Juris Doctor

• LAW JD 713: Persuasive Writing: Trial Level
  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.
• LAW JD 714: Competitions: Oral Advocacy
  This class is designed to prepare and support the 3L members of BU Law's extramural moot court teams who also serve as Stone and Albers competition preceptors. This course will focus on improving students' appellate oral advocacy skills through a series of course meetings that involve skills training and in-class exercises. For the first month of the semester, the seminar will meet weekly as a group and will focus on oral advocacy skills, including how to prepare, argument organization, and presentation best practices. For the remainder of the spring semester, students participating in spring competitions will meet on an arranged schedule to conduct at least four one-hour oral argument practices for their competition and to attend and to serve as judges for at least two other one-hour oral argument practices for other competitions. Students serving as Albers preceptors will score briefs and oral arguments. These Albers preceptors will meet to work on editing and feedback skills. All students participating in spring competitions 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. Note that students who are participating on extramural moot court teams that are assigned to serve as either Stone or Albers preceptors must still serve as preceptors even if they do not enroll in this course. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 25 students. GRADING NOTICE: CR/NC graded. NOTE: This class does not satisfy the Upper-class Writing 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.
• LAW JD 715: Vis International Commercial Arbitration
  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.
• LAW JD 717: Health Law Research
  Health law encompasses the engagement of the legal system with a large and dynamic segment of the U.S. economy. In this class, students will gain a familiarity with how to navigate the statutory and regulatory framework of health law, how to evaluate resources, and how complex and multi-part search strategies may be applied to research problems. Students will also gain a deeper understanding of databases beyond Lexis, Westlaw and Bloomberg, and of current awareness sources. Classes will combine instruction and hands-on exercises using print, electronic, and web-based resources. Students will be evaluated on several grounds, including class participation, regular assignments, and a short paper and presentation. NOTE: This class counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. NOTE: Students may not add this course after the first class has been held. 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 class. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 718: Transactional Law Research
  Most students will end up practicing transactional law which presents unique legal research challenges. Students will learn to navigate the statutory and regulatory frameworks of transactional areas of the law like tax, banking, securities and other practice areas. They will research agency guidance, use specialized practice materials and search for filings and company information, among other research tasks. Legal information and technologies in these area are constantly changing and new lawyers should be familiar with the most recent research techniques and tools. Classes will combine instruction and hands-on exercises using major print, electronic, and web based resources for securities law research. Students will be required to complete several assignments using electronic and print resources and put together a final client presentation on a transaction. NOTES: This course counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement.
• LAW JD 720: Remedies
  The study of law largely involves understanding the substantive scopes of rights and of prohibitions, but, for the bar examination, for practice, and for intellectually engaging with legal topics conceptually, it is essential to understand what the potential solutions are for a wronged person or entity. Remedies is devoted to developing that latter understanding. In this course, we will explore the legal powers and limits for righting those who have been wronged and for preventing future wrongs. This course includes both public law and private law remedies with a particular focus on social justice and remedial topics that are generally not covered within the 1L curriculum or other required courses. In addition to helping to prepare students for bar examinations (which often test for remedies in civil procedure, contracts, property, and torts), examining remedial principles in this course will be useful to those encountering remedies problems in litigation across substantive fields. This course also covers historically-important and current, hot topics such as reparations, impact injunctions against governmental defendants (so-called "nationwide" or "universal" injunctions), and court-debt related remedies (such as litigation challenging drivers' license suspensions due to nonpayment of fines).
• LAW JD 721: Happiness and the Law
  This seminar offers an in-depth exploration of the interactions of happiness and the law. The course is structured into three interconnected units: • Unit 1: Happiness, Law, and Public Policy: This unit delves into how social policies and legal frameworks can be designed to promote happiness and well-being at a societal level. It examines the use of happiness data and insights from behavioral sciences to inform legal change in areas such as criminal law, civil procedure, corporate law, and tax law. • Unit 2: How to Be a Happy Lawyer: This unit focuses on cultivating meaningful and fulfilling legal careers. Drawing on general happiness studies and the growing field of law and mindfulness, it explores strategies for lawyers to enhance their own well-being and job satisfaction. • Unit 3: The Lawyer-Client Relationship: This unit analyzes the lawyer-client relationship beyond traditional paradigms. It considers the potential for this relationship to increase the happiness and well-being of both attorneys and clients, incorporating perspectives from philosophy, psychology, economics, and political science. The seminar employs a variety of pedagogical methods to facilitate student learning. These include Socratic discussion of assigned readings, synchronous and asynchronous experiential exercises, and hands-on activities. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with mindfulness techniques and develop an actionable personal career-life plan that integrates the themes of the course. Additional experiential exercises will be incorporated throughout the semester to provide practical application of course concepts. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This seminar may be used to partially 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 722: Natural Resources Law
  This course covers select topics in natural resources law and policy, including protection of biodiversity and endangered species; management and preservation of public lands such as national forests, rangelands, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, and national parks; conservation of wetland resources under section 404 of the Clean Water Act; and allocation of water resources. The overlap between this course and the course in Environmental Law is minimal, and students can enroll in this class regardless of whether they have previously taken the Environmental Law course.
