Course Schedule

This course explores constitutional limitations upon the investigation of crime. Its focus is on the law governing searches, seizures, and police interrogation. Topics include the nature of a fourth amendment search; arrest and investigative detention; warrants and exceptions to the warrant requirement; confessions; and the application of the exclusionary rule. Grades will be based upon a three-hour final examination.

This class will introduce students to the intersection of blockchain technology, law, and policy. This entails a brief overview of blockchains and cryptocurrencies, as well as some of their most popular applications (DeFi, NFTs, etc) - students need not know anything about these technologies (or any technology) in advance. Students will also learn about: (1) the role of various regulators like the SEC and the Treasury Department, and how those regulators might think about cryptocurrencies; (2) the idea of code as a regulating force; and (3) the national security and foreign policy implications of cryptocurrencies. This class is designed to expose students to the breadth of issues coming out of blockchain technology, and will be focused on discussion rather than lecturing or presentations. 

Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Jeff Rowes will teach students how public-interest lawyers devise and litigate strategic cases designed to set precedent. The class will examine major cases from the perspective of the lawyers who fought the battles, and consider questions like how do you select the right client, identify the right claims, and file in the right jurisdiction. The class will also talk about the right moment in history to bring suit. Students will learn how to use the media effectively. There will be particular emphasis on teaching real-world litigation skills and professional judgment. Each student will write an appellate brief as the final assignment. But to make the brief writing more collaborative, as it is in actual legal practice, students will be asked to submit draft sections throughout the semester and incorporate feedback from the instructor. Although the instructor is an attorney at the Institute for Justice, which has a libertarian orientation, he strongly encourages students of all perspectives to join the class. We will look at cases across the ideological spectrum (and discuss how good constitutional lawyers build alliances across ideological boundaries). There is no exam. Pass/fail allowed.

The past two years have highlighted the growing cyber threat to entities of all types: corporations, hospitals, government institutions and small businesses, to name a few.  The day that attack comes is nothing short of a crisis, requiring all the right teams to assemble and navigate the obstacles such an attack may present.  Cyber response was once thought as the province of the information security department, but it has grown to include leaders from key departments such as law, human resources, public relations, business teams, compliance, risk, and privacy.  Additionally, vendors, such as a technical incident response firm and a crisis communications firm must be identified and engaged to help supplement existing resources.  This is the time for legal counsel to shine, as the lawyer's role is central to many of the most critical workstreams.    This practical skills course will provide an in-depth review of incident response and counsel's role.  Students will partake in a tabletop exercise to kick off the course and identify the areas of incident response.  Subsequent sessions will review each area through group discussions in a small-class setting.   Guest speakers will include seasoned incident response experts from the FBI or Secret Service, crisis communications firms and regulators.

Course meeting dates:

2/16: 4 hours (4-8pm)

3/2: 2 hours (4-6pm)

3/9: 2 hours (4-6pm)

3/23: 2 hours (4-6pm)

4/6: 4 hours (4-8pm)

This course will provide an overview of cyber risk management concepts and techniques, and then provide a tangible deep-dive into real-world examples and scenarios. This will be a collaborative and case-based class over the course of the semester. We will walk through a set of risk identification, risk assessment, and risk management for case studies. Discussions will include an overview of cyber risk management frameworks, relevant regulations, and available tools. We will cover the latest thinking in risk-based assessments, including reporting audit issues, and designing internal controls. We will then cover risk management with governance models including the three lines of defense, and risk management techniques.

This course is a practical and practitioner’s introduction to cybersecurity and how Governments have tried to respond to cyber threats, risks and harms. It covers structural insecurities in the Internet, the main threat actors (both state and criminal), and the nature and method of harms in cyber space. It then covers how Governments have attempted, with varying success, to develop policies and frameworks to deal with emerging cyber threats. This covers both the domestic response: improving security of Government networks and regulating and/or incentivising the private sector, and the international response, covering attempts to develop strategies to deter and punish hostile state action as well as the pursuit of globally accepted norms. It is led by a former senior practitioner who set up and then led the National Cyber Security Centre in the United Kingdom.

This course will introduce the technical aspects of computer network security and how organizations plan for and respond to cyberattacks. We will also discuss the basics of digital forensic technology. Though this course is intended to be a continuation of Technology of Cybersecurity, motivated students with even a rudimentary understanding of programming are welcome. The course is designed for graduate students in law, public affairs, and other non-technical disciplines. We will explore topics like denial of service attacks, intrusion detection, digital forensics, reverse engineering, mobile security, side-channel attacks, machine learning, VPNs, TOR, and The Dark Web.

