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 784: Transaction Sim: Syndicated Loan
  Practice Areas: General Business, Banking/Finance, Corporate Governance and Restructuring This course is one of the semester-long transaction simulations offered as part of the Transactional Law Program. The simulated transaction is the structuring, negotiation and documentation, and subsequent restructuring of a $1.7 billion secured, syndicated commercial loan to a large, privately held medical testing company (the "Company"). The Company's primary purpose for seeking this loan is to use the proceeds to pay an extraordinary dividend to its founder and controlling shareholder and to several private equity firms which own stock in the Company (often referred to as a "dividend recap loan"). The course will explore some of the key issues, and students will perform several of the principal tasks, which transactional lawyers specializing in general business, banking/finance, corporate governance and/or restructuring must consider and carry out in advising corporate clients and financial institutions in a transaction of this kind. These tasks will include advising the Company's board of directors and officers or prospective lenders in evaluating whether to engage in the dividend recap loan transaction, the steps needed to obtain corporate approval of such transaction given that certain board members who are also shareholders will benefit from it, and structuring, negotiating and documenting these types of transactions. The course will also examine the critical role certain provisions of the credit and security agreements for the loan play following the loan closing when serious problems and potential events of default arise leading to a restructuring of the original loan. Finally, the course will consider various ways a troubled loan can be restructured either through an out-of-court consensual transaction or a Chapter 11 restructuring. The course grade will be based on class participation and graded drafting assignments. CLASS SIZE: Limited to 12 students. PREREQUISITE OR CO-REQUISITE: Corporations. Contract Drafting is recommended, but not required. NOTES: This course counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement and also satisfies the Transaction Simulation requirement of the Transactional Practice Concentration. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS: 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. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first class to be considered for enrollment. Because the course involves regular in-class exercises, some of which are done in teams, and class participation is a significant component of a student's final grade, regular class attendance is essential and thus the course cannot accommodate flexibility in attendance.
• LAW JD 786: Legislative Policy and Drafting Clinic
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Legislative Policy & Drafting Clinic. Students learn about the law-making process through coursework and hands-on experience working with a client seeking to advance a bill or project through the state legislature. Students work on several projects during the semester that highlight different aspects of the legislative process, allowing students to relate and test the theories discussed in class to real life situations. The in-class seminar covers subjects that affect the legislative process including: constitutional interpretation by legislatures, theories of representation, legislative organization and rules, lobbying, legislative oversight powers, and legislature-executive agency relationships. The clinic instructor works with students to select projects in the students' specific areas of interest, if any. In particular, students interested in business and tax, environment law, or health law, may specialize in those areas for the full semester. NOTE: This clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 787: Bankruptcy
  This course provides an overview of both consumer and business bankruptcy. We begin with creditors' collection rights under state law and then turn to consumer bankruptcy under Chapters 7 and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. Topics include the bankruptcy estate, the automatic stay, exemptions, the treatment of secured and unsecured debt, the means test, repayment plans, and discharge. We then examine business bankruptcy, focusing on the legal requirements for reorganization plans under Chapter 11, debtor-in-possession financing, avoidance actions, preferences, fraudulent transfers, executory contracts, plan confirmation, cramdown of secured and unsecured creditors, and § 363 asset sales. Throughout, the course considers the policy goals of bankruptcy and strategic issues in bankruptcy practice, while also requiring students to apply basic corporate finance concepts through assigned problem sets. Recommended Courses: Corporations, Secured Transactions
• LAW JD 788: Contract Drafting
  This course is the foundational skills course within the Transactional Law Program. It teaches students basic principles and skills of drafting and analyzing commercial and transaction agreements, with a focus on recognizing, and addressing through contractual provisions, key business issues in transactions. Although the course will be of particular interest to students interested in a corporate or transactional law practice, since most practicing attorneys will need to work with contracts at some point in their career, the concepts and skills which the course conveys are applicable to virtually all practice areas and specialties. While the course utilizes lectures to introduce various contract concepts and techniques essential for drafting and reviewing commercial and transaction agreements, it also requires that students complete both in-class exercises and out-of-class assignments as a means of building basic drafting skills and a solid understanding of the structure and operation of contractual provisions in a business transaction. The course also considers various ethical issues that may arise in the contract drafting and review process and in transactional practice generally. Grades will be based on class participation and graded drafting assignments. CLASS SIZE: 12 students. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT/EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING REQUIREMENT: This course is a designated Professional Writing Course which may be used to partially satisfy the Upper-Class Writing Requirement (with a grade of B or higher) or the 6-credit Experiential Learning Requirement, but not both. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. 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. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first class to be considered for enrollment. Because the course involves regular in-class exercises, some of which are done in teams, and class participation is a significant component of a student's final grade, regular class attendance is essential and thus the course cannot accommodate flexibility in attendance.
