Course Schedule

This course covers persuasive legal writing and oral argument before an appellate panel.  All students will complete a series of assignments designed to help you learn to write an appellate brief.  All students will write a complete appellate brief and make two oral arguments.  The course also covers other practical legal skills.

This course covers persuasive legal writing and oral argument before an appellate panel.  All students will complete a series of assignments designed to help you learn to write an appellate brief.  All students will write a complete appellate brief and make two oral arguments.  The course also covers other practical legal skills.

This course covers persuasive legal writing and oral argument before an appellate panel.  All students will complete a series of assignments designed to help you learn to write an appellate brief.  All students will write a complete appellate brief and make two oral arguments.  The course also covers other practical legal skills.

This course covers persuasive legal writing and oral argument before an appellate panel.  All students will complete a series of assignments designed to help you learn to write an appellate brief.  All students will write a complete appellate brief and make two oral arguments.  The course also covers other practical legal skills.

This course covers persuasive legal writing and oral argument before an appellate panel.  All students will complete a series of assignments designed to help you learn to write an appellate brief.  All students will write a complete appellate brief and make two oral arguments.  The course also covers other practical legal skills.

This course covers persuasive legal writing and oral argument before an appellate panel.  All students will complete a series of assignments designed to help you learn to write an appellate brief.  All students will write a complete appellate brief and make two oral arguments.  The course also covers other practical legal skills.

This course covers persuasive legal writing and oral argument before an appellate panel.  All students will complete a series of assignments designed to help you learn to write an appellate brief.  All students will write a complete appellate brief and make two oral arguments.  The course also covers other practical legal skills.

 This course is for 3Ls who will be clerking for a federal district or magistrate judge. It is taught by an active and a recently-retired federal magistrate judge, both of whom also clerked for a federal district judge.    

On your first day in your new clerkship, you will inherit the responsibility of overseeing a docket of 100 or more cases, all of which have ongoing motion practice, upcoming trial dates, and a lot for a law clerk to do.  And most of the things you will need to do are things you have never done before, like preparing a bench memo for a hearing, or an order denying a 12(b)(6) motion.  The first few months in a clerkship can be pretty overwhelming. This class is intended to provide you with enough knowledge and insight into the nuts and bolts of a district or magistrate judge clerkship to allow you to hit the ground running on your first day.  It covers everything from how to read a docket sheet and find the pleadings in your cases, to drafting a memorandum opinion.  It is a  two-credit, pass/fail, small and collaborative class.  

Permission to enroll must be acquired prior to registration. Students must have a verified federal district clerkship. Before the registration period begins, email: clerk-admin@law.utexas.edu to request verification and departmental access to register online.

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country on earth, with more than 1.9 million people in custody on any given day. Prisons and jails are places that cause tremendous harm to the people who live and work in these settings, and it has become increasingly clear that environmental factors contribute to the risks they face. For example, incarcerated people and corrections staff are exposed to extreme temperatures, contaminated water supplies, hazardous chemicals, toxic air quality, and climate-change induced events, such as flooding, wildfires, and other natural disasters. At the same time, the carceral institutions themselves can create hazardous environmental conditions. It is no coincidence that these environmental risks disproportionately impact low-income people and people of color.

This course examines the range of environmental risks in the carceral setting by focusing on specific case studies of environmental harm suffered by incarcerated people in several instances over the last ten years. We will hear directly from people who have been incarcerated who can speak to the impact of these environmental hazards. We will examine some of the practical challenges that arise when it comes to addressing these environmental risks, such as the politics of funding infrastructure improvements, the complexities of the policy development process, and the difficulties of mass evacuations. We will explore the laws and policies in place to protect incarcerated people from environmental impacts, and the gaps in protection that exist. We will also delve into the legal obstacles people in custody face when they seek redress for the environmental harms they have suffered.

This new seminar, cross-listed between the LBJ School and the Law School, approaches these issues from a highly interdisciplinary and practical perspective. It will be co-taught by two professors, one with expertise on prison policy and practice and the other with expertise on environmental law. We will also have guest speakers with lived experience relevant to these issues.

Course Requirements This seminar is dependent upon an informed and lively discussion. Students are expected to attend all classes, do all the reading, and come to class with thoughtful comments or questions about their reading assignments. The course will have a heavy reading load. Class participation is critical and will be considered in grading. Students will be required to undertake an original research project on an approved topic of their choice and will write a 10-page issue brief and make an oral presentation to the class about this topic. Additionally, students will submit a couple of shorter writing assignments during the semester and may be asked to help lead class discussion or to conduct some outside research on a specified week’s topic. Students may be paired with a classmate in the other department to conduct certain assignments.  

This course addresses the law of privacy and personal data protection under two dominant, but quite different, legal regimes. In this course, we will review privacy fundamentals – principles, risks, and harms - within the U.S. legal framework, including federal consumer, financial, and health privacy laws, and historical and emerging state laws. We will discuss and evaluate important aspects of the evolving U.S. legal framework and the EU GDPR (and other, recent European data laws), taking into account unique challenges posed by the evolution of digital data technology such as biometric data processing, breach response, cross-border data transfers, technological automony, and artificial intelligence.

