legal issues that have spawned (and continue to spawn) in the video game space. Still a relatively new industry that continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, video games require lawyers to address substantive areas of law in new ways, particularly copyright and trademark law. The course follows a civilian approach to study persons in games, things in games, and how persons acquire things in games. Specific topics include: (a) special copyright considerations in video games, including fair use and DMCA protections; (b) games as entertainment products, and concerns of violent and mature content versus the value and protection of video games as speech under the First Amendment; (c) policing of video game content under self-regulation systems in the U.S. and Europe; (d) conflicts and compromises within the contractual relationships of game developers and game publishers; (e) the expanding role of gamers and their contributions to video games, such as through user-generated content, player communities, fan fiction, etc.; and (f) special legal challenges and controversies arising from online gaming and massively-multiplayer-online games (MMOs). Students will benefit from prior course work in intellectual property and other related topics, e.g., Copyright Law; Entertainment Law; Internet Law; or Trademarks and Unfair Competition, but these are not prerequisites. Students will be expected to write and present to the class a paper on a topic of their own choosing. Grading will be determined from the paper, presentation and class participation.
This seminar will examine public health law within the context of the government practice arena with a focus on public health agencies face when program issues about political concerns will be explored. The constitutional basis and statutory foundation of the public health system will be reviewed. It will provide the backdrop to cases which have arisen in the past decade within the rich array of public health programming.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) was enacted a generation ago primarily as a tool for criminal prosecutors to use against organized crime. Its civil provisions were added to the legislation as an afterthought and remained largely dormant for a decade. How-ever, since the early 1980's, civil RICO has become a widely used - many contend overused-tool in the arsenal of the sophisticated commercial litigator. Used effectively, civil RICO's threat of triple damages, attorney's fees, and the stigma of being labeled a racketeer can bludgeon the opposition into early settlement of cases that otherwise would linger in state courts for years. This seminar will examine the history of civil RICO, and how the federal courts have both facilitated and circumscribed its vast expansion into general commercial litigation. An understanding of civil RICO can significantly affect the analysis a lawyer applies to many commercial / business cases.
A review of the constitutional limitations on the death penalty in America including right to counsel, questions of race and gender, jury selection, retroactivity, the balance of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, use of psychiatric experts, and state and federal habeas corpus proceedings. Federal death penalty laws and international aspects of capital punishment will also be explored.
Technologies related to diminishing or enhancing fertility (such as contraception, in vitro fertilization, cloning, artificial insemination, and surrogate motherhood) raise issues that cut across a variety of legal domains. This seminar will explore the constitutional, tort, and family law implications of the technologies and attempt to develop appropriate policies for their use.
This seminar focuses on the role that religion plays, and should play, in American public and private life under the Constitution. Emphasis will be on the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment, with a fair does of the history necessary to understand this controversial subject. (This course was formerly entitled "Religion and the Constitution.")
This seminar examines the increasing state intervention in family decision making with regard to children. Among the topics included are: neglect, child abuse, dependency, child custody problems resulting from the dissolution of marriage, the rights of putative fathers to custody of children, adoption of children, guardianships, and children's rights in the mental health commitment process.
This seminar will explore the relationship between micro economic theory and legal rules. Students will discuss the role of economic theory in the development of legal doctrine and critically examine whether courts are correctly applying economic theory. The course will examine how the study of economics has affected all areas of law, including contracts, torts, and criminal law. Students will also discuss the role of economic theory in lawyering, such as settlement negotiations. A familiarity with microeconomics is very useful for the class but is not required.
This seminar deals with the important subject of constitutional torts, specifically 42 U.S.C. ' 1983 and Bivens actions, whereby state, local and federal officials, as well as local governments, may be held liable in damages when they violate peoples' constitutional rights. Constitutional torts is a subject that is fascinating at both a theoretical and practical level. It raises deep issues of federalism and justice as well as real-world problems of how to make governments accountable to their citizens without undermining their effectiveness. Thousands of constitutional torts cases are filed annually, and they generate considerable controversy, e.g., Rodney King filed a section 1983 damages action against Los Angeles and certain of its police officers. Those who should take this seminar include persons who expect to do federal litigation of any kind, as well as any students who hope to clerk for federal or state judges or work for state and local governments. Not only does the seminar deal with constitutional law but it also addresses federal courts issues, damages and injunctive relief and attorney's fees, among other important subjects.
This course will cover the following topics: the legislative process in enacting tax legislation; the intended and unintended consequences of legislation (e.g., the alternative minimum tax and the estate tax); comparisons of the U.S. tax system with other countries, addressing issues of fairness and compliance; how tax policy has been used, and will be used in the future, to address economic and social issues (global warming, energy conservation, subprime mortage, poverty); and how the judicial system affects tax policy.
This course will investigate the origin in law of the corporate form and explore the challenges presented by the modern corporation, both from the standpoint of its legal structure as a business organization formed by law, and the rights and privileges afforded corporations under case law that interprets the corporation as a jural ¿person.¿ Readings will be considered from colonial charters to the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC (2010). There will be special emphasis on the contracts and commerce clauses of the Constitution, as well as the 14th Amendment. This course is not so much concerned with corporate responsibility as it is with corporate governance and accountability. We will explore the concept of limited liability, trace the evolution of legal personhood, examine the original public purpose requirement of the corporate entity as contemplated in law, and consider the role of public law in the world of the self-regulating market.
Despite important recent changes at the local, state, and national levels, and in some foreign countries and the European Union, to protect gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons (LGBT) from discrimination and to recognize same-sex relationships, society¿s attitude toward homosexuality and transgendered issues continues to be ambivalent. This is especially true in respect to marriage and child rearing, as we see in the current debates over same-sex marriage, but it is also found in the attitudes of states that fail to protect against public and private employment discrimination, and in the federal government¿s ¿Don¿t Ask/Don¿t Tell¿ policy to keep openly gay persons from serving in the military. This course/seminar will explore the possibility of finding a legal, philosophical or political framework for approaching LGBT issues by critically looking at various conceptions of homosexuality and society¿s purported justifications for affecting this behavior, against its broader concerns for guaranteeing social liberty and human equality. It will then apply this understanding to the interaction between gays and the criminal justice system; discrimination in public employment (including military service) and private employment; first amendment issues posed by gay teachers in public schools and universities; the legal problems faced in establishing same-sex relationships (especially marriage) in Massachusetts and elsewhere; and the legal problems gay people confront in matters pertaining to child custody and visitation rights. Central to the course will be locating possible interpretations for the Supreme Court¿s 2003 interpretation in Lawrence v. Texas, and its 1996 decision in Romer v. Texas. This particular area of the law is really several areas as they relate to gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people. LGBT have been a kind of exception to the way the law traditionally operates, and this exception cannot usually be made sense of in terms of traditional legal thinking. For this reason the course will engage a certain degree of theoretical abstraction to undersand, clarify and hopefuly improve the law in these areas.
Comparative law is important for at least two reasons. First, law and legal disputes are increasingly becoming more global, so that knowledge of other legal systems with different procedural and doctrinal structures, especially those based on the European civil law tradition rather than the Anglo-American common law tradition, as well as law promulgated by international organizations such as the European Court of Human Rights, is becoming increasingly important to everyday legal practice. Second, studying how other legal systems deal with various substantive and procedural issues can provide useful insights for how those issues might be better dealt with in our legal system. The premise of this course is that the benefits of studying comparative law can be best obtained by focusing on a specific area of law, which however encompasses issues and doctrines that are fundamental to all of law. Tort law is such an area.
