Courses Catalog
sort by course title204 - Business Organizations: Selected Topics (1 hour)*
A detailed study of one or more selected aspects of business organizations . In 2019, the course will be essentially an extra unit of the Business Organizations. It can be taken simultaneously with or after the regular Business Organizations course and should have only minimal overlap.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
219 - Appellate Advocacy LAWR III (2 hours)
Experience in the preparation, research, and writing of an appellate brief and in oral argument before an appellate court. Participation in the intramural Stanley Moot Court competition is an option in the Fall. This course satisfies the LAWR III Requirement.
308 - Legal Project Management (1 hour)
Legal project management (“LPM”) is a practice management method designed to plan, budget, execute, monitor and control a legal engagement, typically involving a litigated or transactional matter. LPM methodologies provide predictable cost while maintaining profitability. LPM as a discipline focuses on developing the tools and skills to proactively scope, plan, budget, execute, evaluate, and communicate about a given undertaking, whether it be litigation or a business transaction.
This course will expose students to LPM, to enable students to achieve certain identified learning concepts. Various texts and materials will be used, including leading LPM applications. We will discuss readings weekly, as well as engage both in and outside of the classroom with case studies and assignments designed to simulate real-practice, LPM tasks.
340 - Externship (1-2 hours)
A student may receive 1 or 2 pass/fail credits for an externship with an unpaid judge or law-related placement of the student’s choosing, subject to the approval of a faculty supervisor whom the student has enlisted. The student will submit a statement of goals to the faculty supervisor and will meet with the supervisor on the goals before the externship begins. For a one-hour externship, the student will meet with the supervising faculty member for one hour each week of the semester (for a total of 15 meeting hours); for a two-hour externship, the student will meet with the supervising faculty member for two hours each week (for a total of 30 meeting hours). For a 1-hour externship during the school year, the student works at the placement for a minimum of 30 hours; for a 2-hour externship, 60 hours. For an externship during the summer, those hours are doubled for a total of 60 and 120 hours, respectively. The student will write a minimum of bi-weekly reflection papers as well as a final paper. At the end of the externship, the student will also submit to the supervisor a sample of the student’s work for the placement.
342 - Charlotte Semester Externship (13 hours)
This program offers second-year and third-year students the opportunity to spend an entire spring semester in a field placement in Charlotte, N.C., working 35 hours a week under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Host organizations include governmental/public interest, judicial, corporate in-house, non-profit and law firms. Learning objectives are customized based on the specific placement. In addition to the externship, students also participate in an online Legal Theory in Action (Externship Lecture) course.
343 - Global Semester Externship (13 hours)
This program offers second-year and third-year students the opportunity to spend an entire spring semester in a field placement internationally or in other parts of the U.S., working 35 hours a week under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Students in the past have been to Geneva, Switzerland, Bonn, Germany, Atlanta, San Francisco and New York City. Learning objectives are customized based on the specific placement. In addition to the externship, students also participate in an online Legal Theory in Action (Externship Lecture) course.
350 - Practicum Extension (1 hour)*
A student may receive 1 or 2 hours of credit for an unpaid externship related to the subject matter of a doctrinal course. The faculty member and a practicing lawyer or other professional supervise the student in a practical experience “extending” the course. The faculty member may limit the number of students eligible for the Practicum Extension in a given semester. The extension may be available for a course taken currently or in a past semester. A student may enroll in the Practicum Extension more than once if the underlying subject areas for the different Practicum Extensions are substantially different, as determined by the Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. The student submits a statement of goals to the faculty supervisor and meets with the supervisor on the goals before the externship begins. The student writes a minimum of bi-weekly reflection papers as well as a final paper. For a 1-hour externship during the school year, the student works at the placement for a minimum of 30 hours; for a 2-hour externship, 60 hours. For an externship during the summer, those hours are doubled for a total of 60 and 120 hours, respectively. At the end of the externship, the student submits to the supervisor a sample of the student’s work for the placement.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
353 - Intellectual Property Practicum (2 hours)
Course description will be available soon.
392 - Intellectual Property Law Clinic I (4 hours)
This course provides students with hands-on opportunities to assist clients with transactional intellectual property matters. Student services include advising clients on basic intellectual property principles, drafting contracts (or contract provisions) that affect intellectual property rights, prosecuting copyright and/or trademark applications, and preparing policy documents and guidelines. In addition to direct client representation, students will attend a two-hour seminar, and meet with the clinic faculty supervisor to discuss fieldwork each week. Intellectual Property is a prerequisite.
