Academic Information

Upper-Class Reading Assignments

This information is correct as of 1/10/08. Students should check CourseInfo for a complete list of all course assignments and information

M-Z

Mediation: Theory & Practice (Roth)
JD826 A1
[Not yet received]

Medical Research & the Law (Glazier)
JD910 A1
[Not yet received]

Mergers & Acquisitions (Nowill)
JD988 A1
Assignment for Class on Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Read Chapter 1 of the Maynard text (Mergers & Acquisitions; Cases, Materials and Problems.)  Be prepared to discuss the questions on Pages 7 and 8.

National Security Law (O’Neill)
JD890 A1
The reading assignment for the first class on Wednesday evening January 16th is as follows:
Coursematerials -- pages 1-19 (all of chapter one and the very beginning of chapter two). Discussions points nos. 1 -6 (foundin the appendix between the end of the text and the endnotes). Students should be prepared to discuss them.
Document Supplement: Read for background purposes The National Security Strategies for 2002 and 2006, as well as the Ntional Strategy for Combatting Terrorism.

Non-Profit Organizations (Klipp)
JD844 A1
[Not yet received]

Patent Law (Meurer)
JD870 A1
[Not yet received]

Patent Prosecution (Geller)
JD939 A1
Please read* the following:
“General Information Concerning Patents” at www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/doc/general/index.html.  Read the sections from “Functions of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office” through “The United States Patent and Trademark Office” and also the section titled “Attorneys and Agents."
35 U.S.C. §§ 111 “Application”
35 U.S.C. §§154 (a), 154 (b), 154 (c)(1), and 154 (d) “Contents and term of patent; provisional rights”
35 U.S.C. §§ 271 (f) and (g)  “Infringement of Patent”
19 U.S.C. § 1337 “Unfair Practices in Import Trade”
 35 U.S.C. § 101 Inventions Patentable
U.S. Patent No. 730,918 titled “Eye-Protector for Chickens” Patents are available from a number of sources, e.g., through the legal document services, at the USPTO website (USPTO.gov), and at Google Patents (www.google.com/patents)
If you have any questions about the assignment, please email me at lgeller@bu.edu.
*Most reading for this course will be from the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) The MPEP can be found at www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep.htm, although you may find it easier to type the assigned reference into your favorite search engine.  Assigned sections of 35 U.S.C. –Title 35 and C.F.R. –Title 37 can be found in the MPEP or on other internet sites.  The MPEP is very long, therefore I suggest that you print only those sections of the MPEP and Code that are assigned.

Perspectives on Tort Law (Simons)
JD792 A1
Week 1: January 17
• Introduction and Overview
Ackerman & Heinzerling, Priceless (Web) (two pages); Katz on the Evil Deity (Web) (excerpt, 4 pages); FF 1-3 (top), 14 (part III)-20. Also, read the following for general background, but don’t worry about understanding it all at this early point in the class: Perry, Tort Law (Web) (23 pages).
Readings are from the two main texts and from the courseinfo web site:
http://courseinfo.bu.edu/courses/08sprglawjd792_a1/index.html
And please pay attention to the specific readings described each week in the Assignments section. Often, I only ask you to read part of a document, e.g. only four pages of Katz in the first reading. And sometimes a reading is optional. So please don’t assume that you need to read every page of every reading in the Course Documents section.
Readings:
FF:    The Forms and Functions of Tort Law (Kenneth S. Abraham, 3rd ed. 2007)
TS:    Torts Stories (Robert Rabin & Stephen Sugarman eds. 2003)
Web: Available on web site
The web readings for each week are in that week’s folder in “Course Documents.”

Political Resistance & Responsibility (Lyons)
JD797 A1
For the first meeting, 10:40-12:40 Wednesday, Jan. 16, read and be prepared to discuss Cohen (C. Cohen, Essence and Ethics of Civil Disobedience, 198 The Nation 257 [1964]), which will become available in the Course Documents segment of our CourseInfo web site when CourseInfo gets its act together and creates the requested web site.

Principles of Accounting (Wilson)
JD872 A1
[Not yet received]

Professional Responsibility (Perlman)
JD984 A1
For the first class, you should read the preamble and scope of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct as well as Model Rules 1.2 and 1.6. These materials can be found near the front of the Selected Standards on Professional Responsibility by Morgan and Rotunda. Moreover, please read pages 3 through 20 of the case book (Hazard, Koniak, Cramton, & Cohen), while paying particular attention to Spaulding v. Zimmerman (pages 3 through 8). We will be spending a large portion of the first class on this case. You should also download the syllabus from courseinfo and read it before our first meeting. I look forward to seeing you!