This seminar will examine the constitutional, common law, and statutory issues arising in labor relations and collective bargaining between governmental units and public employees and their unions. Particular emphasis will be placed on the essential differences between labor relations and collective bargaining in government and that same process in the private sector. Seminar participants will be expected to write a major research paper on those differences, exploring whether they are substantial enough to warrant the adoption of private sector labor law concepts, and if so, to what extent.
This seminar examines the emerging legal regime that governs transboundary and global environmental degradation. Issues include customary restraints on state actions which injure another state or the global commons, international treaty regimes for ocean pollution, biodiversity conservation and global climate change mitigation, and the link between trade and environmental protection. The seminar also examines the ethical, economic and governance issues raised by international environmental protection.
Emerging technologies from embryo stem cell therapies to nanomachines raise important new legal issues. This seminar will explore the laws, regulations, and professional organization guidelines that relate to the rights and responsibilities of researcher subjects who participate in human research as well as the researchers who are developing technologies that are expected to transform our health, our capabilities, and the way we live. Students will write an in-depth seminar paper on a subject chosen in consultation with the professor.
This seminar focuses on the emergence in employment law of matters affecting the privacy rights of the individual employee in the private sector. Topics addressed include drug and alcohol testing, defamation, the tort of invasion of privacy ( and its various forms ), confidentiality of employee communications, including e-mail, employee surveillance and monitoring. Legislative developments and case law in the area will be the subject of discussion in each class.
This seminar examines the tax and business planning aspects of mergers and acquisitions, including taxable and nontaxable transfers of businesses and real estate. Transactions covered include installments sales, earn-outs, options, technology transfers, reverse mergers and like-kind exchanges. Particular attention will be given to planning whether to use asset sales or stock sales, structuring financing for acquisitions and techniques for compensating investors. The seminar will also explore the taxation of partnerships. S corporations and limited liability companies and their special application to corporate and real estate acquisitions.
This seminar aims to give an overview of European Community (EC) competition law, introducing students to the comparison of EC and US antitrust principles, along with some references to competition rules in EC Member States. The first part of the seminar will focus on the justifications and the goals of EC competition policy, highlighting linkages between antitrust rules and EC Treaty principles of free movement and market integration. The second part will deal with a selection of EC competition law topics: vertical and horizontal agreements, abuse of a dominant position, merger control, state aids and state action in general. Finally, a few classes will be devoted to the presentation of selected issues regarding enforcement, both public and private, and a wrap-up. The seminar will be case-law focused, with a preference for cases that have been decided or are being decided both under EC and US law. By the end of the course, students should be able to: consult the sources of EC competition law; identify and understand legal issues arising from EC competition law; and critically evaluate advantages and drawbacks of the policy and the conceptualisms of EC competition law, contrasting it with US antitrust law.
This seminar will focus on the role that is properly played by non-judicial institutions (primarily Congress and the President) in determining what the Constitution requires. For example: May the President elect not to enforce federal law because he thinks doing so would be unconstitutional? When Congress and the President formulate their positions as to what the Constitution means, are they limited to using the same reasoning that courts use, or may they take account of additional considerations? Our study will have the added benefit of clarifying the role that courts play in interpreting the Constitution. It also will shed light on what the Constitution ¿is,¿ what role the Constitution plays in our democratic liberal regime, and how the Constitution changes over time. We will approach these issues by reading historical materials, constitutional jurisprudence, and several case studies. Possible topics include (1) national security issues, primarily the relation between the President's commander-in-chief powers and Congress' assorted war-making powers; (2) the constitutionality of secession; (3) the impeachment process; (4) executive privilege; and (5) equal protection. Students will be expected to write a paper. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This seminar will focus on the rules, policy arguments, empirical data, legislative restrictions, and constitutional issues regarding liability for various types of damages in tort law- e.g., economic damages, noneconomic damages, punitive damages, caps on damage, joint and several liability, proportionate several liability, and the collateral source rule. There likely will also be discussion of alternative (non-tort) administrative compensation schemes. Outside speakers may be invited to discuss some of these issues.
This seminar examines the regulatory, economic, and political issues surrounding the use of pooled investment vehicles, particularly hedge funds, private equity funds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and sovereign wealth funds. We will discuss the legal and business considerations that go into the formation of funds, paying close attention to the negotiations between investment advisers and the investors in their funds. Relatedly, we will examine the investment strategies of different investment funds, through leveraged buyouts, equity investments, and more sophisticated trades in derivatives. We will develop a familiarity with the Investment Advisers Act and the Investment Company Act, which are the key legal regulations governing these funds, as well as with the most current scholarly debates in this field. Prerequisite: Business Organizations. Securities Regulation is not a prerequisite but will be helpful.
This seminar provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory, doctrine, and practice of patent claim construction. Claim construction—the process of interpreting the claims at the end of the patent that define the patent's scope—is the most important issue in patent litigation. It is a threshold step to virtually every issue in a patent case, including invalidity and infringement. Claims also must be construed by a variety of actors outside of litigation: patent examiners, competitors, researchers, and the patentees themselves. A good understanding of claim construction is thus crucial to being a successful patent practitioner, whether one is a litigator, prosecutor, or transactional lawyer. In addition to readings and discussions, the seminar will include a practical component tracking the claim construction process under the patent local rules used by many district courts. Assessment will be primarily based on the work product generated as part of this claim construction simulation, as well as a paper addressing a significant policy issue related to claim construction. Prerequisite: Patent Law completed or taken concurrently; or permission of instructor. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar will explore legal strategies for promoting economic and political development in emerging economies. The first part of the course provides an overview of the theories underpinning development policy and is intended to establish the necessary foundation and vocabulary for the rest of the course. The second part delves into various legal strategies for development with a focus on the discourse of property rights, rule of law, economic and social rights, and judicial reform. In the third and final portion of the course, students will scrutinize specific law and development projects funded by multilateral institutions such as the World Bank to assess their effectiveness in increasing the well-being of indigent populations living in the developing world.
Studies repeatedly demonstrate that 80% of the legal needs of the poor in the United States remain unmet, despite existing federal, state, and volunteer programs that provide some civil legal services to low income people. The seminar will explore the parallel problems of lack of access to legal services by low income people, on the one hand, and the flood of underrepresented litigants appearing before state and federal courts, on the other. Barriers to access to the justice system will be examined and various solutions explored with special emphasis on the potential of the Internet and related technologies to improve access to justice. The seminar will be both experiential and experimental. You will visit courts and legal services offices to observe our current justice system in action. You will also be encouraged to write papers that explore innovative approaches to increasing access to justice.
This seminar will focus on how and why international labor and employment law have developed as a response to globalization, exploring intellectual foundations and surveying the latest developments in the field. The aim is to become conversant with key policy issues, and with the architecture of the main regimes of international labor and employment law, preparing students to provide well-rounded advice, arguments, and opinions on a set of issues at the center of contemporary debates over international economic integration. Topics will include the mutilateral system of worker rights (the International Labor Organization and international human rights conventions), the linkages between labor standards and international trade law, regional systems of worker rights (the European Union, the NAFTA), unilateral application of worker rights within the international system, litigating international worker rights in U.S. courts, and corporate social responsibility and private sector codes of conduct.
