Course Schedule

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

A survey of interests in land and limited topics involving chattels: estates, cotenancy, landlord and tenant issues, conveyancing, private and public control of land use.

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

A survey of interests in land and limited topics involving chattels: estates, cotenancy, landlord and tenant issues, conveyancing, private and public control of land use.

This class will teach the elements of a federal complaint through the lens of public interest lawsuits versus the government. The goal is for students to be able to strategize a concept and draft a complaint against a federal agency that would meet the requirements to bring suit and survive a motion to dismiss.

This course provides a basic introduction to public international law. It will survey the basic principles of international law including: the sources of international law; the law and interpretation of treaties; the relationship between international and domestic law; and jurisdictional competencies. It will also examine a number of specific subjects including: the use of force; human rights; humanitarian law; international criminal law; and terrorism.

This course provides a basic introduction to public international law. It will survey the basic principles of international law including: the sources of international law; the law and interpretation of treaties; the relationship between international and domestic law; and jurisdictional competencies. It will also examine a number of specific subjects including: the use of force; human rights; humanitarian law; international criminal law; and terrorism.

This course provides a basic introduction to public international law. It will survey the basic principles of international law including: the sources of international law; the law and interpretation of treaties; the relationship between international and domestic law; and jurisdictional competencies. It will also examine a number of specific subjects including: the use of force; human rights; humanitarian law; international criminal law; and terrorism.

This course provides a basic introduction to public international law. It will survey the basic principles of international law including: the sources of international law; the law and interpretation of treaties; the relationship between international and domestic law; and jurisdictional competencies. It will also examine a number of specific subjects including: the use of force; human rights; humanitarian law; international criminal law; and terrorism.

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

This course provides a basic introduction to public international law. It will survey the basic principles of international law including: the sources of international law; the law and interpretation of treaties; the relationship between international and domestic law; and jurisdictional competencies. It will also examine a number of specific subjects including: the use of force; human rights; humanitarian law; international criminal law; and terrorism.

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

What constitutes what might be termed “American constitutional identity”?  I.e., the Preamble speaks in the name of “We the People,” but who, exactly, constitute “the people” in whose name the Constitution is purportedly ordained?  Is there a single answer to that question, or, in fact, has that been an important controversy since 1787 (at least)?  The course will consist of close reading of some classic American texts, some of them cases, some of them not, such as the Declaration of Independence, Federalist #2, or a speech by Frederick Douglass.  Inevitably, the issue of race, within the United States, is inevitably intertwined with the reality of chattel slavery, legal until 1865 (save for some so-called “anti-slavery constitutionalists”), and succeeded thereafter by attempts to preserve white supremacy through, for example, racial segregation.  Thus the course will focus on the “first century” (broadly defined) of the Constitution from its formation and ratification in 1787-88 to Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.

The course will be shorter than usual, as is appropriate for a “reading course.”  Grades will be pass-fail.  There will be examination, though each of the students enrolled in the course will be expected to write three  “reaction papers” of approximately 500 words each to the readings assigned in any given week after the first.  What is most essential to the course, though, will be a willingness to engage in what might well be unusually intense discussion, given the continuing importance of the subject  What are the consequences, for example, of accepting William Lloyd Garrison’s view that the Constitution was a “covenant with death and an agreement with Hell”?  Does that mean, for example, that Dred Scott was basically “correct,” as against being the creation of essentially “rogue” judges.  To what extent were the Reconstruction Amendments clearly devoted to eliminating aspects of oppressive racialism (or even all reliance on racial categorization at all), at least as understood up to 1896?

This course introduce students to the avenues and theories lawyers can utilize to conceptualize and seek social change. Through readings and discussion, we will explore past, present, and future movement lawyering strategies and concepts, including aspects of the civil rights movement, prison abolition, and Afrofuturism. We will examine the ways lawyers engage with communities, clients, and political causes, as well as the ethical issues that may arise when advocating on behalf of class members with divergent interests. Although the law can serve as an effective tool for change, it has its limitations. This course will help us recognize the need for movement lawyers to work in partnership with communities, organizers, and policymakers to achieve justice.

Depending on scheduling and availability, this course will incorporate guest speakers engaged in movement lawyering, community organizers, and public policy. Students will be expected to read, watch, and listen to the assigned materials and actively participate in discussion. Students will leave with a deeper knowledge of social justice lawyering, and an understanding of how to recognize the law’s limitations as a singular tool to achieve social, political, economic, and racial equality.