393 - Intellectual Property Law Clinic II (2 hours)
Students who have completed Intellectual Property Law Clinic I may take this continuation course during the same academic year. Students will attend a one-hour seminar, and meet with the clinic faculty supervisor to discuss fieldwork each week.
399 - Medical-Legal Partnerships Clinic (6 hours)
This experiential clinic course focuses on the attainment of fundamental lawyering skills through direct client representation and advocacy, with a particular emphasis on problem solving and legal remedies to address health-harming legal needs. Through collaboration with healthcare providers, students will identify legal issues that negatively contribute to the health of low-income patient-clients and develop a comprehensive, interprofessional strategy to overcome barriers to health justice.
408 - Commercial Leasing (2 hours)
This course focuses on the negotiation and drafting of commercial real estate leases from the initial letter of intent stage to the final lease closing. Items studied and drafting exercises include: (1) letters of intent, (2) brokerage agreements, (3) commercial leases and lease provisions at various levels of the negotiation process, (4) subordination, nondisturbance and attornment agreements, (5) estoppel certificates, and (6) lease memoranda. The course covers various forms of commercial leases, including ground leases, retail leases, subleases, and license and occupancy agreements. This course also focuses upon professionalism and ethics in the negotiation and drafting process. In addition to learning applicable law, students receive regular evaluation of substantial drafting and negotiation assignments typical of those encountered in actual practice. The negotiation and drafting skills learned in this course apply to other areas of commercial practice. Prerequisite: Property 111.
410 - Microtrade Development Clinic (2 hours)
This is a professional development course that will meet over spring break. More than considering the application of ethical codes to particular situations, the course provides students with an opportunity to explore the question of what it means to be a member of the professional class and how this meaning is formed through training and practice. This course is co-taught with faculty from the schools of divinity and medicine and is cross listed for credit in each school. The course meets over spring break in Nicaragua, with seminars in Managua and field work, with service opportunities, in Boaca, Ciudad Sandino and other areas. Readings are drawn from all three disciplines. The course is a one-credit, graded offering that will involve a short seminar component before travel and several seminars while in Managua. Students will be responsible for travel costs, which can be estimated in the $1,000 to $1,200 range, depending on preferences and interest in staying beyond the class.
412 - NCAA Rules Compliance and Enforcement (2 hours)
This course offers students a comprehensive overview of current NCAA rules, policies, enforcement procedures, and the manner in which they are applied at the Division I intercollegiate level. Students study NCAA rules and policies and NCAA infractions and judicial decisions that interpret these rules. Students also examine materials that offer differing perspectives on the NCAA regulatory system. Student performance is assessed on the basis of written memos and in-class presentations that evaluate case studies. Students are given a short final exam. The course is co-taught by Professor Timothy Davis and Dr. Todd Hairston, Wake Forest University's Associate Athletic Director for Compliance.
420 - Business Drafting LAWR III (2 hours)
This course focuses on legal drafting in a business setting. In the first part of the course (30-35%), students will learn certain basic principles of contract drafting, including planning, editing, usage of terms, avoiding ambiguities, and style. In the remainder of the course (65-70%), students will learn the structures of, and how to draft, a range of typical business contracts. Students will also learn certain skills that business lawyers regularly use in dealing with clients and opposing counsel. This course will satisfy the LAWR III requirement.
425 - Contracts and Commercial Transactions LAWR III (2 hours)
This “best practices” course introduces students to commercial law and to the structuring, negotiation, drafting, and review of common commercial agreements. These agreements include: (1) non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, (2) employment agreements, (3) services agreements, (4) agreements for the sale of goods, and (5) lending and security agreements. In addition to exploring applicable law and theory, students analyze, draft, redline, and actively discuss actual commercial contracts. In so doing, students explore both the specific effects of various contractual provisions and the potential broader commercial implications of such provisions. If not taken to satisfy LAWR III, this course will also satisfy the Practical Skills requirement. This course is a writing course with no exam. Contracts I and II are prerequisites.
427 - Legal Writing for Judicial Chambers LAWR III (2 hours)
This course is an intensive writing course that simulates the work of a judicial clerk. Students research, draft, and edit a bench memo, a majority and dissenting opinion in a state appeal, and an order in a federal trial court case. Students also observe an oral argument. Guest speakers (judges and law clerks) address students several times during the semester.
