Course Schedule

This course surveys environmental law in the United States from its roots in the common law, to the explosion of legislation and regulation that emerged in the 1970's, and through to regulatory efforts to address climate change today. Beyond giving students a solid foundation in navigating the major laws that govern protection of the environment and public health, the course will introduce students to the regulatory state. We will examine the ways in which courts, Congress, and agencies sometimes work together and sometimes act at cross purposes in developing and implementing environmental policies. The course will also consider the disparate perspectives that inform environmental programs--ethical values, economics, and science--and how conflicts between them can lead to surprising compromises in statutory and regulatory outcomes. The course surveys four major pollution statutes, with a particular emphasis on laws regulating air and water pollution and the laws governing the commercial use and remediation of hazardous substances. The course casebook incorporates regular discussion problems and will be supplemented by four required quizzes scheduled during the semester. Students completing this course will be well-positioned to take one or more advanced environmental law courses; although, it is not a prerequisite for enrollment in any of them.

This course surveys environmental law in the United States from its roots in the common law to the explosion of legislation and regulation that emerged in the 1970's and continues through the present. Beyond gaining basic competence in navigating the major laws that govern environment and public health protection, the course will introduce students to the regulatory state. We will examine the ways in which courts, Congress, and agencies sometimes work together and sometimes act at cross purposes in developing and implementing regulatory programs. The course will also consider the disparate inputs that inform environmental programs--values, economics, and science--and how conflicts over these inputs can lead to surprising compromises in statutory and regulatory outcomes. The course will survey six major statutes, with particular emphasis on laws regulating air and water pollution and the laws protecting endangered species and public resources. The course will incorporate several case studies (e.g., climate change regulation, habitat conservation planning, market-based regulatory regimes) as a complement to the topics addressed in the casebook. Students completing the Survey course will be well-positioned to take one or more advanced environmental law courses, although the Survey course is not a prerequisite for enrollment in any of them. Students who have already taken an advanced or an analogous survey course in environmental law may not enroll in this introductory Survey course.

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

This course surveys environmental law in the United States from its roots in the common law to the explosion of legislation and regulation that emerged in the 1970's and continues through the present. Beyond gaining basic competence in navigating the major laws that govern environment and public health protection, the course will introduce students to the regulatory state. We will examine the ways in which courts, Congress, and agencies sometimes work together and sometimes act at cross purposes in developing and implementing regulatory programs. The course will also consider the disparate inputs that inform environmental programs--values, economics, and science--and how conflicts over these inputs can lead to surprising compromises in statutory and regulatory outcomes. The course will survey six major statutes, with particular emphasis on laws regulating air and water pollution and the laws protecting endangered species and public resources. The course will incorporate several case studies (e.g., climate change regulation, habitat conservation planning, market-based regulatory regimes) as a complement to the topics addressed in the casebook. Students completing the Survey course will be well-positioned to take one or more advanced environmental law courses, although the Survey course is not a prerequisite for enrollment in any of them. Students who have already taken an advanced or an analogous survey course in environmental law may not enroll in this introductory Survey course.

This course introduces international LL.M. students to the concepts of law fundamental to, and the legal institutions operating within, the United States legal system. Designed as a comprehensive overview, the course will cover key aspects of the U.S. legal system, including the U.S. Constitution and the functions and procedures of civil and criminal courts, and introduce key concepts and principles of the law of contracts, torts, and property in the United States.

Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on comparing and contrasting U.S. legal principles with those of students' home jurisdictions, facilitating a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between legal systems. Guest speakers, case studies, and practical exercises will complement traditional lectures, providing students with a comprehensive and practical foundation in U.S. law.

This fall course is required for LL.M. students with a foreign law degree, although those with a law degree from a common law country may request a waiver. Exchange students may petition to enroll in the class on a space available basis.

This course introduces international LL.M. students to the concepts of law fundamental to, and the legal institutions operating within, the United States legal system. The course will include an overview of the U.S. Constitution and of the functions and procedures of civil and criminal courts. This fall course is required for LL.M. students with a foreign law degree, although those with a law degree from a common law country may request a waiver. Exchange students may petition to enroll in the class on a space available basis.

This short course will take a tour of the U.S. Supreme Court’s institutional history from its earliest days—back when Supreme Court Justices had to travel the countryside to hold trials and were required by law to stay in public lodgings—up to the present, where Justices exercise enormous and momentous power.  Over four sessions, we will explore how the Court has evolved over 230 years from a small and weak institution into one of the dominant forces in American law and society.  We will focus on topics including the following, in each instance tracing the development from the Court’s early history to its modern incarnation: 

• the obligations of a Supreme Court Justice and the annual cycle of the Court’s work;
• how ordinary Americans have seen or interacted with the Court throughout its history;
• how the Court has handled (or mishandled) politicized moments;
• the Justices with the greatest impact in transforming the Court into what it is today;
• the kinds of cases the Court takes, and why;
• how the Court conducts oral arguments;
• how the Court reaches its decisions internally and communicates them externally;
• how Presidents have chosen Justices, and how the Senate has responded;
• how Justices have interacted with their colleagues and their staff;
• how Justices have departed the bench;and
• other related topics, including any that might be of special interest to the students in the class.  

We will end the course with a look forward to the challenges yet to come.  The instructors are both former U.S. Supreme Court clerks who both have argued cases before that Court and who both are currently serving judges, one on the Fifth Circuit and the other on the Texas Supreme Court.  The chief learning objectives include developing a deeper appreciation for the Supreme Court’s history and the way the Court has influenced and been influenced by larger American society.  Ultimately, this course aims to give future lawyers insight into how and why the Supreme Court functions the way that it does and to empower them to place the Court’s work product in greater historical context.  

With recent changes on the Supreme Court and in other parts of the judiciary, it is increasingly important for advocates to understand right-of-center legal thought. Effective legal argument today increasingly requires an understanding of textualism and originalism and the many forms those interpretative theories take. At the same time, new debates within the right have emerged over legal interpretation, individual rights, judicial power, and the role of the states. This seminar will give students a sampling of those debates, exposure to different conservative approaches, and skills for persuasive textualist and originalist advocacy. It will present a variety of perspectives and will encourage students to decide for themselves what views do (and do not) persuade them. The seminar will be heavily discussion-focused and largely student-led, with guest lecturers for some topics. Students of all ideologies, students with no ideology, and students who are still figuring it out are welcome. 

This course will review core issues relating to venture capital. The focus of the course will be the financing of the emerging growth company. The course will cover topics relating to venture capital investments in start-up companies, the structure of VC backed companies, the allocation of cash-flow and control rights in these companies, and litigation arising from the unique VC arrangements. Issues relating to the VC fund structure and to intellectual property transactions may also be discussed. It is highly recommended to have completed “Business Associations” or “Business Associations (Enriched)” before taking this course.

This course will review core issues relating to venture capital. The focus of the course will be the financing of the emerging growth company. The course will cover topics relating to venture capital investments in start-up companies, the structure of VC backed companies, the allocation of cash-flow and control rights in these companies, and litigation arising from the unique VC arrangements. Issues relating to the VC fund structure and to intellectual property transactions may also be discussed. It is highly recommended to have completed “Business Associations” or “Business Associations (Enriched)” before taking this course.

This course will review core issues relating to venture capital. The focus of the course will be the financing of the emerging growth company. The course will cover topics relating to venture capital investments in start-up companies, the structure of VC backed companies, the allocation of cash-flow and control rights in these companies, and litigation arising from the unique VC arrangements. Issues relating to the VC fund structure and to intellectual property transactions may also be discussed.

This class will prepare students to counsel early-stage companies and investors through a myriad of startup related transactions and situations. We will begin with a brief history of venture to understand the foundation of the practice, and then explore, in detail, aspects of structuring a venture backed company, raising capital, interacting with investors, and typical commercial agreements germane to a startup. Students will be expected to read, interpret, and draft common venture financing documents and identify and provide counsel on typical founder and early-stage company issues.

The final grade will have four parts: class attendance (10%), two drafting exercises (each 25%), and a final exam (40%). The final exam will be multiple choice/short answer based, similar to most legal issue spotting exams.