This seminar explores three principal areas: (1) international procedural mechanisms for enforcing national criminal laws (such as the extradition process and Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties); (2) substantive international criminal laws (such as wars crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity); and 93) international criminal law issues that arise in doing business abroad (such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Particular attention will be given to international criminal law issues arising out of the Bosnian war (including the UN's establishing a war crimes tribunal). An introductory course in international law is strongly recommended as a pre-requisite.
This seminar will explore issues related to Criminal Law and Justice by examining literature touching on those subjects. In the process, we will also spend some time considering how various literary and rhetorical techniques influence a piece¿s effect upon the reader or listener. We will review a variety of kinds of literature, possibly including novels, plays, short stories, poems, and screenplays (through viewing films). We will also read some more traditional legal texts, such as cases, statutes, transcripts, and legal scholarship on related themes. Students will be expected to carefully read each week¿s material before class and to demonstrate that reading through active participation in class discussion. Students¿ grades will depend upon class participation and a significant writing project or projects to be determined.
International intervention in Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq have raised a number of questions about public international law, administrative law, and how best to create a legal framework for development of democratic institutions and market economies. Students will write papers on some aspect of law related to these nationbuilding challenges. The seminar will be integrated with the Nationbuilding IPRO, which will have students working on projects related to the political trusteeship in Kosovo, including promotion of tourism, resolution of legal issues related to privatization, compiling applicable law, especially pertaining to property and commercial transactions. (Note: IPROs are IIT Interprofessional Projects that draw students from various colleges and departments throughout the university.)
This course surveys the framework of domestic and international laws that authorize and restrain the pursuit of the U.S. government¿s national security policies. We will focus primarily on counterterrorism-related activities (including the interrogation, detention, and trial of detainees), the use of military force, and the activities of the intelligence community.
This is a year-long mandatory seminar for all students enrolled in the LL.M. Program in International Intellectual Property Law. It is open only to those students. The seminar will introduce students to all the relevant institutions of international intellectual property law (including most notably the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization). It will also cover the principal scholarly and policy debates that are presently occurring regarding international intellectual property law. As the year proceeds, the seminar will be structured around the masters thesis being drafted by each student for his or her LLM in International Intellectual Property Law. One credit hour (Fall); two credit hours (Spring).
This seminar focuses on the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, its seizure of political power in 1933, Nazi race laws, the Nazi legal system, the Nuremberg trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity and, time permitting, subsequent trials, including the prosecution of Adolph Eichmann and more recent trials. This is more than a history seminar because we will also consider the current significance of these events. The materials used are those developed by Professor Harry Reicher, who has taught this subject for several years at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
The seminar involves both a definition of human rights as well as enforcement procedures for the implementation of human rights. The historical and philosophical bases of human rights are examined starting with the works of various thinkers from the diverse schools, particularly natural law, positivism, Marxism and the social logical school. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the later international covenants are looked at in terms of the influences of the various schools. The seminar addresses the question of whether there is agreement as to fundamental human rights. Recent developments and tensions in the field of human rights particularly since the increase membership of counties from the third world and socialist block countries are investigated. This is highlighted by focusing on the later two covenants of the United Nations, particularly the Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, which enlarges the scope of human rights to include welfare, cultural, and economic rights. Finally, the seminar focuses on the contribution of international and non-governmental organizations in the protection and implementation of human rights.
The management of large international patent portfolios (comprising patent applications filed in several jurisdictions), and an understanding of law and treaties affecting those portfolios, is fundamental to international patent practice. We will discuss the basics of filing and prosecuting patents under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), including issues that may arise when prosecuting a US application under the PCT. We will also consider other multinational patent treaties commonly used in foreign patent application filings that affect the management of international patent portfolios and US patents. We will take a comparative look at several aspects of U.S. and foreign patent laws, and will consider current controversies surrounding patents in the international arena -- e.g., regarding access to medicines and the patentability of business methods and other controversial subject matter. Patent Law is a prerequisite. This requirement can be waived only with the permission of the instructor.
This seminar explores the ways in which law and public policy - local, state, and federal - have shaped Chicago from the city's nineteenth century beginnings through today. Drawing on the analytical tools of local government law and urban history, we will examine the social, economic, demographic, and political development of the Chicago metropolitan area. Topics include: urban economic development; crime, policing, and the justice system; community organization and activism; the regulation of land use; urban renewal policy; the rise and fall of public housing; the persistence of racial and ethnic divisions; the civil rights movement in Chicago; city-suburb relations and regional planning efforts; transportation; city schooling; gentrification and urban redevelopment; the historic preservation movement; and local environmental policy. Throughout the seminar, we will consider, in both historical and contemporary perspective, the role of the city in the American legal system and the costs and benefits of localized governmental power.
This seminar will focus on the three areas of evidence that matter most in the trial and appeal of lawsuits, civil and criminal. These areas are: character, hearsay and confrontation, and expert witnesses. Class discussion will track the most recent developments in these areas, focusing on ways to successfully object and respond to objections at the trial court level. Through the use of fact situations from reported decisions, we will develop a realistic and effective approach to evidence law, while exploring its strengths and weaknesses.
An advanced study of selected problems of the taxpayer. Topics include gross income, deductions, credits, cash and accrual methods, identification of the proper taxpayer, characterization of income and deductions, deferral and non-recognition principles.
A study of the tax consequences and issues arising on the disposition of property, and under what circumstances a transaction is taxed as a sale of property or a loan or a lease. Topics include amount realized, basis, effect of debt, when a sale occurs, non‑recognition transactions and capital gains.
A study of the relationship between a Subchapter C corporation and shareholders. Topics include organization of the corporation, dividends and non‑liquidating distributions, redemptions, stock dividends, liquidations, and tax aspects relating to the sale of a corporate business.
This course focuses on the federal transfer-tax system, and includes an examination of the estate-tax and gift-tax systems and how these two systems interact along with an overview of generation-skipping transfer taxes. These systems will be addressed in the context of estate planning and cover topics such as defining the taxable estate, lifetime gifts, valuation, marital deduction planning, and the use of revocable and irrevocable trusts. Professional responsibility and ethics will also be discussed.
Individual research under the direction of a member of the faculty. A paper suitable for publication is required.
A study of the federal income tax rules applicable to partnerships and partners, including the tax classification of business enterprises and the formation, operation, and termination of partnerships, as well as problems involving limited liability companies, acquisition of partnership interests in exchange for property or services, characterization of income, determination of basis, partnership distributions, and purchase and sale of partnership interests.
A study of the problems in the acquisition, recapitalization, reincorporation, and division of tax attributes from one corporation to another. Prerequisite: Corporate Taxation or permission of instructor.
A study of the tax practice and procedural aspects of federal income tax matters. Civil tax controversy regarding IRS examinations, appeals and Tax Court litigation will be discussed. Topics include ethical considerations in tax practice, focusing on applicable rules and standards. In addition, the course will provide an in-depth examination of the prosecution and defense of federal tax-related crimes under the Internal Revenue Code and other federal criminal statutes. The course will use the tax controversy system, transactional matters and current events as backdrops for discussion and exploration of issues.
his course will provide an in-depth examination of the allocation of income and expense items to the proper taxable year. Topics include the adoption and change of accounting methods; the cash and accrual methods; capitalization vs. expensing; depreciation and cost recovery; original issue discount, imputed interest, and other time value of money problems; and the annual accounting period concept, including the claim of right doctrine and the tax benefit rule.