The process of forming and capitalizing private equity and venture capital funds is a foundational first step to an understanding of how private companies are financed globally. Over the course of the week, students will develop an understanding of each player in the fund formation process (e.g. limited partners, general partners, lawyers, placement agents, etc.), each party’s leverage points, and how each party is necessary for a successful fundraise. We will also walk through all of the necessary documents in a fundraise (e.g. limited partnership agreements, private placement memorandum, side letters, etc.) and, through the use of example provisions, learn the various negotiation points that each party is focused on.

This survey course on lawyers' professional responsibilities is centered on two premises: (1) The practice of law is a business as well as a profession, and economic incentives therefore matter; and (2) more than 90 percent of all lawsuits settle. Thus, we will give special attention to the economic aspects of the attorney-client relationship and the various incentives that existing ethical Rules provide both lawyers and clients. We will also pay particular attention to a wide range of ethical issues surrounding the settlement process.

The course will cover most of the material that is typically tested on the MPRE.  In previous years, students all reported feeling well prepared for, and doing well on, the MPRE.

This course fulfills the Professional Responsibility requirement for graduation.

The exam format will depend on what is ultimately permitted by the university.  If current regulations continue, the exam will be a time-limited (likely 3 hours) exam with a mix of word-limited long essay questions and word-limited short answer questions.

This course will introduce students to core concepts and doctrines in the field of professional responsibility. It will touch on all of the subjects needed to prepare for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. The class will be taught through case examples and problems. Students will take an in-class examination. This course fulfills the Professional Responsibility requirement for graduation. 

This course will introduce LL.M. students to core concepts and doctrines in the field of professional responsibility. It will highlight the subjects needed to prepare for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. The class will be taught through case examples and problems. Students must be prepared to actively take part in class discussion each meeting. This course fulfills the Professional Responsibility requirement for graduation and for bar examinations. It class is for LL.M. students only.

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.

In this course, we will gain an understanding of real and personal property interests recognzed by our legal system: estates in land and future interests, cotenancies, community propery, landlord and tenant issues, conveyancing, real estate transactions, and private and public control of land use--restrictive covenants and zoning regilations.

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.  

This seminar-style course offers students the opportunity to examine more closely one or more issues affecting reentry for individuals who have a criminal history. Designed for students with a particular interest in criminal justice policy, readings will come from a variety of sources, including case law, book chapters, policy reports, academic journals, and investigative accounts. Outside speakers will help ground classroom discussion in practice. Weekly attendance and active class participation, including introducing readings and formulating questions for speakers, is expected and will count toward the final grade. Areas of focus include barriers to employment and housing, the role of substance use and behavioral health challenges, recidivism and public safety, probation and parole practices, and criminal background checks . The course is open to LBJ graduate students.

Prerequisites: Students should possess a basic understanding of the criminal justice system and the role of reentry. Relevant experience could include enrollment in the Criminal Defense, Civil Rights, or Immigration Clinics, other coursework, or prior work or volunteer experience. Interested students must submit an email to the professor indicating their interest and relevant background, as well as a copy of their (unofficial) law school transcript. Contact the professor with any questions.

Note that this course has been retitled but remains substantively the same and students who have already taken Criminal Justice: Reentry will not be allowed to enroll.

Accelerating technological innovation is dramatically altering the financial services landscape.  By disintermediating and disrupting existing relationships, it is enabling the emergence of new business models, products and market participants.   But what are the rules for this revolution?  Or are there rules?   How can lawyers counsel revolutionary entrepreneurs?  How do regulators grapple with the associated challenges?  This course will provide students a framework to consider these questions. We will use as our focal points two emerging and potentially transformational technologies: the development of blockchain distributed ledger technologies, and advances in the application of artificial intelligence to financial services.  We will begin with administrative models of regulation and use that framework to critically assess the way that regulators have utilized existing authorities to respond to the myriad developments in these fields.  Substantive issues will include anti-money laundering, securities and commodities regulation, consumer protection and data privacy.  A consistent theme will be the challenges of developing appropriate regulatory responses to applications of rapidly evolving technologies, and, from the other perspective, that of counseling change agents in an ambiguous regulatory environment.  This course is taught by a professor with a 35-year regulatory enforcement career that included positions as a senior SEC enforcement official and as a partner in a global law firm representing clients in defense of enforcement actions, and who has deep experience with these challenges from both perspectives.      

