Course Catalog

The second half of a full-year mini-seminar in the winter term. Course description depends on the mini-seminar topic. One credit is awarded in the fall term upon successful completion of the full course.

• Type: Mini-Seminar

Modern American Legal History
This course will introduce students to the major problems and interpretations in the field of American legal history. Through lectures as well as discussions of cases and secondary materials, the course will survey American public and private legal development from the Civil War to the present. The course employs a braided narrative, interweaving (a) the chronological story of the rise of modern legal liberalism and an administrative and regulatory state with (b) a week-to-week sampling of different historical topics, methods, and problematics. Topics to be covered this semester include: the 14th Amendment and the remaking of American citizenship, the rise of the legal profession, classical legal thought, corporation and labor law in the Gilded Age, progressive reform, the origins of civil liberties, New Deal constitutionalism, and the modern civil rights revolution. The course also attempts to introduce some of the theoretical and historiographical perspectives that have fueled recent developments in the field.

• Type: Upper Class

The music business operates under distinct copyright rules that have evolved to accommodate historically contingent marketplace practices, and have grown too complex to treat in any depth in a 4-credit copyright course. This course will focus on the copyright law that applies to musical works and sound recordings, the policies that animate the legal rules, and the competing forces that complicate music copyright law reform. Students will write a research paper on a music copyright law topic. This is an advanced class: students must have completed either Law 633 Copyright or Law 577 Intellectual Property Survey before they may take Law 666.

• Type: Upper Class

Learning to negotiate effectively involves negotiating, observing, critiquing, and consciously applying effective strategy and skill. This course introduces students to the science, the art, and the practice of negotiation through a sequenced series of simulation exercises, which students will perform inside and outside of class. Class sessions will be used, in part, for negotiations, debriefing results, and discussion. Course readings will include negotiation literature and theory that inform effective practice. Students will be evaluated based on some combination of class participation, negotiation exercises, and periodic reflection papers.

• Type: Practice Simulation

Law 990 - This course offers students the opportunity to integrate practical experience in a legal setting outside the Law School with a Law School classroom experience. Each student will spend at least EIGHT (Section 1), TWELVE (Section 2), SIXTEEN (Section 3) or TWENTY (Section 4) hours per week working under the supervision of an attorney at a local non-profit, government agency, or court. Students may not receive any compensation for their work. Students will arrange their own placements, though interested students who need guidance about how to pursue a placement are welcome to make an appointment with the course professor, Amy Sankaran (aharwell@umich.edu). Past placements have included the ACLU of Michigan, Family Law Project, Neighborhood Defender Service of Detroit, Magistrate, District, and Court of Appeals Judges, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office and Office of the Public Defender, and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, to name a few.
Part-Time Externship students will be co-enrolled in the Part-Time Externship Seminar (Law 991, 1 credit). Thus a student participating in the Part-Time Externship, Section 1 will receive 3 credits total, a student participating in the Part-Time Externship, Section 2 will receive 4 credits total, a student participating in the Part-Time Externship, Section 3 will receive 5 credits total, and a student participating in the Part-Time Externship, Section 4 will receive 6 credits total.

• Type: Externship

This contemporaneous, one-credit seminar is held every semester as a required companion to the Part-Time Externship (Law 990). For more information, please visit the course description for Law 990.

• Type: Externship

Conflict involving youth, family, communities and institutions inexorably finds its way into state court justice systems. Once there, litigants find that institutional pathways available to them not only effect legal consequences to their actions, but more importantly, have longstanding affects on their lives, as well as the lives of others. This class introduces students to the emergence of one such path in state court justice systems: peacemaking.
The introduction begins with the exploration of the roots of peacemaking from indigenous nations within our national border. Students will learn from nationally renowned native guest lecturers about world views, tribal justice systems, tensions between native justice systems and western-model court systems and the opportunity for nurturing communication, collaboration and finding common ground between the two.
Thereafter, students will engage in exploring the practical application of peacemaking in state justice systems in family, probate, civil and criminal proceedings. As part of that engagement, students will first conduct a mock trial in a subject area of their choosing through a traditional adversarial model, and then through a peacemaking approach.
Finally, students will explore emerging branches from peacemaking in state justice systems. This exploration will include current models around the country, as well as inspiration from models outside of our borders such as South Africa, Canada and Ireland.
The class is co taught by a trial attorney with criminal and family court experience, and a state court presiding judge of a peacemaking court. In addition to the mock trial, a final paper will serve in lieu of a final exam.

