Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• LAW JD 939: Patent Prosecution
  This class is recommended for all students interested in intellectual property and patent law, including students considering practicing in the areas of patent prosecution, litigation, licensing, and technology transactions. A technical background is not required to take this course. This course provides an introduction to the U.S. patent process including the entire life cycle of a patent, as well as a working understanding of the core issues and strategies involved in patent application preparation and prosecution. Basic principles around building and managing a patent portfolio and issues related to patent infringement, licensing, and technology transactions will also be addressed.
• LAW JD 940: Law & Economics Workshop
  The Law and Economics Seminar is a research workshop. Class sessions will alternate between (1) lectures on selected topics in microeconomic theory and empirical methods, including methodology commonly used in law and economics scholarship, and (2) presentations of working papers by outside speakers (typically faculty members from other institutions). The specific legal topics considered will vary depending on the interests of the speakers, but all paper presentations will focus on application of economics concepts and tools to legal and regulatory issues. Students are responsible for preparing short memoranda that respond to the presented papers. Final grades depend on attendance and participation. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. OFFERING PATTERN: This class is not offered every year. Students are advised to take this into account when planning their long-term schedule.
• LAW JD 941: Corporate Governance
  Corporations play a central role in our society. What corporations do, and how they do it, depends on the legal rules and other forces that govern them. The course examines the most important aspects of corporate governance by analyzing real world examples. The course considers the relationship between directors and executives, and the role that mutual funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds and private equity funds play in corporations and the capital markets. We will consider the objectives and the behavior of each of these groups, and the laws and practices that shape their actions. We will also consider the social and environmental responsibility of corporations, and how corporations--and the rules and institutions that shape their operation--affect our society. There will be no exam. Instead, students will be assessed on a course paper and their class participation. PREREQUISITE: Corporations (may be waived with instructor's permission). UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement.
• LAW JD 944: Appellate Clinic Seminar 1
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have applied to and been accepted by the Appellate Clinic. It is the companion seminar to the clinic¿s fall fieldwork. The seminar provides substantive and skills-based training that will support your client work. Seminar focuses on the mechanics of written and oral appellate advocacy and the substantive areas of law the clinic is currently litigating. Seminar addresses each stage of the appellate process so that students develop an understanding of how to litigate an appeal from start to finish. In the fall, seminar will focus on early stages of the appellate process, including identifying strong appeals, building relationships with clients at the appellate stage, filing a notice of appeal, mediation, working with a complicated record, and outlining, researching, and drafting opening briefs. PRE/CO-REQUISITES: Professional Responsibility. Federal Courts is highly recommended as a pre-requisite or co-requisite but is not required. NOTE: The Appellate Clinic counts towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 945: Appellate Clinic Seminar 2
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have applied to and been accepted by the Appellate Clinic. It is a continuation of the companion seminar that clinic students took in the fall to support their client work. The seminar provides substantive and skills-based training that will support your client work. Seminar focuses on the mechanics of written and oral appellate advocacy and the substantive areas of law the clinic is currently litigating. Seminar addresses each stage of the appellate process so that students develop an understanding of how to litigate an appeal from start to finish. In the spring, seminar will focus on later stages of the appellate process including response and reply briefs, oral argument, and filing letters regarding supplemental authority. PRE/CO-REQUISITES: Professional Responsibility. Federal Courts is highly recommended as a pre-requisite or co-requisite, but is not required. NOTE: The Appellate Clinic counts towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 946: Criminal Law
  Examines the basic principles of substantive criminal law, including the justifications for punishment, the essential elements of offenses, mitigating and exculpating defenses, and different forms of criminal liability.