439 - Funeral and Cemetery Law (3 hours)
This course focuses on the laws regarding the status, treatment, and disposition of human remains. We are in the midst of a "death revolution" in the United States - cremation rates are rising fast and traditional funeral service providers are under stress. This course examines these trends and the role that the law is playing in shaping and responding to social norms and economic realities. Students will engage in significant legal research and writing in this course, "representing" a non-traditional funeral services provider and analyzing the provider's ability to operate under existing laws.
448 - Diversity and Discrimination (3 hours)*
From eugenics to sex stereotyping, this writing and skills seminar explores diversity and discrimination through film, media, case law, and law review articles. Topics of coverage include intra-racial use of racial slurs, implicit bias, sex discrimination, sexual harassment, appearance policies, discrimination in coeducation, sex stereotypes, stereotype threat, coping strategies, transgender issues, eugenics, genetic discrimination, accessibility issues, the impact of social media, and other hot topic issues. Students will learn the doctrine and then utilize what they know in a series of short writing exercises and skill simulations. For example, students will learn about the Americans with Disabilities Act and then apply what they know to conduct a mock accessibility audit to determine whether a person with a disability would have full and equal enjoyment of the facility. At the conclusion of the course, students will draft a paper exploring the overarching question of what equality means.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
455 - Juvenile Law Externship (3 hours)*
This course will allow students to observe juvenile court judges and to represent juveniles in delinquency proceedings and related matters, under the supervision of practicing attorneys. Juvenile Justice in North Carolina 398 is a pre-requisite. Trial Practice Lab 610 and Evidence 207 are co-requisites, unless the student obtains the permission of the instructor to waive these requirements. Consult the calendar notes in the registration materials for special scheduling requirements.
* This course may be offered for 2 or 4 hours during some years.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
463 - Patent Prosecution Seminar (2 hours)
The seminar focuses on practical application of patent law concepts in preparing and prosecuting patent applications. The course examines patent statutes and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rules governing patent prosecution as well as court decisions impacting and interpreting patents. In addition to in-class discussions, students will practice writing claims, draft a patent application, a response to an office action, perform a patentability search, and prepare letters to clients relating to patent practice questions.
469 - Technology in the Modern Law Practice (2 hours)
Unprecedented opportunities welcome this coming generation of practitioners and jurists in the wake of the Great Recession. This timely course is co-taught by two practicing intellectual property and corporate law attorneys who built a law firm from scratch during the Great Recession. They will share their experiences of utilizing cutting-edge technologies to build a firm that is able to stay lean while garnering national recognition and accolades. The goal of this course is to foster innovative and critical thinking in law students so that this generation of legal minds may go on to start their own firms, startups, legal service companies, or lead existing law firms and companies into the 21st century. Among the subjects explored in this course are technologies for legal practice management, artificial intelligence, data analytics, blockchain technologies, legal smart contracts, data security, online alternative dispute resolution systems, and alternative legal careers and business models. Actual practitioners and CEOs of successful post-Recession companies and law firms will be guest lecturers.
474 - Real Estate Development (2 hours)
Real Estate Development is a companion course to Real Estate Finance, although you can take one course without the other. Real Estate Finance was taught in the fall semester. The spring course, Real Estate Development, will focus on representing clients in a commercial real estate practice. The class will follow a commercial project from site selection through development, financing, and completion of construction. The course will include the steps, from start to finish, on how to represent developers as clients. It will cover getting land under contract, due diligence, financing, negotiating leases, options and eventual sale to an investor. The skills in this class would easily transfer to any transactional practice.
477 - e-Discovery (1 hour)
Electronically stored information (ESI) is growing exponentially. With the rapid growth of data, attorneys engaged in a variety of practices are faced with the challenges of handling Electronic Discovery, whether it be their client’s email, mobile devices, computers etc. Attorneys now have an obligation to
understand not only the substantive legal issues of their matters, but the fundamentals surrounding eDiscovery that they will undoubtedly encounter in the legal profession. This course will provide students with a foundational knowledge of the eDiscovery landscape including the technical, legal and ethical aspects they will encounter as attorneys. Students will gain a practical understanding of all aspects of the eDiscovery Reference Model (EDRM) and learn to use an industry leading document review platform through hands on learning, skills that will be of immediate value if tasked with managing discovery in a litigation or investigation as a new attorney.