• Type: Practice Simulation

The Pediatric Advocacy Clinic (PAC) is one of the first medical-legal partnerships to be based in a law school setting. Through this partnership, students are able to reach families most in need of legal assistance and become part of an interdisciplinary team working to improve child health. Casework includes domestic violence and family law, special education, Medicaid appeals, and low-income housing conditions. Students in the clinic take "first chair" responsibility for their cases and are involved in all aspects of a case. They learn a range of advocacy skills, from preventive legal advocacy (focusing on identifying issues at an early stage and on developing creative, multidisciplinary approaches to addressing them) to traditional litigation skills in both administrative and trial court settings. The PAC is 7 credits (4 for the seminar and 3 for the clinic) and all credits are graded. The PAC meets the New York Pro Bono requirement.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School's professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
For more information, please contact Debra Chopp (dchopp@umich.edu).

• Type: Clinic

The Pediatric Advocacy Clinic (PAC) is one of the first medical-legal partnerships to be based in a law school setting. Through this partnership, students are able to reach families most in need of legal assistance and become part of an interdisciplinary team working to improve child health. Casework includes domestic violence and family law, special education, Medicaid appeals, and low-income housing conditions. Students in the clinic take "first chair" responsibility for their cases and are involved in all aspects of a case. They learn a range of advocacy skills, from preventive legal advocacy (focusing on identifying issues at an early stage and on developing creative, multidisciplinary approaches to addressing them) to traditional litigation skills in both administrative and trial court settings. The PAC is 7 credits (4 for the seminar and 3 for the clinic) and all credits are graded. The PAC meets the New York Pro Bono requirement.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School's professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
For more information, please contact Debra Chopp (dchopp@umich.edu).

• Type: Clinic

Problems in Constitutional Theory
This seminar will explore the nature of constitutionality in the American legal system. What is the difference between a constitutional proposition and a non-constitutional proposition? On a certain lay understanding, a constitutional proposition would be (1) grounded in the written Constitution, (2) fundamental to the legal system, (3) entrenched against change except through Article V amendment, and (4) enforceable by the courts. But in fact, many constitutional propositions lack one or more of these characteristics, and none of these characteristics describes all propositions that properly socialized American lawyers call "constitutional." This seminar will investigate this puzzle, aiming to discern the scope and content of what we might call the "operative constitution." Key issues include the role of the written Constitution, the nature of entrenchment, and the possibility of implications for constitutional decisionmaking.
Each student in the seminar will be required to write two short papers and one longer paper. The short papers, which shall not exceed five pages, will address the reading in particular weeks and will be circulated to all members of the seminar in advance of the relevant week's discussion. The longer paper, which shall not exceed 20 pages, will be due at the end of the semester. The longer paper must be original work, meaning that it must either contain an original argument or else support a known argument in a new way.

• Type: Seminar

Professor Gallanis's section: This course provides an introduction to the legal relationships that arise out of or constitute ownership of property. Subjects covered may include, but are not limited to, the acquisition of rights in personal and real property, the nature of ownership of natural resources, the types of and rules governing concurrent and successive interests in property, the use of and limits on restraints on alienation, the law governing private restrictions on the use of land, the law of conveyancing, and an introduction to the law of takings and of landlord and tenant. Grades will be based on participation and a final examination.
Professor Prifogle's section: This course offers a doctrinal survey of property law, covering topics such as possessory estates in land, concurrent estates, nuisance, easements, covenants, zoning and land-use, eminent domain, and housing law. The course also covers the historical origins and development of property law, its theoretical justifications, and the relationship between property law and resource distribution. In short, we'll study a range of doctrines and concepts that determine what people can own, how interests in property are allocated, and the default rights and obligations that come with ownership. We'll also consider the state's role--both its power and limitations--in determining these issues and how race and gender alter one's experience, and one's community's experience, with property law. After this course you should be able to articulate how the state defines, constructs, and protects property rights, and assess the relationship between doctrinal structures and the varied lived experiences of those structures more broadly.
Professor Cornell's section: This foundational course surveys the law of property, which defines the interests, rights, and duties with respect to spaces and things that the law recognizes and protects. The course covers how property interests may be obtained, held, used, and transferred, as found in the law of possessory estates and future interests in land, concurrent estates, easements, covenants, personal property, bailments, intellectual property, conveyancing, adverse possession, nuisance, zoning and land-use, takings, and housing law. The concepts of property, possession, and ownership--and the consequences flowing from these concepts--will be constantly examined. The overall focus will be on how property law fundamentally structures the rights and duties between individuals in their interactions with the world, shaping our physical, social, and economic spaces.

