Course Catalog

This will for the most part be a traditional course in legal ethics and professional responsibility. We will focus on the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, along with other sources of law governing lawyers. Our primary aim will be to identify and analyze ethical issues that arise in the practice of law, including: confidentiality, competence, conflicts of interest, lawyer advertising, multi-jurisdictional practice, litigation ethics, negotiation ethics, and issues arising in the representation of entities. In the process, we will also consider broader questions about what sort of lawyers we want to be and how that might fit into our lives. Those broader questions, valuable for their own sake, will also help us think more clearly about the pragmatic principles and rules we need to know as we prepare to practice law.

• Type: Upper Class

This seminar will introduce students to the law of armed conflict (LOAC), also known as international humanitarian law (IHL), with a focus on jus in bello, law governing how warfare is conducted. Students will explore core principles and concepts along with the evolution of the law of armed conflict before surveying selected topics, including: how to determine conflict, combatant, and civilian statuses; war crimes; targeting; rules of engagement; torture; cyberattacks; and issues with AI, autonomous weapons, drones, and targeted killing. Throughout the course we will consider contemporary LOAC challenges, examining topics in the context of current events. We will analyze and evaluate tensions between the principles of military necessity and humanity, political, military, and societal considerations, and differences in US and international state approaches. We will think critically about the rationales underlying, and practical applications of, key concepts of LOAC in the context of terrorism and in connection with past, current, and future conflicts.
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, national security, or international law background is not required.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar will explore scholarly literature covering a range of issues in the law of American federalism. We will study both theoretical material relating to the design of federal systems and specific issues relating to the allocation of power between the federal government and the states in this country. We will attempt to develop a sophisticated understanding of the merits and demerits of different approaches toward dividing power between the federal and state governments and to apply insights from the relevant theoretical literature to specific doctrinal problems.

• Type: Seminar

The Law in Slavery and Freedom: A Legal History Practicum
This seminar offers an opportunity to carry out both legal analysis and historical research on a set of issues that have been central to the history of the Americas. We will explore the ways in which slavery, long defined as the ownership of property in human beings, interacted with the structures and practices of law, both in the United States and in Latin America. We will examine how law addressed the category of “slave” and codified the power of slave owners, and how those held as slaves interacted with legal institutions and practices, both civil and criminal.
Course readings include works by legal scholars and historians, as well as files from Supreme Court cases and everyday legal challenges. We will pay particular attention to the cases of The Antelope; Prigg v. Pennsylvania; and The U. S. v. The Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad. We will also examine a state criminal case (Celia, A Slave) and court records from freedom suits, including one from Cuba, one from Louisiana, and one from the period of British rule of the Gold Coast (in what is now Ghana). We will examine voting in the face of terrorist violence during the period of Reconstruction (including U. S. v. Cruikshank).
Students will work together on panels for the presentation of specific cases. Each student will submit a short paper, a research prospectus, and a longer primary source document analysis.

• Type: Seminar

Law Firm Careers in an Evolving Profession
This seminar will expose and sensitize students to the myriad real-world considerations that will affect their legal careers in the private practice of law. It will focus on current developments within the legal profession, various law practice management issues, and will explore whether the profession is undergoing transformational change as law firms increasingly adopt business models. During the first two weeks of class students will articulate what they hope to learn about the legal profession and for the remainder of the semester, work closely with their instructor to ensure that learning. Students will read “The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law” and course materials posted on Canvas. Leaders within the legal profession will appear as guest lecturers.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar explores the ways in which the problems considered, analytical techniques used, and conceptual models developed by theologians can provide useful insights to students of the law. Specific subjects addressed may vary depending upon the backgrounds and interests of class participants, contemporary legal developments, and the availability of guest speakers, but are likely to include: identifying and defining sources of authority; the interpretation of complex texts composed by multiple authors; the significance of ritual; the tension between justice and mercy; the importance of storytelling; and the role of mystery. Active class participation and preparation of a research paper will be required.

• Type: Seminar

The economist John Maurice Clark once observed that prominent economic thinkers may attempt to ignore psychology, but they cannot thereby avoid psychology. Rather, he wrote, policymakers will be forced to “make [their] own, and it will be bad psychology.” The same can be said of the law.
In this seminar, we will examine the ways in which the law makes its own psychology, and we will analyze whether it is good or bad psychology. We will examine various legal doctrines, but we will not cover any area of law in a systematic fashion. This class will emphasize insights to be gleaned from social and cognitive psychology, and will spend comparatively less time on developmental or clinical psychology.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar will examine the the ongoing policy debate over repair and its legal underpinnings. From smartphones to agricultural equipment, restrictions on repair are reshaping markets for goods — with major implications for consumers, competition, and the environment. In recent years, state and federal legislatures, courts, and executive agencies like the FTC have considered a range of potential interventions to enable independent repair of electronic devices and other goods. Beyond the United States, we’ve seen Australia, France, South Africa, and other nations develop their own unique responses to repair restrictions. These ongoing debates implicate a range of bodies of law ranging from intellectual property to consumer protection to antitrust, all of which we will consider.