A one-semester course which will cover selected, practical topics concerning Wall Street's regulatory, economic and political environment. We will focus on the nature of investment products, their use and the regulatory structure surrounding them. We will discuss how some misused these products and the impact that has had on the economy. Finally we will look at the government responses to the economy and the success/failure thereof. This class will pull handout materials from articles in major publications, real-time news stories and personal experience. Given the fluid nature of the economy, new information will likely become available during the course and provide timely discussion topics. Therefore, we may veer from the syllabus topics.

The teaching technique will not be a lecture style, but rather a highly participatory Socratic method in which case study, situation analysis and student interaction will be at the core. The instructor will provoke the students and encourage their thoughtful response to the problems and issues so presented. Each student will present on a topic of his/her choice, and the class will have the opportunity to develop their own skills in the areas of: team building, presentation skills, critical thinking, problem diagnosis and problem solving. Class participation and attendance will count towards the final grade.  Quizzes may also count towards grading if given.

Students may not earn credit for both, Alt Invest: Lack of Reg/Bailout and Wall Street Regulation. 

A one-semester course which will cover selected, practical topics concerning Wall Street's regulatory, economic and political environment. We will focus on the nature of investment products, their use and the regulatory structure surrounding them. We will discuss how some misused these products and the impact that has had on the economy. Finally we will look at the government responses to the economy and the success/failure thereof. This class will pull handout materials from articles in major publications, real-time news stories and personal experience. Given the fluid nature of the economy, new information will likely become available during the course and provide timely discussion topics. Therefore, we may veer from the syllabus topics.

The teaching technique will not be a lecture style, but rather a highly participatory Socratic method in which case study, situation analysis and student interaction will be at the core. The instructor will provoke the students and encourage their thoughtful response to the problems and issues so presented. Each student will present on a topic of his/her choice, and the class will have the opportunity to develop their own skills in the areas of: team building, presentation skills, critical thinking, problem diagnosis and problem solving. Class participation and attendance will count towards the final grade.  Quizzes may also count towards grading if given.

Students may not earn credit for both, Alt Invest: Lack of Reg/Bailout and Wall Street Regulation. 

A one-semester course which will cover selected, practical topics concerning Wall Street's regulatory, economic and political environment. We will focus on the nature of investment products, their use and the regulatory structure surrounding them. We will discuss how some misused these products and the impact that has had on the economy. Finally we will look at the government responses to the economy and the success/failure thereof. This class will pull handout materials from articles in major publications, real-time news stories and personal experience. Given the fluid nature of the economy, new information will likely become available during the course and provide timely discussion topics. Therefore, we may veer from the syllabus topics.

The teaching technique will not be a lecture style, but rather a highly participatory Socratic method in which case study, situation analysis and student interaction will be at the core. The instructor will provoke the students and encourage their thoughtful response to the problems and issues so presented. Each student will present on a topic of his/her choice, and the class will have the opportunity to develop their own skills in the areas of: team building, presentation skills, critical thinking, problem diagnosis and problem solving. Class participation and attendance will count towards the final grade.  Quizzes may also count towards grading if given.

Students may not earn credit for both, Alt Invest: Lack of Reg/Bailout and Wall Street Regulation. 

A one-semester course which will cover selected, practical topics concerning Wall Street's regulatory, economic and political environment. We will focus on the nature of investment products, their use and the regulatory structure surrounding them. We will discuss how some misused these products and the impact that has had on the economy. Finally we will look at the government responses to the economy and the success/failure thereof. This class will pull handout materials from articles in major publications, real-time news stories and personal experience. Given the fluid nature of the economy, new information will likely become available during the course and provide timely discussion topics. Therefore, we may veer from the syllabus topics.

The teaching technique will not be a lecture style, but rather a highly participatory Socratic method in which case study, situation analysis and student interaction will be at the core. The instructor will provoke the students and encourage their thoughtful response to the problems and issues so presented. Each student will present on a topic of his/her choice, and the class will have the opportunity to develop their own skills in the areas of: team building, presentation skills, critical thinking, problem diagnosis and problem solving. Class participation and attendance will count towards the final grade.  Quizzes may also count towards grading if given.

Students may not earn credit for both, Alt Invest: Lack of Reg/Bailout and Wall Street Regulation. 