• LAW JD 789: Transaction Sim: Form and Financing a Start-Up
  Practice Areas: General Corporate and Corporate Finance This course is one of the semester-long transaction simulations offered as part of the Transactional Law Program. The simulated transaction is the formation and subsequent first-round venture financing of a new software business started by two entrepreneurs who are recent graduates of the California Institute of Technology. During this course, students will be exposed to, and will handle, the principal issues that arise in counseling entrepreneurs as to their emerging businesses, including key elements such as founders' arrangements, entity selection, governance, equity compensation, intellectual property protection, capital raising through SAFEs (which are simple agreements for future equity), convertible notes and preferred stock financing, capitalization/valuation/dilution and investment documentation based on industry-standard contracts. Through exercises both in and outside of class, as well as class discussions, students will simulate the work of practicing attorneys who counsel start-ups and their founders on a day-to-day basis. As part of these simulations, students will review sample agreements, draft and revise agreements and conduct negotiations. In addition, from time to time during the course, the instructors will address ethical issues and other practice points that can arise in connection with the simulated transaction or in transactional practice generally when working with emerging/start-up companies. The course grade will be based on attendance and class participation and three graded writing assignments. CLASS SIZE: 12 students. PREREQUISITE OR CO-REQUISITE: Corporations. Contract Drafting is recommended but not required. NOTES: This course counts toward the 6-credit Experiential Learning requirement and also satisfies the Transaction Simulation requirement of the Transactional Practice Concentration. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. 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. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first class to be considered for enrollment. Because the course involves regular in-class exercises, some of which are done in teams, and class participation is a significant component of a student's final grade, regular class attendance is essential and thus the course cannot accommodate flexibility in attendance.
• LAW JD 792: Topics in the Application of AI to the Law
  AI has come to the practice of law, raising many issues and implications that are essential to understand. This two-credit elective examines what AI is and how it works, and how emerging AI technologies intersect with civil, criminal, administrative, and constitutional law. The course will explore topics such as liability for autonomous systems; algorithmic decision making in government and private markets; proof, causation, and evidence; personhood; bias and profiling; authorship and IP; morality and professional responsibility; and ultimately how AI is and should be regulated through litigation, legislation, and agency action. While we discuss how AI works, algorithms, and related matters, no technical background is required. There will be a final exam.
• LAW JD 793: Trade Secrets and Restrictive Covenants
  This course examines the principles and practice of the law of trade secrets and restrictive covenants. Trade secrets, alongside contractual restrictions on information sharing and employee mobility (such as non-disclosure and non-compete agreements), can constitute some of the most valuable and contested assets of a modern venture. Situated at the collision point between intellectual property and employment law, this course evaluates the sources, mechanics, uses, and misuses of modern confidentiality governance. Students will be expected to evaluate contractual terms, assess policy arguments in favor of broader or narrower confidentiality protections, and explore the interrelationships between trade secrets law and areas including contract, tort, and constitutional law.