479 - Creditors (4 hours)
This course marries state and federal law. It will survey the default state-law rights of unsecured creditors to satisfy their claims out of debtors’ property. It will also survey judicial action ranging from pre-judgment attachment to post-judgment execution, and it will review an array of other judicial and non-judicial remedies.
The creditors’ rights coverage will include units on debtor exemptions and constitutional and statutory process requirements intended to protect debtors’ rights, which are relatively paltry compared to the width and strength of creditors’ rights. The course then will examine the extent to which federal bankruptcy law preempts state law, largely for the purposes of (1) diluting creditors’ rights and (2) rebalancing the interests and relations between debtors and creditors based on federal policies.
The bankruptcy coverage will focus fairly equally on consumer and business bankruptcies. It will consider both liquidation and reorganization under Chapters 7, 13, and 11.
480 - Selected Topics in Health Law LAWR III (2 hours)
This writing-intensive course focuses on several hot topics in health law, including public health issues, physician employment contracts, regenerative medicine and the right to try, and telemedicine. The content units will be taught through a series of simulations and case files. The course will meet for once a week for a 2-hour class, during the spring semester. While learning substantive health care law, the students will also draft and/or critique both transactional and litigation-based documents.
482 - Coded Governance: Blockchains, Smart Contracts, and Cryptoventures (3 hours)
This course examines distributed ledger/blockchain technologies and computational law, and the related evolving regulatory environment. Topics covered include cryptocurrency use and regulation, legal forensic analysis of tokens, ethereum-based smart contract governance frameworks, patent strategy, and the professional responsibility considerations when working in a space that is popular, but not well understood. Students will learn about distributed ledger technologies and even get an introduction to programming a decentralized game. No previous programming experience is needed for this course, but a willingness to read and reread and discuss technical documentation and literature is essential. The course will conclude with a final packet of coursework for grading purposes.
484 - Real Estate Drafting LAWR III (2 hours)
This course is designed to satisfy LAWR 3. It is geared to teach drafting from the point of view of a commercial real estate attorney. In this context, drafting includes both drafting your own documents, as wells as re-drafting documents submitted to you by other parties (including how to spot issues when re-drafting a document). The types of real estate documents that will be covered include a broad sampling of purchase contracts, leases, loan documents and deeds/easements. The class will review core concepts of real estate law that must be considered in drafting a binding and enforceable real estate contract.
486 - Discrimination Law: Principles and Practice LAWR III (3 hours)*
This LAWR III course will explore principles of discrimination law and allow students to put them into practice through fun written exercises and skill simulations. Topics of discussion will center upon federal anti-discrimination laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which will be explored from both a client counseling and litigation perspective. Diverse exercises will address a vast array of interesting topics from developing lawful appearance policies and recruiting practices at the workplace to conducting discovery. Students will even enjoy the unique opportunity to conduct a mock accessibility audit and to present an opening statement in a famous discrimination case. Students will conclude the course by giving a mock CLE presentation on a discrimination law topic of their choice. (The course has no pre-requisites but is closed to students who have previously taken 448 Diversity and Discrimination.)
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
488 - Racial Justice Advocacy LAWR III (2 hours)
This course will give students further opportunities to develop their legal writing and analysis skills in the context of analyzing seemingly race neutral issues using Critical Race Theory (CRT) techniques. Such techniques include not only considering the race of those involved in the litigation, but also racial stereotyping, the case’s historical context, implicit bias, and other relevant factors that might implicate racial issues. The goal is to help students understand how the tenets of CRT can be useful as an analytical tool in crafting a legal analysis or argument.
489 - Entertainment Law Drafting LAWR III (2 hours)
This course is intended to provide students with a general understanding of some of the skills required in transactional law (with a focus on entertainment), including how to analyze, edit, and draft purchase agreements, employment agreements, cease and desist letters, sweepstakes rules, guest releases, and media licenses. This course cannot be taken if you have taken Business Drafting (420).
497 - Introduction to Community Lawyering (4 hours)
This four-hour, experiential learning course will introduce students to community lawyering and how lawyers can contribute their legal knowledge and skills to support community identified initiatives that highlight the community’s collective power to bring about long-lasting or sustainable change. In today’s evolving society, lawyers often help individual and corporate clients navigate the complexities of the law which is now becoming increasingly connected to concepts around diversity, inclusion and equity. This class will help sharpen your lens around these concepts and develop you into a well-rounded lawyer prepared to practice in a more diverse world. You will work hands on with a community client group(s) facing challenges involving affordable housing, displacement, land use, zoning, and historical preservation. This course will help you understand the intersection of the law and justice and deepen your creative and critical thinking to address the community client’s concern. You will learn that community lawyering involves viewing legal problems through a community’s perspective. You will also learn how lawyers can aid communities in solving their own problems, which fall often between what is legal and what is just.
