Course Schedule

This course provides an introduction to legal doctrines and policy questions relating to the organization and operation of the administrative state. The focus is on federal administrative law, with significant attention devoted to judicial review of agency action, structural constitutional questions of separation and balance of powers, and procedural requirements under the Due Process Clause and Administrative Procedure Act. Students are required to participate in class on "on call" panel days. Grading will be based on satisfaction of the panel requirement and performance on a one-day, take-home examination.

Anything that happens on or near a body of navigable water is liable to call forth the admiralty jurisdiction of the federal courts and the application of the federal maritime law. The practice of admiralty and maritime law is somewhat specialized--admiralty lawyers still like to call themselves "proctors"--but any lawyer who practices in a port city (on an ocean, river, or lake) or who handles international transactions of any sort is likely to run into admiralty problems. (Yes, there is a lot of admiralty in Baton Rouge, plenty of it in Cincinnati, and probably still a little bit in Ogallala.) England had a specialized admiralty practice, and our Constitution set up admiralty and maritime law as a separate subject in this country by explicitly vesting the federal courts with full (but not exclusive) power over "all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction."  Understanding admiralty and maritime law accordingly entails some historical inquiries as well as a significant re-education in aspects of constitutional law affecting the division of power between the national and state governments. But the focus of the course is predominantly modern law, and the course materials consist in major part of recent judicial decisions and oft-litigated statutes.

This course delves into issues presented by injuries to maritime workers (including the Jones Act and the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act); injuries to ship passengers and recreational boaters; carriage of goods under private contracts of carriage (charterparties) and under bills of lading (including the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act); collisions between vessels; marine insurance; and forum shopping in maritime cases. The emphasis is on the present-day problems of maritime lawyers and judges as reflected in current litigation. The name "admiralty" may conjure up images of antiquity, but the practice and study of maritime law is a thoroughly modern matter. There are no prerequisites.

This course is a broad survey of three main types of legal writing: objective analysis, persuasive analysis, and transactional drafting. The course will also cover many other topics crucial to high-level professional writing: use of forms, advanced legal citation, the plain English movement, advanced grammar and punctuation, document design, legal usage, and editing. Students will receive individual critiques of their writing, and lectures will use model answers and sample critiques.

The course will cover topics not usually covered in patent law courses. For the first eight weeks, the course will address advanced topics and new developments in the law. The topics will be addressed in more depth than in typical courses and will include policy considerations. There will likely be one guest speaker that will present on a special topic. For the rest of the term, the students will select topics, choose the readings, and lead the discussion. Topic selection will require instructor approval. Students will also be expected to write a term paper on the same topic as the one chosen for presentation. Prerequisites: The student should have taken or be concurrently taking a course that includes patent law (which could be a survey course).

A course focusing on real-life cases and key strategic decisions made immediately before and during trial to position you for success. Nationally renowned trial master, David Beck, will demonstrate, share secrets and teach strategy. This is an advanced course. Texas Civil Procedure and Advocacy classes are recommended prior courses.

American water law, floated by its policies and rationales, evolved under opportune circumstances that bestowed on this young country abundant seasonal rainfall; thousands of mighty and contributory surface waters; and multitudes of sub-surface geologic formations that discharged and recharged, over the unhurried course of geologic time, providing seemingly limitless quantities of naturally-cooled and filtered stores of water from underground. These gifts of a palpably benevolent natural order--and the supportive understanding that water is a renewable resource-- helped to root pragmatic societal optimism regarding the use of water "from sea to shining sea", in accord with the popular anthem "America, the Beautiful". The rights, rules, and regulations that came to embody water law were stood up under these conditions.

The local-to-global conditions that account for the stocks and flows of water resources today, including the accelerating changes in when and how it "renews", have shifted massively since our water ownership and management regime evolved. It is evident that, under current and continuing challenges, the regime needs to evolve faster and further than it has ever done before. Why and how?

In this new course, we will take a close look at several of the challenging conditions that are putting immense pressure on water resources, our understandings of them, the legal management of them, and the values and principles that ought to drive inquiries into our short- and long-term goals. As to each such major undertaking within the course, we will explore the newest ideas for regime-change--and possibly shape some of our own.  