• LAW JD 724: Introduction to AI and Intellectual Property
  This skills seminar focuses on the intersection of law and technology, with an emphasis on AI and Intellectual Property law. Students take on the persona of law firm associates and work through actual cases and scenarios involving AI technologies. It is well suited for non-specialists seeking to improve (a) their substantive knowledge of IP law as applied to today’s cutting-edge technologies like Generative AI and (b) their practical legal skills including communication, written & oral advocacy, deal-making & negotiations, and the role of AI in the law. Students will examine actual pending IP AI cases (like Author’s Guild v OpenAI and Raine v OAI) and conduct simulated exercises – taking on the role of plaintiff, defendant, law clerk, and judge – in advocating their clients’ cases. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may partially satisfy the requirement with a 3,000-word paper with approval of the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs.
• LAW JD 725: Student Innovations Law Clinic: Fieldwork
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. The clinic provides counseling in a variety of different areas of law, organized into three practice groups: (1) Intellectual Property; (2) Privacy, Health & Media; and (3) Venture & Finance. Representation of clients can include client counseling, contract and policy drafting and review, negotiation with third parties, and, if capacity allows, litigation and other dispute resolution. CO-REQUISITE: If students have not done so already, students must take at least one course in any one of the following four areas: (1) intellectual property (either an IP survey course or other core IP course such as patent, copyright, trademark, or trade secret); (2) privacy (including information privacy law or information risk management); (3) cybersecurity; or (4) corporations. NOTE: The Technology Law Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 726: Health Care Fraud and Abuse
  This seminar will use a practical, case-study approach to some of the issues arising in the complex world of health care enforcement and compliance. With emphasis on the procedural mechanisms of the False Claims Act and the substantive law of the Anti-Kickback Act, the Stark I and II laws, the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, and the government's remedial authorities, the seminar will explore how prosecutors, defense attorneys, whistleblowers, and compliance officials inside health care companies approach their work and advise their clients. The seminar will explore the relationships between regulated industries (e.g., pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors, medical device companies) and government insurance programs (e.g., Medicaid and Medicare), why these relationships generate billions of dollars every year in fraud, and how the interested constituencies are approaching these issues. 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 727: Health Law and Bioethics
  Bioethics asks not only what science, biotechnology and medicine can do, but what we should allow them to do—and who gets to decide. This course analyzes contemporary issues in health care and biomedical research to explore how law both structures, and is reshaped by, central problems in bioethics. Topics include experimentation on human subjects; research misconduct and the regulation of scientific integrity; researcher and physician conflicts of interest; reproductive ethics, including prenatal embryo testing; genetic and genomic information and data privacy; end of life decision making and medical aid in dying; organ donation, transplantation, and allocation; artificial intelligence and digital health tools in clinical care and research; and access to investigational medical products, such as through FDA’s expanded access (“compassionate use”) pathway. Throughout the course, students will engage with primary legal materials, interdisciplinary scholarship in law, public health, and bioethics, and problem based hypotheticals that require analysis of the trade offs among autonomy, justice, and innovation. This course will familiarize students with key bioethical debates, the legal framework relevant to each debate, and the policy goals on which each framework is based, which will enable them to make recommendations and consider legal reforms in these areas. The course will be of interest to students interested in health law, bioethics, the regulation of emerging technologies or policy work in government, hospitals, life science companies, advocacy organizations.