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

A one-semester course which will cover selected, practical topics concerning Wall Street's regulatory, economic and political environmnet. We will focus on the nature of investment products, their use and the regulatory structure surrounding them. We will discuss how some misused these products and the impact that has had on the economy. Finally we will look at the government responses to the economy and the success/failure thereof. This class will pull handout materials from articles in major publications, real-time news stories and personal experience. Given the fluid nature of the economy, new information will likely become available during the course and provide timely discussion topics. Therefore, we may veer from the syllabus topics.

The teaching technique will not be a lecture style, but rather a highly participatory Socratic method in which case study, situation analysis and student interaction will be at the core. The instructor will provoke the students and encourage their thoughtful response to the problems and issues so presented. Each student will present on a topic of his/her choice, and the class will have the opportunity to develop their own skills in the areas of: team building, presentation skills, critical thinking, problem diagnosis and problem solving. Class participation and attendance will count towards the final grade.  Quizzes may also count towards grading if given.

Students may not earn credit for both, Alt Invest: Lack of Reg/Bailout and Wall Street Regulation. 

This course will open with an introduction to the hydrological cycle, its natural stocks and flows, its fresh and saline elements, its phases, its vertical and horizontal dimensions, its mutable biogeochemistry, and its essentiality to the maintenance of life.  We'll draw on water's critical roles within the biosphere, the atmosphere, and the cryosphere and the accelerating destabilization of these roles as we encounter them in our time.

We'll then trace the powerful influences of U.S. law on the use and consumption, conservation, diversion, and development of water's stocks and flows. To do so, we'll first follow the evolution of American water law and policy as they emerge into a distinct body of doctrines in the soggy Eastern states; then, as they re-emerge through a very different body of law in the arid Western and Southwestern states; and, finally, as they emerge for the third time through the troubled development and implementation of federal authority.

The resultant complex of concepts, rules, and practices has spawned a regime of rights, entitlements, and demands for entitlement that has heavily favored stasis over long periods of time.

Now, the entire regime is cracking open under the competing pressures that markets,  social injustices, and strident political differences over resource exploitation in the face of accelerating climatic changes are bringing to bear. In the final portion of the course, we'll investigate some of these arenas of severe conflict, in search of the fourth evolutionary stage of water law--more coherent, more deeply splintered, or both-- that may be starting to emerge.

Our methods of approach will rely on a mix of lecture; individual- and team-led class participation; and some deep dives that will involve expert guests. Class members are encouraged to apply their diversity of disciplinary training and interests throughout the course and to adopt a special topic for the term, if they wish.

There will be a very brief written assignment and a final research paper on an instructor-approved topic that may be a group effort, in lieu of an exam. Honesty and graduate-level proficiency are the major criteria on which these projects will be judged.

This survey course in U.S. water law and policy traces these subjects from their influential pre-colonial origins through their nineteenth century development into the very different allocational regimes of the Eastern and Western states—both, still standing-- to their twentieth century re-birth within a cooperative-federalist schema of water quality regulation to their current entanglement in a large complex of no-longer-duckable issues and problems-- a stew that is the legacy of ideas, norms, and practices that resisted change for too long. These issues and problems include the over-exploitation of water resources; climate-driven droughts and floods and their ties to impervious cover excesses and dams; the chemical infiltration of the public water supply; chronic underinvestment in infrastructure; and confrontations with matters of principle, including environmental justice and the human right to water, to name a few. The uneasy meld of water law’s past, present, and future, accounted for under the drivers of policy, principle, and politics, are what this course is about.  

            Some attention will be given to Texas water law and policy. This will include guest presentations by Texas experts from different fields.

            Methods will include lecture; individual and team-led class participation; and some “deep dives” into matters of extended exploration. Class members will be encouraged to apply their diversity of disciplinary training and interests to the subjects at hand and to adopt a pet topic or theme for the term, if they wish. There will be one very brief paper-writing exercise and a final paper on an instructor-approved topic, both subject to graduate-school standards of review, in lieu of an exam.