Subjects we are likely to take up in a slow sequence to allow for the extended consideration of some of these topics includes: consumptive water use for data centers; the re-use of "produced water" (especially in Texas) for irrigation and other purposes; the federal and state regulation of toxic chemical introduction into water bodies; the de-salination alternative; and the management of water under conditions of severe drought and severe flood. At least one topic will include international waters and the special challenges for management that they pose (likely, our topic will involve the Rio Grande River.) 

The productive dividends on offer include collaborative inter-disciplinary engagement; the careful construction of factual as well as legal understandings; outside expert participation; and writing with and without the use of AI. There will be no final exam. There is no prerequisite for this course.

You spent the first year of law school analyzing published cases. The emphasis of much of your reading was on the results of published cases and the legal principles each case teaches. Importantly, while trial court judges can publish written opinions on discreet issues, most of your previous reading focused on appellate court opinions. Every appellate court opinion begins with a narrative of the facts. The facts are critical in developing the legal opinions pronounced by the opinion. The way the facts are recited often allows the reader to begin developing a just result in the case simply by the way the facts are presented. But what does the first year of law school teach you about developing facts? We certainly spend a great deal of time analyzing facts, but how do you produce them? How do facts become evidence? Why do some facts seem to matter more than other facts? At a time in our society when it is hard to find common ground on what constitutes an objective fact, how do current attitudes (and social media) affect our profession where so much of the law depends upon the facts? And nestled somewhere between Evidence and Federal Courts perhaps our Course Catalog will one day have a class devoted entirely to Facts. Because no matter what type of law you practice, you’re going to have to deal with the facts of your case. You’re going to have to deal with the good facts, the bad facts, and the ambiguous facts. Whether you practice Admiralty Law or Wills and Estates, you must wrestle with disputed facts. And mostly importantly you, the lawyer, must find facts. Facts do not announce themselves, and rarely does the judge or jury understand the significance of any fact. Like latent fingerprints, we often see only remnants and traces of facts. These facts are never reviewed by an appellate court unless they are collected, preserved, interpreted, presented, and introduced as evidence. It is our job to find truth and extract justice for our clients by distilling the vapor of nuance from these latent facts. This class is a guide to that process. This class has a mandatory evening skills component (Monday or Wednesday evening). Students must register for both the lecture (376M) and either Monday or Wednesday evening skills portion (176N) of the class. Please note, the evening Skills portion of the class will not begin until week 5 or 6 of the semester and will run for eight weeks. Advocacy Survey is designed for all law students. While focusing primarily on trial skills, the course will also cover topics such as transactional practice, motion practice and alternative dispute resolution. By combining theory through the lecture sessions with technique training in skills sessions, students are able to practice what they learn. Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case. Students will examine a case file from pretrial motions, transactional, ADR, arbitration, voir dire, and trial. This is a 4-credit series (1 credit pass/fail, 3 credits graded). Prerequisite or Concurrent: Evidence.

Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case.

Students get hands-on practice in areas such as opening and closing statements, the use and relevance of technology in litigation, transferable skills for a transactional practice, and the basic skills necessary to try a case. The skill sessions will end with the trial of a case.

This course will examine how the U. S. Supreme Court sets its agenda. It will also examine agenda setting in other legal institutions , e.g, the office of the US. Solicitor General, State Solicitors General, and perhaps private legal practices. Students will be expected to come to class well prepared to discuss readings including weekly 1-2 page papers reflecting on the readings. Students will write a modest research paper on a topic of their choice related to agenda setting that is approved by the professor.

This course focuses on the changing health and supportive care needs of an aging metropolis. We examine the influences of political and economic forces that shape public policies related to health and social welfare policy using Austin as a case example. Potential topics to be covered are affordable housing, homelessness, transportation, medical care, social services, access to electronic media, and income supports. One potential way of addressing this new reality that the instructor has been involved with in recent years is intergenerational day centers (IDC) that combine adult day health care and childcare services.

