Course Schedule

Students in the Civil Rights Clinic represent clients in civil rights matters. Such matters include police misconduct, jail mistreatment, housing justice, unlawful immigration detention, worker’s rights, and disability discrimination. Students work on cases and law reform advocacy projects with co-counsel from civil rights organizations and attorneys across the country, under the supervision of clinic faculty. Through clinic work, students hone lawyering skills, including fact investigation, drafting pleadings, discovery and depositions, legal research and writing, case development and selection, and client or witness interviewing. Students work on cases in teams, meeting with supervising clinic faculty on at least a weekly basis. Students also participate in a classroom seminar, in which students learn relevant substantive and procedural law, discuss the political and social contexts of civil rights cases, and think through how to resolve legal problems effectively and ethically. The seminar meets twice a week for a total of three hours. The supervising Clinic faculty member is Clinical Professor Lia Sifuentes Davis. The clinic is offered in the fall and spring, for six (6) credits, pass/ fail. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. Students should expect to devote an average of 10-12 hours per week for casework and seminar preparation. For more information, see https://law.utexas.edu/clinics/civil-rights/. An application is required.

Students, working pursuant to the clinical practice rule and under the supervision of CDC faculty, represent people charged with misdemeanors in Travis County. Students function as lead counsel, working directly with clients to identify goals for the representation and to develop strategies in an effort to achieve the best possible outcome. Students maintain a primary role at all court appearances, whether those appearances involve negotiations, discussions with a judge, evidentiary hearings, or trial. Depending on the stage of assigned cases, other responsibilities often include investigation, discovery practice, and drafting of motions. Students may not be enrolled in another clinic while they are enrolled in the Criminal Defense Clinic. An application is required. Mandatory extra class session on

What is the DRC? 

Students in the Disability Rights Clinic (DRC) represent clients with disabilities in a variety of legal contexts.  In the fall semester of 2023, students will represent low-income parents of children with disabilities in cases brought against school districts that have violated state and federal special education and anti-discrimination laws. 

What kind of experience will I gain? 

DRC students draft civil complaints, develop expert testimony, mediate their cases, and try them when necessary.  Students work in teams on one to three cases, depending on their areas of interest, client need, and capacity. 

Will I work to resolve disputes?

Significant focus and attention is given to ADR in DRC. Students serve as lead student counsellors in formal mediation of their complaints before mediators on contract with the Texas Education Agency.  Through this model, students develop skills common to both litigation (drafting, discovery, witness prep) and transactional (negotiation, line-editing, creative problem-solving) practices.

Will I have much client contact? 

Yes!  Students practice the skills involved in building trust with their child clients and families through regular counselling by phone, zoom, and sometimes through in-person home visits. The DRC emphasizes the art of making the law accessible to nonlawyer parents and, where possible, their children.  

How does DRC get its clients?

Families needing DRC legal services are selected primarily through a medical-legal partnership with the Dell Children’s Medical Group and other state-wide partners.  Many of the children served live in under-resourced rural communities, and a majority are young children of color.  Some children are in foster care or have experienced housing instability, and a large number have been identified as having autism.

What kinds of situations do DRC clients confront?

DRC students have worked on cases in which educators have physically abused or neglected children with disabilities, put into segregated and locked education settings kids whose conduct was driven by unmet disability-related need, and failed to therapies and other critical related services necessary for kids' inclusion in school. Many of our cases have involved kids whose behavior has become challenging because of the lack of appropriate services, and some have involved contested hearings in the suspension and expulsion contexts.  

What are the course requirements?

The Disability Rights Clinic meets once per week for two hours. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this four-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper. Students should expect to spend 10-15 hours per week on clinic work, including class time. 

Roughly one-third of class time is devoted to understanding and discussing substantive education law and how it plays out "on the ground" in Texas school districts.  Additional class sessions are used to teach and practice specific skills involved in identifying and analyzing the strength and weakness of legal claims, drafting, working with experts, negotiating, conducting formal mediation, and putting on witnesses at hearing.  Each week, students deepen their understanding of special education law practice by presenting their case developments and giving feedback through case rounds.   

Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic early as enrollment is limited and faculty permission is required to register. Students should submit an electronic application by the end of the application window. For more information, contact Professor Lucy Wood at lwood@law.utexas.edu or at (512) 626-2060.

Taught by Professor Lucy Wood 4 credits (pass/fail) — offered Fall and Spring The clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters.

Who should take this clinic?