Note that this course does not address legal or policy questions, as those are the subject of the separate Cybersecurity Foundations course taught by Professor Chesney. Both courses are part of the larger Strauss Center program promoting cross-disciplinary training related to cybersecurity across the graduate school community at UT.

This course will provide an in-depth examination of the battered women’s movement and its impact on the legal system’s response to domestic violence. We begin with law and the social context of battering, including how the experience of abuse and the response to abuse is shaped by race, cultural identity, economic status, sexual orientation, and disabilities. Criminal law aspects are addressed within the role of protective orders, prosecution, and defense (including self-defense for victims and ethical representation of batterers). We next view how civil family law recognizes domestic violence in custody, divorce, visitation, and child protection matters. Among other topics, the course will examine specialized areas of the law, which include tort liability for batterers and third parties (police, employers, etc.) and federal remedies under the Violence Against Women Act. The class will discuss emerging issues like violence against women as a human rights violation and evolving sexual assault laws to identify the challenges of theory vs. practice. The focus of the class is to examine current gaps and barriers in the legal response to intimate partner violence and propose systemic change through a social justice lens.

This challenging 3-hour course covers the hottest topics in litigation today: electronic discovery and digital evidence. Evidence is information, and nearly all information is created, collected, communicated and stored electronically. Thus, the ability to identify, preserve, interpret, authenticate and challenge electronically stored information is a crucial litigation skill. This course will seek to reconcile the federal rules and e-discovery case law with the sources, forms and methods of information technology and computer forensics. Students will deeply explore information technology, learn to "speak geek" and acquire hands-on, practical training in finding electronic evidence, meeting preservation duties, guarding against spoliation, selecting forms of production, communicating and cooperating with opposing counsel and managing the volume and variety of digital evidence and metadata. With an emphasis on understanding the nuts and bolts of information technology, the course teaches practical considerations, tips and tools as well as pivotal case law that has shaped this area of the law and the electronic discovery industry as a whole. No background in computing or technology is required to succeed. If you have questions about the course to decide if it's for you, I can be reached via email as craig@ball.net or by phone at 713-320-6066.

Two top litigators teach practical skills and tips on everything from social media to managing massive discovery.  If it's new in litigation they know it. We will be discussing the use of technology in all aspects of litigation, including virtual trials and hearings.

In this advanced property-law class, you will learn about eminent domain—the power of the government (and those with its delegated authority) to take private property and convert it into public use in exchange for paying just compensation to the property owner. Most lawyers get just one or two days of class about eminent domain in law school. This course aims to fix that shortcoming.

The subject is fascinating as a matter of theory, as it deals with the power of a tribe (the community) to take property away from its members. And eminent domain is becoming more and more important in practice. Take Texas, for example. The Lone Star State is home to eight of the nation’s 15 fastest-growing cities and boasts five of the top 10 cities in the total number of new residents. The need for infrastructure has skyrocketed, both to accommodate the explosive population growth and to support Texas's ever-expanding oil-and-gas industry. In light of these developments, we as a community need to work out how to deal with growth while still honoring constitutional values and individual rights.

Class discussions and reading assignments will explore whether the current eminent domain framework in the U.S. properly protects property owners and the public. The subject is generally divided into two interrelated parts: (1) the origins of eminent domain, public use, and public necessity and (2) “just compensation," including evidentiary and procedural issues that arise in disputes about compensation. Throughout, the class will explore the relationship between theory and practice.

This course explores the law surrounding the relationship between employers and individual employees, focusing primarily on the following areas: (1) Distinctions between “employees” and other types of workers, and why they matter; (2) The "general rule" of employment-at-will and the ways it can be modified; (3) Some statutory and common law exceptions to at-will employment, such as whistle-blowing, public policy and tort theories; (4) Employee privacy & drug testing issues; (5) The additional rights and responsibilities of government employees (e.g., free speech & due process rights, limitations on political rights); (6) A general overview of the laws protecting employees from discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics (e.g., race, national origin, sex, sexual harassment, age, disability), and their enforcement schemes; (7) A general overview of the Fair Labor Standards Act and its minimum wage & overtime premium protections; (8) A general overview of the Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the duties of employers/employees thereunder; and (9) A look at the duties an employee can owe the employer, such as those involving trade secrets and obligations not to compete. Please note that Employment Law is different from Labor Law; the latter generally governs the relationship between employers and labor unions representing their employees, dealing with topics such as collective bargaining, strikes, labor contract enforcement, and similar topics.