• Type: Seminar

All seminar participants will attend the Law and Economics Workshop, a series of afternoon presentations by leading scholars from around the country who are engaged in research at the intersection of law and economics. The Workshop is also attended by faculty members from the Law School, the Business School, and the Economics Department. In advance of each session, students will read the paper to be presented and prepare a two- or three-page critique. No background in Economics or in Law and Economics is required.

• Type: Seminar

This seminar will examine the socio-political and legal background on the formation of the International Criminal Court, as well as some of the rationales that many African nations were: among the first to become States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the first governments to make referrals to the ICC for investigation and possible prosecution; and the first to withdraw from the Treaty. Students will gain an understanding of the types of crimes tried by the Court, read multiple actual case studies, evaluate different arguments, and analyze Court decisions. Students will be expected to write short reaction and thematic papers, work on one or more group projects, and write a longer paper focusing on one or more politico-diplomatic or legal challenges: governments who lack trust in the ICC; the nature and/or power of individual defendants; security of witnesses; evidence; and/or ramifications at the national or regional level of decisions made by the judges.

• Type: Seminar

This course explores the legal framework governing coordinated action by workers. Broadly speaking, the topics we study are: 1) the regulation of union organizing, and of various other forms of worker collective action and worker protest; 2) the public recognition of labor organizations and subsequent regulation of the collective bargaining relationship. We look at the development of the law, its current operation, and where it may go. We focus mainly on the National Labor Relations Act, related case-law and agency decisions. We may also consider historical and comparative perspectives on labor law, emerging forms of worker organization and union strategies outside the scope of the NLRA, interaction with other areas of law and and with changing business models, labor law reform proposals, and/or collective worker participation in politics. While there are no formal prerequisites, many students may find either Administrative Law or Legislation & Regulation helpful (whether taken beforehand or concurrently).

• Type: Upper Class

In the Juvenile Justice Clinic, students will represent minors charged with violations of the criminal law and status offenses in Michigan’s family courts. While primarily a litigation clinic, students may from time-to-time handle appellate matters and may be involved in public policy issues such as analyzing proposed legislation.
In the course of clinic, students will develop litigation skills including case investigation, trial preparation, and presenting evidence and argument in the courtroom. Casework, which is supervised by a clinical professor, may involve client interviewing and counseling, legal research and motion drafting, negotiation with prosecuting authorities, and courtroom presentation of the case. In addition to trial advocacy and casework, classroom sessions will also focus on legal ethics, the basics of child development and other topics. The Juvenile Justice Clinic meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. JJC is a 7 credit course of which all credits are graded.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

In the Juvenile Justice Clinic, students will represent minors charged with violations of the criminal law and status offenses in Michigan’s family courts. While primarily a litigation clinic, students may from time-to-time handle appellate matters and may be involved in public policy issues such as analyzing proposed legislation.
In the course of clinic, students will develop litigation skills including case investigation, trial preparation, and presenting evidence and argument in the courtroom. Casework, which is supervised by a clinical professor, may involve client interviewing and counseling, legal research and motion drafting, negotiation with prosecuting authorities, and courtroom presentation of the case. In addition to trial advocacy and casework, classroom sessions will also focus on legal ethics, the basics of child development and other topics. The Juvenile Justice Clinic meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement. JJC is a 7 credit course of which all credits are graded.
The Clinic seminar fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.

• Type: Clinic

The objective of this course is primarily to learn and engage in the general concepts undergirding the wide range of topics described as “jurisprudence.” Though jurisprudence is formally the study of theoretical foundations of law, in practice, it includes much more. Jurisprudence relies upon or touches moral theory, political theory and a wide range of social and even economic theories.
In this class we will explore some of each in turn. While an introductory survey class cannot impart expertise, students will become familiar with the foundational concepts and arguments in a number of jurisprudential debates.
The class will explore questions like what is the ground of political obligation? What is the most persuasive theory of morality and of ethics? What is the nature of law? What justifies criminalization? How do questions of race and gender affect our legal obligations? Understanding these debates, from ancient philosophers to contemporary thinkers, we will allow students familiarity and more sophisticated insight into these debates and the basis for future investigation.
Just as importantly, jurisprudence teaches two levels of lessons that are essential for both law school and practice. First, jurisprudence insists on a level of precision in reading and thinking that greatly sharpens legal thinking. It is no surprise that many renowned appellate litigators benefitted from training in legal philosophy.
Just as importantly, the subject matter in jurisprudence is of enduring importance. Far from being merely about academic fluency, students will find these concepts and ideas underlie some of the most pressing debates we are currently grappling as a society. From the justifications of policing, solutions to racial justice, civil disobedience, authority, gender and law and so much more, philosophical inspection clarifies the stakes and claims of so much that roils us as a nation today. Jurisprudence is not (just) about dusty old books. It is about the heart of our claims for and against each other and how they ought to be reflected in law. Jurisprudence is philosophy with bayonets on.