This course is a study of the management and preservation of assets during life, as well as the minimization of taxes and the disposition of wealth at death. Topics include wills, the use of trusts, marital deduction planning and funding, gifts, planning for business interests, valuation issues, planning with life insurance, planning for retirement benefits, powers of attorney, and generation-skipping transfers. Prerequisite: Federal Transfer Taxes Affecting Estates and Trusts or permission of instructor.
The course will focus primarily on the organization, operation, and termination of S corporations, while contrasting them with other forms of business entities. Topics include S corporation eligibility, the use of subsidiaries, planning for distributions and redemptions, and the tax and other aspects of shareholders' agreements. The course will address the choice of entity and other selected tax-planning issues for closely held businesses.
Topics include pension, profit sharing, IRA, SEP, ESOP and stock option plans; qualification requirements, discrimination, participation, vesting, funding, joint and survivor annuities, limitations on contributions and benefits; integration with Social Security; taxation of benefits; plan termination insurance and liability; top-heavy plans and VEBAs; determination procedure, reporting and disclosure problems; fiduciary responsibility and prohibited transactions and exemptions; and corporate acquisitions, dispositions and mergers. Prerequisites: Advanced Income Taxation and Corporate Taxation or permission of instructor.
A study of the problems of state and local taxation. Topics include constitutional limitations, income and franchise tax nexus and apportionment, sales and use taxation, and real property tax issues.
This course will provide an in-depth examination of the prosecution and defense of federal tax-related crimes under the Internal Revenue Code and other federal criminal statutes, including Title 18 of the U.S. Code. It will analyze the law and procedures in the defense and prosecution of federal tax fraud. Using cases and problems, the course will study investigative techniques, methods of proof, available defenses, suggested manner of dealing with investigative agencies, and the prosecution and defense of charges at trial.
The culture of bonuses and excessive executive compensation is the subject of frequent eye-catching headlines. This course will examine the truth behind the headlines, discuss the impact of such headlines on corporate behavior, and teach students the basic rules and regulations applicable to executive remuneration. Students who take the course will be given the executive compensation background necessary to effectively interview for positions both within law firms and outside the traditional legal arena.
An examination of key partnership concepts not covered in Partnership Taxation 1, including the structuring of creative partnership transactions and the correlation of partnership/LLC and S corporation tax and business structuring concepts; partnership allocations under Sections 704(b) and 704(c) and their correlation with the partnership liability allocation rules of Section 752; sales of partnership interests and distribution of partnership property where partnership "hot assets" are present; the election to adjust the basis of partnership property following the transfer of a partnership interest or the distribution of partnership property; and partnership terminations, mergers and liquidations, and payments to retiring or deceased partners. The above partnership/LLC concepts are often contrasted with the corresponding S corporation principles and illustrated in a transactional format. Students are encouraged to bring to class problems they encounter in their practices.
This course examines the provisions of Section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and the statutory provisions affecting the operation of exempt organizations. Among the topics covered are the requirements for qualification as a Section 501(c)(3) organization--including organization and operation for "charitable," "educational," "religious," or "scientific" purposes; restrictions on lobbying and political activities of Section 501(c)(3) organizations (including the excise taxes under Sections 4911 and 4955); excise taxes on disqualified persons, private foundations, and foundation or organization managers; avoidance of private foundation status; health care organizations; business leagues, social welfare organizations, social clubs, and miscellaneous tax-exempt organizations; unrelated business taxable income; procedures for obtaining tax-exempt status; and requirements for deductibility of charitable contributions.
A study of the intercompany pricing issues that confront taxpayers doing business in multiple jurisdictions. The course will examine the regulations under Section 482 of the Internal Revenue Code that govern the pricing of goods, services and intangibles among commonly controlled entities. It will cover a number of significant cases litigated under Section 482 and the practical problems that confront the IRS, the courts, and taxpayers in those cases, such as determining whether common control exists and whether comparable transactions can be found. The course will also examine potential transfer pricing penalties that might be imposed under Section 6662 and the documentation necessary to avoid those penalties.
A study of the federal income tax aspects of financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, options, forward contracts, convertible and contingent payment debt instruments, and transactions involving financial instruments, including wash sales, short sales, straddles and notional principal contracts. We do not assume prior knowledge of financial instruments or financial terminology, and due attention will be given to terminology and the economics of various financial instruments. On the other hand, time value concepts are important with almost all financial instruments, and while we will discuss time value concepts and provide some examples, students who do not start with a reasonable understanding of time value and time value computations should plan on some extra study.
This course provides an introduction to the legal, regulatory, and ethical issues arising in the functioning and operation of financial markets. Topics include fiduciary responsibilities, role of self regulatory organizations, suitability of investments information, as well as a broad overview of US securities and commodities laws and regulations. The course is structured to provide a functional understanding of market participants' duties to the public, clients, and employers.
This course provides a foundation in the basics of securities law for attorneys who have not been exposed to the field before beginning the Graduate Program. It is required of all students unless they took such a course for their JD or have had sufficient experience in practice to warrant a waiver of this requirement from the director of the program. The course provides an overview of the securities markets, and gives a detailed analysis of the registration and distribution process under the Securities Act of 1933. Included are exempted securities and exempted transactions as well as reorganizations, recapitalizations and offerings by underwriters and dealers. An overview of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 is provided, including an examination of the trading activities of broker-dealers.
This course will examine the history of the commodities industry and the Commodities Exchange Act as amended. It will also discuss the operations and duties of the CFTC, the NFA, and the commodities exchanges, including their enforcement and investigatory activities, their structure and their current and proposed regulations; the use of the futures markets by hedgers; the jurisdiction of the CFTC versus the SEC and the states; the registration requirements of various entities with the CFTC; arbitration and reparation procedures; the types of records and reports used by the commodities industry; tax consequences for investors; forum-shopping and litigation strategies; and how to prepare a commodities case.
This course provides an introduction to the economics, operation, and regulation of commercial banking. Basic materials include an overview of how banks manage their risks, including both interest rate risks and credit risks, and also how banks earn profits. The formation of national associations and Illinois banks are covered as is the analysis of the rules and regulations which affect their operation. Particular attention is given to special reporting requirements to regulators. In addition, federal and state regulation of bank holding companies is examined. This course or its waiver is a prerequisite for course 820.
This course examines (1) how various institutions-bank trust departments, insurance companies, investment advisors and commodity trading advisors- are regulated in their capacity as managers of other peoples' financial investments and (2) how the form in which the investment is made-investment company, commodity pool, partnership or trust-affects that regulation. Common Law principles of prudence and fiduciary responsibility are explored and contrasted with specific federal, e.g., ERISA, and state statutory requirements and prohibitions. Specific topics (illustrated by case histories) which are discussed include: disclosure requirements, fee structures, handling of conflicts of interest, training and supervision, oversight and discipline, and permissible investment techniques.
This course explores the role and regulation of investment banks and securities firms in connection with raising capital (equity and debt) primarily through the public offering of securities. Included will be a detailed study of requirements and procedures for the federal registration and distribution of securities and review of state Blue Sky laws. A prior familiarity with the Securities Act of 1933 is assumed and the majority of class time focuses on more advanced subjects, including analysis of underwriting agreements, anti-manipulative regulations applicable to distributions, regulation of public offerings by the NASD and offshore offerings. The perspective will be that of investment bankers, particularly their obligations and potential liabilities. In addition, the course covers how multi-service firms engaged in investment banking, trading and brokerage activities must deal with inside information.