• LAW JD 730: Jewish Law and Philosophy
  Secular law focuses on the relationships between people. Its interest in “inner life” is primarily restricted to questions of whether someone intended to commit a particular act. Jewish law similarly concerns itself with our behavior towards one another, often through a discourse of obligations, in addition to rights. Jewish law also applies legal-like reasoning inwardly, focusing on how living religiously transforms the individual and the community from the inside out. This course will focus on Jewish law to explore competing conceptions of law’s purpose, the difference between divine and secular law, discourses of rights versus obligations, and the relationship between mysticism and reason. No prior knowledge of Jewish law, Hebrew, or Aramaic is necessary. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class will 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 732: Science for Lawyers
  Whether it is a clinical trial, a psychology laboratory study, or an econometric analysis, science is essential to a wide range of legal and policy contexts including regulation (e.g., new drug approval), litigation (e.g., causation in mass torts), and even transactions (e.g., acquiring a company that depends on technology patents). Through this course, students will develop basic fluency with reading and interpreting scientific studies used across these domains, and will also introduce several critical themes, including animal research ethics, the role of expert witnesses, funding and conflicts of interests, the neutrality of science, and scientific integrity. Note that this course is focused on scientific methods in a legal context; it is not designed to teach substantive scientific concepts and requires no background or prerequisites in scientific fields. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement.
• LAW JD 733: Intellectual Property Research
  This course begins with an overview of basic legal research skills, processes, and resources using intellectual property subject matter. The course then proceeds to specific research strategies in copyright, patents, and trademark law, providing students an increased understanding of advanced legal research skills using: secondary sources, legislative history, administrative materials, and more. Students will gain an even deeper understanding of the context and framework of legal resources and how they are applied to real-world research from practitioner guest lecturers. Classes combine instruction and hands-on exercises, with an emphasis on exposure to databases beyond Lexis and Westlaw. Students are evaluated on weekly research assignments and a final research project. PREREQUISITE: Intellectual Property. NOTE: Students may not add this course after the first class is held. NOTE: This class counts toward the 6-credit Experiential Learning requirement. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 15 students. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Students who fail to attend the first class or obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the class. Students on the waitlist are required to attend the first class meeting for enrollment eligibility
• LAW JD 734: Judicial Externship Program: Seminar
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This is the companion academic component for students simultaneously enrolled in the Judicial Externship: Fieldwork course. The seminar focuses on teaching the substance and skills related to being a successful judicial extern. Topics include judicial ethics, legal research, judicial process, opinion drafting, judicial selection and recusal, and judicial decision-making. Students keep reflective journals chronicling their educational experience and reactions to the practice of law observed at the field placement. Please note that the course is scheduled to meet for seven two-hour class sessions, every other week. NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Judicial Externship: Fieldwork (JD 735). GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 735: Judicial Externship Program: 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 chambers for a judge in the state or federal court system. The assignments handled by an extern are similar to those handled during a post-graduate clerkship. Students may find their own judicial placements that must be approved by the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office, or the Office will match the student with a judge. Students receive 4-9 variable P/F credits for their fieldwork, as determined in consultation with their placement supervisors. Each credit requires 50 hours of work over the course of the 13-week semester (averaging 4 hours per week). NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Judicial Externship: Seminar (JD 734).
• LAW JD 736: Prison Education Practicum
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Practicum. Students in the practicum will learn to teach a class about the criminal legal process to incarcerated individuals who are facing criminal charges in local Massachusetts jails and prisons. The students will cement their own understanding of criminal procedures by having to prepare to teach others, and also learn invaluable information from the class participants who have been navigating the legal system themselves and have insight on what the process is like to someone accused of a crime. Students will practice their legal research skills and gain confidence in their understanding of the law and legal process while participating in the practicum. NOTE: This practicum counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 737: SILC: Venture and Finance Seminar 1
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in Venture & Finance Seminar 1 students in SILC's Venture & Finance Practice Group meet to review substantive legal issues in corporate law (including partnerships, LLCs, and corporations), business and financial regulation, securities law, and commercial law and regulation. The seminar will also introduce students to the lawyering skills (including interviewing, counseling, negotiation, drafting, etc.) that will help them in counseling MIT and BU students on their creative and innovative projects. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations. 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 738: SILC: Venture and Finance Seminar 2
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in Venture & Finance Seminar 2 students in SILC's Venture & Finance Practice Group expand upon the legal and practice issues reviewed in the fall seminar, including issues in corporate law (including partnerships, LLCs, and corporations), business and financial regulation, securities law, and commercial law and regulation. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations. NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.