Skills-Based Courses

3 credits

This course teaches students evidence at an advanced level through student exercises simulating courtroom presentations. This is simulation course and the emphasis is on performance and feedback in order to integrate legal evidence theory with the professional skills students need to advocate for their future clients. After evidence related exercises, students will engage in self-critique and will also receive feedback from fellow classmates and the instructor. The instructor will utilize the student exercises to teach the law of evidence at a level beyond the introductory evidence course and advocacy skills. Class discussion and exercises will provide opportunities to improve trial and advocacy skills, recognize and address ethical issues, and consider broad societal questions. Exercises may include the following: a motion in limine concerning prior bad acts evidence, a voir dire on an issue of rape shield, or a Daubert hearing concerning expert testimony on causation in a toxic tort case. PREREQUISITE: Evidence. NOTE: This course counts towards the 6-credit experiential learning requirement.

3 credits

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Civil Litigation and Justice Program ¿ Consumer Economic Justice Clinic. In addition to the clinic fieldwork, students will attend a weekly classroom seminar. The fall seminar will cover substantive consumer law as well as theories and policies that explain the current state of consumer protection and economic injustice. Students will learn about key state and federal consumer protection laws including the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, The Truth in Lending Act, M.G.L. Chapter 93A (also called the "Massachusetts Consumer Protection Law") and how these laws may be used to move low-income consumers towards economic justice. PRE/CO-REQUISITES: Evidence and Professional Responsibility. NOTE: This course counts towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

3 credits

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Civil Litigation and Justice Program ¿ Consumer Economic Justice Clinic. In addition to the clinic fieldwork, students will attend a weekly classroom seminar. In the spring seminar, students will explore the role of consumer protection laws and theories as a means to economic justice. Students will also reflect on their experiences from the fieldwork and how they relate to larger systemic problems. In the Spring Semester, the seminar will apply a macro lens to analyze the causes of individual consumer legal problems, including government and policy reasons, and the causes of economic injustice as a systemic problem. Students may also research and write papers for publication (e.g., comments on a proposed bill, a policy paper, or a know-your-rights article) about a consumer law issue. PRE/CO-REQUISITES: Evidence and Professional Responsibility. NOTE: This course counts towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

3 credits

The purpose of this seminar is to teach students how to take and defend effective and ethical depositions. The course involves both a simulated deposition component and a professional responsibility component. Simulated Deposition Course Component: Students will be divided into firms representing either the Plaintiff or the Defendants in a gender discrimination and defamation case brought by an attorney who has been denied partnership. The students will prepare and perform depositions of lay and expert witnesses and gather experience with obtaining and developing facts, preserving testimony, and the uses of depositions. Professional Responsibility Course Component: The simulated context offers the opportunity to explore several professional responsibility issues that arise naturally in deposition practice. These issues emerge largely because of the dual professional roles of an attorney: zealous representative and officer of the court. Some of the more timely issues involve proper witness preparation, improper witness coaching, inadvertent waiver of privilege, and abusive tactics. Writing and Performance Requirements: Each week students will write a short one or two page comment on the professional responsibility issues raised in class. At the end of the course, students will perform a videotaped deposition rather than take a final written exam. NOTE: This class may be used to satisfy the Professional Responsibility requirement, credits toward Experiential Learning requirement, or the upper-class writing requirement. This class may not be used to satisfy more than one requirement. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 12 students per section. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.

3 credits

This class is designed to give students experience in legal writing for civil litigation. Over the course of the semester, students will work on the various stages of a federal court litigation from pre-complaint investigation through dispositive motions. There will be opportunities to draft a variety of litigation documents, including complaints, discovery, motions, and research memos. Students will complete multiple drafts of key documents and will meet individually with the instructor to discuss the drafts. Students will focus on using the facts to tell their clients' story and making persuasive, winning arguments. In class, students will discuss a range of strategic questions including developing viable causes of action, identifying critical facts, and using written discovery to obtain information. Additionally, students will participate in several in-class exercises designed to improve the students' skills in writing, fact-gathering and argument. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This Dedicated Writing Class may be used to satisfy the requirement. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in both Legal Writing for Civil Litigation and Persuasive Writing: Trial Level (JD 713). ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.