• LAW JD 794: Artificial Intelligence Law
  Artificial intelligence is reshaping society, legal institutions, and the practice of law. This course examines the emerging law, regulation, and policy of AI while preparing students to work effectively with the technologies that are already transforming legal practice. Students will study how existing legal doctrines apply to AI systems and how those doctrines may evolve as AI increasingly influences decision-making in business, government, medicine, consumer markets, and everyday life. Topics include liability, privacy, intellectual property, consumer protection, fairness, bias and discrimination, explainability, and AI governance. The course is also a practical introduction to AI-assisted lawyering. Students will develop a working understanding of the concepts and terminology needed to engage confidently with contemporary AI systems and large language models; no technical background is required. Through concrete legal use cases, students will explore how legal AI tools and LLMs can enhance analysis, problem-solving, and professional judgment, while also confronting their limitations and risks, including hallucinations, bias, opacity, overreliance, and professional responsibility concerns. Use of generative AI is integral to the course. The course is grounded in the view that the next generation of lawyers will practice co-intelligence: a disciplined partnership between human judgment and artificial intelligence in which the combined output exceeds what either could achieve alone.
• LAW JD 795: AI in the Professions
  This course will focus on the healthcare professions and the legal profession primarily, and explore how the rise of artificial intelligence is challenging traditional modes of licensing, regulation, and liability. The course will include state AI laws, state licensure systems, professional rules of conduct, Federal policy including FDA law for software as a medical device (SAMD), and some discussion of comparative approaches such as the European Union. The course will include student use of AI platforms, for benchmarking, research and to develop their own skills. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: Students may use this class to satisfy the requirement with a 6,000-word research paper. ** 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, 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 796: Animal Law
  What legal protections - if any - do animals truly have? How does the law define their worth, their suffering, or their right to exist free from harm? Introduction to Animal Law invites students into a complex and rapidly evolving field at the intersection of legal theory, ethics, and our relationship with non-human animals. We begin by exploring foundational questions: What is the legal status of animals? Are they property, persons, or something in between? From there, we'll examine the legal frameworks that govern human-animal interactions across a wide range of contexts - animals as victims of abuse, as food, as companions, as research subjects, and even as consumers of antibiotics. Along the way, we'll consider the role of animals in entertainment, agriculture, and wildlife policy, highlighting both the explicit and hidden ways the law shapes their lives - and ours. Though the course centers on U.S. Law, it will include comparative and international perspectives to explore how different societies conceptualize animal rights and welfare. A central inquiry will be the motivations behind human efforts to protect animals: Are these rooted in compassion, utility, justice - or something more complex? We will also tackle one of the most pressing legal dilemmas in the field: who was the right to speak for animals, and under what circumstances can humans represent them in legal proceedings? The course is open to all students - no prior legal experience required. Students will be expected to engage critically with readings and contribute thoughtfully to discussions. Rich in legal debate and ethical complexity, animal law challenges us to rethink our most basic assumptions about rights, representation, and justice across species lines. NOTE: There will be a midterm exam and a final (3,000 word) research paper. UPPERCLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to partially satisfy the requirement.