Students who want to gain experience in litigation and/or mediation, and those who would like to go on to represent children or people with disabilities in either a pro bono or public interest practice, should consider this clinic.  DRC partners with it several of its graduates in Big Law to broaden its reach. Graduates of DRC have worked in large law firms supporting special education work as a pro bono focus, in mid-size firm practice representing school districts, as lawyers in nonprofit settings representing persons with disabilities, in juvenile and criminal defense work, and in governmental entities requiring expertise in education or disability law.  

 An application is required.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC.  Grading is Pass/Fail.  The clinical component of this course will involve student representation of domestic violence survivors in a myriad of legal problems, including custody, divorce, visitation, housing, protective orders, parole advocacy and occasionally in consumer and public assistance matters. Students will also perform parole advocacy on behalf of survivors of domestic violence who are in prison due to their victimization as well as litigate in Travis County courts. Law students work alongside social work intern partners from the Steve Hicks School of Social Work to provide clients with holistic services for better outcomes.

The class sessions will cover the matters relevant in civil domestic violence cases: safety planning, comprehensive intake, case analysis and handling, investigation, negotiation, trial preparation, discovery, and temporary and permanent orders, including protective orders.   

In addition to regular class time, there are five additional mandatory time commitments for participation in the Domestic Violence Clinic:

1. Mandatory extra class session on Saturday, August 30, 2025 from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM. You may not participate in the Clinic if you do not attend the extra class. 
2. A one-hour weekly meeting with the supervising attorney.
3. You will be scheduled for 4 hours per week office hours/phone duty at the Clinic.
4. You will be expected to document an average of eleven hours per week on your cases towards the hours required for clinic credit.
5. This is a litigation clinic, and you will be first chairing your cases. Court appearances may require that you miss class.

Due to these requirements, you may not take another clinic or internship at the same time that you take the Domestic Violence Clinic.  

Prerequisites: Students enrolling should not be on scholastic probation. An application is required.

Taught in the Fall by Frances Leos Martinez, Clinic Director and Miriam Khalifa, Clinical Professor. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. 6 credits (pass/fail) — offered in the Fall and Spring. The Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic provides students with a unique opportunity to develop business law and problem-solving skills while representing clients operating community enterprises -- small businesses, entrepreneurs, creatives, nonprofit organizations, and community groups. Students learn how to represent their clients on a broad variety of transactional business law matters. Typical legal matters include: assisting businesses with choice of entity decisions forming for-profit and nonprofit entities applying to the IRS for tax-exempt status drafting and negotiating contracts providing legal advice to nonprofit boards of directors and staff drafting lending and real estate documents assisting with intellectual property matters assisting with personnel policies Clinic students learn how to represent their clients through clinic classes, in-person teamwork, weekly team meetings with their clinic supervisor, and research and initiative on their cases. The Clinic classes emphasize the applicable substantive law; the larger social and theoretical context of the Clinic’s work; and the development of practical lawyering skills including interviewing, counseling, negotiating, contract drafting, and public speaking. The Clinic class meets on Monday afternoons 2:30-4:30 pm. Three classes will run to 5:30 pm. There is a mandatory orientation class on the first Friday of the semester, from 1:00-4:30 pm. In addition to class, students are required to keep a weekly schedule of 8 in-clinic office hours, over the course of three days from Monday through Friday, between 8:00 am-5:00 pm. The Clinic is a significant time commitment. Students are expected to devote an average of 16-19 hours a week to the Clinic, including class time and clinic case work. Attendance is required at the orientation and all classes and case rounds. Students should also note that teamwork is a key component of clinic case work. Students will be assigned to a team partner with whom they will work during the semester. Clinic casework is conducted in teams and students will be assigned to the same team for the semester. Enrollment is by application only. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic during the priority deadline as the Clinic fills up quickly. Students may request to be placed on a waiting list if space is unavailable during registration. Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There are no prerequisites for this clinic, although a background in business law (such as business associations, real estate, or tax law) will come in handy. An application is required. For additional information, you may contact the Clinic Director Frances Leos Martinez (fmartinez@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-1222), or the Clinic Program Coordinator (ecdc@law.utexas.edu).