520 - D.C. Summer Externship / Judicial Clerking (6 hours)
This experiential course is ideal for prospective law clerks or future litigators who wish to learn more about the perspective behind the bench. It explores the purpose and function of a law clerk, the nature and structure of the judiciary, how to apply for and obtain a clerkship, and most importantly, how to perform it well. Topics of discussion include judicial ethics, chambers confidentiality, docket management, courtroom decorum, professionalism, judicial drafting, and other issues that law clerks commonly encounter. Among other things, students draft an 11-Day memo, bench memo, and judicial opinion. The course also includes Lunch & Learn events with federal judges, field trips to the U.S. Supreme Court, FBI, etc., and visits from guest speakers, including a prosecutor, in-house counsel, DOJ attorney, and partners at prominent law firms.
525 - Health Care Law and Policy (3 hours)*
This course introduces students to the structure, financing and regulation of the health care system and proposals for its reform. Legal topics include Medicare, medical staff disputes, health care antitrust, tax exemption, corporate organization, and insurance regulation.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
540 - Judicial Externship (3 hours)
A clinical study of law from the viewpoint of the bench offered only during the summer. The student works as a judicial extern for a state or federal judge. Students will observe trials, conferences and hearings and research law and procedure under the judge's direction. A student must have completed their first year of law school in order to participate. Due to scheduling concerns permission must be obtained from the professor before registering for this course.
548 - Appellate Advocacy Clinic (3 hours)
In this clinic, which lasts for both semesters of the 3L year, students work in pairs and represent real clients in various appellate courts. The supervising attorney is their professor. In addition to representing clients, students learn about advocacy skills and various aspects of appellate practice, using reading materials, some lecture, and class discussions. They help other pairs through brainstorming and judging practice oral arguments. Students also visit the Supreme Court of the United States to attend oral argument and meet with court personnel. Prerequisite: Appellate Advocacy
549 - Moot Court Competition (1 hour)
Seminar in advanced appellate advocacy involving research and drafting of briefs and presentation of oral arguments as a member of an interscholastic moot court team. Students may repeat this course for a maximum of two hours credit.
553 - Litigation Drafting LAWR III (2 hours)*
Legal drafting in the litigation setting. Students will be required to draft and evaluate typical litigation documents. This course satisfies the Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research III requirement. Students can take both Litigation Drafting and Pre-trial Practice and Procedure.
* This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.
565 - Dispute Resolution (3 hours)
A study of traditional and alternative methods of resolving disputes; use of techniques such as arbitration and mediation will be studied. Negotiation theory and tactics will also be explored. Students who have taken Mediation in the past or who are currently enrolled in or who plan to take Mediation may not register for Dispute Resolution.
570 - Pre-Trial Practice and Procedure (3 hours)
This course exposes students to the fundamentals of civil pre-trial litigation with an emphasis on equipping participants for the real world practice of law. By working through a hypothetical case, students learn about litigation strategy and case analysis while practicing foundational lawyering skills including drafting pleadings, motions, and discovery; interviewing clients and witnesses in formal and informal settings; conducting oral arguments; and engaging in a mediated settlement conference. The class has a heavy practical focus and includes regular written assignments and in-class exercises.
582 - Non-Profit Organization Law (2 hours)*
The goals of this Nonprofit experiential course are twofold:
1. to survey the substantive law governing nonprofit organizations from both state law sources (formation, governance, fiduciary duty of officers, directors and trustees, and related issues) and federal (mostly tax) law;
2. to demonstrate understanding of the business and legal issues facing the modern nonprofit entity by researching, analyzing and assessing a nonprofit entity of the student’s choice.
The class will complete feasibility and planning for financial intermediary program in the local community.
* This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.
600 - Negotiation (2 hours)
This course explores the theory and practice of negotiation skills across multiple disciplines of legal practice. Through negotiation simulations, class readings and lectures/discussion, it seeks to prepare students for one of the most vital components of being a practicing attorney -- the ability to properly represent your client's interests within the inevitable context of give-and-take that most areas of law involve.
