Bar Preparation Strategies: MBE & MEE (4001) Bar Prep Strategies: MBE and MEE is available to students during their last spring semester of law school. It centers on two parts of the UBE, the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) and the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). While this course does not replace the need to take a commercial bar prep course, it does provide early preparation to help students learn key legal principles tested on the bar exam and bar exam-taking techniques and strategies. Through this course, students will work to master their skills through lecture, modeling, completion of past bar exam questions, written feedback, and self-reflection. Students will also strategically plan their approach to their bar exam preparation post-graduation to ensure passage. While this course is required for some students, it is open to all students. This course includes a $15 course fee to cover the cost of purchasing past Bar Exam questions from the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Grading: P/F Credits: 3 Offered: Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation Civil Dispute Resolution (1003) Required. Provides an introduction to the civil justice system in the United States and the various methods of resolving disputes. Topics include: the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, pleading, adjudication by motion, litigation and non-litigation remedies, personal and subject matter jurisdiction, choice of law between judge and jury, post-trial proceedings, judicial review, preclusive effects of judgments, and simple and complex joinder mechanisms. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Civil Litigation Commercial Law Survey (2002) This course surveys Sales and Leases, a primary area covered by the Uniform Commercial Code. The course will introduce students to the UCC, a distinctive set of statutory provisions governing commercial transactions, and Article 1, which provides definitions and rules that apply throughout the Code. The course will also build on the foundation of concepts and topics covered in Contracts: Transactional Law, exposing students to key provisions of Articles 2 and 2A governing the sale and lease of goods. Finally, the course will survey the rights and liabilities that arise from payment by credit card, debit card, checks and other negotiable instruments. The course may also include treatment of Payment Systems, with attention focused on key provisions in Articles 3 and 4. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Business and Commercial Constitutional Criminal Procedure: Investigation and Interrogation (1204) Provides an introduction to federal constitutional limitations on governmental power to investigate crime, including stopping and detaining people, arrest, frisks, searches and seizures, custodial interrogations, right to counsel, identification procedures, and confrontation. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Civil Litigation, Constitutional Law and Civil Rights, Criminal Law Constitutional Liberties (2421) Teaches advanced legal reasoning in the context of the federal constitutional limitations on the national and state governments including substantive due process, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and equal protection. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Constitutional Powers: Advanced Legal Reasoning (2410) Covers powers of national government including judicial review and limitations on judicial power, separation of powers, Congress' commerce power, taxing and spending power, and power to enforce civil rights; reserved power of states to regulate and tax commerce; standing of parties and ripeness of disputes. Grading: Letter graded Credits: Variable Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Constitutional Law and Civil Rights Contracts: Transactional Law (1006) Required. Offers an introduction in how to approach the law from a transactional perspective. Covers the general scope of the legal protection accorded promises. Topics include mutual assent, consideration, the effect of changed or unforeseen circumstances, conditions, courses of action open to aggrieved party upon other party's default, the statute of frauds, parol evidence rule, promissory and equitable estoppel, nature of remedies awarded in the event of a breach (expectancy, reliance and restitution, liquidated damages, and specific performance). Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Business and Commercial Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation (1005) This course examines the skill of statutory interpretation in the context of the legal and doctrinal underpinnings of the substantive criminal law. The course will address: the elements of crimes against persons and property, the theories justifying punishment, the principles of criminal responsibility, and the defenses to criminal liability. The course will also address the practical and ethical application of these principles. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation, Criminal Law Estates & Trusts (3960) Studies the law of trusts and decedents' estates, including intestate succession, limitations on testamentary power, execution, construction, revocation, and contest of wills; effect of change on dispositions; the revocable and irrevocable trust; the rights and interests of the beneficiary; charitable trusts; estate and trust administration, powers, duties, and liabilities of the fiduciary; principal and income allocation, and will substitutes. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Estates and Trusts Estates and Trusts Survey (3961) Studies the law of trusts and decedents' estates, including intestate succession, limitations on testamentary power, execution, construction, revocation, and contest of wills; effect of change on dispositions; the revocable and irrevocable trust; the rights and interests of the beneficiary, and the powers, duties, and liabilities of the fiduciary. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 2 Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Estates and Trusts Evidence (2500) Studies the theory and practice of the Rules of Evidence. Emphasizes the analysis and interpretation of codified rules and common law principles pertaining to foundation, relevancy, character evidence, privileges, witnesses, expert testimony, scientific evidence, hearsay, authentication of real evidence, and documentary evidence. Designed to facilitate understanding of the uses of evidentiary rules in the preparation and trial of cases in state and federal courts. It is recommended that students take Evidence prior to or concurrent with Advocacy. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Civil Litigation, Criminal Law Family Law (4000) Studies the law as it relates to the family unit with emphasis on the impact of social, economic, moral, and scientific changes in the society on that relationship. Topics covered include marriage, dissolution of marriage, antenuptial contracts, paternity, surrogate motherhood, child support, tax implications of divorce, bankruptcy, family violence, support, child custody, and adoption. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: Variable Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Child and Family Law Introduction to Business Organizations (2000) Introduces the legal and business issues pertaining to business entities (corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and sole proprietorships) from pre formation planning to termination. Topics include agency law; entity formation, structure, and dissolution; and the rights and liabilities of those owning and managing these businesses. The course will take a practical and hands-on approach to these topics. Students will learn relevant business and legal concepts, and apply these concepts in various exercises that will teach students how to properly form, manage, run, and dissolve business relationships and entities. The content of this course is tested on the bar exam in a majority of states. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Business and Commercial Modern Real Estate Transactions (4930) This course covers some fundamental issues in real estate law. Students will draft deeds, perform a title search and draft an abstract of title, negotiate a residential purchase and sale, negotiate a letter of intent for a commercial lease, and advise a client on fair housing issues. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Child and Family Law, Banking, Real Estate Law Professional Responsibility (3200) Required. Covers the legal profession and the ethical responsibilities of lawyers as they engage in the practice of law. Discussion focuses on situations arising in practice that present important problems of professional conduct, including the concept of service and responsibility that is one of the distinctive characteristics of the legal profession, and the development in the bar of educational and ethical standards. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: 3 Offered: Fall/Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Academic Support and Bar Preparation Property: Jurisprudential and Comparative Analysis (1651) Examines basic concepts relating to ownership and possession of private property, in part through a comparative perspective. Addresses acquisition of property by find, adverse possession, and gift. Introduces possessory estates and future interests, concurrent ownership and marital interests, and the law of landlord and tenant. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Spring Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Public Interest Law, Real Estate Law, Academic Support and Bar Preparation Secured Transactions (5350) Covers the creation and perfection of consensual liens known as "security interests" in personal property under Article 9 of the U.C.C., proceeds and priorities problems, remedies and default, repossession and disposition of collateral. This area of law is widely used in business, commercial and consumer transactions of all types, including bank financing, mergers and acquisitions, and the sale of business, agricultural and consumer goods on credit. Grading: Letter graded. Credits: variable Offered: Irregularly Categories: Bar Courses Subject Areas: Banking, Bankruptcy, Business and Commercial Torts: The Common Law Process (1004) Required. Encompasses common law, intentional torts, defenses and privileges, and negligence. Grading: Letter graded Credits: 4 Offered: Fall Categories: Bar Courses, Required Subject Areas: Torts, Academic Support and Bar Preparation