This course provides an introduction to the different forms of insurance organizations, governance, business methods, insurance and reinsurance, and overall regulation of the insurance industry. Included is a study of legal requirements for the organization of insurance companies, capital formation, operations and liquidation. The course emphasizes the legal considerations in product development specifically including financial service products and marketing insurance in traditional and emerging methods. Financial and statutory accounting requirements are reviewed and compared to generally accepted accounting principles. Consideration is also given to alternatives to insurance, their regulation and their business role.
This course provides an introduction to the regulation of securities and commodities professionals, including: (1) the nature of operations of broker-dealers, futures commission merchants, and other market participants that are regulated as professionals;(2) the products and market places; (3) the jurisdiction of the various securities and commodities regulators and the self-regulatory organizations;(4) the registration and membership requirements of securities and commodities professionals; (5) capital and financial responsibility, margin and credit regulation and books and records of securities and commodities professionals; and (6) clearing settlement, depositories, SIPC and the bankruptcy of securities and commodities professionals.
This course provides an introduction to commodities and securities professionals' compliance with the applicable statutes and rules of the federal, state and self-regulatory organizations, including: (1) an overview of supervision and compliance; (2) suitability, fair-dealing and customer disclosure; (3) customer documentation; (4) anti-fraud, anti-manipulation, churning, and SEC Regulation M; (5) trading compliance; and (6) investment banking compliance, including public offering and 34 Act compliance.
This course provides a comprehensive review of enforcement of the securities and commodities laws and regulations by the Department of Justice, the SEC, the CFTC, states and self-regulatory organization. The course also covers jurisdiction and procedures of the various forums for resolution of securities and commodities disputes and customer litigation, the remedies and defenses available in the various forums, class actions, and international litigation and arbitration.
This course provides a foundation in the U.S. debt markets and the funds transfer markets. The course covers the basics of debt, including the documentation and inter creditor issues of loans, security and guarantees. Both public and private debt is examined, including instruments and products of the US Treasury and other US government agencies, municipal bonds, corporate debt, commercial paper, certificates of deposit, leveraged leasing, factoring, repos, asset-based securitizations, reverses and swaps. The study of the funds transfer markets includes the Federal Reserve system, the discount window, Federal Funds and wire and other electronic funds transfer systems. Completion of this course is a prerequisite for FS 809: Capital Markets II.
This course provides an overview of the capital and risk hedging markets in the United States from a business point of view. The interrelationships between the various exchange, the OTC, and informal markets are examined, particularly in their capacity as forums for the trading in securities (equities and debt), futures, options, options on futures, forwards and similar instruments. The course focuses principally on the regulations of markets and the economic forces which underpin such regulation. Attention is given to the international markets. As prerequisites, students must have already completed Courses 800, 805, 806, and 808 or been waived from these courses.
This course serves as a summation to the Graduate Program in Financial Services Law through an analysis of representative types of major financial products offered by various financial services entities. Many classes are presentations given by attorneys who helped create the various products. Each guest is asked to examine the significant legal, tax and market characteristics of the product. Consideration will be given to how these characteristics and the relevant regulatory mechanisms affect product design, delivery systems, and interchangeability of purpose, and how they respond to consumer needs. Products are selected from among: stocks, bonds, commodities, options, cash management accounts, mutual funds, life insurance, annuities, home equity loans, certificates of deposit, credit card operations, and similar products. This course should be taken after the student has obtained a broad background from other courses in the Program.
The course examines merger and acquisition issues generally, with a specific focus on issues of special importance to banks, insurance companies, brokerage firms and other financial services institutions. Included are: structuring of mergers and acquisition, terms of acquisition documents, fiduciary duties of directors, various regulatory prohibitions and difficulties presented to mergers in the financial services industry, including the successor federal banking law to the Glass-Steagall Act and various state law issues; capital implications of mergers including the most efficient way to combine reporting entities; issues involving pricing and negotiating a merger or acquisition; and mechanical issues involved in mergers, including the transfer of customer account, additional registration of account executives and officers and directors, valuation issues, state approvals, and licensing of the surviving company.
This course examines basic and advanced problems of insolvency, liquidation and reorganization proceedings involving banks, insurance companies, pension funds, brokerage firms, commodities firms, and other financial institutions and their customers. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of the SEC, CFTC, Comptroller of the Currency, and state regulators in liquidations and reorganizations of financial institutions. In addition, the roles of the FDIC, SIPC, and other insurers and of guaranty funds are also considered.
This course provides an overview of the rapidly evolving field of holding company law. Major themes include why and how holding companies are regulated and the regulatory reform process. Emphasis is placed on the dynamics of holding company regulation, including the tension between economic forces seeking to create a seamless financial services industry and the impulse of regulators and others to segregate activities by type of institution. Origins, trends in interpretation and proposals for legislative change of the Federal Bank Holding Company and Savings and Loan Holding Company Acts, the successor federal banking law to the Glass-Steagall Act, and the Insurance Holding Company Systems Regulatory Acts are examined and compared.
The course provides an overview of the tax considerations of financial service entities and financial products. The topics to be covered will depend in part on the types of financial products and entities in use at the time of the course. The course will focus on the tax issues associated with mutual funds, unit trusts, real estate investment trusts, mortgage-backed securities, asset securitization, tax-exempt bonds, stock dividends, hedging transactions, wash sales, short sales and straddles. In addition, the course will cover the tax aspects of property-casualty and life insurance companies (including the definition of insurance, the calculation of reserves, and tax aspects of insurance products). The course is structured to provide the financial services lawyer with a simple explanation of the most common tax issues that arise in structuring financial service entities and transactions. At least one law school course in federal income taxation is assumed. Although there are no formal prerequisites, familiarity with basic financial products is helpful.
This course treats the civil, administrative and criminal aspects of the major types of litigation involving financial services firms. Particular attention is paid to the development of a coordinated response to consumer claims which may involve civil liabilities, responses to exchange or self-regulatory agencies and criminal prosecutions.
This course provides an opportunity for the advanced student of financial services law to analyze fundamental economic and political principles of regulatory policymaking, as well as the historical context in which the regulation of the US financial markets has developed. Topics to be examined include: the regulatory legacy of the Populist and Progressive movements; market failure and public interest rationales for regulation; the role of transaction costs in the organization of market activity; cost-benefit analysis and the dynamics of risk regulation; public choice theory and the analysis of government failure; and regulatory reform. Assigned texts include works by Ronald Coase, Richard Hofstadter, Robert Reich, and George Stigler. In addition, each student will be asked to identify an issue of financial services regulation to examine in detail through independent readings and to direct class discussion about that issue.
This course provides the basic comparative law basis of the banking and other financial services markets in the major financial centers of England, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc. Particular topics include: the extraterritorial application of the federal securities laws to distributions and trading abroad, including a review of the application of US antifraud and antimanipulative rules to offers and sales of securities made abroad; the problems of foreign bank secrecy laws to enforcement of the federal securities laws; the application of the registration requirements of the US securities laws to offerings made abroad; and the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to foreign issuers with securities distributed and/or traded in the US either directly or through sponsored and unsponsored ADR programs. In addition, attention is given to the taxation of both US and overseas participants, including when a user of international markets becomes subject to taxation requirements of a foreign country.
The course examines the current markets in various derivatives products and the business and legal issues concerning them. Included are swaps and other OTC products and the valuation, accounting and regulatory problems which have arisen.