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (3 HOUR COURSE) The Alternative Dispute Resolution Survey course is designed to provide a broad-based introduction to negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, for students interested in either advocacy or transactional practices. ADR methods are now more common than the courtroom for resolving civil disputes; more than 99% of civil cases are settled before trial, if cases are even filed at the courthouse. Many commercial agreements now contain mandatory mediation/arbitration provisions, and statutory and case law both favor ADR. This course will examine the policy and business reasons for the rise in ADR; explore the various ADR methods; discuss negotiating and why lawyers must learn successful negotiating skills; and provide students with an opportunity to experience these concepts through class exercises. The professor is a 30+year litigation attorney with substantial experience to both trial and ADR disputes, and she brings a practical, real-world approach to the lectures and exercises. There will be no exam, but a final written project is required. Grading will be based upon class participation, attendance, and the final paper. Please note: Students may only miss two classes per semester, additional absences will be reflected in a lower grade.

This course is designed to familiarize you with the abundance of topics and legal issues within the field of animal law. In addition to relevant statutes and case law, we will examine the extent to which jurisprudence, legal systems, litigation, legislation, and societal values impact how practitioners, lawmakers, the judiciary, law students, legal scholars, and lay people perceive animals. In doing so, this course will not only facilitate learning substantive law in the field, but also help you understand the framework of claims and assumptions (both explicit and implicit) against which animal law legislation, litigation, and decisions are made.

Textbooks:

Bruce A. Wagman, Sonia S. Waisman, & Pamela D. Frasch, Animal Law: Cases and Materials (6th ed. 2019).        

AND        

Yong, Ed, An Immense World. Random House, 2023.    

The course studies the development, interpretation, and application of the antitrust laws of the United States, specifically the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, FTC Act and other laws designed to protect consumers by ensuring competition in the marketplace. Specific topics include dominant firm behavior and exclusionary conduct, agreements among competitors, mergers, and vertical agreements (such as agreements between a supplier and a distributor). The course examines Supreme Court case law, recent and influential lower court decisions, and modern enforcement practice at the Federal Trade Commission and United States Department of Justice. Although basic economic concepts are integrated throughout the course, no background in economics is required or assumed. The class will begin with a brief primer on the most important economic concepts we will use in the course in order to make the course accessible to all interested students.

This dynamic, practical class will help set students up for long-term success in private practice and position them for leadership opportunities and community engagement. Billable hours are important, but they don't tell the whole story. We'll delve into the intricacies of billable hours and law firm economics to learn how and why billable hours matter. Then we'll look beyond the clock to explore how you can create a more fulfilling and impactful practice. Through hands-on sessions and select guest speakers, we will cover topics such as professional and business development, leadership opportunities, community engagement and non-profit board service, as well as navigating life and career changes. This class aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills to take control of their professional journeys, balancing the demands of billable hours with a holistic, big picture approach to professional growth.

This is the basic introductory course in business organizations. It considers issues relating to the selection of business form (partnership, limited partnership, corporation, and limited liability company), as well as the formation, financing, operation, and control of business entities. Primary emphasis is placed on conducting business in the corporate form, including closely-held and publicly-held corporations. Issues discussed in connection with public corporations include registration of securities, proxy regulation, and derivative litigation. Corporate Governance is examined in light of the collapse of Enron and other public companies. Problems in the supplementary materials demonstrate how the statutes and common law principles covered in the course apply in a real world setting. A student may not receive credit for both Corporations and Business Associations or Business Associations (Enriched).

This course is an introduction to the basic legal rules governing corporations. The course will focus on publicly held corporations. Among the topics covered will be fiduciary duties, conflict-of-interest transactions, reorganizations and control transactions, shareholder voting rights, and shareholder derivative suits. Issues relating to partnerships and securities law may also be reviewed. Corporations and Business Association, Business Associations, and Business Associations (Enriched) may not be repeated for credit.

This is an enriched, five-unit version of the basic introductory and survey course in the corporations/business organizations area; there are no prerequisites whatsoever. This course considers issues relating to the selection of business form (e.g., partnership, limited partnership, corporation, and limited liability partnership), as well as the formation, financing, operation, and control of business organizations. Primary emphasis is placed on conducting business in the corporate form. The course examines corporate governance and other matters associated with both closely held corporations and publicly held corporations. Corporate governance stems from the interplay of market forces and the legal landscape; the latter stems in part from a mix of common law principles, state and federal statutes, and Securities and Exchange Commission rules, and shareholder litigation. Certain litigation, market, regulatory, and transactional issues covered in this Business Associations (Enriched) course are not covered in either Business Associations or Corporations. This course also has a greater focus on publicly-held corporations and modern corporate and financial developments. This enriched course does NOT require any prior business-related undergraduate coursework or any work experience in business-related matters. Corporations and Business Association, Business Associations, and Business Associations (Enriched) may not be repeated for credit.