ENVIRONMENTAL CLINIC – 6 credits, pass/fail (application required) Students in the Environmental Clinic work with clients, including underserved communities throughout Texas, to advocate for reduced pollution, cleanup of existing pollution, access to infrastructure (such as clean drinking water), and climate change adaptation. Students work on cases in teams, under the supervision of clinic faculty, and should expect to spend approximately 12 hours per week working on clinic cases. Clinic students have worked on civil rights complaints, environmental enforcement actions in federal court, ensuring access to clean drinking water, permitting and rulemaking proceedings before administrative agencies, community education, pollution monitoring, and environmental policy research. Students gain practical experience with factual investigation and analysis, administrative research and advocacy before regulatory agencies, and legal drafting and litigation support. The weekly two-hour seminar's topics include representing environmental clients, navigating administrative law and agencies, and the efficacy of current laws for protecting health and the environment. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. There is no prerequisite for the clinic. An application is required. For additional information regarding the clinic, contact Clinic Director Kelly Haragan (kharagan@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-2654) or Clinic Administrator Rita Stramel (environmentalclinic@law.utexas.edu).

Students in the Housing Policy Clinic work on cutting-edge policy projects aimed at advancing low-income individuals’ access to affordable, just, and secure housing.

The Housing Policy Clinic offers law students:

• In-depth engagement with the housing policy and law reform landscape
• Opportunities to develop public policy solutions and legal reforms addressing the nation’s most pressing housing challenges
• Development of a broad range of lawyering skills, including creative problem-solving, law and policy analysis, interviewing and counseling, and oral and written advocacy

HPC students work in teams of two to three students on one to two policy projects, working closely with the clinic faculty, clients, and other stakeholders, including housing advocacy organizations, government officials, and community organizations. Students complete a number of written deliverables for their clients, such as policy briefs, research reports, know-your-rights materials, model laws, and regulatory guidance. Students also have the opportunity to refine their oral advocacy skills, including through delivering testimony to legislative and regulatory bodies.

Classroom

In the classroom, HPC students engage in discussions on current and emerging housing law and policy issues, hear from guest speakers actively working in the housing policy space, and participate in hands-on lawyering skills exercises. Class time includes opportunities to work in teams on clinic projects, although students should expect to dedicate additional time outside the classroom to their projects.

Time commitment

HPC students should expect to devote an average of 11 hours a week on their policy projects along with an additional 4-5 hours a week for the clinic seminar and seminar preparation.  

Additional information

This six-credit hour clinic is offered only in the fall semester (although students who have completed the clinic may apply to participate as advanced clinic students for the spring semester). Grading is on a pass/fail basis.

There are no prerequisites for this Clinic, but an application is required. Students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic early, as enrollment is limited.

For more information, please contact Professor Heather Way at hway@law.utexas.edu.

The Human Rights Clinic works to promote and protect human rights in Texas and around the world. Through supervised practice, students learn the responsibilities and skills of human rights lawyering and advocacy. Mirroring the approach of practicing advocates, students work in small project teams, developing lawyering, advocacy and ethical skills and receiving intensive mentoring and feedback. The Human Rights Clinic’s practice spans a wide range of issues, including sexual and reproductive rights; human rights and the environment; U.N. treaty bodies and special procedures; and many more. All the cases and projects involve research, writing, and an opportunity to discuss the strategies used by human rights advocates. The cases and projects provide the students an opportunity to gain practical skills in partnering with other students, institutions, and organizations, thus forming a team of advocates. Finally, all the projects and cases allow a multidisciplinary approach and permit working across disciplines and use the perspectives of different fields to enhance the overall theoretical framework. Routinely the Clinic admits non-Law students. The Clinic employs a variety of lawyering methods that are tailored to the needs of each project. These include: documentation and reporting; international litigation; advocacy. The clinic meets two times per week. Classroom lectures and discussion focus on substantive human rights law, client interviewing, case and project preparation and strategy and review of ongoing cases and projects. In addition to the classroom component, students should expect to spend 15–20 hours per week on clinic work. The weekly workload varies substantially, depending upon the stage of each project or case. Clinic work may include some travel. Preference is given to students who have taken a human rights course or who have other human rights or public interest experience. An application is required.

Students in the Immigration Clinic represent vulnerable low-income immigrants from around the world before the immigration and federal courts and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Students gain hands-on experience by taking on the primary responsibility and decision-making authority for their cases under the mentorship of the Clinic faculty. The Clinic’s caseload varies each semester but focuses on deportation defense and asylum claims, including for detained persons. The Clinic has handled cases for clients from, among other countries, Afghanistan, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Eritrea, Mexico, and Pakistan. The Clinic represents clients of all ages, including unaccompanied children and families. Students also engage in national and international advocacy projects to improve the rights of immigrants in the United States. Through client representation and advocacy as well as the classroom component of the Clinic, students learn substantive immigration law, develop client relationship skills, and practice a variety of legal advocacy skills and techniques. The Clinic allows students to explore different models for effective and collaborative lawyering, including interdisciplinary practice with social work student interns and expert witnesses from medical, social science, and mental health backgrounds. Immigration Clinic students work on their cases collaboratively in teams. The Immigration Clinic meets for class two times per week for an hour and a half. As an orientation, the first two classes of the semester are extended (an additional hour), and an extra session is held on Wednesday evening during the first week of classes (1.5 hours). Grading is on a pass/fail basis for this six-credit hour clinic. There is no final exam or paper; instead, students receive feedback throughout the semester from faculty and peers and conduct a self-evaluation at the end of the semester that is discussed with faculty. Students should expect to spend approximately 20 hours per week on Clinic work, including class time and office hours in the Clinic suite. Work on cases and projects may be required over breaks (Thanksgiving or Spring Break). Participation in the Clinic is generally not compatible with participation in moot court or other competitions that require travel during the semester, and personal travel may need to be limited in light of case and project obligations. Students will occasionally travel to area immigration detention facilities and to San Antonio where the Immigration Court and DHS offices are located, sometimes including early morning departures and unavoidable absence from other classes. An application is required, and students are encouraged to apply for the Clinic during the early registration window as enrollment is limited. For more information about the Immigration Clinic, contact Denise Gilman (dgilman@law.utexas.edu) or Elissa Steglich (esteglich@law.utexas.edu).

Students in the Law & Religion Clinic represent vulnerable individuals and groups of all faiths who face challenges to their religious liberty. This will involve a diverse array of clients, including, among others: prisoners, mosques, students, employees, churches, teachers, faith-based schools, sanctuary churches, synagogues, and immigrants. Students can expect to work on cases involving the Free Exercise Clause, the Establishment Clause, similar state constitutional provisions, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, its state equivalents, antidiscrimination statutes, Title VII, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Under the direction of clinic faculty, students will have the opportunity to be first chair on some matters or serve as co-counsel with various civil rights organizations and law firms on others. Through that work, they will develop lawyering skills they can apply in nearly any type of legal practice they pursue, including analyzing potential cases, client interviewing, fact investigation, representing and advising organizations, negotiation, drafting pleadings, dealing with opposing counsel, discovery and depositions, trial advocacy, and appellate work. Students will work on cases in teams and will meet with Professors Greil and Collis as a group multiple times a week: to discuss their cases and in a classroom seminar where they will learn the substance and complexities of religion law (this will include some readings from a packet of key material). They will also have one-on-one sessions with the Professors to discuss how their lawyering skills are progressing and to counsel on other issues. The Clinic encourages students from all backgrounds, ideologies, religions, and beliefs to join. The clinic is offered in the fall and spring, for six (6) credits, pass/fail. The Clinic is open to students who have completed their first two semesters. You can find a broader description of the clinic and the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center at https://law.utexas.edu/first-amendment-center/. There are no prerequisites for this clinic. An application is required.

The TRANSNATIONAL WORKER RIGHTS CLINIC IS A 6-HR. CLINIC. Students in this clinic will represent low-income transnational migrant workers, who labor in Texas, in legal actions to recover unpaid wages for work they have performed, to combat workplace discrimination, and to enforce other basic employment rights. Students may also engage in related advocacy projects asserting the rights of low-wage workers – especially their right to access the U.S. justice system to fully enforce their employment rights, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. The clinic gives students hands-on experience with civil litigation, basic employment law, public interest practice, and the evolving fields of immigrant employment rights and transnational migrant worker rights. The clinic seeks to enforce and understand employment rights of transnational workers working in Texas as an example of advocacy for the labor and human rights of immigrants and low-wage working people around the globe. Clinic students will serve as primary legal counsel representing immigrant and low-wage working people in federal and state employment litigation and administrative actions. Students will get the experience of working inside an independent public interest law firm and will be supervised and mentored by several of the nation's leading low-wage employment lawyers. Depending on the requirements and the current litigation stage of each case, students will variously: interview and advise clients; investigate cases and develop legal action strategies; initiate and manage active litigation; negotiate with opposing employers and their lawyers; prepare litigation documents in the student's cases including pleadings, motions, and briefs; conduct discovery in the student's cases including written discovery and the taking of depositions; research legal issues; develop damages calculations; represent clients in hearings, court proceedings, and mediation; and negotiate and manage the final legal settlement or recovery of damages in the case. The clinic's legal advocacy is based on a community-lawyering model which seeks to accomplish more than just winning individual cases; the clinic also aims to promote systemic reforms that make the justice system more fair for transnational workers and to empower clients with the knowledge, skills, and collective capacity through which they can advance their own employment rights. In addition, the clinic seeks to ground each student's particular casework within the dynamic, emerging field of transnational labor rights advocacy. Bill Beardall, the clinic director, is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Center, the former Director of the Migrant Worker Division of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, and a nationally recognized expert on low-wage employment rights. He has more than four decades of experience representing migrant workers and mentoring young employment litigation lawyers. The TWR Clinic is conducted in partnership with the Equal Justice Center (EJC), a non-profit public-interest law firm, based in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. The EJC is the leading law firm in Texas specialized in advocating for the rights of low-wage workers. Clinic students get the opportunity to work closely with a variety of EJC lawyers, who are among Texas' leading employment attorneys. In this clinic, students devote the bulk of their clinic hours each week to handling active cases for real clients. This case work includes regularly scheduled office hours at the nearby Equal Justice Center office; regularly scheduled remote office hours in the EJC's robust remote law practice during periods of pandemic shutdown; regular case reviews with supervising attorneys; and essential conferences with clients. During the first week of the course, before starting their casework assignments, students will receive an intensive classroom orientation on low-wage employment litigation practice. Normally the law practice of this clinic occurs off-campus in the law offices of the Equal Justice Center. However, like many law offices, the EJC has been largely closed to in-person staff and public operations, since spring 2020, due to the pandemic. Nevertheless the EJC law practice and the TWR Clinic law practice have been gradually and deliberately reopening to in-person operations by appointment and by modified office hours. Equally important, the EJC learned from the pandemic how to operate dynamically and successfully as a cyber-practice utilizing innovative electronic law practice methods. Moreover, most other law offices and the entire civil justice system are undergoing a similar transformation. Reflecting this broader transformation across the profession, the EJC and TWR Clinic currently operate as a hybrid in-person/remote law practice, which continues to evolve along with the norms in civil justice system. One salutary effect of the EJC's adaptation to cyber law practice methods has been that TWR Clinic law students are getting an opportunity to learn - along with the rest of the legal profession - the new art of hybrid in-person/remote law practice and litigation. Thus, while the 2023 spring semester clinic law practice is expected to be conducted largely in-person, it has become clear that the judicial system and legal profession are permanently adopting many new and more efficient, remote electronic operations and methods. These remote law practice methods will put to full and effective use by the EJC and the TWR Clinic, giving clinic students an opportunity to learn these pioneering remote electronic techniques and systems. As a result, TWR Clinic students will gain experience preparing them to take their place among the first generation of lawyers adeptly utilizing a new range of remote cyber-law-practice methods. Throughout the semester, the students' principal casework will be complemented with a regular classroom session that meets once a week for approximately two hours. The classroom sessions will explore various deeper aspects of employment law, rights of immigrant workers, effective litigation practice, and special topics in employment law practice for immigrant and low-wage workers. Classroom instruction will address the challenges of adapting U.S. law and legal practice to our increasingly transnational labor market. Subtopics include: U.S. labor and immigration policy; wage laws, employment laws, and contract law as they affect transnational workers; the tension between immigration laws and labor rights; rights of transnational "guest workers"; civil litigation and representation skills specific to transnational worker cases; employment law practice as viewed from the perspective of lawyers for employee-plaintiffs, lawyers for employer-defendants, and employment lawyers representing government agencies; ethical issues in employment rights representation; and evolving mechanisms for the enforcement of worker rights, regardless of immigration status. The clinic is open to students who have completed the first year of law school. While there are no prerequisites, students will benefit from previous course work or experience relating to contract law, civil procedure, labor and employment law, immigration law, international law, human rights law, low-wage working people, migrant workers or immigrant communities, and experience related to Latin American communities. While Clinic clients include U.S. citizens and immigrants from a wide array of continents and countries, a majority of clients are Spanish-speakers from a variety of Latin American countries. Spanish proficiency accordingly is very useful, but is not in any way required. Questions about the clinic may be directed to Bill Beardall at bbeardall@law.utexas.edu. Please put "Worker Rights Clinic" in the subject line of any communication.