• LAW JD 797: Critical Legal Research
  This seminar explores the ways in which the tools (both print and electronic) used to conduct traditional legal research serve as hegemonic forces that reinforce the status quo and entrench societal oppressions. It also attempts to apply principles of Critical Race Theory to the legal research process both to uncover these hegemonic forces and to explore ways to overcome them. It draws on the work of Professors Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic and the innovative and novel ideas and theories being developed by newer, emerging, scholars applying the approach that is now known as Critical Legal Research (CLR). This they apply to their research, their pedagogy, and their research agendas. Indeed, Critical Legal Research has become a movement within law libraries and within the scholarly community. This research seminar can be described as a part of that movement. It is designed to meet the needs and serve the interests of aspiring public interest lawyers, students interested in social justice issues, and students interested in applying the principles of Critical Legal Studies or Critical Race Theory to their contemporary legal research projects, research behaviors, or legal studies. It complements the growing array of seminars and other courses offered here at BU Law that examine the practice of law through a critical lens. Topics to be covered include the legal research process, the limitations inherent in each step of that process, emerging critical approaches to conducting legal research, critical legal scholarship, critical race theory more specifically, and emerging legal research technologies and the specific shortcomings attributable to each. PREREQUISITE: Successful completion of both Lawyering Skills I and Lawyering Skills II. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: The capstone of this course will be a 6,000-word paper on a contemporary issue of justice OR an area of critical legal scholarship of interest to the student. This paper may serve as the foundation for a law review note or a foundation for completion of the Upper-Class Writing Requirement. **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, 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 798: Gender, Violence and the Law
  This seminar provides a detailed examination of gender-motivated violence and legal responses. Recently, there has been greater recognition of gender-based injuries within the law and the provision of new, important protections to survivors. However, despite considerable progress, gender-based violence continues to present theoretical and practical questions, such as: To what extent is gender-based violence different than other types of violence? What legal approaches are most effective to address the harms while recognizing that the diverse interests of survivors? How do societal norms related to gender-based violence impact legal remedies? How should courts balance the interests of other parties in such proceedings to ensure that constitutional rights remain intact? This seminar will explore the limits of the law in addressing gender-based violence and emerging non-traditional approaches, including problem-solving courts and restorative justice frameworks. It also will examine how the emergence of the #MeToo movement may influence legal responses to gender-based violence. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement.
• LAW JD 800: Local Government Law
  Local governments are considered the closest and most responsive form of government to the people. They are designed to create cities and towns that reflect the ideal of the residents' view of the ideal community. When all local government entities are taken into consideration, there are approximately 89,000 local government units in the country - including counties, municipalities, townships, special districts and school districts. Where do they get their powers? What are the limits? What should be the limits? This course provides a study of the law governing the powers and duties of local governments, mainly municipal corporations such as cities and towns. We look at the sources of municipal powers, the limits on those powers, the relationship between municipalities and the state including the relationship between state and local law, and the formation and expansion of municipalities. An important subject of study involves looking at various models of the relationship between the municipality and the state including home rule. We will also look at some issues in municipal finance and zoning power. Where possible, this course will focus on the intersection of local government law and important current events both locally and nationally. 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 801: Administrative Law
  This course will examine the nature and functions of federal administrative agencies and the legal controls on agency action. Agency action is situated and examined in its political and legal contexts. Topics include the status of administrative agencies in the constitutional framework of separation of powers including the non-delegation doctrine, the President's appointment and removal powers in light of the unitary executive, the constitutionality of the legislative and line-item vetoes, the constitutionality of agency adjudication, and the constitutional (and political) status of independent agencies; agency rulemaking and adjudication including the choice of procedural model and the procedural requirements of the rulemaking model; and the availability, timing and scope of judicial review of agency action including standing to seek judicial review and exceptions to the availability of judicial review. The course also examines different methods of policy analysis such as regulatory impact analysis and cost-benefit analysis. Additional topics include discriminatory enforcement, regulatory delay, judicial imposition of procedural constraints on agencies, the implication of private rights of action from regulatory statutes and the availability citizens' suits. Some attention may be paid to differences between state and federal separation of powers doctrines.
• LAW JD 802: Regulation of Drugs and Medical Devices
  This seminar examines the Food and Drug Administration as an administrative agency combining law and science to regulate activities affecting public health and safety. The course will focus on testing and approval of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, including artificial intelligence. In some semesters at varying degrees, the course will also include food, nutritional supplements, tobacco, cosmetics, and/or veterinary products. A writing project involving research will be required. RECOMMENDED COURSES: Health Law Survey Colloquium; Administrative Law. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may be used to satisfy the requirement. NOTE: Students who were enrolled in Food, Drug & Cosmetic Law (S) are restricted from registering.