This course provides an analysis of the international operations of US banks, the US regulation of foreign country banks which operate in the US, and the local law and regulation of domestic banks and foreign banks in Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany, and to a lesser extent in Japan, Mexico, France and selected other countries.
Individual research under the direction of a member of the faculty. A paper suitable for publication is required. LAW 822, a required course for students seeking the LL.M. degree, is intended to provide students with a rich academic experience by challenging them to engage in a largely self-directed research and writing project to produce a paper of publishable quality relevant to the field of financial services law and/or financial markets. (Instructor's consent)
This course provides a practical framework for learning about venture capital deals and other types of transactions used by start-up companies to get the funding necessary to develop and launch their products and services. It provides the foundation for understanding the basic elements of "deals," both domestic or transnational. The course will examine the issues and interests of the investors and the owners of early stage companies, and will describe the venture capital process. Specific legal topics to be covered include: the proper legal structure for a company seeking venture capital, issues of corporate control, securities laws requirements, and the legal implications and differences between common stock, preferred stock, convertible securities, debt, stock options and warrants, and other investment vehicles and intellectual property rights. Business issues to be covered will include: due diligence procedures and concerns, valuations, exit strategies and the terms of a typical venture capital deal, including corporate control issues, anti-dilution rights, registration rights, tag-along rights, representations and warranties, indemnifications and similar provisions. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This course provides a foundation in financial market regulation with an emphasis on how regulatory structures and processes are changing amid market centers becoming increasingly electronic. Topics include: history and purpose of exchange regulation and why electronic markets aid the goal of an efficient national market system; comparison of the electronic market structure compared to the traditional floor based market structure; jurisdiction and basic policies of regulating bodies including the SEC, CFTC, NASD, NFA, and exchange self regulation; analysis of market surveillance structure and techniques; and review of SEC Regulation NMS and its goals. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This course examines the legal and regulatory framework applicable to U.S. banking organizations, which includes bank holding company systems, federally and state-chartered banks and savings and loans. The course will introduce basic statutory and regulatory concepts and explore the goals of these laws and regulations. Topics will include a review of regulatory capital requirements, regulations pertaining to lending activities, issues involving risk management and foreign banking operations in the U.S. The impact of recent legislative and regulatory changes with respect to securities and insurance activities of U.S. banking organization will also be examined. A survey of bank regulatory structures for countries in Europe and Asia will also be featured. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This course provides a comprehensive review of enforcement of the securities and commodities laws and regulations by the SEC, CFTC, Department of Justice, states, and self-regulatory organizations. The course also covers jurisdiction and procedures of the various forums for resolution of securities and commodities disputes including applicable law, customer litigation, class actions, and international litigation. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This class will explore divorce taxation, valuation of business entities, valuation of deferred income plans, and sophisticated financial documents, such as complex tax returns, financial statements, and various corporate reports. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
The externship component for the LL.M. Program in Family Law is quite flexible. Students are required to earn nine externship credits in total through one or more placements with family law judges, family law practice groups in law firms, solo practitioners or public interest organizations related to family law. *Part-time students who are unable to complete an externship may substitute three J.D. courses that focus on family law issues to satisfy the LL.M. degree requirement. Any proposed course of study in lieu of an externship must be approved in advance by the faculty coordinator for the program. Credit Hours Two to nine credit hours per externship.
Each student will be required to choose a contemporary topic in family law and write a publishable quality research paper. Students will work in close contact with their advisors and should expect to go through at least 2 editing cycles (3 drafts) for each paper. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course will concentrate on emerging areas in family law. Topics include parental rights and responsibilities in reproductive technology cases, pre- and post-nuptial agreements, courts of concurrent jurisdiction, strategies to avoid discharges in bankruptcy, special laws unique to Native Americans, and cohabitation agreements. This course supercedes Advanced Litigation Techniques (LAW 856). Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course is designed to train the practitioner to become children's representatives, attorneys for the child and guardian ad litae. Issues will include rights of children, parents and the state, decisions about medical care, juvenile courts, child abuse and neglect, and education and the law. This course will also help students develop interview techniques to solicit requisite information necessary to effectively represent the child before the court. With the ever increasing number of cases in matters of paternity, adoption, and divorce, issues of psychology become more important in resolving the custodial placement of a child. This course will also instruct students in the use and value of the various psychological tests used by the court today. Students will learn how to prepare a case strategy using expert witnesses to their maximum potential as well as learning effective cross examination skills. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Family law courts increasingly rely on various alternative dispute resolution programs. A contemporary practitioner must be well-versed and well-prepared for these alternatives to litigation. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course will provide an in-depth analysis of the ethical issues currently facing the legal profession. Although the course will primarily focus on ethical issues that face the family law attorney, the issues have a broader application to the entire profession. Many "hot topics" in legal ethics will be discussed, including but not limited to client confidentiality, conflicts of interest, dealing with dishonest clients, e-discovery, and the use of social networking in litigation and in marketing a legal practice. Students will be graded on the basis of a short paper and presentation regarding a topic of their choice and class discussion of the problems presented. The class is open both to students in the Family Law LL.M. program and to J.D. students. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This is a year-long course designed to teach students in the Financial Services Law LLM program how to research and write a scholarly academic paper of aproximately 25 to 30 pages on a financial services topic of their choosing. The goal is to teach the students the principles of academic writing of a caliber suitable for publication in a law journal. In the first semester, the course teaches students how to conduct legal research, both in print materials and through computer research. The class also teaches students the academic standards of proper attribution, quotation, and plagiarism, including some training in how to put citations inproper BlueBook format. In addition, students are instructed and tutored in writing and lega writing fundamentals such as proper sentence construction, precision and clarity, proper word choices, organixation, and use of thesis and topic sentences. Students receives extensive written feedback on their draft from the professors, after which a conference is held with each student to provide oral feedback and reply to questions from the student. By the end of the first semester, students have written the title, introduction, and Part I of their papers. In the second semester, the class teaches students how to write the normative section offering a solution to the problem discussed in the descriptive section, the section responding to criticisms of the proposal, and the conclusion of the paper. Students learn how to revise their papers and self-assess their papers to ensure they satisfy all of the formatting and writing requirements taught in the course. During the second semester, students turn in several drafts of their papers and receive written and oral feedback for each part, with individual conferences with the professors after each draft. By the end of the second semester, students turn in the final completed paper and receive a letter grade for their work in the course.
Every candidate will participate in a 2-credit, yearlong J.S.D. Colloquium that will be devoted to discussions and presentations on research and writing and substantive presentations by the candidates in their areas of research. Every student is required in the first few months to present his or her dissertation proposal in the Colloquium. Toward the end of the school, year every J.S.D. candidate is also required to present the results of his or her first year of research. Members of the faculty are invited to participate.
This course explores the history of the Constitution of the United States from the late eighteenth century through today. We will study the ways in which the Constitution has developed-its framing and ratification, the inclusion of the Bill of Rights and later amendments, subsequent judicial interpretations-in response to particular social and political circumstances. Through an examination of major episodes from American history, students will be exposed to central themes of constitutional development: the concept of a written constitution, judicial review, the balance of power between the central government and the states, the problem of slavery and racial equality, free speech, gender equality, and the role of law in shaping cultural norms. Although much of the course is dedicated to analyzing the ways in which the courts, particularly the United States Supreme Court, have interpreted and applied the Constitution, we will also give close attention to the efforts of individuals and groups outside the judiciary to shape the Constitution and define its role in American society. Credit Hours Three credit hours.