• Type: Upper Class

Public Interest Litigation Ethics
Most legal ethics courses tend to fall naturally on the "corporate" or "big firm" side of things. In this seminar we will focus on the ethical issues that arise in public interest practice -- Legal Aid, the ACLU, private offices handling civil rights cases, criminal defense attorneys, government lawyers (including prosecutors), and agencies like the National Wildlife Federation. We will cover a range of ethical issues, but from the perspective of lawyers who are trying to do well while doing good. We will include simulations, like mock grievance hearings in which students will have to defend the ethical positions they have taken. Students will get useful practical knowledge of the ethics rules, and a keener sense of how to stay out of trouble in a public interest practice.

• Type: Seminar

Public Lands and Natural Resources Law studies the expansive body of federal and state constitutional provisions, statutes, rules, customs, and processes governing the ways individuals; corporations; and federal, state, and local governments interact with federal public lands, state lands, private lands, water, air, wildlife, minerals, and other natural resources. In this course, we will study: (1) the history and status of U.S. federal public lands and the past and present conflicts governing those lands; (2) the laws and regulations governing national parks, national monuments, national forests, grazing lands, energy resources, wildlife, and other natural resources; and (3) ownership interests and rights relating to public and private lands and resources. In addition, the course will help students gain an appreciation of our relationship with the natural environment from cultural, historical, and economic perspectives in addition to a legal perspective.

• Type: Upper Class

This workshop will engage legal scholarship in the areas of administrative law, constitutional law, and public law generally, focusing this year on the intersections among civil rights movements, the federal courts, and civil procedure. Most class sessions will feature a visiting scholar presenting a work-in-progress. For the remaining class sessions, participants will read cases, scholarship, and other materials addressing the subject matter and discuss the materials in a standard seminar format. Students will be expected to write eight reflection papers (3-4 pages each) over the course of the semester and to participate actively in discussion each week. Sessions with speakers are open to the academic community at large.

• Type: Seminar

Public-Sector Structural Reform in K-12 Education Externship

The United States is in the midst of a massive restructuring of public-sector service delivery and regulation, particularly as they relate to the governance and management of its public schools. Staffed by broadly interdisciplinary teams of accomplished professionals, the most successful of the new federal, state, and local education organizations are replacing decades-old public bureaucracies and interest group politics with "learning organizations" committed to using public problem solving techniques to accelerate adult and institutional, as well student learning.

This Public Education Policy Seminar and Practicum originates at Columbia Law School, and attracts upper-level graduate students in law, business, education, and policy from Harvard, Michigan, NYU, Penn, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Yale, and other universities for a full semester of intensive engagement with each other around transformational change in public education. Second and third-year law students may take the course either in the fall semester or the spring semester. 13 units of credit are awarded, and all of the credits are graded, with the grades transferring to Michigan Law School.

Participants in the program take part in a rigorous and rewarding learning experience, including:

(i) An engaging interdisciplinary seminar in the design, regulation, governance, democratic accountability, and transformation of K-12 school systems and allied public- and social-sector organizations; [4 credits]

(ii) Comprehensive skills training in team-based problem solving, managing multidimensional (legal, operational, etc.) projects to specified outcomes in complex environments, client counseling, and effective communication [2 credits]; and

(iii) A high-priority project designing and implementing legal and policy solutions to a complex problem at the core of a client public- or social-sector organization's mission to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of children. [7 credits].