• LAW JD 948: Racial Justice & Movement Lawyering Clinic: Fieldwork
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Racial Justice & Movement Lawyering Clinic. The Clinic offers students the opportunity to provide legal support to organizations, coalitions, and grassroots groups seeking to challenge forms of subordination and build community power. Clinic fieldwork will vary based on the goals of our clients and movement partners but may involve litigation, policy advocacy, legal research, public education, or infrastructure/capacity-building projects. Under the clinic director’s supervision, students act as the lead attorneys on these projects, meaning that students will be responsible for establishing relationships with partners, identifying project goals, drafting agreements, and executing projects. In this process, students will learn to, among other things: develop litigation and non-litigation strategies; critically analyze the role of lawyers in social movements; identify different theories of social change; engage in legal writing that is persuasive and well-supported by evidence; and communicate complex legal subjects to a range of audiences. Students will also develop their professional identities and explore how they can most effectively show up for clients and community partners given their particular set of skills and experiences. CO-REQUISITE: LAW JD 949 (Clinic Seminar). NOTE: Both the fieldwork and in-class seminar count towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This clinic does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 949: Racial Justice & Movement Lawyering Clinic: Seminar
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Racial Justice & Movement Lawyering Clinic. This seminar introduces students to skills and theoretical frameworks that can support their lawyering practice and invites students to engage in critical reflection regarding their clinical fieldwork. Topics covered in the seminar may include, for example: theories of change, interviewing and storytelling, ethical practice, fact development for litigation, interpreting and using data and social science research, and oral advocacy. We will also analyze the structural conditions that we face in our fieldwork and consider whether and how we, as lawyers, can support the imagination of new possibilities through generative collaborations with clients and community partners. Throughout the semester, students will have the opportunity to: present mock legislative testimony or engage in a mock oral argument related to their fieldwork; deliver a class presentation on a topic pertaining to social justice and the law; and participate in in case rounds practice, which entails sharing challenges that come up in our fieldwork and engaging in group-based problem-solving. CO-REQUISITE: LAW JD 948 (Clinic Fieldwork). NOTE: Both the fieldwork and in-class seminar count towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This clinic does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 950: HOMICIDE INVESTIGATIONS & TRIALS
  This seminar will focus upon the substantive law of homicide, as well as the practical aspects of actual homicide investigations and trials: crime scene interpretation; DNA analysis; autopsies and related forensic evidence; expert testimony, particularly in the area of psychiatry and criminal responsibility; jury considerations; ethical concerns; and the role of the media. Students will have the opportunity to study actual murder cases, visit local crime laboratories and courtrooms, and learn prosecution, defense, and judicial perspectives on various contemporary issues arising in murder investigations and trials. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. OFFERING PATTERN: This class is not offered every year. Students are advised to take this into account when planning their long-term schedule. ** 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 waitlist for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 951: LAW & STRUCTURAL SOCIAL CHANGE
  This seminar is an introduction to comparative law's themes and methods. Accordingly, the seminar is organized in two parts. The readings selected for the first part present theoretical articulations and practical applications of the main methodological approaches relied upon by comparative lawyers. Participants will become acquainted with the "mechanics", as well as the broader implications, of the various ways of comparing: functionalism, structuralism, culturalism, postmodern neo-culturalism and critical comparative law. The materials discussed in the second part explore how these different methodologies play out in recent and heated comparative law debates. Participants will be asked to reflect over the common law-civil law dichotomy and its implications for the debate over the European Civil Code as well as for projects of harmonization, such as the World Bank's "Legal Origins" study; the circulation of legal rules and institutions and the export of constitutional models in Eastern Europe and Iraq; the ambiguous relation between US and European legal cultures and the debate over different ideas of "privacy"; the "West" and the "Orient" in family law reform. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. ** 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.
