Kent A. Coit

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.

The Reproductive Justice Practicum offers students the opportunity to engage in direct fieldwork addressing critical issues at the intersection of law, healthcare, and reproductive justice. Through partnerships with reproductive justice organizations, health clinics, advocacy groups, and legal organizations, students will develop practical legal skills while meaningfully contributing to the movement. Students can anticipate working on issues ranging from abortion access, maternal health equity, gender-affirming care, sex education, crisis pregnancy centers, and other pervasive issues communities face when accessing reproductive healthcare. The primary goals of the Reproductive Justice Practicum are to: (1) Understand and apply the reproductive justice framework to analyze legal and policy issues impacting reproductive healthcare access and bodily autonomy. (2) Develop practical legal and non-legal skills critical to reproductive justice advocacy. (3) Engage with community partners in culturally competent and trauma-informed ways. (4) Master the ability to critically analyze the intersections of race, class, gender, disability, and other identifies in reproductive health, law, and policy. (5) Contribute substantively to ongoing reproductive justice work in the field. Practicum fieldwork varies in both subject matter and skills development according to the goals of our community partners; however, students can anticipate engaging in any of the following: litigation, policy research and advocacy, legal research, public education, storytelling, and infrastructure/capacity building, among others. Under the Practicum director’s supervision, students will act as the lead attorneys on these projects and spend the semester establishing relationships with project partners, identify project goals, draft agreements, and execute projects. Through this process, students will develop professional identities, explore how they can most effectively show up for community partners, and better understand how to put into practice key principles of reproductive justice. NOTE: The Reproductive Justice Practicum counts towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.