The Program Offers:

* Intensive experiential learning on interdisciplinary teams and cutting-edge projects

* Deep engagement in public education improvement strategies and debates

* Panels and field trips interacting with prominent education leaders

* 1:1 mentoring, K-12 education career support, and networking opportunities

* Merit scholarships for exceptional students

* Challenging, fun, and meaningful work helping to improve kids' learning and lives

Admission to the course is by application. A limited number of $25,000 scholarships are available for exceptional students to apply to their law school tuition in return for a commitment to spending time after graduation and judicial clerkships in a public or nonprofit job in the education sector.

For more information, including a course FAQ, names of Michigan Law students who have taken the previous version of the course, or lists of past projects in which students have engaged in the Course, please email cprl@law.columbia.edu or Professor Amy Sankaran at aharwell@umich.edu.

*This description was adapted from Columbia Law School's own course description, which can be found on Columbia Law School's web site: http://www.law.columbia.edu/ (search on L8016).

• Type: Externship

Public-Sector Structural Reform in K-12 Education Practicum

The United States is in the midst of a massive restructuring of public-sector service delivery and regulation, particularly as they relate to the governance and management of its public schools. Staffed by broadly interdisciplinary teams of accomplished professionals, the most successful of the new federal, state, and local education organizations are replacing decades-old public bureaucracies and interest group politics with "learning organizations" committed to using public problem solving techniques to accelerate adult and institutional, as well student learning.

This Public Education Policy Seminar and Practicum originates at Columbia Law School, and attracts upper-level graduate students in law, business, education, and policy from Harvard, Michigan, NYU, Penn, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Yale, and other universities for a full semester of intensive engagement with each other around transformational change in public education. Second and third-year law students may take the course either in the fall semester or the spring semester. 13 units of credit are awarded, and all of the credits are graded, with the grades transferring to Michigan Law School.

Participants in the program take part in a rigorous and rewarding learning experience, including:

(i) An engaging interdisciplinary seminar in the design, regulation, governance, democratic accountability, and transformation of K-12 school systems and allied public- and social-sector organizations; [4 credits]

(ii) Comprehensive skills training in team-based problem solving, managing multidimensional (legal, operational, etc.) projects to specified outcomes in complex environments, client counseling, and effective communication [2 credits]; and

(iii) A high-priority project designing and implementing legal and policy solutions to a complex problem at the core of a client public- or social-sector organization's mission to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of children. [7 credits].

The Program Offers:

* Intensive experiential learning on interdisciplinary teams and cutting-edge projects

* Deep engagement in public education improvement strategies and debates

* Panels and field trips interacting with prominent education leaders

* 1:1 mentoring, K-12 education career support, and networking opportunities

* Merit scholarships for exceptional students

* Challenging, fun, and meaningful work helping to improve kids' learning and lives

Admission to the course is by application. A limited number of $25,000 scholarships are available for exceptional students to apply to their law school tuition in return for a commitment to spending time after graduation and judicial clerkships in a public or nonprofit job in the education sector.

For more information, including a course FAQ, names of Michigan Law students who have taken the previous version of the course, or lists of past projects in which students have engaged in the Course, please email cprl@law.columbia.edu or Professor Amy Sankaran at aharwell@umich.edu.

*This description was adapted from Columbia Law School's own course description, which can be found on Columbia Law School's web site: http://www.law.columbia.edu/ (search on L8016).

• Type: Externship

Public-Sector Structural Reform in K-12 Education Seminar

The United States is in the midst of a massive restructuring of public-sector service delivery and regulation, particularly as they relate to the governance and management of its public schools. Staffed by broadly interdisciplinary teams of accomplished professionals, the most successful of the new federal, state, and local education organizations are replacing decades-old public bureaucracies and interest group politics with "learning organizations" committed to using public problem solving techniques to accelerate adult and institutional, as well student learning.

This Public Education Policy Seminar and Practicum originates at Columbia Law School, and attracts upper-level graduate students in law, business, education, and policy from Harvard, Michigan, NYU, Penn, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Yale, and other universities for a full semester of intensive engagement with each other around transformational change in public education. Second and third-year law students may take the course either in the fall semester or the spring semester. 13 units of credit are awarded, and all of the credits are graded, with the grades transferring to Michigan Law School.