This course will immerse students in practical business and legal concepts in financing oil and gas and alternative energy development and demonstrate how those issues manifest themselves in the negotiation and loan documentation. In addition, the course will provide an historical context for the development of present day commercial bank lending to oil and gas companies illustrating how loan documentation between producers and energy lenders has evolved since the early 1900’s. The tools and concepts taught in class lectures will be implemented by students in practice through negotiation and drafting of an energy loan utilizing current real world example of a syndicated energy credit agreement and term sheet. The first half of the course will lay the groundwork for how and why today’s energy loans are structured drawing upon the historical analysis in Oil Capital, The History of American Oil, Wildcatters, Independents and Their Bankers written by one of the professors, Buddy Clark. Alongside this historical perspective, the course will cover the principal provisions of an energy loan based upon assigned readings from The LSTA's Complete Credit Agreement Guide, Second Edition. In the second half of the course, students will be divided into banker and producer teams serving to negotiate key provisions in a Term Sheet and Credit Agreement for an oil and gas loan through email and conference call interactions with their clients. The ‘clients’ will be Haynes and Boone, LLP energy finance lawyers who will be acting as bankers or producers, respectively. With input from their client, groups will negotiate and agree on the final Term Sheet and Credit Agreement. The final work product will be a Credit Agreement redlined against the form. At the end of the course, in class, each group will discuss the final “deal” that was struck and three principal points of contention and how they drafted compromises in the documents.In addition, the second half of the course will cover renewable energy project development and transactional issues based on assigned readings from Energy & Environmental Project Finance: Law & Taxation available on Lexis and selected articles addressing major renewables transactional documentation.

Students will be graded on class participation, drafting and negotiation exercises, a final work product, and a final exam (short answer).

This course examines in detail the regulatory regimes governing the sale and delivery of energy in American energy markets. Students will develop a working understanding of electricity and gas markets, how federal and state regulatory commissions regulate price and competition in those markets under the Federal Power Act, the Natural Gas Act, and analogous state laws. We will also address topical issues associated with the rapid technological and economic changes underway in the electricity and gas markets, including the effects of the rapid growth in renewable generation, disputes over the pricing and regulation of distributed energy resources (such as rooftop solar or demand response), the move toward increasing competition and market pricing, legal rules governing the siting of natural gas and electric transmission lines, and more. This class will be based in the Law School, but also open to students from the McCombs School, the Jackson School, and the LBJ School, and will mix traditional lecture and discussion with small group work in multidisciplinary teams. This is a companion course to (but not a prerequisite for) Energy Law: Regulating Energy Production.

This three credit survey course focuses on the legal issues that pervade the conservation and regulation of public lands, wildlife, fisheries, and wetlands. These issues include, among others, competing claims of the "public interest" versus private property rights; the roles of administrative agencies and the judiciary in environmental decision making; tensions presented by the multiple use/sustainable yield standard in federal law; conflicts among and between local, state, and federal approaches to natural resource regulation; and the opposing goals of resource management espoused by fishermen, farmers, developers, environmentalists, and recreational users. These issues will be developed in the context of the regulatory schemes embodied in the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act and the various statutes that govern federal public lands, such as the Wilderness Act and Federal Land Policy Management Act. The focus of the course is primarily U.S. law; however, it will touch on international law relevant to natural resources and, where appropriate, compare U.S. law to the laws of other countries.

A course on the Federal Rules of Evidence, with an emphasis on the application of the rules in court. 

4 hour course covering both the Federal and Texas rules of Evidence with emphasis on application of the rules in litigation. Topics include include relevance, hearsay, the Confrontation Clause, character evidence, impeachment and rehabilitation of witnesses, the best evidence rule, lay and expert opinion, and privileges.

The course will contribute to successful and effective practice as an in-house counsel and explore similarities and differences between in-house and outside legal practice.  Topics covered will include: evaluating in-house opportunities; transitioning to an in-house role; the relationship between in-house counsel and their internal clients; staffing and interacting with the board of directors, in-house counsel's role in adding value to his/her organization; advising and counseling clients; selecting and managing outside counsel; and an ethical challenge pertinent to  in-house counsel.

This course will be highly interactive with frequent breakout groups.  There will be very little duplicative material with Special Topics in In-House Practice, also offered this semester.

This course provides an overview of the legal regulation of intimate relationships. Substantial time is devoted to the incidents of divorce (including property division, spousal support, child support, and custody), and the regulation of prenuptial and postnuptial agreements. The course will also cover issues related parenthood, alternative reproductive technologies, and same-sex marriage.