This course will examine historic and contemporary issues of race within American law and jurisprudence. We will scrutinize how law has been used at the state and federal level to maintain systems of oppression, perpetuate hierarchy and how it has also been used as a tool to remedy those injustices.  Critical Race Theory will be the primary lens through which we analyze the assigned materials. Through this course, students will learn substantive principles dealing with race; study the growing body of legal scholarship known as Critical Race Theory; and examine the inherent potential (and limits) of law to be used for social change.  Grades for the course will be based upon class participation, a group presentation and completion of a paper (20 page double-spaced pages, inclusive of footnotes). Students’ papers may examine any issue concerning race (citizenship, education, health care, housing, criminal justice, etc.) so long as a substantial focus of the paper is an examination of doctrinal, theoretical, and/or policy-based facets of a legal problem and corresponding solutions.

This course will examine historic and contemporary issues of race within American law and jurisprudence. We will scrutinize how law has been used at the state and federal level to maintain systems of oppression, perpetuate hierarchy and how it has also been used as a tool to remedy those injustices.  Critical Race Theory will be the primary lens through which we analyze the assigned materials. Through this course, students will learn substantive principles dealing with race; study the growing body of legal scholarship known as Critical Race Theory; and examine the inherent potential (and limits) of law to be used for social change.  Grades for the course will be based upon class participation, a group presentation and completion of a paper (20 page double-spaced pages, inclusive of footnotes). Students’ papers may examine any issue concerning race (citizenship, education, health care, housing, criminal justice, etc.) so long as a substantial focus of the paper is an examination of doctrinal, theoretical, and/or policy-based facets of a legal problem and corresponding solutions.

This course will examine historic and contemporary issues of race within American law and jurisprudence. We will scrutinize how law has been used at the state and federal level to maintain systems of oppression, perpetuate hierarchy and how it has also been used as a tool to remedy those injustices.  Critical Race Theory will be the primary lens through which we analyze the assigned materials. Through this course, students will learn substantive principles dealing with race; study the growing body of legal scholarship known as Critical Race Theory; and examine the inherent potential (and limits) of law to be used for social change.  Grades for the course will be based upon class participation, a group presentation and completion of a paper (20 page double-spaced pages, inclusive of footnotes). Students’ papers may examine any issue concerning race (citizenship, education, health care, housing, criminal justice, etc.) so long as a substantial focus of the paper is an examination of doctrinal, theoretical, and/or policy-based facets of a legal problem and corresponding solutions.

The 28140 section of this course will be taught in person but with the option of occasional remote participation via Zoom.  If students require all remote participation, they must register for the 28149 section of this course, which is identical but web-based.

This course will examine historic and contemporary issues of race within American law and jurisprudence. We will scrutinize how law has been used at the state and federal level to maintain systems of oppression, perpetuate hierarchy and how it has also been used as a tool to remedy those injustices.  Critical Race Theory will be the primary lens through which we analyze the assigned materials. Through this course, students will learn substantive principles dealing with race; study the growing body of legal scholarship known as Critical Race Theory; and examine the inherent potential (and limits) of law to be used for social change.  Grades for the course will be based upon class participation, a group presentation and completion of a paper (20 page double-spaced pages, inclusive of footnotes). Students’ papers may examine any issue concerning race (citizenship, education, health care, housing, criminal justice, etc.) so long as a substantial focus of the paper is an examination of doctrinal, theoretical, and/or policy-based facets of a legal problem and corresponding solutions.

In this interdisciplinary seminar-styled class, students will explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various racial and economic groups in this country. Among the topics we will explore are public health disparities, including the social determinants of health, infection/mortality rates, and long COVID/shortened life expectancies. We also will consider how behavioral responses to masking, social distancing laws, and vaccine mandates varied between races and income groups.

Because of stubborn and systemic racial and income disparities in K-12 and post-secondary education and in congregant facilities, we will consider how students and incarcerated/detained persons responded to (or were able to respond to) lockdowns and how laws/regulations often failed to adequately protect vulnerable populations. We will also explore the disparate effects COVID had in the labor market (including who was allowed to work-from-home) and on housing (in)stability.

Students will read a range of materials that may include law review articles, policy papers, news articles, blog postings, and congressional testimony. There is no assigned textbook. All materials will be available on Canvas.

The first half of each class session will be conducted in small groups that will rotate weekly. There will be a full class discussion for the second half of class.

The final grade will be based on the quality of the participatory contributions made throughout the semester and discussion questions/short reflection posts. Students will also write a final paper (min. 15 pages) that will propose a concrete remedy to one of the racial or income disparities COVID created or exacerbated.