• Type: Seminar

Perhaps contrary to a significant portion of the legal profession, legal concepts relating to outer space have a long history, are robust and growing. Even when space exploration and operations were exclusively the domain of nation states, a multitude of international treaties, conventions and other agreements governed activities in space. As the private sector is increasingly playing a supporting and, in some cases, a leading player in the development of space, the applicability and interpretation of those international treaties are under review and stress. National security and economic considerations are now increasingly emphasized over peaceful exploration for scientific purposes. And, a growing number of nation states have developed laws and policies relating to the private sector in space.

This course provides an introduction and overview of space law, international and domestic. After reviewing what “space” means physically and legally, we proceed to examines the origins and development of international space law in international treaties and agreements and the purported underlying policy consensus relating to peaceful exploration for the benefit of all humankind. Much of the class then focuses on the recent decades of space activity and the more-recent nature of international space law and the fast-developing national laws competitively supporting and governing the increasing private-sector participation in space. Critical legal and policy issues are considered relating to space-based natural resources extraction and ownership on the Moon, planets and asteroids, human settlements, in-space manufacturing, space debris and other environmental concerns. Near the end of the semester, we will review legal issues relating to the U.S. Space Force and the Artemis Accords. Finally, we will discuss the growing market for “space lawyers.” We expect to have a few guest speakers, either in-person or online.

• Type: Seminar

Instructor: Professor Debra A. Pinals, M.D.
Course Summary: In this course, students will become oriented to common crossroads where law and psychiatry intersect. The course will begin with an overview of mental illness, substance use disorders, and intellectual and developmental disabilities from legal and clinical perspectives. A review of case law and legislation pertaining to civil commitment, the right to treatment, the right to refuse treatment, and guardianship will help students gain an understanding of the legal regulation of psychiatric practice. Risk assessment, confidentiality and the duty to protect third parties and related tort claims will be covered. Students will explore mental health assessments and expert witness testimony pertaining to criminal law in areas such as competence to stand trial, competence to proceed pro se, criminal responsibility, and sex offenders. Finally, students will have an opportunity to learn about public systems attempt to address mental health treatment needs in psychiatric hospitals, jails and prisons and other venues such as treatment courts and other models have been developed to limit the redirect individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders from incarceration. The course will provide a forum to review federal legislation, government agencies, and litigation and how they come together to help shape services in public systems. The course will rely on assigned readings, short lectures, video material, and classroom prompts to stimulate discussion. There will be at least one field trip as part of the course. Short written or activity-related assignments, classroom participation and a final brief paper will be the basis for final grades.

• Type: Seminar

The International Transactions Clinic (ITC) does good by doing deals. The ITC concentrates on teaching students skills that are critically important to their professional development as they enter into practice areas that involve international transactions. The transactional work of the ITC is focused on negotiating and documenting cross-border deals, particularly in emerging markets. This includes developing drafting and negotiation skills as applied to cross-border transactions, exposure to ethical issues that arise in the international commercial context, structuring and documenting investments in enterprises that primarily work in emerging markets, and an understanding of international economic and financial policy. The ITC is a full-year clinic with four credits in the Fall semester and four credits in the Winter semester. Both terms are letter graded.
Students are strongly encouraged to participate in the ITC for at least two semesters so as to allow them to provide legal support in the negotiation and documentation of multiple international transactions. To the greatest extent possible, students will have significant client exposure in the course of working on transactions, although in some cases due to the international context of these transactions such client exposure may be “virtual” making use of email, skype, and other means of electronic communication. The ITC also makes use of practicing attorneys to help supervise the work of its student clinicians. These practicing attorneys also may be physically remote from the students.
The ITC clientele is very diverse. It ranges from not-for-profit organizations to for-profit organizations, from start-ups to well-established businesses, and from social enterprises to impact investors. What all of the ITC clients hold in common, however, is an international focus and a passion to change the world for the better. This diversity also means, however, that not every project of the ITC will meet the New York bar pro bono requirement. Students wanting to satisfy that requirement through their participation in the ITC should make that preference known to the ITC Director before first client assignments are made in the fall.
The Clinic fulfills the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation, but does not fulfill the New York State Bar ethics requirement.
The Clinic can either fulfill the Law School’s professional responsibility requirement for graduation or the credits can count toward the Experiential Learning requirement, but not both.
The Clinic fulfills the International or Comparative Law Distribution Requirement for graduation.