Professional Responsibility (Moore)
JD984 M1
I.          Introduction and Defining the Client-Lawyer Relationship (2-3 classes)

            A.  Confidentiality

Assignment:  Casebook, pp. xxiii-xxvi; 1-31; 45-56; PR Supplement: Confidentiality. (PR Supplements are posted in the CourseInfo website under Course Documents, where you may read and print them. The Syllabus will be posted in the CourseInfo website under Course Information.)
Class Discussion:  Focusing on Spaulding v. Zimmerman and the confidentiality       problems at pp. 23-24, consider the following questions:
What are the various sources of law that regulate the conduct of lawyers?
Who is the client? How are client-lawyer relationships formed?
What is the difference between the attorney-client privilege and the professional rule of confidentiality?
What exceptions are available under both the privilege and the rule of confidentiality? (Be sure to consider how the rule of confidentiality, in particular, differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.)
If you were the defendant’s lawyer in Spaulding and you discovered that the plaintiff had a potentially fatal aneurysm, what do you think you would have/should have done?

Remedies (Kull)
JD866 A1
First class: Wednesday January 16
Assignment: casebook (Laycock, Modern American Remedies) pages 1-19

Securities Regulation (Whitehead)
JD883 A1
The readings for our first class are set out below.  All assignment references are to the unabridged edition of John C. Coffee, Jr., et al., Securities Regulation, Cases and Materials (10th ed. 2007) or the Statutory Supplement.  You should read the Statutory Supplement references included below and, unless other­wise indicated, you should also read the Statutory Sup­ple­ment references in the Casebook.                                                                                    Pages
1.         The Goals of Securities Regulation                              1-8
            The Regulatory Framework (skim)                              50-65
Read Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”) § 5 carefully; also read Securities Act §§ 4(1), 4(3), 4(4), 12(a)(1), 13
2.         What is a “Security”?
            Joiner Leasing                                                             254-255

Software and the Law (Plotkin)
JD859 A1
[Not yet received]

Tax Policy (Sims)
JD799 A1
[Not yet received]

Taxation of Corporations & Shareholders (Feld)
JD887 A1
[Not yet received]

Trial Advocacy (Lowy)
JD894 A1
[Not yet received]

Trial Advocacy (Coakley/Smith)
JD894 G1
CLASS 1 –  TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2008
GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO TRIAL ADVOCACY,
THE THEORY OF THE CASE                       
Assigned Reading:                              
Commonwealth v. Jones (on Course Info)
Polisi v. Clark and Parker & Gould (NITA case file)
Mauet, Chapters I and II, Chapter XI, §11.1-§11.9
Recommended Reading:                     
Hamlin, What Makes Juries Listen Today  (WMJLT) (on reserve) pages 3-27; 193-223        
Overview of case preparation, including theory of the case, courtroom etiquette
and trial tactics; discussion of Commonwealth. v. Jones and Polisi v. Clark and Parker & Gould
Lecture on Next Week’s Topic:           Opening Statements

Trial Advocacy (Grasso)
JD894 G1
[Not yet received]

Trial Advocacy (Sanders)
JD894 T2
[Not yet received]

Trial Advocacy: Advanced (Del Vecchio)
JD945 A1
[Not yet received]

Trust & Honesty (Frankel/Fagan)
JD965 A1
Class 1.1.15.08 . PONZI The Nature of Fraud: Charles Ponzi – Entrepreneur or Con Artist. (Case study discussion).
Assigned reading:   Real World pp. 3-17. T&H pp.1-24.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Class 2. 1.17.08.  PONZI The nature of Ponzi scams. Psychology and the responsibilities of the investors and the con artists. (Class discussion)
Assigned Reading: Trust and Honesty pp. 49-58. Selected pages Frankel Manuscript on Ponzi schemes.

Trusts, Wills & Basic Estate Planning (Hurwitz)
JD871 H1
We will use the following books for Trusts and Estates:
Wills, Trusts and Estates, Dukeminier, Johanson, Lindgren, and Sitkoff (7th edition 2005).  Published by Aspen Publishers.
Uniform Trust and Estate Statutes, Langbein and Waggoner (2007-2008 edition).  Published by Foundation Press. 
A short Reader of newspaper articles that will be available on Westlaw’s TWEN (please register for TWEN)
In order to prepare for the first class, please read the following:
Wills, Trusts and Estates, Dukeminier, Johanson, et al (7th edition): pages 1-40
I look forward to meeting you on the first day of class.

Welfare & Poverty Law (Flynn)
JD932 A1
[Not yet received]