Course Schedule

This internship program offers students the opportunity to apply for a “for-credit” internship position with the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. You must first submit a application to me and to the Department of Justice, and interested students will interviewed (usually during Spring break) for one of the three to five available spots. You must be willing to intern for a full academic year (not including the summer sessions), and you will receive four credits on a pass-fail basis over both long semesters.

Third year students are generally preferred, but second year students have successfully competed for these slots in the past. Students are encouraged to also enroll in either the Fall three-unit Advanced Federal Criminal Prosecution & Defense seminar, co-taught by Professor Susan R. Klein and Aleza Remis, Asst. Dep. Chief, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, or the Spring three-unit Federal Criminal Law course taught by Prof. Klein, but neither is required. Enrolling in a criminal procedure course would also be helpful, but is not required

The internship component requires a commitment to work 10 hours per week for two consecutive long semesters at the U.S. Attorney's office in downtown Austin, Texas. Many of your hours can be completed at the law school or at home, though you will probably want to go in to the office once a week. You will asisist in the prosecution of federal criminal cases under the supervision of Matt Harding and other Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Students will receive two credits "pass-fail" for the internship for each semester, for a total of four units.

The application deadline for the next academic year (2023-2024) is March of 2023.

Information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office is available at: www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/. You are also welcome to contact Prof. Klein directly by calling her at (512) 203-2257, e-mailing her at sklein@law.utexas.edu, or visiting her at her office in Townes Hall, room number 3.207. You can also obtain additional information from her assistant Nick Charlesworth, by calling him at (512) 232-2202, or e-mailing him at ncharlesworth@law.utexas.edu.

This internship program offers students the opportunity to apply for “for-credit” internship positions with the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. This course offers students a required four-credit internship to be completed over both long semesters.

Students are encouraged to enroll in the Fall three-unit Advanced Federal Criminal Prosecution seminar. This seminar, taught by Professors Susan R. Klein and Aleza Remis, will meet one afternoon per week. The seminar will address the duties of federal criminal prosecutors and defenders, including grand jury procedure, drafting indictments, calculating sentences under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, designing undercover operations, offering immunity, responding to evidentiary and discovery motions, requesting bail, and entering plea and cooperation agreement negotiations. Students may also be interested in 3-unit Federal Criminal Law, a course taught by Prof. Susan Klein in Spring of 2023. Neither course is required.

The internship component requires a commitment to work 10 hours per week for two consecutive semesters at the U.S. Attorney's Office 903 San Jacinto Blvd., Suite 334 Austin, Texas 78701. You will assist in the prosecution of federal criminal cases under the supervision of Matt Harding, Dan Guess, and other Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Students will receive two credits "pass-fail" for the internship for each semester, for a total of four units.

The application deadline for the next academic year is TBD.

Information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office is available at: www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/ .

This internship program offers students the opportunity to apply for “for-credit” internship positions with the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. This course offers students a required four-credit internship to be completed over both long semesters.

Students are encouraged to enroll in the Fall three-unit Advanced Federal Criminal Prosecution seminar. This seminar, taught by Professors Susan R. Klein and Aleza Remis, will meet one afternoon per week. The seminar will address the duties of federal criminal prosecutors and defenders, including grand jury procedure, drafting indictments, calculating sentences under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, designing undercover operations, offering immunity, responding to evidentiary and discovery motions, requesting bail, and entering plea and cooperation agreement negotiations. Students may also be interested in 3-unit Federal Criminal Law, a course taught by Prof. Susan Klein in Spring of 2021. Neither course is required.

The internship component requires a commitment to work 10 hours per week for two consecutive semesters at the U.S. Attorney's Office 903 San Jacinto Blvd., Suite 334 Austin, Texas 78701. You will assist in the prosecution of federal criminal cases under the supervision of Matt Harding, Dan Guess, and other Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Students will receive two credits "pass-fail" for the internship for each semester, for a total of four units.

The application deadline for the next academic year is Feb. 12, 2021.

Information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office is available at: www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/.

This internship program offers students the opportunity to apply for “for-credit” internship positions with the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. This course offers students a required four-credit internship to be completed over both long semesters.

Students are encouraged to enroll in the Fall three-unit Advanced Federal Criminal Prosecution seminar. This seminar, taught by Professors Susan R. Klein and Aleza Remis, will meet one afternoon per week. The seminar will address the duties of federal criminal prosecutors and defenders, including grand jury procedure, drafting indictments, calculating sentences under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, designing undercover operations, offering immunity, responding to evidentiary and discovery motions, requesting bail, and entering plea and cooperation agreement negotiations. Students may also be interested in 3-unit Federal Criminal Law, a course taught by Prof. Susan Klein in Spring of 2021. Neither course is required.

The internship component requires a commitment to work 10 hours per week for two consecutive semesters at the U.S. Attorney's Office 903 San Jacinto Blvd., Suite 334 Austin, Texas 78701. You will assist in the prosecution of federal criminal cases under the supervision of Matt Harding, Dan Guess, and other Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Students will receive two credits "pass-fail" for the internship for each semester, for a total of four units.

The application deadline for the next academic year is Feb. 12, 2021.

Information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office is available at: www.usdoj.gov/usao/txw/.

This course examines a range of contemporary issues in policing, prosecution, and punishment through the lens of a series of documentary films and related short reading assignments. Through class discussion and exchange of short response papers to the films, students will explore and critically examine a range of issues and controversies in the American criminal justice system, including the expansion in the role and powers of the police resulting from the War on Drugs; the use of racial profiling, no-knock warrants, and other policing practices; officer-involved shootings and the doctrine of qualified immunity; the "school-to-prison pipeline; sex offender registries; the prosecution of juveniles in criminal court; and long-term solitary confinement, among other issues. Students will discuss and explore the feasibility of alternative approaches to these practices and examine the legal, political, and practical obstacles to reform.

In the past few years, employee workplace protests and strikes have proliferated in a manner not seen since the 1930s. Surveys show that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions--the highest since 1965--and the National Labor Relations Board reported a 58% increase in union election petitions filed in 2022. With major union victories at nationwide franchises, including Starbucks and Amazon, the landscape for organizing has been changing with employees often choosing nontraditional worker-lead unions. However, substantial obstacles remain for employees hoping to unionize, as reflected in the low private sector unionization rate of only 6%.

This introduction to labor law will cover the basics of the National Labor Relations Act (governing private sector employees), as interpreted in National Labor Relations Board case law and Supreme Court precedent, with a particular emphasis on connection to current news events. The class will review and discuss labor law topics, ranging from:  what constitutes concerted, protected activity; social media rules; causation in Section 8(a)(3) discrimination cases; property rights and organizing; the election process; the duty to bargain in good faith; strikes, lockouts and other employer responses to organizing; the collective bargaining process; and the union’s responsibility to represent its members. Throughout the course, we will examine the history and values underlying the law, including the economic and political interests that have influenced its development.

Students will prepare a mid-term paper and be tasked with weekly debate topics. A final exam will be administered at the end of the semester.

• Guest speakers will include NLRB officials, as well as union and management side labor counsel. 

• Adjunct Professor Sonya Spielberg is a Senior Counsel at the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., with more than 25 years' experience in public and private sector labor law.

Introduction to Real Estate Law and Practice is for students with little or no knowledge or experience in the industry. This course will begin with an introduction to the commercial real estate industry, including the basic vocabulary and law. This course will review legal theory in the areas of contracts, property (including condominium law), agency, tax (federal income tax and property tax), land use, and business entities; and will apply those areas of law to purchase and sale agreements, brokerage arrangements, leases of improved real estate, choice of ownership entity, acquisition and construction financing, eminent domain and insurance. This course will include a discussion of various types of legal practices in the area of real estate law. This course will only tangentially deal with residential real estate. Materials to be used will include a traditional textbook supplemented by materials supplied by the professor in PDF format. There are no formal prerequisites.

Jurisdiction & Judgments is a course in Conflict of Laws. Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute or transaction has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated topics: (1) territorial jurisdiction (and related doctrines), (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This course focuses on the first and third topics: specifically, territorial jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, forum selection clauses, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered by the courts of other states and countries. Choice of law is the focus of a separate course titled “Conflict of Laws,” and is covered in Jurisdiction & Judgments only to the extent necessary to fully understand the topics that are the focus of this course. At the end of the semester, students should have developed a sound understanding of the law governing jurisdiction and judgments, including policy considerations that may shape further development of the law.

Jurisdiction & Judgments is a course in Conflict of Laws. Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute or transaction has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated topics: (1) territorial jurisdiction (and related doctrines), (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This course focuses on the first and third topics: specifically, territorial jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, forum selection clauses, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered by the courts of other states and countries. Choice of law is the focus of a separate course titled “Conflict of Laws,” and is covered in Jurisdiction & Judgments only to the extent necessary to fully understand the topics that are the focus of this course. At the end of the semester, students should have developed a sound understanding of the law governing jurisdiction and judgments, including policy considerations that may shape further development of the law.

Jurisdiction & Judgments is a course in Conflict of Laws. Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute or transaction has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated topics: (1) territorial jurisdiction (and related doctrines), (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This course focuses on the first and third topics: specifically, territorial jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, forum selection clauses, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered by the courts of other states and countries. Choice of law is the focus of a separate course titled “Conflict of Laws,” and is covered in Jurisdiction & Judgments only to the extent necessary to fully understand the topics that are the focus of this course. At the end of the semester, students should have developed a sound understanding of the law governing jurisdiction and judgments, including policy considerations that may shape further development of the law.

Jurisdiction and Judgments is a course in Conflict of Laws. Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute or transaction has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated topics: (1) territorial jurisdiction (and related doctrines), (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This course focuses on the first and third topics: territorial jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, forum selection clauses, and the recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered by other states and countries. Choice of law is the focus of a separate course titled “Conflict of Laws,” and is covered in this course only to the extent necessary to fully understand other topics. At the end of the semester, students should have developed a sound understanding of the topics covered in this course, including policy considerations that may shape further development of the law.

This is a course in Conflict of Laws. Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute or transaction has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated parts: (1) territorial jurisdiction (and related doctrines), (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This short course, Jurisdiction and Judgments, focuses on territorial jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, forum selection clauses, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.

This is a course in Conflict of Laws. Conflict of Laws addresses issues that may arise when a dispute or transaction has connections with more than one state or country. The subject is generally divided into three interrelated parts: (1) territorial jurisdiction (and related doctrines), (2) choice of law, and (3) recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. This short course, Jurisdiction and Judgments, focuses on territorial jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, forum selection clauses, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.

An introductory survey course about general jurisprudence and the rule of law, which asks questions like, "What is law? What distinguishes legal institutions from other ones? What, if anything, makes a legal claim true? And what does it mean to be governed by the rule of law?" Readings will include HLA Hart, Lon Fuller, and Ronald Dworkin.

An introductory survey course about general jurisprudence and the rule of law, which asks questions like, "What is law? What distinguishes legal institutions from other ones? What, if anything, makes a legal claim true? And what does it mean to be governed by the rule of law?" Readings will include HLA Hart, Lon Fuller, and Ronald Dworkin.

The course will be a study of central question in the philosophy of law: What is the nature of law? What distinguishes a legal system from other systems of norms? What place if any does morality have in a legal system? Do the norms of a legal system determine the decisions judges make in the cases before them? Are judges, that is, constrained by legal norms in reaching decisions in those cases? Are there norms or methods of legal reasoning that judges should follow in reaching decisions? Readings for the course will be a mix of historical and contemporary writings, including those of Aquinas, Hobbes, John Austin, H. L A. Hart, and Ronald Dworkin. No previous study of philosophy will be assumed.

An introductory lecture/survey course about general jurisprudence, which purports to answer questions like, "What is law? What distinguishes legal institutions from other ones? And what makes a true legal claim true?" Readings will cover John Austin, HLA Hart, Ronald Dworkin, and other participants in these debates. Where time permits, we will also address how these abstract questions come to bear on concrete controversies about legal interpretation.

The course will be a study of central question in the philosophy of law: What is the nature of law? What distinguishes a legal system from other systems of norms? What place if any does morality have in a legal system? Do the norms of a legal system determine the decisions judges make in the cases before them? Are judges, that is, constrained by legal norms in reaching decisions in those cases? Are there norms or methods of legal reasoning that judges should follow in reaching decisions? Readings for the course will be a mix of historical and contemporary writings, including those of Aquinas, Hobbes, John Austin, H. L A. Hart, and Ronald Dworkin. No previous study of philosophy will be assumed.

Most of the time when judicial opinions are handed down the focus is narrowly on the facts of the case and references to large philosophical questions are either absent or perfunctory. Big questions like “What is law?” “What is the source of law’s legitimacy?”, “How is law distinguished from force?”, “What is the relationship between law and morality?”, “Is the law an autonomous system?”, and “Is the law gendered?” are not taken up explicitly or at length in the course of a ruling. Yet these questions and the various answers given to them underlie and give shape to the specific arguments judges engage in. Jurisprudence is the study of those big questions and of the traditions of inquiry that have been set in motion by the attempts to answer them. In this course we shall survey the major traditions of inquiry with a view to understanding how even the most minute and apparently local issues in law reflect long-standing and unresolved controversies.