Many law school courses deal with either (1) asserting or defending against responsibility for something that went wrong—the contract that was arguably breached, the board of directors that may have failed in its responsibilities, the can of soda that exploded, the title to property that was defective, or (2) the “plumbing” of the legal system—civil and criminal procedure, evidence, remedies, appeals and the like.  This course has some of those elements, but also some fundamentally different elements: it deals with the internal control functions—described by one author as the functions that establish and confirm “conformity between . . . action and a rule or standard,” the latter being determined by law, regulation or an organization’s policies. These roles within an organization—compliance, internal audit and many parts of the legal department— principally focus on gaining an awareness of potential problems and establishing processes to avoid them, thereby avoiding resultant crises for the organization.

These functions are responsible for establishing policies and procedures designed to avoid, or detect at an early stage, instances in which personnel fail to conform to mandates established by law, regulation or organizational policies. As such, the functions include counseling personnel when questions arise and establishing “early warning” systems to detect and respond to instances of variance from required standards. They, but especially the compliance function, increasingly provide high-level, challenging employment opportunities for lawyers.

The course will examine the roles of these functions within an organization and their relationships to other organizational roles and to regulatory agencies. It will also examine a number of current or recent situations in which problems—crises for the organizations involved—have been uncovered and will consider how more effective programs might have unearthed them earlier, in time to avoid the crisis. Quite often (and contrary to the popular image), the best service a lawyer can perform for her client, but one that is invisible to public awareness, is to foresee a potential issue and counsel practices that avoid its occurrence. This course will provide tools that are important to that endeavor. The course will require a final exam (open book without internet access). Course materials will be provided by the instructor and there will be no casebook.

While the cannabis industry continues to grow across the US, cannabis regulation has never been more in flux at all levels of government. This course will discuss the central legal issues in the creation, growth and adaptation of the state-authorized THC-cannabis and Hemp-cannabis industries in the US.  This course will explore the patchwork of licensing regimes and regulatory requirements for THC-cannabis and Hemp-cannabis businesses.  This course will also explore the tension that exists between federal and state laws and how this tension creates unique challenges in farming, manufacturing, distribution, advertising, and banking among other issues of commerce.  This course will also discuss the challenging future of cannabis regulation from a federal, state, and local perspective.  Students will be expected to participate in discussion each week and in group projects taking place during class.  This course has no textbook and no specific prerequisites.  No technical background is required.  This course is designed for students to gain a practical understanding of how attorneys and other professionals work in these new and growing industries that are subject to ever-changing laws.  

This course will examine some general jurisprudential and moral issues related to the American system of capital punishment. The course will focus primarily on the development of the law governing capital punishment in the United States since 1970. Some of the main themes include: the legal structure of the Supreme Court's post-1970 death penalty jurisprudence, the scope of available appellate and post-conviction review in capital cases (particularly federal habeas review), the ubiquitous problems surrounding the representation afforded indigent capital defendants, proportionality limits on the imposition of the death penalty for various offenders (e.g., juveniles and persons with mental retardation), the role of racial discrimination in the administration of the death penalty, and the likely trajectory of the American death penalty. The course will be graded on a letter-grade basis for all students. This course will satisfy the constitutional law II requirement.

Introduction to the civil adjudicative process, primarily that of the federal courts, including jurisdiction, pleading, dispositive motions, discovery, and trial procedure.

Introduction to the civil adjudicative process, primarily that of the federal courts, including jurisdiction, pleading, dispositive motions, discovery, and trial procedure.

Introduction to the civil adjudicative process, primarily that of the federal courts, including jurisdiction, pleading, dispositive motions, discovery, and trial procedure.

Introduction to the civil adjudicative process, primarily that of the federal courts, including jurisdiction, pleading, dispositive motions, discovery, and trial procedure.