Participants in the program take part in a rigorous and rewarding learning experience, including:

(i) An engaging interdisciplinary seminar in the design, regulation, governance, democratic accountability, and transformation of K-12 school systems and allied public- and social-sector organizations; [4 credits]

(ii) Comprehensive skills training in team-based problem solving, managing multidimensional (legal, operational, etc.) projects to specified outcomes in complex environments, client counseling, and effective communication [2 credits]; and

(iii) A high-priority project designing and implementing legal and policy solutions to a complex problem at the core of a client public- or social-sector organization's mission to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of children. [7 credits].

The Program Offers:

* Intensive experiential learning on interdisciplinary teams and cutting-edge projects

* Deep engagement in public education improvement strategies and debates

* Panels and field trips interacting with prominent education leaders

* 1:1 mentoring, K-12 education career support, and networking opportunities

* Merit scholarships for exceptional students

* Challenging, fun, and meaningful work helping to improve kids' learning and lives

Admission to the course is by application. A limited number of $25,000 scholarships are available for exceptional students to apply to their law school tuition in return for a commitment to spending time after graduation and judicial clerkships in a public or nonprofit job in the education sector.

For more information, including a course FAQ, names of Michigan Law students who have taken the previous version of the course, or lists of past projects in which students have engaged in the Course, please email cprl@law.columbia.edu or Professor Amy Sankaran at aharwell@umich.edu.

*This description was adapted from Columbia Law School's own course description, which can be found on Columbia Law School's web site: http://www.law.columbia.edu/ (search on L8016).

• Type: Externship

This seminar examines the legal history of the interrelationship of race and citizenship in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. The course pays special attention to the active role that law has played historically in racially defining U.S. and state citizenship and the consequent rights and duties that flowed from it.
The changing law of American citizenship was an important determiner of inclusion and exclusion in the US and a site for the legal construction of persistent socio economic inequalities. The seminar will attempt to incorporate both primary sources as well as secondary studies by leading legal-historical scholars as we survey the major citizenship cases and controversies, from the original U.S. Naturalization Act to Dred Scott; from the role of judicial statutory interpretation in defining race to epic 20th century battles over immigration and its restriction.

• Type: Seminar

This course examines the legal history of the interrelationship of race and the law in the United States across the 19th and 20th centuries. The course pays special attention to the active role that law has played historically in racially defining U.S. and state citizenship and the consequent rights and duties that flowed from the use of race as a measure of national as well as local belonging. The changing nature of the relationship of race to American law over time was an important determiner of inclusion and exclusion in the US and a site for the legal construction of socio-economic inequality as well as moments of more equitable aspiration. The course will attempt to incorporate both lecture material as well as the close discussion of secondary studies by leading legal-historical scholars as we survey major cases and controversies, from the legal and constitutional roots of slavery to the infamous Dred Scott decision; from American Indian dispossession to an overseas empire; from the role of judicial statutory interpretation in defining race to epic turn-of-the-century battles over immigration restriction to the civil rights revolution of the late 20th century and its consequences and limitations. A key feature of this class will be the use of locally as well as nationally-renowned speakers to aid in our collective exploration of the relationship of law and race over the course of American history.

• Type: Upper Class

Rules of Play: Sports and Games as Legal Systems --- This course operates from the premise that sports and other games are legal systems that present a rich array of legal problems, interesting in their own right and often also interesting because of their analogy to problems that arise in other contexts. Among the topics to be discussed are:
(1) How should competition be structured? For example, what metrics should be used to determine a winner? How (if at all) should ties be broken? What standards should be used for eligibility (for example, in the case of transgendered and "bionic" athletes)?
(2) How should the bounds of acceptable conduct be determined? For example, when should deception or stalling be punished, and when should they be treated as acceptable parts of the game? How should misconduct be punished?
(3) What are appropriate remedies for official errors?

• Type: Upper Class

This course covers the regulation of securities offerings and trading under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. It examines offerings and the registration process under the Securities Act, along with reporting requirements under the Exchange Act. The course will also cover fraud, insider trading and civil liabilities under both Acts.

• Type: Upper Class

In the Senior Judge Seminar students work closely with Legal Practice professors in connection with various aspects of the first-year Legal Practice course. Each Legal Practice professor interviews, chooses and supervises the Senior Judge Seminar students for the Legal Practice section taught by that professor.