This course will explore the implications of recent social science research on human behavior for law and legal decision-making. In the past few decades, new discoveries in psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, and economics have challenged fundamental ideas about how people think and decide. We will consider their application to a variety of areas of the law including criminal and civil law and jury decision-making. Topics will include happiness and hedonic psychology, the role of emotion and reason in decision-making, creativity, risk assessment, and free will. Students in the seminar will write a substantial research paper. Students in the course will write a series of short (2–3 page) analysis papers. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar will address the legal issues raised by Facebook, MySpace, Reddit, and other social networks. The seminar will cover the application of privacy law, criminal law, legal ethics, employment law, school law, First Amendment law, defamation law, evidence law, intellectual property law, cyberlaw, and other precedents to social networks. Facebook currently has half a billion members. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest nation in the world. The seminar will ask: If Facebook were a nation, what should be its Constitution? Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar focuses on communication in tax matters—with emphasis on written tax matters—and the governing statutes, regulations, professional and ethical standards, and case law. Topics covered will include letters, opinions, advocacy in administrative and judicial forums, and dealing with challenging clients. The seminar will involve role playing, teaming, and dealing with the complex and critical relationships in our tax system between the tax payer, the tax advisor, and the government. This seminar is for students interested in better understanding reading, writing, evaluating, and communicating in tax matters. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Critical theory attempts to answer the age-old question, "what is law?," by asserting that law is the reflection of the political values of the dominant group within society. After a brief introduction to the more traditional theories of justice; such as natural law, legal positivism, and legal realism, students will take up the challenge of Critical Legal Studies. Subjects covered include an economic analysis of law; gender and sexual orientation; and critical race theory. Other possible topics include an evaluation of law and economics; the emergence of Sharia law; and the role of feminism in the 21st century. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar is a unique multi-school class taught by weekly live lecture from St John’s Law School in New York and simultaneously telecast to several other participating institutions nationwide, including Chicago-Kent. The seminar is offered under the auspices of the American College of Bankruptcy. The lectures are given by leading bankruptcy judges, practitioners and academics, and satellite classrooms will be equipped with live question-and-answer capability. Professor Walters will host the Chicago-Kent classroom, meaning he will contribute to the curriculum and be responsible for supervising and evaluating your seminar papers. He will be joined for Spring 2016 by the Honorable Judge Timothy A. Barnes of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Because of the need to synchronize with other participating law schools, the class will meet on Tuesdays from 5.30-7.30pm CT, commencing Tuesday January 20, 2016, for the duration of the Spring semester. There are no prerequisites for the class, and while familiarity with basic U.S. bankruptcy law is useful, there will be an opportunity to study or review U.S. business bankruptcy law at an introductory level. The seminar offers an introduction to some of the jurisdictional problems that arise when international corporations become insolvent. International corporations typically have assets and subsidiaries in multiple jurisdictions. When financial distress occurs, a troubled corporation and its subsidiaries may therefore file for bankruptcy in several different jurisdictions with significantly different bankruptcy procedures. It is therefore essential that modern bankruptcy lawyers have at least a basic understanding of the distinctive features of foreign bankruptcy regimes. Additionally, even if a corporation and its subsidiaries file for bankruptcy in a single jurisdiction, the courts in that jurisdiction will often need the assistance of courts in foreign jurisdictions in order to protect the corporation's assets and consummate a successful reorganization or liquidation. It is therefore important for modern bankruptcy lawyers to understand the scope for international cooperation between courts and practitioners and the international legal instruments that seek to foster such cooperation. The first half of this class identifies the basic contours of the world's major bankruptcy regimes, including the laws of the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Canada, and of various Latin American and Western European countries. During the second half, we study the major legal frameworks for international assistance and cooperation in cross-border bankruptcies (Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and the European Union’s Insolvency Regulation). We also discuss the opportunities for foreign nationals to use U.S. Bankruptcy Law (particularly Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code) to pursue a reorganization in the United States. Instructors: Each class will be taught by one or more visiting instructors. Technical Aspects: The course will originate at St John’s Law School and be telecast to the other participating. Students at the other schools will be able to see and hear the instructor and ask questions in real time. Students are evaluated and graded by professors at their home institutions. At Chicago-Kent, students will work on a substantial research paper and a series of short (2–3 page) analysis papers. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course will investigate some of the most famous trials in history, including the Scopes trial on the teaching of evolution, the Sacco and Vanzetti murder trial, and the Leopold and Loeb murder trial (including Clarence Darrow's argument against the death penalty). Professor Brill will begin the course with a multi-week investigation of the Sacco/Vanzetti case, its after-effects, and recent revelations about the case. Thereafter, students will be assigned, in teams of two, to prepare and present multi-media presentations of highlights from other significant trials, and the lessons learned from those trials that may have relevance for current cases. Grades for the regular course version will primarily be based on the quality of the presentations. The course may also be taken as a senior seminar, in which case the student will be required to write a draft and final version of a seminar paper, analyzing the significant issues raised in the case selected. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar will examine the work and institution of the Supreme Court of the United States with particular emphasis on the role that oral argument plays in the communication and decision processes of the justices. Our focus will be the 2010 and the 2011 Terms. Students will be required to: (1) present an in-class review of a case from the 2010 Term; and (2) present a preliminary report and write a major research paper on a single undecided case from the 2011 Term, including a prediction and justification for the vote of each justice. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar addresses various new legal issues arising under the current context of globalization, in particular after the recent financial crisis. It probes how nations have dealt with the unprecedented turbulence in the market through legal means and whether those legal responses have been both effective and legitimate. It deals with issues, such as international business, international trade, international business regulation, especially competition law and comparative law. In addition, the seminar will probe how non-legal disciplines, such as economics, political science, and sociology, investigate and understand legal phenomena in this area, and discuss whether and/or to what extent these non-legal analyses might complement legal analyses. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar will explore specific legal issues encountered by low wage workers, such as wage and hour violations, living wage efforts, workers compensation issues, the effect of the Affordable Health Care Act, and immigration-related concerns. The seminar will also explore representation of low wage workers and the special obstacles to traditional organizing under the NLRA. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar, prompted by the Supreme Court's blockbuster Second Amendment decision in Heller, deals with the history of guns and gun control in the United States. It also focuses on Heller itself, on McDonald (which applied Heller to states and local governments), and on the federal cases that are currently making their way to the Supreme Court. In addition, public opinion, the media and the roles of various organizations will be considered. Whatever your views on guns and gun control, you will find this seminar about a "new" and controversial constitutional right illuminating. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar aims to provide students with interdisciplinary insights on international economic law as it deals with literature from non-legal disciplines, such as economics, political science, and sociology. The seminar will probe how non-legal disciplines investigate and understand legal phenomena in the area of international economic law, such as international trade law and international investment law. The seminar will also discuss whether and/or to what extent these non-legal analyses might complement legal analyses. Topics include trade negotiation, protectionist politics, regionalism, dispute settlement system, trade remedies, trade and climate change, and trade-related intellectual property rights. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar will take an interdisciplinary approach to the intersection of environmental and energy issues. It will introduce students to a variety of solutions to the problem of pollution from the energy sector. The course will start with a legal and technical introduction to the electricity grid, including discussion of federal/state jurisdictional issues, basic engineering concepts (taught with lawyers in mind) of the grid, and the basics of regulated and deregulated electric markets. The class will then address issues involving emissions and emission prevention, including the Clean Air Act (Title V and recent coal emission rules), renewable energy (including state incentives, Commerce Clause issues, and basic market design issues), and carbon capture/sequestration (including liability issues and state incentives). For their research papers, students will propose emission-reducing programs for a hypothetical state with a hypothetical electric market and evaluate the arguments for and against those proposals, including any unintended consequences. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course analyzes American racial dynamics past and present, focusing on relationships between law, politics, and identity. Critical Race Theory (CRT) begins from the perspective that racism is an everyday, "normal" component of American social and political relations, rather than a set of aberrant individual attitudes and behaviors that can be muted by anti-discrimination law. As such, this course seeks to highlight the salience of race in society and everyday life. It focuses on systems of racial subordination, the creation and transformation of racial categories, and the social and psychological development of racial identities. In doing so, the course also constitutes a broad historical survey of major racial groupings in America, delving into the nuances of identity, classification, and subordination for each. Finally, while the course is rooted in law and legal scholarship, it draws significantly from a variety of academic disciplines-including sociology, psychology, history, ethnic studies, and education. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
In this course we will explore the differences between the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Illinois Code of Evidence, adopted as of January 2011. Even though Illinois became a Code state, it maintained significant evidentiary differences from the federal rules. There will be a seminar paper requirement and no final exam . Enrollment is limited and Evidence is a prerequisite. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This seminar will focus on the two main components of juvenile justice—delinquency and child protection. The Illinois Juvenile Court Act and the Juvenile Justice Reform Provisions of 1998 will provide the framework for the seminar. We will also explore the various agencies and their roles within the Juvenile Justice system. The 1998 reforms reflecting a balanced and restorative justice approach will be discussed as well as programs that incorporate its core principles. this seminar will also cover issues of confidentiality, dispositional hearings and other constitutionally protected rights specific to juvenile justice. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
People and democratic governments around the world frequently champion "Internet freedom." In 2011 and 2012, people fighting for Internet freedom in the United States, European Union, Pakistan and Philippines were successful in protesting against and eventually stopping proposed intellectual property laws and cyberlaws that people feared would lead to Internet censorship. In the United States, for example, millions of people successfully protested the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) on January 18, 2012, a day on which over 115,000 websites—including Wikipedia and Google—blacked out their sites. Despite the widespread popular belief in Internet freedom, the contours of the freedom remain undefined. While tied to the freedom of speech and of the press, the freedom of the Internet may encompass several sui generis protections or concerns, such as protections for its structure that allows an open platform on a non-discriminatory basis (e.g., Net neutrality) and for its governance under a multi-stakeholder, non-governmental approach. The freedom of the Internet, which is not expressly recognized in any constitution of any country in the world, is a right still in the making—or imagination. There is no guarantee it will succeed. This seminar will analyze the concept of the freedom of the Internet and the challenges posed to its development as a cognizable legal right. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Tort claims that arise at the intersection of law, medicine and ethics often center around controversial questions of duties, causation and the standard of care. This seminar will apply the concepts from introductory Torts to the field of medical and research ethics. It will explore the application of theories of liability to issues such as informed consent for treatment and research, the doctor-patient relationship, emerging technologies, privacy and beginning and end-of-life decision making. Students will select and research an area of bioethics, exploring the applicability of various tort theories and the intersection of law and ethics. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This class examines selected topics in intellectual property law, approaching them from a comparative perspective. It looks at the way controversial issues of IP law and policy are being handled in Europe (the EU and some of its Member States) and in the US in order to identify similarities and differences and to analyze their causes and their implications in a globalized world. The course takes a particular interest in the actors involved in IP law and policy-making and in the design of alternative decision-making processes, in which IP law and policy are shaped and enforced (political, judicial and administrative processes). The goal is to provide a better understanding of how the dynamic of actor participation influences substantive outcomes and the scope of IP rights and obligations. Among the themes to be discussed are: digital copyright and the responsibility of Internet Intermediaries for copyright enforcement; the changing role of collecting societies; copyright exceptions and limitations; and the position of the digital consumer. The emphasis is on copyright law and institutions, but the course also explores other IP controversies within the area of patent, trademark and unfair competition law. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
This course is designed (1) to advance and deepen your understanding of trademark law, and (2) to help you write a publishable academic legal paper on a topic related to trademark law. The first few weeks will involve set reading on a variety of trademark law topics, all of which are presently the subject of critical discussion: (1) assessing the distinctiveness and fame of marks; (2) protection of product design marks; (3) the role of registration in trademark law, and the relationship between registered and common law rights; (4) setting the limits on actionable confusion, by such devices as materiality or remoteness of harm; (5) secondary liability for trademark infringement; and (6) territorial limits on trade mark protection. Prerequisite: Students must have taken, or concurrently be taking, Trademarks and Unfair Competition. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
New technologies offer benefits to society, but they also often pose new threats to health, safety, or the quality of life. The more transformative the technology, the greater the likelihood that calls will come to regulate it. Drones, self-driving cars, many alternative energy sources, and new healthcare procedures are examples, but they do not exhaust the possibilities. Regulation can take various forms, from competition in the marketplace without much government intervention (the Internet), to a-priori government requirements that must be satisfied before a product can be offered for sale (new drugs), to self-certification by manufacturers of compliance with government standards (aircraft and motor vehicles close), to after-the-fact regulation by tort law. Student papers in the seminar will explore the advantages and disadvantages of different combinations of these tools for specific technologies. It is expected that drones and self-driving vehicles will receive particular attention. Credit Hours Two credit hours.
Patent law classes tend to focus on substantive doctrines, specific technologies, and/or patent practice. But patent law is only as good as the institutions and decision makers who apply it. This seminar focuses on the institutional structure of the patent system – the people and institutions that determine, develop, and use patent law. Each week will focus on a different patent institution or decision maker, including patent lawyers, patent examiners, district judges, the PTAB, the Federal Circuit, and the Supreme Court. We will discuss their roles, their strengths and weaknesses, their effects on case outcomes and patent law development, and potential reforms.
This seminar covers important patent law topics that either are not covered in the introductory Patent Law course or warrant greater depth of treatment. The focus is on topics that are particularly crucial or controversial in current patent practice. Topics may include: patent claim construction, Section 101 and patent-eligible subject matter, the PTAB, inventorship/ownership of patent rights, priority and continuation practice, infringement damages, and the concentration of patent cases in certain federal district courts. Classwork will include readings, discussions, and practical exercises. The main forms of assessment will be a seminar paper addressing a significant policy issue related to the covered patent law topics and smaller simulations of patent practice skills (e.g., claim construction briefing). Credit hours: Two credit hours.
Harassment, bullying, trafficking, and violence complaints in private and public sector workplaces (including schools, prisons, and the military) have increased in the post-Weinstein era, often against serial harassers. Complaints allege harassment and violence based on sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, religion, age, disability, association, sexual orientation, sexual non-conformity, gender identity, multiple statuses, and/or intersectionality. Alleged harassers include CEOs, C-suite executives, senior management, supervisors, lower-level managers, co-workers, bystanders, and third parties. Such allegations threaten the brands and often the very survival of employers. This course, taught by a co-editor of the 2018 Bloomberg Workplace Harassment Law (second edition), will explore landmark cases and cutting-edge issues in an increasingly diverse workplace. Three credit hours.