601 - Community Law & Business Clinic I (4 hours)
The work of this clinic is primarily transactional. Students will assist clients at various stages in the business development process, with an emphasis on business, housing, and institutional support in economically disadvantaged segments of the community.
603 - Litigation Externship Clinic (6 hours)
A rigorous program of academic instruction and skills training designed to more fully qualify the student to practice law. It is the only program in the country where students can participate in both a civil and criminal law placement with direct field supervision by practicing lawyers, which affords all of them the opportunity to appear in state and/or federal courts. The classroom component teaches essential lawyering skills such as interviewing and counseling clients, taking depositions, negotiation and mediation, expert witness examination, conducting focus groups, and the psychology of juror decision-making. All practice is in accord with North Carolina's Student Practice Rules and is open only to 2Ls and 3Ls who have completed Evidence, and Trial Practice (which may be taken concurrently, if necessary). Professional Responsibility and Criminal Procedure are suggested but not required.
609 - Law Practice Management (2 hours)*
A study in the conception, development, and management of a contemporary law practice. Students will engage in various projects under simulated business conditions and client pressures.
* This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.
610 - Trial Practice Lab (3 hours)
A series of lecture/discussion and lab classes devoted to the study of examining witnesses and trying cases that includes the following topics: pretrial motions, jury selection, opening statement, direct and cross-examination, impeachment, laying foundations for exhibits, and closing arguments. Students learn how to separate fact from argument, how to mine and polish facts, and how to examine witnesses and introduce exhibits, which are critical skills in both depositions and trials. Each element of trial is studied in discrete weekly lecture/discussion and lab classes that culminate in a final mock jury trial with a presiding judge and jurors in the box. Prerequisite: Evidence.
611 - Advanced Trial Practice (3 hours)
This course covers several subject areas not covered in depth in the basic trial practice course: voir dire, witness preparation, expert witness examination, and case planning. Students will perform exercises in each of these areas. They will try two cases during the semester. The last trial is an advanced civil case that serves as their final exam and requires the use of courtroom technology. Prerequisites: Evidence and Trial Practice.
622 - Innocence and Justice Clinic (4 hours)*
In this interdisciplinary course, students will examine the legal, scientific, cultural and psychological causes of wrongful convictions. They will apply this knowledge to actual cases by reviewing and investigating claims of actual innocence by inmates and, where appropriate, pursuing legal avenues for exoneration and release from prison. Students will meet for two class hours per week and for one hour a week with instructor to examine and complete field work assignments.
* This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.
625 - Suing Government (2 hours)
This course deals with lawsuits against federal, state and local governments, with special emphasis on Section 1983 suits and immunity doctrines. Course readings will draw extensively on actual case files and documents. This course fulfills the Practical Skills requirement.
632 - Real Estate Transactions Seminar (2 hours)*
This course will survey legal and business issues related to the acquisition, disposition and operation of commercial real estate with an emphasis on issues arising in the context of the purchase and sale of industrial and office buildings. The goal of the class is to take students through a purchase and sale transaction (yes, there is a difference between a purchase transaction and a sale transaction) from start to finish (actually in commercial real estate terminology, from start to “closing”). The emphasis of the course will be on the practical aspects of documents involved in commercial real estate transactions, utilizing actual transaction documents in the course instruction.
* This course may be offered for 3 hours during some years.
637 - Veterans Legal Clinic (4 hours)
The Veterans Legal Clinic provides legal assistance on a pro-bono basis to North Carolina military personnel, including active-duty service members, reservists, veterans, and non-affiliated veterans. Students having completed three semesters of law school may register for the class subject to instructor permission. Students in the VLC provide services comparable to those provided by attorneys in practice.
639 - D. C. Metropolitan Semester Externship (13 hours)
This program offers second-year and third-year students the opportunity to spend an entire spring semester in a field placement in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, working 35 hours a week under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Most students accept placements with government agencies or NGOs. Learning objectives are customized based on the specific placement. In addition to the externship, students also participate in an online Legal Theory in Action (Externship Lecture) course.
645 - Mediation (3 hours)*
Law schools classically prepare attorneys to represent clients by teaching the law, theory, procedures, and, skills necessary to prepare for and try cases in court. This approach is based upon the underlying assumption that our legal system works best when disputes are determined by an impartial judge or jury after a zealous presentation of the facts and law by the attorneys for all parties.