• Type: Upper Class

The Senior Judge Seminar II is a graded course intended to allow selected students who have excelled in the Senior Judge I seminar to work in greater depth with a Legal Practice professor in connection with the Legal Practice course. Each Legal Practice professor interviews, chooses and supervises the Senior Judge Seminar II students for the Legal Practice section taught by the professor.

• Type: Upper Class

This seminar explores the jurisprudential, philosophical, and practical lessons that students of the law can draw from the life and works of William Shakespeare. We will consider some key characteristics of the law in Shakespeare's time, how Shakespeare's personal experiences shaped his understanding of the law, how our interpretation of Shakespeare's work raises questions of originalism similar to those we encounter in the law, how his plays portray the law, lawyers, those who enforce the law, and those who sit in judgment, what his plays have to teach us about the art of persuasion and argument, what his plays tell us about individual responsibility within a social structure, how the plays explore the effect of mental illness on that responsibility, and how the plays help us think and talk about difficult issues like misogyny, racism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism. Reading assignments in this course will be heavy and energetic engagement in classroom discussions will be expected. Students will be required to prepare four five-page papers in the course of the term. Final grades will be based on the quality of classroom discussion and the quality of the papers.

• Type: Seminar

The South Africa Externship offers students the chance to spend the Winter semester working for a non-profit, government agency, or court. Since 1996, Michigan Law has placed over 150 students in full-semester externships, including positions at the Human Rights Commission (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban), Legal Resources Centre (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Grahamstown), University of Cape Town, Refugee Law Clinic, the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (Johannesburg), Centre for Environmental Rights (Cape Town), Scalabrini (Cape Town) and Lawyers for Human Rights (Johannesburg) to name a few.

Before they arrive, in odd years, students take a course in Constitutionalism in South Africa, taught by Karthy Govender of Durban in person in Ann Arbor, MI, giving them a good grasp of the seminal South African cases so students can "hit the ground running" upon their arrival, as well as a companion seminar meant to enrich their experience (Law 939). In odd years, the students only take the companion seminar and spend longer at their placements in South Africa. Students apply in the Winter before the program begins the following January.

For more information, visit our website or contact lawexternships@umich.edu. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Further, every January we hold an informational meeting for all of our international externship programs, so please watch for that announcement.

• Type: Externship

South Africa Externship Seminar
This contemporaneous, one-credit seminar is held every Winter as a required companion to the South Africa Externship (Law 938). For more information, please visit the course description for Law 938.

• Type: Externship

This course introduces students to the various legal and business considerations involved in the representation of startup companies and in structuring venture capital transactions. The first portion of the course focuses on the key issues involved in forming and operating an emerging growth business (a "startup"), including selecting and forming a business entity, structuring the economic benefits and management control among various owners, protecting intellectual property assets and complying with securities laws. With that foundation, the second portion of the course focuses on the significant legal and business issues involved in a venture capital financing transaction from both the company and the investor perspective (with a look at "crowdfunding"). The course combines theory and practice in order to prepare students for the types of projects and challenges they will confront as transactional lawyers.
A knowledge of corporate and business associations law, as well as securities law and finance, will be helpful to a student in this course. That being said, there are no formal prerequisites, and the course is structured for beginners as well as for students with more subject matter expertise.

• Type: Upper Class

This course explores problems, successes, and reforms associated with litigation by public stockholders against corporate fiduciaries and other participants in corporate transactions. Corporate law doctrine is enforced almost exclusively by minority stockholders. At its best, stockholder litigation may redress and deter corporate misconduct. Yet, the mechanisms of stockholder litigation are open to systemic abuse. We will examine forms of stockholder litigation, and means by which courts and commentators have sought to restrict or shape it. We will also examine unique issues affecting public unitholder litigation for limited partnerships and limited liability companies. We will look almost exclusively to the law of the State of Delaware, given its national prominence in corporate law. Prerequisite: Enterprise Organization or Corporate Lawyer: Law & Ethics.