• LAW JD 952: State Constitutional Law
  Although state constitutional law has traditionally taken a back seat to the US Constitution at law schools, the subject is increasingly in the spotlight. As the US Supreme Court becomes less willing to protect rights such as abortion, or even the processes of democracy, lawyers must turn to the protections offered by state constitutions more often. State constitutional provisions also differ from the US Constitution in significant ways by not only protecting a plethora of different individual rights, but also defining communal welfare, and highlighting the conditions necessary to maintain a democracy. This course will explore the nature and significance of state constitutional law, including rights and government structures defined by the state constitutions. This course will cover how state institutions, such as legislatures and courts, protect and define legal rights and obligations in several areas, including: separation of powers, local government powers, school funding, taxation, criminal procedure, and freedom of speech. The course will also compare how state courts interpret their constitutions to federal court interpretation of the US Constitution. A student completing the course will understand and appreciate the role of state constitutions and if the states are, in Justice Brandeis’ words, “laboratories of democracy,” how state constitutions create and govern those laboratories. Assessment will take place in class when discussing readings and assigned exercises; through the written assignments, which include a legal blog article and an essay between 3,000-4,000 words; and a final exam. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: The written assignments may be used to partially satisfy the requirement.
• LAW JD 953: Digital Evidence Use in Law Enforcement
  This course will consider how the evolution and global reach of technology in the areas of criminal practice and privacy rights has created an environment and area of the law that is frequently enacted only to be outpaced, eclipsed, and rendered irrelevant almost immediately by the very thing it seeks to regulate. This course provides an overview of cybercrime, privacy rights, and digital evidence practice; focusing on the current legal and technical landscape facing investigators and prosecutors in our justice system as they respond to the now commonly overlapping digital, cloud, and physical crime scenes. This course will give students the ability to assess current issues in this space using real-world examples. Students will examine the various constitutional protections afforded to users in the digital space, the law and policies that govern detection and prosecution, using this evidence in investigative practice, understanding the principles of digital search and seizure, and privacy rights vs. privacy protections. This course provides a summary of this fast-growing area of the law arising out of digital evidence investigation as it is used in criminal law as well as in areas of collateral civil practice. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. **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.
• LAW JD 954: Corporate Counsel Externship: Fieldwork
  This CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This is the companion fieldwork component for students enrolled in the Corporate Counsel Externship: Seminar. Students will work at legal offices of for-profit and nonprofit companies in unpaid or paid placements. Students will receive 3-9 variable P/F credits for working at their placements. Each credit requires 50 hours of work over the course of the 13-week semester (averaging 4 hours per week). COREQUISITE: Corporate Counsel Externship Seminar (JD 896). NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement.
• LAW JD 955: Contemporary Issues of Constitutional Law
  Having taken the 1L Constitutional Law course (a pre-requisite for this seminar), students taking this course will do a deeper dive into the issues where the Constitution comes alive in our daily lives -- the ways in which citizens in general and lawyers in particular need to understand the role the Constitution plays in political and social debates over free speech, voting rights, reproductive rights and so much more. The course will cover several issues currently on the Supreme Court's docket, and the course topics will intersect with developments in the news on a regular basis. There is no exam. Students will be required to write a paper on an issue of their choice. Grades are determined by the quality of the paper and class participation. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may be used to satisfy the requirement either partially or in full. ** 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.
• LAW JD 956: INFORMATION PRIVACY LAW
  The collection, use, storage, and sharing of personal data has become increasingly important throughout society, from commerce to government and from health care to finance. For good reason, we call this the Information Age. Recall the countless high- profile privacy and data security controversies you have heard about in the last year: location tracking; inaccurate credit reports causing lost jobs; data breaches, hacking and identity theft; and government surveillance. Law has responded with a dizzying array of new rules -- and a rapidly growing area of professional specialization for attorneys. This course serves as an introduction to the emerging law of data privacy. By the end, you will be well grounded in many challenges facing any enterprise, public or private, that collects, processes, uses, and stores personal information. In addition to knowledge of constitutional, statutory, and common law rules as well as federal and state enforcement activity, we will learn about the policy questions that arise in this dynamic area, the legally relevant questions to ask when assessing information practices, and some of the many nonlegal models of information governance. You will gain a basic understanding of data privacy regulation in other countries, particularly the European Union. All students will benefit from more sophisticated knowledge about an issue that appears in the news every single day. But there are significant professional payoffs too. Major law firms have organized entire practice areas devoted to privacy and data protection law. In the last seven years the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), a key trade association in this space, more than tripled in size to 12,000 members. These trends mean that law school graduates will have increasing job opportunities in data privacy and security law. Meanwhile, in many other practice areas -- such as securities, labor and employment, health, advertising, and the list goes on -- familiarity with privacy and security law has become a major asset. Plus, the issues are fascinating and fun. If nothing else, you can have great conversations at parties.