Topics of investigation will include Natural Law, Positive Law, Legal Realism, Law and Economics, Legal Interpretation, Feminist Jurisprudence, Critical Race Theory, Gay Legal Theory, Postmodernism and the Law, Legal Pragmatism.

The course begins by developing my position on legitimate and valid legal argument in the United States. That position is based on (1) the postulate that to be morally legitimate the use of a legal argument must be consistent with the moral commitments of the society in which the legal argument is being made and (2) an "empirical" conclusion that the United States is a liberal, rights-based society (i.e., a society whose members and governments draw a strong distinction between moral-rights discourse and moral-ought discourse, are committed to moral-rights conclusions) trumping moral-ought conclusions when the two conclusions favor different outcomes, and derive their moral-rights conclusions from a basic commitment to treating all moral-rights- bearing entities for which they are responsible with appropriate, equal respect and concern. The combination of the above postulate and empirical finding lead me to conclude that (1) arguments derived from the liberal principle just articulated are not only inside the law but are the dominant mode of legitimate and valid legal argument in the United States (dominant in that they operate not only directly but also by determining the legitimacy, legitimate variant of, and legitimate weight to be given to the other modes of legal argument that are actually made in our society) and relatedly (2) there are internally-right answers to all legal-rights questions in our society. The second part of the course then explores a variety of moral-philosophical and jurisprudential alternatives to my own. The third part analyzes from my and various alternative moral and jurisprudential perspectives a variety of various judicial opinions that deal with these issues. The fourth part executes parallel analyses of a variety of "appropriate, equal concern"- real Constitutional Law issues and judicial opinions. I expect to focus particularly on affirmative action, the right to die, right to a liberal education, and the possible right to a minimum real income or minimum share of the societal-average minimum real income.

This course will examine selected labor law topics, with the primary aim of providing an overview of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, as amended, which, after many decades of American working people’s struggles to devise and establish collective means for improving their wages and the conditions in which they worked, committed the United States to fostering collective bargaining in the private sector.  The course will take a look at some tools Congress put in the tool box it set up for workers and unions, including enforcement tools, and whether those tools have yielded as much encouragement of collective bargaining as the Act said that Congress intended.  This look will include topics such as the history leading up to the Act’s passage; what, when and how workers and employers are allowed to communicate about working terms and conditions; the Act’s prohibition against company unions; its prohibition against discrimination for exercising the Act’s rights; the ways in which workers can form unions and compel collective bargaining; and enforcement of collective bargaining agreements.  The course also will touch on the implications for achieving the Act’s stated purpose that arise from recent Supreme Court and Appellate Court decisions, from cases pending before the Supreme Court in its 2025-2026 term, and from a recent Executive Order.

A secondary aim will be to provide a look at some of the laws and tactics public sector unions rely upon to represent workers, particularly public sector unions in Texas where collective bargaining is statutorily forbidden for most public sector workers.

An underlying objective will be to give students a glimpse of what union representatives and labor lawyers actually do. To this end, there will be some guest speakers.

Labor Law:  The NLRA, Unions and Workers’ Rights in a Post-Pandemic World

In this time of unparalleled job market insecurity in the wake of an international pandemic, employee workplace protests and strikes have proliferated in a manner not seen since the 1930s. While surveys show that 68% of Americans approve of labor unions--the highest since 1965--unionization rates are at an historic low of 6-10%. President Biden describes himself as “the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history.” In this critical moment in history, does the 85-year old National Labor Relations Act adequately protect employees who wish to organize and protest, particularly when many of these employees are daily risking their lives to provide essential services?

This seminar style course (limited to 20 students) will be an untraditional introduction to labor law with an emphasis on participation and debate. In addition to studying the NLRA, the structure of the NLRB and the foundational case law interpreting the Act, we will discuss the reasons for the decline in unionization, current obstacles to union representation, as well as the PRO Act, the legislative proposal backed by the Biden Administration and organized labor. We will also debate current labor topics, such as: the proliferation of workplace demonstrations and organizing campaigns (particularly in the tech, fast food, education, healthcare and childcare industries), unionizing in the gig economy; whether graduate students and/or college athletes should be entitled to unionize; protected speech in the workplace; whether the collective bargaining regime adequately offers workers the ability to address racial and gender injustice in the workplace; and collective bargaining among law enforcement officers and other public sector employees.  Throughout the course, we will examine the history and values underlying the law, including the economic and political interests that have influenced its development.