• Type: Upper Class

This seminar is designed for students with an interest in academic writing. Before the term begins each student must have previously written a draft of an academic paper that they would like to revise substantially in the course of the workshop, either for publication or for presentation on the academic job market. The first four or five sessions of the term will be devoted to reading articles written by young scholars who subsequently got academic jobs and discussing their strengths and weaknesses. The balance of the term will be devoted to presenting and critiquing the works in progress of the workshop students as the papers undergo revision. Students will be responsible not only for presenting and revising their own papers, but for commenting upon each other's work. Each student paper will be presented twice over the course of the semester: first, by a student commentator, and second, following revision, by the student author. The workshop will meet once a week for a 2-hour session. Students interested in enrolling in the workshop should submit draft papers to Professor Eisenberg by email directed to rse@umich.edu.

• Type: Seminar

This practice simulation course will be taught by J. Phillip Adams., a retired partner of the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP. The professor will submit to the seminar cutting-edge problems which he has faced in practice. The students will resolve those problems by structuring transactions to accomplish the client's business goals within the framework of non-tax legal requirements, without incurring unnecessary tax liabilities and in a manner that otherwise optimizes the client's tax posture. Typically, the students will be assigned to work in teams. With each problem, the students submit their solutions in writing, and one team will present its solution to the class orally. The professor will discuss and evaluate the teams' solutions in light of the one that was employed in practice. Prior to the students preparing and submitting their solutions, there will be lectures and discussion of the tax issues involved in each problem.
The goal of the practice simulation course is to immerse the students in the process of approaching problems from a transactional perspective. The students will be given a set of facts and objectives, and will be required to determine what steps should be taken to achieve those objectives. An additional goal is to provide the students with exposure to the manner in which experienced lawyers utilize their skills to solve complex problems. The principal issues on which the problems will focus are corporate tax issues, but other areas will likely be covered. For example, partnership tax issues and issues involving the taxation of financial instruments have played a significant role in certain case studies. In recent semesters, problems have involved, among other matters, complex tax-free corporate mergers, corporate divisions (spin-offs), acquisitions of controlling interests in non-U.S. corporations, and transactions designed to illustrate the difference between legitimate tax planning and abusive corporate tax shelters.

• Type: Practice Simulation

This is the basic course in federal income taxation. It is a statutory course, and the principal source of law will be the Internal Revenue Code. The topics covered will include the definition of gross income and the determination of permissible deductions from gross income. The class will also analyze numerous Code provisions and doctrines that raise issues of tax timing (that is, in what year should a given item of income or a given deduction be taken into account) and income attribution (that is, to whom should a given item of income or a given deduction be attributed). The bulk of the course will be devoted to learning basic statutory analysis. In addition, however, the class will spend some time studying the policy rationales underlying the structure of the current federal income tax laws and will consider the pros and cons of alternative systems. This course is a prerequisite to a number of other courses, including Corporate Taxation, Partnership Tax, Business and Estate Planning, and International Tax.

• Type: Upper Class

This seminar will introduce students to the nature and function of the military justice system and contemporary issues in military law. Selected topics will include an introduction to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the law of armed conflict, rules of engagement, court-martial jurisdiction, unique military offenses and defenses, First Amendment rights of military personnel, conscientious objection, the special role of commanders in the military legal system, efforts to reform the military justice system, Guantanamo and military commissions, military vaccination requirements, and military ethics. Throughout the course we will analyze and evaluate tensions among individual rights, military standards, and national security requirements; think critically about the similarities and differences between civilian and military justice; and, reflect on the vitality of military law in the 21st century. Class will be centered on robust discussion informed by readings, response papers, and occasional media presentations. This class is open to all students interested in engaging the subject matter -- a military or national security background is not required.

• Type: Seminar

Compensation at law for private wrongs and intentional wrongs as well as accidents, with principal emphasis on harms to person and property. Special areas such as product liability, defamation, or business torts will be treated selectively.

• Type: First Year Required

In this practice/simulation course, students will begin to develop the legal skills needed to represent clients in business transactions. Among other things, the seminar covers translating the client's business objectives into legal concepts, and then incorporating those concepts into the actual language of an agreement in clear, consistent, and concise manner. Students will learn how to analyze a contract from the client's perspective, with an eye to advancing the client's interests and protecting the client as much as possible from risk. The practice/simulation course also identifies how attorneys can use drafting techniques to solve problems that arise while a deal is being done. Students will engage in simulations and exercises in class, and undertake drafting assignments outside of class.

• Type: Practice Simulation