1 credits

This year-long course is designed to prepare and support the 2L and 3L members of BU Law’s mock trial competition organization who participate in extramural mock trial competitions as advocates (including foil teams and alternates), student coaches, witnesses, bailiffs, or trial technicians. The course will focus on teaching students the basics of trial procedure and practice, pretrial and trial motions, and evidence, with a focus on the procedures, motions, and evidence rules that are most relevant to mock trial competitions. In the fall, class sessions will focus on the various aspects of mock trial (motions in limine, opening and closing statements, direct and cross exam, proffering experts, common objections, common rules of evidence, trial motions, and procedural competition basics). In the spring, students and the instructor will use course hours to prepare for and attend various mock trial competitions. All students will be required to write a reflection paper due no later than two weeks after the close of their competition. There will be no final exam. GRADING NOTICE: CR/NC graded. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: A student who fails to attend the first class or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar will be administratively dropped from the course.

3 credits

This course introduces the student to the structure of the patent trial process and the skills used by patent trial lawyers. This is a simulation course. Students will act as trial counsel in a federal civil action. The case will model a hypothetical patent case, from filing of the complaint to trial. The students will simulate motion practice, claim construction, depositions, as well as trial. The course will include some substantive instruction on patent law, but the focus of the course will be on experiential learning. Students will receive instruction on general litigation techniques relevant to presenting complex science and technologies to a judge or fact-finder. For example, students will learn how to utilize technology to facilitate their presentations during oral argument and in examining witnesses (e.g., through use of demonstratives). Students do not need to have a background in science or technology. Similarly, students do not need to have taken prior coursework in patent law. Enrollment will be limited to 12 students, who will be divided into plaintiff and defendant teams. Grades will be individualized and based on the following: participation in class discussion, simulations, and workshops; motion to dismiss argument; claim construction argument; deposition; and trial. PREREQUISITE Evidence (may be a corequisite for 3Ls). RECOMMENDED COURSES: Patent Law, Patent Litigation NOTE: This class counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

3 credits

This seminar will focus on improving students' persuasive writing skills through a series of assignments and in-class exercises. Students will draft a variety of trial-level documents designed to persuade, including a demand letter, a statement of the facts, a memorandum in support of a motion for summary judgment, and a reply memo. Legal research will be necessary for these assignments, but the emphasis will be on analysis and writing. Students will complete multiple drafts of these documents, meet individually with the instructors to discuss the drafts, and engage in peer editing of their classmates' papers to improve their own writing skills. The class will also include discussions of persuasive writing strategies, comparisons of examples of good and bad persuasive writing, and in-class writing exercises. Students will be graded on the basis of their written work and their peer editing work. Students will engage in oral presentation and advocacy in this course. There will be no final exam. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 14 students. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This Dedicated Writing Class may be used to satisfy the requirement. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in both Persuasive Writing: Trial Level and Legal Writing for Civil Litigation (JD 712). ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.

2 credits

This year-long course provides dedicated international law research instruction, writing instruction and supervision, and oral argument skills instruction, all structured around the competition materials for the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, a competition for law students to foster the study and practice of international commercial sales law and arbitration. Students from all countries are eligible (students from over 80 jurisdictions typically participate). The Moot involves a dispute arising out of a contract of sale between two countries that are party to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. The contract provides that any dispute that might arise is to be settled by arbitration in Danubia, a country that has enacted the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration and is a party to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The arbitral rules to be applied rotate yearly among the arbitration rules of co-sponsoring institutions of the Moot. Students will learn the fundamentals of international commercial arbitration and international sales law. Students will then engage in an in-depth analysis of the Moot case, including identifying issues, researching those issues, and drafting arguments and counterarguments. Students will work together to draft and critique a memorandum for the Claimant and Respondent, and to prepare oral arguments. Ultimately, 4 to 6 students enrolled in the class will be selected to compete as members of BU Law’s Vis Moot Court team in the spring. The other students enrolled in the course will help prepare arguments, moot the team, and participate in pre-moots. Prerequisite/Co-requisite (can be waived with permission of the Instructor): International Law Research (JD 707). Recommended courses: International Business Arbitration (JD 980) or International Business Transactions (JD 842). NOTE: This class counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement.