Summer 2024 Class Descriptions: Electives
Contract Drafting (Synchronous Distance Education) (LWGC563)
Instructor(s): Monica Sullivan
2 credit(s), Letter Graded
Requirement(s): Experiential OR Writing
Concentration(s): Business and Corporate Law (JD), LLM in Business and Corporate Law (LLMB), Business and Corporate Law (LLMUS)
Transactional drafting is crucial to the legal profession. It refers to the process of creating documents to formalize agreements between parties. This course trains students to be able to use the process comfortably. You will learn to structure agreements, and express them in clear and concise language that will benefit clients and maximize the likelihood of favorable interpretation. The course emphasizes both cooperative and individual drafting work. Each week in class, you will focus on selected components of the drafting process, and prepare a document or exercise requiring you to practice what you learn. You will receive immediate feedback on that days drafting activity, and written comments on individual weekly homework assignments. Visits by attorneys who draft contracts in their practice will provide a view of how the legal profession depends on this skill. This class will use various types of contracts that touch on various areas of substantive law: contracts for the sale of goods, business or property (contract law, commercial transactions); residential and commercial leases (landlord-tenant and real estate law); settlement agreements (torts); employment, non-disclosure and non-compete agreements (employment law); retainer agreements (legal ethics); intellectual property rights (intellectual property); corporate acquisitions (corporations, securities law); entertainment contracts (entertainment law); vendor contracts (sports law). Grades are based on the scores on individual weekly assignments.
Note:
This is a synchronous distance education course for Summer 2024 session. Classes will be taught via Zoom.
This course may fulfill either the Experiential OR Upper Division Writing requirement. Students will be asked in class at the beginning of the semester to elect which requirement they would like this course to fulfill. The stude
Evidence (Synchronous Distance Education) (LWLP529)
Instructor(s): Staff
4 credit(s), Letter Graded
Concentration(s): Civil Litigation (JD), Criminal Litigation (JD), Criminal Law (LLMUS), Criminal Law (LLMG)
The rules of evidence in judicial tribunals, focusing on the Federal Rules of Evidence and the California Evidence Code are addressed in this course. Also covered are issues relating to: (1) judicial control and administration - functions of judge and jury, judicial notice, burden of proof presumptions, problems of relevancy, circumstantial evidence, and unfair prejudice; and (2) witnesses - competency, privileges, principles of examination and cross-examination, impeachment and support, expert and lay opinion testimony. The hearsay rule and its exceptions, rules relating to writings, real and scientific evidence are also examined.
Note:
This is a synchronous distance education course for Summer 2024 session. Classes will be taught via Zoom.
Global Wrongful Convictions - London (LWCR537)
Instructor(s): Justin Brooks
2 credit(s)
Concentration(s): Criminal Litigation (JD), International Law (JD), Study Abroad (JD), Criminal Law (LLMUS), International Law (LLMUS), Criminal Law (LLMG), LLM in International Law (LLMI), Criminal Law (MSLS)
Global Issues in Wrongful Convictions
Wrongful Conviction conviction is a global problem that has received a great deal of attention from the media, legislatures, and courts around the world in recent years. From the Netflix series “Making a Murderer” to the NPR podcast “Serial,” there is a growing fascination with how people are wrongfully convicted, and the processes and procedures used to right these wrongs. This course is taught by a law professor who has spent his career litigating wrongful conviction cases and directing the California Innocence Project. It is designed to provide students with an overview of the issues and case law related to wrongful convictions through the use of interactive exercises, lectures, readings, videos, and case studies. There will also be visits to courts, parliament, The London Innocence Project, and a 5 star restaurant built into a prison and run by incarcerated people.
Housing Rights Clinic I & II (LWVL500)
Instructor(s): Staff
1-4 credit(s), H/P/L/F Graded
Requirement(s): Experiential
Concentration(s): Public Interest Law (JD)
The Housing Rights Clinic provides students with opportunities to represent clients facing housing instability, including homelessness, eviction, foreclosure, and threats to housing like uninhabitability and harassment. Students will get hands-on experience interviewing clients, drafting pleadings, propounding and responding to discovery, motion practice, negotiation, and trial experience. Students will also have the opportunity to conduct outreach and education and help tenants organize and pursue their housing rights. The class will meet once a week as a group to learn about housing law and advocacy and to discuss case management and strategize on negotiation, litigation, and trial. The class meets a second time each week during set office hours to receive one-on-one training from the professor and litigation team on their caseload.
International Deals & Global Crises - Madrid (LWIC534)
Instructor(s): Frederick Heller
3 credit(s), Letter Graded
Concentration(s): International Law (JD), International Law (LLMUS), International Law (MSLS)
This class introduces students to cross-border deals and to the disruptive impact of global events, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to classroom discussions, several lawyers who specialize in in different aspects of cross-border deals will speak to the class, and the class will visit a London law firm. The focus will be on transactions involving a business unit, including: Joint ventures; mergers, acquisitions and dispositions: and financing. The objective is for students to learn about: How lawyers approach and carry out cross-border deals; the factors that distinguish cross-border deals from domestic deals and how to take those factors into account; and the primary types of cross-border deals and the terms that are customary in those deals. The course will not address commercial transactions between businesses, such as commercial sales of goods or services or commercial licensing, all of which are covered in other courses.
International Internet & IP Law - Madrid (LWIC550)
Instructor(s): M. Margaret McKeown
3 credit(s), Letter Graded
Concentration(s): International Law (JD), International Law (LLMUS), International Law (MSLS)
A survey of international intellectual property through the lens of the Internet, this course deals with the intersection of traditional intellectual property law and the Internet. Because this area of the law is in flux, particularly in the international and constitutional arenas, the course will include a discussion of current cases and events, supplemented by presentations from outside experts. The survey includes emerging copyright, trademark, trade secret and criminal law issues in the U.S. and other jurisdictions (especially the European Union), and the applicability of key treaties. In the face of differing cultural and social norms, the course will also focus on domestic and international regulation of the Internet, privacy, speech and content regulation, and social media.
International Negotiations - London (LWIC548)
Instructor(s): Staff
3 credit(s), Letter Graded
Requirement(s): Skills
Concentration(s): International Law (JD), International Law (LLMUS), International Law (MSLS)
The course will include specific materials and skill-building exercises on cross-cultural aspects of the bargaining process. Participants may include lawyers from other nations and upper class American JD students.
New Information Tech and Law (hybrid) (LWIP556)
Instructor(s): Staff
3 credit(s), Letter Graded
Requirement(s): Writing
This course offers an introduction to the new information technology (IT) ecosystem and its implications for legal claims-making and practice. A new, technologically rich era of law is being facilitated by rapidly increasing amounts of online data and the growing sophistication of tools that enable searching and manipulation of digital data. Recent innovations include the application of algorithms and artificial intelligence to questions of policing, rights compliance, and criminal investigation. Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and Bard are reconfiguring contract law, legal research, and access to justice. The subject matter of this course includes tech-driven developments in law that are still unfolding, making it possible to not only learn about them, but to shape them in a lasting way.
Note:
This course is being taught by Dr. Ronald Niezen of the College of Arts and Schiences. It isplanned in a hybrid mode: students may elect to attend in person or via Zoom.