• LAW JD 805: Secured Transactions
  Many commercial and consumer financing transactions involve the creation of security interests in the borrower's personal property that are akin to mortgages of real property. (Indeed, much commercial activity involves the grant of a UCC Article 9 security interest, and the economic system depends on Article 9 to provide much of the law against which modern commerce takes place.) In a secured transaction, in the event of the borrower's default, the lender can foreclose on the collateral subject to the security interest to help liquidate the debt. While simple to describe, secured transactions and the rules that govern them can be complex. This course covers the basic secured transaction governed by Article 9 of the UCC. Topics covered will include creation and perfection of security interests, priority contests, and default. The course is an excellent precursor to Bankruptcy and often helpful when sitting for the bar exam. PREREQUISITE/COREQUISITE: Business Fundamentals. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 806: Prosecutorial Ethics
  Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson once noted, "The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America." This seminar examines the unique role and power of prosecutors and their responsibility to ensure "that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer." We will study the ways in which prosecutors exercise their broad discretion and the ethical and practical considerations that affect those determinations. What duty does the prosecutor owe to a victim? To the police? To the public at large? How might those parties' interests conflict with a prosecutor's objectives and impact prosecutorial decisions? A major focus of this course will be the prosecutor's obligations to the accused and the various ways in which those duties are breached. We will examine the consequences of prosecutorial misconduct, the ways in which it may or may not be remedied, and to what extent it can be deterred. Other topics to be covered include the relationship between the prosecutor and the grand jury, conflicts of interest, selective prosecution, trial misconduct, prosecutorial immunity, mandatory minimum sentences, the use of confidential informants and cooperating witnesses, discovery of exculpatory evidence, post-conviction obligations, and wrongful convictions. Our study will draw heavily from historical as well as current events, and will include emphasis on the ways in which the role of the prosecutor is shifting. Students will engage in mock disciplinary hearings, playing the role of bar counsel in bringing allegations of misconduct against prosecutors or defending them against such claims. NOTE: seminar satisfies the Professional Responsibility requirement. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. RECOMMENDED COURSE: Criminal Procedure, taken either prior to or concurrently with this seminar. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ** 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 807: Business Immigration
  This course will provide an overview of business immigration law, with a particular focus on the various nonimmigrant and immigrant visa categories a business immigration lawyer would be expected to handle. Topics will include business immigration visa categories, business immigration strategies, visa challenges in entrepreneurship; immigration obstacles faced by multinational businesses; the intersection of business immigration with employment laws; and enforcement trends targeted at employers. We will also briefly review the parameters of executive power in shaping business immigration law and the regulatory process. We will also identify, examine and discuss core professional responsibility issues that arise in business immigration practice. There are no prerequisites for this course. There is no writing requirement, but there will be weekly reading assignments and frequent hypotheticals to analyze before class for class discussion as well as a final examination. Class attendance and participation are essential.
• LAW JD 808: Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Opportunities, Risks, and Realities
  This one credit seminar explores the rapidly evolving role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the practice of law. Featuring guest speakers from a wide range of practice settings—including large law firms, boutique firms, corporate legal departments, government agencies, legal services, and the judiciary—the course examines how AI tools are transforming legal research, drafting, discovery, compliance, litigation strategy, client counseling, and law practice management. Through practitioner-led discussions students will evaluate the practical uses of AI technologies. The seminar emphasizes real-world applications, ethical considerations, and professional responsibility implications under the ABA Model Rules. Students will critically assess the benefits and efficiencies AI can bring to legal practice and the significant challenges it presents, including ethical pitfalls, overreliance, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and systemic bias. The seminar is discussion-based. Students will have weekly readings, submit short papers that include questions for the week’s speaker(s), and will give a final presentation on an AI related topic. 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, 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 809: Learning from Practice Ext: Fieldwork
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. Students receive credit for working in the legal department of a non-profit, government agency, judicial placement, private company, or at a law firm. Placements may be paid or unpaid. Students may find their own placements that must be approved by the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office, or the Office has resources to help students identify and apply to suitable field placements based on their interests and career goals. NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Learning from Practice: Seminar (JD 771).