• Type: Clinic

This foundational course provides a comprehensive analysis of the definition of refugee status set by the UN Refugee Convention, adopted by the United States and 146 other states. Drawing on comparative jurisprudence, the course situates U.S. refugee law in its global context and equips students to undertake both sophisticated policy analysis and complex litigation in the field. The course promotes an understanding of refugee law as a mode of human rights protection, the viability of which requires striking a balance between the needs of the victims of human rights abuse and the legitimate aspirations of the countries to which they flee.

• Type: Upper Class

This course will address the major issues of international litigation, including jurisdiction (under domestic American law, foreign law, and international conventions), choice of law (from an American and foreign, particularly European, perspective), taking evidence abroad (under American and international rules), and enforcement of judgments (foreign judgements in the U.S. and American judgments abroad). Time permitting, it will also cover the basic issues of international arbitration and foreign sovereign immunity.

• Type: Upper Class

This class offers a general introduction to the international legal system. We will explore how international law is made through treaties, custom, and other processes; the roles of different actors (e.g., states, NGOs, international organizations, and corporations) in making and applying international law; how violations of international law are identified and remedied by international institutions or actors; and how international law intersects with domestic legal systems, like the one in the United States. The class will cover a range of substantive areas of law, including human rights, the use of force, economic relations, and regulation of the global commons (with some variations across sections). Each topic will be discussed through examination of a real ongoing or recent incident, controversy, or conflict. Students will be encouraged to think about how law can be made, enforced, and interpreted in an environment lacking a single legislature, executive, or judiciary. This course will prove highly useful to preparing students for more specialized courses in international law.

• Type: Upper Class

This two-credit seminar will focus on the law, policy, and practice of internal investigations. Students primarily will read and do a close study of prominent internal investigation reports, including, among others, those involving Enron, Penn State, General Motors, the University of Rochester, and Ohio State. The course will depend on active and substantive class participation and discussion. Students will prepare a number of short papers; and grades will be based on the quality of papers and class participation.

• Type: Seminar

Interdisciplinary Problem Solving is a course offered at the Law School through the Problem Solving Initiative (PSI). (https://michigan.law.umich.edu/problem-solving-initiative) Through a team-based, experiential, and interdisciplinary learning model, small groups of U-M graduate and professional students work with faculty to explore and offer solutions to emerging, complex problems.

• Type: Problem Solving Initiative

This class will be comprised of different tracks that will allow students to explore ways to work in various innovation fields. The weekly class component will examine various legal and business principles related to innovation and support the students’ field work, with the fall term focused on the intricacies of venture capital and the winter term focused on the role of institutional capital. The students will spend significant time working on their projects in the field.
Track 1 — Social Venture Fund (SVF): Students will work as a law student advisor to the Ross School of Business’s Social Venture Fund. Students will be required to attend the weekly SVF meeting (typically on Sunday afternoons) and actively participate in SVF. Once the fund selects potential companies in which to invest, students will join at least one due diligence team and be responsible for the legal due diligence on potential investments. For companies in which SVF votes to invest students will review the financing deal documents. This track is a year-long track, so students will be required to take this course both semesters.
Track 2 — Michigan Climate Venture (MCV): Students will work as law advisors to Michigan Climate Venture, a University-wide initiative. Students will be required to attend the weekly meetings and actively participate in all educational activities. Once MCV selects potential companies in which to invest, students will join at least one due diligence team and be responsible for the legal due diligence on potential investments. For companies in which MCV votes to invest, law students will review the financing deal documents. This track is a year-long track, so students will be required to take both semesters.
Track 3 — Innovation Partnerships: Students will provide legal research support to the Innovation Partnerships team. Students will immerse themselves in the legal and regulatory issues related to innovation partnerships. Enrollment in this Track is allowed only with the permission of Bryce Pilz ([email protected]), the Executive Director of Licensing & Strategic Alliances.
Track 4 — Startup or Venture Capital Immersion: Students may arrange to work for a startup company or venture capital fund and participate in this course. While some opportunities to work with startups may be announced through Professor Ohmer, students may also arrange their own startup work and propose the arrangement to Professor Ohmer.
Note: Because participating students will work with proprietary information related to their field work, as a condition of participating in this program, all students may be required to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements particular to their tracks.
Enrollment in this class is allowed only with permission of Professor Adrian Ohmer.