Instead, this mediation practice class is based upon the assumptions that: 1) most parties know what is in their own best interest; 2) if given the opportunity and tools, most litigants are able to solve their own problems and 3) litigants are generally more satisfied when they are involved in determining the outcome of their cases instead of the results being dictated to them by a judge or jury.
The course will focus on mediation as a method of dispute resolution from the perspective of attorneys representing clients at mediation as well as from the perspective of mediators facilitating mediated settlement conferences. Students will participate in simulated mediation sessions.
This course is 50% lecture and 50% practical skills. Local attorneys assist me by observing students in simulations, guiding and advising students' in-class work and adding to students' practical knowledge from their own legal careers.
This course follows the required curriculum of the 40-Hour training that NC attorneys receive in partial satisfaction of the requirements to become North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission (NCDRC) Certified Mediators. The NCDRC has approved this course as commensurate to that which practicing attorneys receive.
Passing students receive a certificate of completion which they may present to the NCDRC in their fifth year of law practice in satisfaction of Rule 8A of the Revised Rules for Superior Court Civil actions.
Students who have taken Dispute Resolution in the past or who are enrolled in or who plan to take the Dispute Resolution course may not register for Mediation.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
674 - Immigration Law: Practicum (2 hours)*
This is a skills-based exercise and simulation course, taught once a week for 2 hours. The course involves exercises and simulations based on redacted case files to give students the chance, for example, to complete an N-400 application for naturalization, an analysis of criminal deportation grounds, and/or a brief arguing that a client is eligible for and should be granted relief from removal. Immigration Law is a pre-requisite or co-requisite for this class.
* This course may be offered for 1 hour during some years.
676 - Carolina Externship (4 hours)
This course is currently available only in the summer. The director of the externship designates one or more cities in North and South Carolina, usually including Charlotte, NC, and offers the students externships in a designated practice area. The practice areas vary from summer to summer. Students meet weekly with the director to integrate and apply the doctrinal insights received elsewhere in the law school curriculum and in the subject matter of the field placements. The course fulfills the practical skills requirement.
681 - Community Law and Business Clinic II (2 hours)
A continuation course to 601 Community Law and Business Clinic I.
682 - Securities Litigation (3 hours)*
This course teaches the law and practice related to investment fraud, market manipulation, and insider trading. We give extensive coverage to both civil litigation and government enforcement. Approximately one third of the course is extremely practical exercises intended to teach essential skills for complex litigation. The remaining time uses lecture and problems to teach the complex doctrine.
* This course may be offered for 2 hours during some years.
684 - Innocence and Justice Clinic II (2 hours)
Students who have completed the Innocence & Justice I course are allowed to take this course in order continue working on the innocence cases on which they in the prior semester, and to continue the interdisciplinary study of the causes of and remedies for wrongful convictions. Students will meet for one class hour per week and for one hour a week with instructor to examine and complete field work assignments.
690 - Environmental Law and Policy Clinic (4 hours)
The course will allow students to learn about the real work of environmental law and policy through a combination of intensive training on the skills needed to work with clients and grappling with environmental law and policy matters with which clients need help.
At the commencement of the semester, students’ classwork will focus on lawyering skills and the basics of administrative and environmental law through two Saturday intensives. During the course of the semester, a weekly, two-hour class meeting will build upon these skills and include practitioners from industry, private practice, government, and non-profits. In addition, this weekly meeting will serve as a touch-point for learning and sharing with other students how their representation of clients is progressing, what concerns and issues are arising, and what learnings they are taking away. Students will be expected to put 10-12 hours of effort into the clinic per week in keeping with the 4 credit requirement. They will keep timesheets and a journal of their experience.
691 - Veterans Legal Clinic II (2 hours)
A continuation course to the 637 Veterans Legal Clinic I. Students provide legal assistance, with a primary focus on discharge upgrade petitions, on a pro-bono basis to military veterans. Students having completed 637 Veterans Legal Clinic I may request permission from the instructor to register for the class. Students in the Veterans Legal Clinic II provide services comparable to those provided by attorneys in practice.
694 - Environmental Law and Policy Clinic (2 hours)
Open only to students who have completed Law 690. This continuation of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic in the fall semester allows students to focus on active Clinic matters that need support during the fall semester. Students will work on Clinic matters and meet to discuss their progress with the Clinic Director and each other.