In this 1 credit, seminar-styled class, we will explore the various legal approaches used to hold network industries accountable for providing public services, such as energy, telecommunications, and drinking water services. Some of these service providers are government-owned, and some are private companies (including public utilities). We tend to think of many of them as providers of essential or critically important services. After discussing some of the conceptual and theoretical writings on institutional challenges relating to the regulation of these powerful actors, we will explore a number of different areas of regulation, including the regulatory oversight of drinking water supplies, chemical manufacture, electric utilities, oil and gas, telecommunications, and e-commerce companies like Amazon.  The structure of the seminar and readings will be established by the professor, but the fifty-minute hourly discussions will be led by student teams that rotate on a weekly basis.  The final grade will be based on the quality of the student’s participation throughout the semester; the quality of the specific classes led by the student; five short blog posts on the weekly readings; and a ten-page paper (double-spaced). 

This is an interesting time to study the law of Religious Liberty.  The Supreme Court has heard multiple cases and issued a number of decisions in recent years construing the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment.  Studying these developments is helpful not just to understanding this area of constitutional law, but also to examining the Supreme Court as an institution.

This class is an introduction to the law of Religious Liberty.  It will also present an opportunity to develop appellate advocacy skills.  Students will simulate oral arguments before the Supreme Court in significant religious liberty controversies, by performing in the role of both advocates and justices.

This course is open to students who have already taken a course in Constitutional Law.  No other prerequisite is required.  We will meet roughly every other week for two hours at a time.  The course is graded, but students are welcome to exercise their pass-fail option if they wish.  Grades will turn on the quality of in-class participation, both as advocates and as justices.  Students will have the chance to learn the law of Religious Liberty from a seasoned practitioner, and to practice oral advocacy before a bench of your fellow students, as well as a federal circuit judge.

Each week, two to four students will be assigned a Supreme Court case to argue, before a bench comprised of fellow students who will serve as Justices.  After each oral argument, we will discuss the issues presented in the case and raised during the argument.

Alternative asset classes, particularly hedge funds and private equity funds, play an increasingly central role in the global economy. Total alternative assets under management surpassed $10 trillion in 2020, a more than threefold increase from 2008, and are expected to surpass $17 trillion by 2025. Hedge funds and private equity funds represent approximately 75% of these assets. This explosive growth has been accompanied by an increased institutionalization of the industry, an advanced regulatory environment and a significant rise in public scrutiny.

This course will provide a comprehensive review of the legal and regulatory framework related to hedge fund and private funds, particularly in relation to structuring, documentation, disclosures, tax considerations and compliance.  Areas of focus will include relevant federal securities, tax and pension plan laws, case history and agency actions. This course also will include a critical analysis of related policy issues and topics, including insider trading, environmental/social/governance (ESG) investing, preferential tax treatment, the rise of cryptocurrencies and the economic and societal impacts associated with the alternative investment industry. In addition, the course will analyze the various roles lawyers play throughout the industry.

Thomas Aquinas is regarded by more than a few scholars as one of the two or three greatest philosophers and theologians in Western history, as well as one of the most illuminating students of Augustine and Aristotle.  His Treatise on Law is the locus classicus of the natural law tradition, and indispensable for anyone seriously interested in ethical philosophy, political philosophy, jurisprudence, natural law, or the interaction of faith and reason in each of these areas.  Though it is brief, as treatises go, it is not the sort of book one can browse through in an evening, and requires close reading.  I welcome students from a variety of disciplines.

Written in the form of a scholastic disputation, the Treatise takes up 19 disputed questions, for example whether there is such a thing as natural law and whether one may disobey unjust laws.  We will closely study each of the first eight (qq. 90-97), as well as a few selections from the other eleven (qq, 98-108), taking them up in sequence and in context.  I say “in context” because the Treatise is but a single part of a much larger work, the Summa Theologiae, which takes up a variety of related matters including the ultimate purpose of human life, the nature of human acts, the passions, the virtues, and the vices.  I do not expect you to be familiar with the whole Summa; we will explore the connections as necessary.

This workshop seminar will focus on cutting-edge research in business law and economics. Most weeks will feature a leading outside scholar presenting a work-in-progress relating to current issues in business law. 

The range of subject matter includes economically-oriented work on business law, securities regulation, tax, or commercial law.  Many of the papers presented will likely deal with normative questions of private ordering versus public regulation, and will examine problems that arise in both the private and public law spheres.  Similarly, it is expected that many of the papers will consider social welfare effects, such as the effect of law and regulation on entrepreneurship, innovation, capital formation, and financial markets.   

Students will be responsible for written assessments of the paper being presented, and will be evaluated based on their writings and their participation in the workshop. Students' critiques may be made available to the speaker.

This seminar will examine historic and contemporary issues of race and the death penalty within American law and jurisprudence. Through this course, students will learn substantive principles; study the growing body of critical legal scholarship covering the matter; and examine the potential (and limits) of the law. By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze the interplay between race and the death penalty; acquire tools to think critically about its legal framework and engage with the role of racialized identities in its use. Utilizing – among other things – case law, statutory interpretation, statistical data, legal scholarship and legislative efforts, the course will undertake the project of grappling with a real-world example of the racialized nature of the death penalty.