Commercial Leasing: A practical perspective. Whether you are a lawyer in a private law firm, in house counsel for a hospital, or a business owner operating a restaurant, you will likely come across a commercial lease at some point in your career. This practicum will guide students through real examples of lease negotiations, litigation strategies, and risk mitigation techniques. Students will review case law, learn how to analyze and draft lease provisions, discuss evolving real estate use in various market scenarios, and how to think outside of the box to complete the transaction. We will use recent developments in case law to develop a working checklist when analyzing a commercial lease. Textbook: Commercial Leasing: A Transaction Primer, Third Edition

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 exclusively on choice of law. Most of the course focuses on the sources from which state courts draw in choosing the applicable law. But the course also covers (1) constitutional limits on state choice of law, (2) the rules governing the choice of state law in federal court, and (3) the principles that determine whether and when a federal statute may be given extraterritorial effect. By the end of the course, students should have developed a sound understanding of the methodologies that influence choice of law in the United States and the policy considerations that will shape further development of the law in this area. The first and third topics in Conflict of Laws are covered in a separate course entitled “Jurisdiction & Judgments” that is scheduled to be taught in the spring.

The course will focus on constitutional interpretation involving the Religion Clauses, the Expression Clauses, and the Right to Bear Arms. Both interpretive and substantive issues will be addressed to question what the scope of each constitutional provision should be and whether that scope should be interrelated with the scope of other provisions. Specific topics will include: gun control, dollars to religion, school, prayer, criminal advocacy, pornography, hate speech, and new communications technologies.

This course will cover the history and the judicial interpretation of the First Amendment's free speech clause. Coverage of modern judicial interpretation will be topical rather than chronological. Subjects will include subversive advocacy, prior restraints, tort law and the First Amendment, offensive speech, symbolic dissent, freedom not to speak, the government as employer, the government's management of public property, access to the mass media, campaign finance, obscenity, and commercial speech. Readings, particularly for the historical portion of the course, will consist of secondary sources as well as legal decisions. NO PREREQUISITES.

This course will introduce the three structural principles of the Constitution - federalism, checks and balances, and the separation of powers - as well as the individual rights the Constitution protects.

The course is an examination of the Consitution as a document of law, political theory, and politics. Focus is primarily on federalism, separation of powers, and some aspects of due process and equal protection. Much effort is put into helping students learn how to think about constitutional law as future lawyers and as citizens. It is taught largely with by the Socratic Method.

We will be studying Constitutional Law together at an extraordinary and difficult moment. Our constitutional arrangements have been put under considerable stress, and little seems happily settled. We will have just emerged from a difficult election, and our national electoral arrangements are creaky at best and democratically questionable at worst. The Supreme Court, which will be the object of much of our attention, is itself shrouded in controversy, with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg followed by a politically-fraught appointment to the Court and questions of court-packing hanging in the air. The reasons we have a Constitution, how we should interpret the Constitution, and how it can be amended are suddenly especially prominent issues. Dusty questions of federalism and separation of powers are now vividly and concretely important, with some state governments and the President at war over immigration, the environment, and social justice, on the one hand, and Congress and the President at odds on the other. In the domain of social justice, controversy over the meaning of equality is far from new, but so too is it far from settled. Affirmative action, abortion and same sex intimacy and marriage are all objects of recent or current sharp contention. Our project will be to consider and try to understand the role of the Constitution, the courts and our political community in addressing the questions that presently swirl around us. I do not expect or hope that we will all agree. I do hope that we will all deepen our understanding of how best to think about these matters, and I will insist that our conversations be conducted in an environment of mutual respect. I said at the outset that this is an extraordinary and difficult moment to study constitutional law.. It is also an exciting moment to do so, and I am looking forward to seeing you all. --Larry Sager

Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.

Distribution of powers between federal and state governments; constitutional limitations on and judicial review of governmental action.

This course will analyze theories of liability and defenses in the area of construction dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on Texas law. It involves participation in several case studies, which will include extensive discussion of the practical aspects of resolving construction disputes through litigation and arbitration. The class participants will study case materials involving property damage, personal injury, and claims for delay and payment. The semester will conclude with a mediation exercise with one of the leading construction mediators in Texas. The teaching goal is to furnish students with the basic tools to evaluate and handle a variety of construction-related disputes.

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.

An introduction to the law governing contracts and the methods by which rights and duties of promissory and quasi-promissory origin are created, transferred, limited, discharged, breached, and enforced.

Methods by which rights and duties of promissory and quasi-promissory origin are created, transferred, limited, discharged, breached, and enforced.