     Chaotic and upending droughts, floods, and hurricanes of historic proportions; groundwater depletions and surface water losses; algal blooms and other toxic drinking water threats; dam and other infrastructural failures; and an accelerating cascade of other devastating events have cast a glaring spotlight on the fragmented structure of state-based, region-based, and federal water rules and regulations and the fractured publicly- and privately-motivated ideals they represent. In the crowded public forum that is resulting from the practical consequences, the concerns and fears, and the notoriety of all of this, stakeholder groups vie to maintain existing rights and the expectations they have nourished. Other groups, including those that have been historically dispossessed of water rights, press for institutional, legal, and, in broad instances, justice-driven normative change.

     In this course, we will study these layers of tumult in reference to the law as it has come to be, with attention to its historic taproots; its policy-based underpinnings, puzzles, and rationales; and its possible futures, as they are being contested over now. Our modes of inquiry will include traditional legal analysis; institutional, physical (e.g., infrastructure failure), and policy analysis, with an emphasis on problem- and solutions-identification; the substance of current debates; expert guest participation; and the creative and enlivening interactions that our multi-disciplinary student membership invites.

     A major design feature will involve “deep dives” into hot topics of important public concern. These openings to conflicts in-the-round mean to underline the fact that, while some class members are preparing to specialize in water-specific careers, all of us need to prepare through reflective engagement and a shared basis in knowledge for endemic kinds of water stress in whatever place we live, as these are our times. Water wisdom for long-term stewardship is our aim, as this role will belong to everyone, wherever we live and on the planet we call home.

    Students may be assembled into multi-disciplinary or single-discipline class discussion teams (or both). Everyone will write a very brief paper on a course-related topic of her or his own and a final research paper on an instructor-approved topic. Both are subject to graduate-level writing standards; no bots allowed. There will be no exams in the course.

Water is essential to the existence of all living things on this, our “blue” planet, including, of course, us. As the planet is seventy percent water, so, it happens, are we. As the character in a 2011 novel put this, “We exist only as a film on the water.” If that suggests itself as a fragile state of affairs, that’s because, increasingly, it is.

          The earth’s hydrological cycle—regulator of the freshwater/saltwater balance that sustains our bodies, our food networks, our geographic placements—is increasingly perturbed, a function of the ongoing disturbance of the planet’s natural systems under conditions to which our society, all societies, must quickly learn to adapt. We are in the process of inventing a new existential curriculum, one based on the need to live with careful attention to a myriad of challenging, earth-system-dependent details.

          What might “adaptation” mean—what can it mean? what should it mean?-- for one of the most stabilizing traditions on which we depend—law; its symbiotic policy matrix; its case-law-based jurisprudence of private conflict resolution, relied on for fostering incremental, small-bore movement by design? The crises engendered by climate change and the stabilizing, slow-moving features that characterize our legal tradition do not easily converge.

          Emergent issues and questions fall heavily—uneasily—on water law, one of the oldest branches of American law, embossed with the early norms and rules of soggy England; its later developments tentacular and disjunctive, dependent on regions; states; a late-arriving, compromised federal presence; and on property law, rooted in notions and conflicts about land.   

          Five further matters of note:

(1) Our approach to each unit of material will be solidly planted in the legal tradition and relevant policy, including their rationales, and norms. Only after an introduction to foundational knowledge of each major component of the system in place may we reasonably engage in exploration, evaluation, and critique-- and we will, as we go along.

(2) The approach and materials will be inter-disciplinary and include basic hydrology/hydrogeology; climate science; (a possible smidge of) engineering; policy analysis; political governance; climate ethics and environmental ethics (environmental justice). Our forms of engagement: mostly reading; writing; some guests; some film, including videos made by you.

(3) We may treat Texas water law and policy as a kind of learning lab. We’ll occasionally look to developments outside the U.S.

(4) Units will be covered through lecture and collaborative as well as individual student enterprise. I mean to foster collaborative engagement.

(5) The course and student evaluation will depend on reading, discussion, writing, and, as to the final paper, research. There will be no exam.

My extended description of this Spring’s Water Law and Policy course, below, is intended to respond to the principal questions: What is this policy-intensive, stewardship-motivated water law course geared to offer? And: What will students be expected to do if they take the course? In other words: What am I planning to provide and what will I expect class members to provide?