Two of the most important figures in our past concerning especially the degree to which the United States Constitution protected slavery were Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.  Lincoln began as a Whig who, among other things, supported the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 as a necessary compromise to maintain the Union.  He then becomes a Republican who suggests that a “House Divided” cannot stand and ends up engaging in a war that results in the death of 750,000 participants and, of course, with the legal elimination of chattel slavery.  Frederick Douglass, born a slaver in Maryland, becomes probably the most important voice (and certainly the most photographed figure) of the Abolitionist movement.  He begins as a Garrisonian who treats the Constitution as a “Covenant with Death and an Agreement with Hell.”  He ends up giving a speech in Glasgow on how the Constitution, correctly understood, is “anti-slavery.”  And he becomes a friend of Lincoln who pays him a noted, though not uncomplicated, tribute after his death.

This will be a one-credit “reading course.”  Grading will be pass/fail.  What this means, in practice, is that we will meet for seven two-hour sessions during the first half of the spring semester.  The readings will consist entirely of writings and speeches by Lincoln and Douglass (though Stephen A. Douglas may slip in as well should we assign any of the Lincoln-Douglas debates).  There will be no examination or requirement for an extended paper, but each of you will be expected to write a short (400-500 word) response paper each week to the assigned readings, beginning with the first week.

This non-writing seminar will meet every other week to discuss the professor’s book in progress, Academic Freedom, the First Amendment, and the American University.  The book explores the emergence of academic freedom as a distinctive First Amendment right and its relationship to general First Amendment rights of free speech.  It observes that judicial decisions have extended this right to professors, universities, and students, whose interests in academic freedom may conflict.  It also observes that state interests and the constitutional rights of individual citizens may conflict with interests in academic freedom.  Examples of state interests include national security, public health, and the enforcement of laws prohibiting employment discrimination and harassing speech.  Examples individual constitutional rights include free speech, the free exercise of religion, and equal protection.  After reviewing the case law, the book proposes a theory of First Amendment academic freedom to address these complicated issues.  Students will write two to three page reaction papers for every seminar meeting.  Class discussions will address the process of legal scholarship as well as the substantive contents of the book.  The course does not satisfy the law school’s writing requirement.  Grading will be pass/fail.

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

Social media has revolutionized how we share, consume, and interact with all forms of digital content. These changes brought by social media touch on all aspects of our life—including our legal system. This course will discuss the spectrum of legal topics being impacted by social media: marketing, intellectual property, employment, privacy, free speech, and fund raising. You will also explore the role that lawyers in law firms and within organizations face when addressing these changes and the emerging risks. From Facebook to Pinterest, Foursquare to Quora, Instagram to Snapchat. We will explore how these platforms are changing our application of existing laws. The objective of this ready group course is to introduce students to the social media legal issues and the methods being used by attorneys to address these risks and how to identify the next area of social media that will challenge our existing legal norms.  Students will be expected to post weekly reactions to the reading material by finding a new and recent example of the issues raised.  The grade will be based upon a 10 page research paper.

This course is focused on helping those students who do not have jobs waiting for them or are not sure what they want to do when they graduate.  We will also cover how to survive your first year as an associate in a law firm.  This course will provide new attorneys practical, real-life information on how to start your own law practice as either a solo or with others in a small firm. The class will cover a wide variety of topics including marketing, management, work-life balance and technology. The professor worked in a large law firm his first ten years and then started his own firm in 2001. He iwas formally the chairman of the Law Practice Management Committee for the State Bar of Texas. Lectures will be supplemented with guest speakers on specific topics and selected reading assignments. Students may only miss one class. Regular participation in class discussion is required to pass the course. There will also be projects/papers that will be subimitted for grading. This is a graded class.

Note: Students may not use laptops, tablets, smartphones or other electronic devices during class.  

The primary objective of this course is for students to become familiar with and understand how different legal agreements which are universal in all real estate transactions are designed to allocate legal and commercial risk among the relevant parties. In order to present these risk-allocation concepts, the instructor has written a single case study representing an amalgamation of actual commercial real estate transactions which he has been a part of as legal counsel. Additionally, this course will expose students to the numerous legal agreements and due diligence issues that real estate investors and professionals are presented with for virtually all commercial transactions and the process of getting to closing. These legal documents and the concepts that are included within them will be presented in the context of a real transaction and the class will explore why and when they are necessary, what they are intended to accomplish and what legal and risk-related commercial issues should be considered when reviewing them. The course format will be based on a single, case study  of a real estate development transaction, starting with the acquisition of raw land and ending with the sale of a “leased-up”, completed office building to a publicly-traded Real Estate Investment Trust. For each topic, we will be guided by the legal documents that our fictional developer is presented with and analyze the relevant practical and theoretical issues as if the class was dealing with these documents as part of a real-life transaction.  Through the case study and simulated negotiations, the class will have an opportunity to be exposed to and actively deal with real world issues faced by real estate lawyers.

Real Estate Finance for Lawyers covers real estate secured credit transactions.  The course does not require any mathematical calculations.  Students with some knowledge or experience in the industry, such as those who have completed Law 385T (Introduction to Real Estate Law and Practice), will be well prepared for this course. Completion of or concurrent enrollment in Secured Credit (Law 380D) is helpful, but not required. The course will begin with an introduction to the real estate finance industry, including various types of loans, lenders, vocabulary and law. From there, we will cover basic versions of the most common documents used in real estate secured financings, and progress to state of the art documents for large/complex transactions. The course will cover the case and statutory law central to some of the most important provisions. The relative interests of borrowers, lenders and other parties, and possible topics for negotiation, will be discussed throughout the course. Students will find that while this course concentrates on real estate secured lending, it has broad practical application to most business transactions, regardless of whether the client is the Borrower or Lender. Course materials will be supplied by the Professor in PDF format.  

Real Estate Finance for Lawyers covers real estate secured credit transactions.  The course does not require any mathematical calculations.  Students with some knowledge or experience in the industry, such as those who have completed Law 385T (Introduction to Real Estate Law and Practice), will be well prepared for this course. Completion of or concurrent enrollment in Secured Credit (Law 380D) is helpful, but not required. The course will begin with an introduction to the real estate finance industry, including various types of loans, lenders, vocabulary and law. From there, we will cover basic versions of the most common documents used in real estate secured financings, and progress to state of the art documents for large/complex transactions. The course will cover the case and statutory law central to some of the most important provisions. The relative interests of borrowers, lenders and other parties, and possible topics for negotiation, will be discussed throughout the course. Students will find that while this course concentrates on real estate secured lending, it has broad practical application to most business transactions, regardless of whether the client is the Borrower or Lender. Course materials will be supplied by the Professor in PDF format.  

Real Estate Financing is for students with some knowledge or experience in the industry, those who have completed either Law 331K in Fall 2020 (Real Estate Transactions and Practice) or Law 385T in Fall 2021 (Introduction to Real Estate Law and Practice), or with permission from the Professor. Completion of or concurrent enrollment in Secured Credit (Law 380D) is recommended, but not required. The course will begin with an introduction to the real estate finance industry, including vocabulary and law. From there, the course will focus on key loan documents customarily found in real estate financings, and the statutory and case law underlying the contents of those documents. Relative interests of borrowers, lenders and other parties will be discussed throughout the course. While this is not a drafting course per se, drafting opportunities will be provided. This course is intended to be a fairly intensive examination of the legal aspects of real estate financing, with emphasis on typical documents and laws underlying them. Materials to be used will be supplied by the Professor in PDF format. Also, students will be responsible for obtaining copies of the cases discussed in the supplied materials.

If class enrollment is more than 9 students but fewer than 21 students, the grade for the course will be based 50 percent on a final examination and 50 percent on a loan documentation paper, and the curve will not apply. If class enrollment is under 10 students, the grade will be based entirely on a final examination and the curve will not apply.

Real Estate Financing is for students with some knowledge or experience in the industry, those who have completed Law 331K (Real Estate Transactions in 2019 and Real Estate Transactions and Practice in 2020), or with permission from the Professor. Completion of or concurrent enrollment in Secured Credit (Law 380D) is recommended, but not required. The course will begin with an introduction to the real estate finance industry, including vocabulary and law. From there, the course will focus on key loan documents customarily found in real estate financings, and the statutory and case law underlying the contents of those documents. Relative interests of borrowers, lenders and other parties will be discussed throughout the course. While this is not a drafting course per se, drafting opportunities will be provided. This course is intended to be a fairly intensive examination of the legal aspects of real estate financing, with emphasis on typical documents and laws underlying them. Materials to be used will be supplied by the Professor in PDF format. Also, students will be responsible for obtaining copies of the cases discussed in the supplied materials.

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 materials supplied by the professor in PDF format. There are no formal prerequisites.