• LAW JD 958: Effective and Ethical Depositions
  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.
• LAW JD 960: Access to Justice Clinic: A2J Litigation Skills
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Access to Justice Clinic. This seminar examines the larger societal context of students' fieldwork representing poverty-law clients in family, housing, employment, and disability cases. Students will actively analyze and address the intersections of the legal system with the multiple systemic barriers their clients face (e.g., gender, race, class, disability). Students will learn the skills and legal knowledge relevant to representation of clinic clients (including client interviewing, client counseling, oral and written advocacy, and negotiation). 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.
• LAW JD 961: HOUSING LAW
  Over the last sixty years housing law has evolved in a number of significant ways. Where once a lease was primarily considered to involve a transfer of an interest in land, it is now considered to involve a relationship framed by contract principles. Consistent with this change, tort law involving rental property is moving from a traditional negligence standard to a more complex standard based upon a duty derived from the implied warranty of habitability. Courts must now determine whether landlords should be held strictly liable in tort for personal injury claims based on defective conditions, inadequate security, lead poisoning, etc. Where formerly a landlord had significant discretion over tenant selection and tenancy termination, a variety of state housing laws and federal/state anti-discrimination laws now place significant limits on the landlord's power and control over these tenancy relationships. Public housing and governmentally subsidized housing has generated much heated debate as well as litigation over such issues as development-based policing authority and the right to evict entire families based upon criminal conduct of one family member. Finally, during the past four years complex title, tenancy, consumer rights and community preservation issues have arisen in the wake of the foreclosure crisis that has swept the nation. This seminar will focus on the various legal, social policy, and practical issues emerging with respect to traditional tenancies, premises liability, public safety in public and subsidized housing, housing discrimination, environmental protection, and control of foreclosed property. Student classroom participation and papers are required. LIMITED WRITING REQUIREMENT OPTION: A limited number of students may be permitted to satisfy the upper-class writing requirement with the approval of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. OFFERING PATTERN: This class is frequently offered in alternating years. Students are advised to take this into account when planning their long-term schedule. ** 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 waitlist for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 962: 21st Century Policing: Law and Policy
  This course considers emerging issues in the law and policy of policing. Policing is bounded by U.S. constitutional law but also heavily determined by state and local statutes and regulations. As such, policing traditionally engages legal questions such as search, seizure, interrogation, and identification. At the same time, emerging issues for contemporary police include policing a pandemic, historical injustice in policing, international and domestic terrorism, and gun violence on college campuses and universities. This course addresses many topics that have impacted police and communities since the first wave of protests in 2014–2015 through the murder of George Floyd through the lens of 4th, 5th, and 6th amendment issues. This course engages students in a deeper understanding of 21st century policing, drawing on contemporary developments in law and policy grounded in the realities of the experiences of police and communities.
• LAW JD 964: Cyber Law
  The expanded use of technology in all aspects of our lives provides tremendous opportunities and creates constantly evolving risks – and has resulted in a patchwork of legal responses. This course will explore the rapidly changing landscape of cyber law, focusing on the legal framework, policy issues, and practical application of these laws. Specifically, the course will cover cyber crime, including cyber-enabled fraud schemes, computer “hacking,” and nation-state cyber activity. The course will also cover cyber security and privacy issues, and the impact of technology on data collection and electronic evidence gathering. We will analyze the framework of both constitutional law and relevant domestic statutes related to data collection, and the intersection of domestic and global concepts of data privacy. Students will explore the strategies used to respond to these challenges by individuals, businesses, governments, and regulatory agencies.