There is a third matter I mean to highlight. It goes to how the class should unfold online. As to this, please note that I’m in the planning phase for this course; I’ve not yet taught online, having been on research leave; and it would be very instructive for me to learn at this time from students who register for this course what factors have shaped their (your) best and worst experiences in learning online both last Spring and now and what recommendations you’d like to share based on these experiences. (Note: I’m not looking for instructors’ names, just your takeaways regarding online pedagogy.) How to provide this information is this: At the end of the description that follows, I’ve provided an optional questionnaire. It includes invitations for you to provide recommendations for how online classes such as this one can best be run. I also ask about your background as it may prove relevant to the course so I can try to scope out modes of collaboration that would allow you to share information and perspectives derived from coursework, field of study, or experiences you have had. The online setting might make such participatory collaborations easier or more difficult than they are in in-person classes. I want to try to figure that out ahead of time and plan as much as I can for a good and valuable classroom experience online that includes robust participation from members of the class. My planning process would be greatly aided by your help, so I hope you’ll send back the quick questionnaire to contribute your thoughts, for which advance thanks, here!

                                                                             ** 

     This course is founded on the observation that water is essential to every living organism on our planet. It is collected, together with other significant elements of the global commons, under the term “natural resources” and is managed by means of the full panoply of techniques that law, policy, and social practice, generated by an immense array of governance regimes, yield. Through these interventions, people living inside political bounds regulate the allocation and quality of water—including potable water-- that is received by individuals and groups all over the world, utilizing such primary tools as ownership, use, access, and control. These same institutional and social mechanisms shape human impositions on the hydrological cycle, nature’s central schema for regulating the stocks and flows of water, including rivers, lakes, forests, soil water, groundwater, and artificial impoundments all over the globe.

    The essentiality condition and the relative scarcity of accessible freshwater should infuse these efforts with a kind of reverence that finds expression in ethical stewardship, guided by such principles as conservation; restoration; coherence; concern for biodiversity; and social equity and justice, anchored to the meta-principle of shared obligation within regimes of rights. Instead, the trans-historical, trans-national convention has been to treat water as a cheap or even free commodity—except in the case of bottled water!—responsive to the nearly unbridled demands of the agricultural sector, with the remaining sectoral interests dividing and often competing over the rest. This longstanding subservience of ethical regard has encouraged the consistent over-consumption and degradation of water, leaving much of the global population to deal with accelerating problems in water depletion and quality decline, even as the hazards of droughts, floods, and other manifestations of the changing climate increase, promising to make these problems worse. Additionally, limitations on clean water at affordable cost in communities around the world is a limiting factor on the maintenance of public health in the face of the pandemic, when frequent hand-washing is considered a crucial factor in reducing the spread of the virus. In some regions and settings—even within the U.S.--this problem is a present danger. 

     Pundits are wont to predict that conflicts, including some that will threaten national security, will arise. Some already have.

     The existing situation, which has come to tolerate massive vulnerabilities, is unsustainable, no less in our country than anywhere else. Fidelity to ethical principle within the dominant economic and social sectors and across the relevant professional fields; regulatory reforms attentive to legitimate social concerns; new emergency management policies connected to the public health and welfare; scientific advancement toward the wiser management of stocks and flows; social adherence to better practical approaches; inter-disciplinary collaborations that foster innovation within this sphere; improved popular understandings and information flows; responsible regard for risk; public finance shaped by sophisticated institutional design: All of these efforts—and more-- are on. We will attempt to observe at least a sampling of them and, in some instances, to aid the search for new and best practices involving subjects such as these in our course. Your op-ed contributions and research papers can be centered within these topics, if you want.

     We will need a strong foundation of knowledge to render this work valuable. Thus, I invite  students of law, community planning, engineering, hydrogeology and allied fields, and public policy to engage in a study of the federal and state regimes of law, policy, and accepted social practice that regulate the ownership, use, access, and control of water across the United States. We must analyze and reflect carefully on the is to engage in sensible, considered judgments about the ought.  

Note One: Some curricular details:

                  (1) This year, I plan to balance the traditional emphasis on water allocation doctrine with a greater concentration than usual on issues involving water quality.

                  (2) We’ll treat Texas as a kind of living laboratory for the investigation of some subjects within the course.

                  (3) Beyond our needed grounding in legal texts, I’ll include an eclectic assortment of materials from other fields, with the aim of introducing the kind of inter-disciplinary literacy that reflects the needs of today.

                  (4) I’m considering the creation of a special unit on water and the Covid emergency.

                  (5) There is likely to be some participation by guest experts and, possibly, a film.

                  (6) These added components comprise two hours of guaranteed out-of-class meetings, thus reducing the scheduled timeline to 77-minute lectures instead of the standard 81-minute requirement for Spring 2021.

Note Two: Grading Components:

     There is no final examination in this course. A variety of self-directed experiences in learning, including collaborative ones, form its graded components, instead. These experiences will include a written op-ed (opinion-editorial) on a self-selected topic relevant to the course; a research paper that may be jointly-authored on a self-selected topic—this time, with instructor approval required based on relevance to the course and viability; reasonable class attendance and participation—likely, for the baseline version, in panels, with designated dates-- that demonstrates preparation based on the course materials assigned for that date’s class; collaboration with classmates; and the production and presentation of a very short video on the subject of your research. (Don’t worry if you’ve never made a video before. We’ve got excellent instructions and my faculty assistant is a practiced hand at advising in regard to this.) Depending on the state of the pandemic, there may be one self-guided, possibly optional, activity.  (In past years, this activity has involved a “discovery project” at a local store. This year, it could be that or a mindful walk.)

     Descriptions and instructions as to the elements listed above will be distributed to class registrants before the first class day. I’ll also distribute information about my non-office-based meeting times for the term, which might include socially-distanced in-person meetings out of doors.

Note Three: Early Input By You:

    Please see the very brief optional questionnaire. A second thanks if, as soon as proves convenient, you fill it out and send it back.

This course is intended to provide a practical introduction to the practice of what is commonly referred to as “white collar” crime—an area of criminal defense primarily focused on government investigations of corporations and individuals for non-violent criminal offenses, often of a regulatory or financial nature.

The course will focus on themes and issues commonly encountered in representing clients in these complex and often lengthy investigations, and will walk students through the typical phases of a corporate criminal investigation, up to and including resolution. Recognizing the increasing ability of law enforcement authorities to cooperate beyond national boundaries, the course will also provide an introduction to common issues and themes in cross-border investigations.

Textbook: White Collar Crime in a Nutshell (6th Edition)Ellen S. Podgor | Jerold H. Israel | Miriam H. Baer | Gregory M. GilchristISBN: 9781647082864

This course is intended to provide a practical introduction to the practice of what is commonly referred to as “white collar” crime—an area of criminal defense primarily focused on government investigations of corporations and individuals for non-violent criminal offenses, often of a regulatory or financial nature.

The course will focus on themes and issues commonly encountered in representing clients in these complex and often lengthy investigations, and will walk students through the typical phases of a corporate criminal investigation, up to and including resolution. Recognizing the increasing ability of law enforcement authorities to cooperate beyond national boundaries, the course will also provide an introduction to common issues and themes in cross-border investigations.

Textbook: White Collar Crime in a Nutshell (6th Edition)Ellen S. Podgor | Jerold H. Israel | Miriam H. Baer | Gregory M. GilchristISBN: 9781647082864

Wills and Estates focuses on donative transfers of property. Included are community property, intestate succession, the execution and revocation of wills, frequently recurring drafting problems, the use of trusts, fiduciary administration, future interests, the rule against perpetuities, powers of appointment, estate and gift taxation, and basic estate planning. The course emphasizes Texas law, but it also examines the law of many other jurisdictions, as well as numerous Uniform Acts.

This is a four credit course. There are no prerequisites.

This course deals with donative transfers of property, including intestate succession, probate administration of decedents’ estates, execution and revocation of wills, the use of trusts in estate planning, and rules of construction that affect will and trust drafting. The course also will cover community property laws and basic estate tax and gift tax principles. Relevant Texas Estates Code and Uniform Probate Code statutes will be included in a Supplement to the casebook. Prerequisites: None.