Students will prepare a final project and paper of their own choosing (in lieu of a final exam) and be tasked with weekly debate topics. 

• Guest speakers will include NLRB officials, as well as union and management side labor counsel. 
• Professors Spielberg and Avendano collectively have more than 50 years experience in the field of labor law, having worked for the NLRB, for union and union-side firms, and in the private sector.

  Students will gain exposure to and familiarity with how labor law manifests in the contemporary legal and organizing landscape through interactions with individual practitioners/partner organizations focused on workers’ rights. 

Data-centers, including their extreme water-use, in the Arizonan desert or in arid West Texas or in rural Tennessee or in all of the above?

Alfalfa grown west of Phoenix for export for Saudi cattle or the Minnesota dairy industry or metastatic residential development?

Groundwater retention for East Texas communities or the long-haul conveyance of massive groundwater volumes from there to Dallas-Fort Worth and the north?

West Texas frack water ("produced water") for irrigation re-use? Fracking or watershed protection in Pennsylvania and New York?

Hydropower for Idaho and Nevada or dam removals for the long-delayed benefit of certain tribes?

Extravagant land and water uses for industrial hog and poultry production in Iowa, Maryland, North Carolina, and Texas or potable water protections (and clean air) for cities and towns?

Off-shore "farming" or pollution controls in the sea?

Compact- and treaty-based water entitlements or the radical remaking of rights regimes from the past? "Buy-and-dry" covenants, silent deeds, tort invocations, statutory restrictions, Commerce Clause delineations--new-fangled legal strategies or nay?

As you can see, the dominant speech-part powering these capsule illustrations of our field of inquiry in this Workshop is the conjunction "or". It is here to reflect that land and water use in our times is, increasingly, and at an accelerating pace, the site of conflicts arising from lessening supplies against increasing demands for land and water: This is a story of our times and, as the outcomes of these conflicts shape alternative paths of growth and development for localities and regions, of the future, as well.

In grappling with the attendant issues, we'll make use of familiar conceptual and practical frameworks: visions pertaining to social and economic welfare, global capital markets and their influential appetites, private versus public goods, states' versus federal rights, the quickening pulse of populist preferences and the failing pulse of regulation; technocratic problem-solving-- and the shifting dynamics of conflict-resolution and justice-seeking that are playing out in many of these settings on account of the sought-for interventions of  public and private law.   

As to the law: I have conceived of this short course as a miniature capstone for law students, as our subjects will mirror the kaleidoscopic ways that law, its ideals and structures and institutions (note the use of "and"), come to bear on the infinite doings of everyday, conflict-generative life.

Beyond the law: I have also conceived of this short course as a welcome landing place for insights and knowledge from a diversity of the disciplines outside of the law from which our appreciation of these challenging social, economic, and geophysical issues might gain.  

                                  I hope the work will be interdisciplinary to the core. That's why students from other university departments and units are being invited to join.

                                                                                               *

Course requirements:

1--The class will meet in four Friday sessions of three hours each. Full attendance at every class is mandatory.

     "Full attendance" includes reasonable attentiveness to the contributions of others involved in class discussions, as well as active participation in them on a reasonable basis that consists of apt commentary clearly informed by the course readings. The sharing of pertinent outside knowledge, such as that derived from other courses, other readings, and from volunteer and professional experience is encouraged.

2—For Law students, the course is offered pass/fail.

3—Students from non-Law departments and programs may take the course pass/fail or for one graded credit.

4--All students will complete a very brief written exercise. No AI is to be used in the production of what is turned in.

     Credit will also be given for class participation, so long as it meets the expectations described above at (1).

This course will cover the traditional areas of platting and zoning, and will also consider the roles of utility supply, transportation, federal and local environmental law and the offer of public financial assistance as incentives or disincentives to developments or the location of developments. The course will be a three credit hour course and will meet on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Traditional textbooks available in this area are of minimal help or are obsolete.  We will discuss the use of a textbook and if students desire, we may include materials from a textbook, but in any case the majority of course materials will be a collection of materials written or edited by the teacher to be sent out in PDF from the professor to the students (free!). Class sessions will include visits by lawyers, public officials and others involved in development issues, with informal meetings with the speakers over beer to follow if that can be scheduled.