• Type: Practice Simulation

The INHR Geneva Student Legal Advisor Program is an externship opportunity in public international law for selected LLM and JD students, with a possible “Spring Break” visit to Geneva Switzerland for the February/March UN Human Rights Council. Selected students will work with a Michigan law grad and former U.S. diplomat to serve as virtual interns for a member state to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Students will be paired with a small UN member state that lacks resources to have legal support for their delegation to the UN Human Rights Council. The students will provide legal, policy and administrative support to that government to facilitate its participation in the UN Human Rights Council and possible other UN agencies in Geneva.
During the fall semester, students will be required to join a weekly 90-minute online class with students from other law schools. The live online course will provide an overview of relevant UN and international human rights law and procedures; tradecraft skills in drafting, research and negotiation; and otherwise lay the foundation to prepare students to serve in their virtual internship. In the winter term, students will be expected to review draft resolutions, conduct research and produce interventions for their employer/member state UN delegation to use and deliver during the January Universal Periodic Review and March UN Human Rights Council (HRC) sessions and related meetings. Further details on the INHR Virtual Internship Program expectations, and the type of developing country delegations whom students may work for is available at https://inhr.org/student-legal-advisors.
Past students have traveled to Geneva for a week-long, self-funded, first-hand glimpse at providing diplomatic and legal work at the UN Human Rights Council. The HRC session each March usually aligns with Michigan Law’s spring break and the HRC Universal Periodic Review session in May often occurs immediately after Michigan Law’s exam period. Travel to Geneva and living expenses are not funded by INHR and travel cannot be guaranteed given past challenges provided by COVID-19, issues regarding receipt of a visa to Switzerland and demands of the employing delegation. Applicants interested in the Spring Break or May visit MUST be eligible for visa-free entry to Switzerland.
How to Apply:
To apply for the two-semester student legal advisor program, please complete this form (https://forms.gle/HsK79eKe8XBj2mSf7) by July 10th, 2023. Your application should include a copy of your transcript, resume, passport cover page, and a cover letter explaining your interest. Students selected for an interview will be contacted during the week of July 24th by Alissa Cammarata ([email protected]) Administrative Assistant for Experiential Education to set up a Zoom interview with INHR program director Eric Richardson for late July or early August. If you have any questions about the application process please contact Alissa ([email protected]).
Those who pass the interview will be notified of their acceptance into the program by August 14, 2023. Delegations will be assigned around the end of October and student interests in particular regions, issues, and language skills are taken into account in pairing with an employer-delegation but cannot be guaranteed.
How Credits Will Be Determined:
Student participants are enrolling in a two-semester class/externship combined experience and are expected to participate for the entire school year. One credit will be given each semester, which will cover class time and preparation/assignments for the class (including practice research projects, sample interventions, negotiations and a final project of up to 10 pages that deploys the student’s negotiation and resolution drafting skills).
Because the amount of work facing students in the second semester may vary depending on the demands of the particular delegation/Ambassador, an additional one or two credits may be authorized in the winter semester. Students seeking additional credit units will be evaluated based on a timesheet logging hours spent on behalf of their delegation to track hours over and above a baseline expectation that all students will provide at least 20 hours of work requested by their delegations in the second semester. Under the ABA standard for externships, if more than 42.5 additional hours are requested and logged (total of 62.5 hours including the baseline 20 hours), the student may receive a third credit and if more than 85 additional hours are logged (total of 105 hours), a fourth credit may be awarded (four credits is the maximum possible). Because the volume of work requested by an Ambassador/delegation depends on a range of factors and is impossible to predict, students should not count on receiving more than the baseline total of two credits for the combined two-semester seminar/virtual externship experience.

• Type: Externship

The India Externship offers students the chance to spend the Winter semester working for an Indian non-profit, government agency, or court in the city of your choice. Students work with our administration and faculty to find a suitable placement. Given the depth and breadth of work available in India, it should not be difficult to find something that meets your interests. Past students report rich experiences working side-by-side with top-notch Indian lawyers on pressing legal matters and policy issues.

Students apply in the Winter before the program begins the following January. For more information, visit our website at https://michigan.law.umich.edu/resource-center/india-externship or contact [email protected]. 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

Spend a semester working with other law students and upper-level undergraduate students to support lawyers from the Michigan Immigration Rights Center on asylum cases here in Michigan. Under faculty supervision, students will learn to draft asylum briefs, summarize and translate historical texts, research effective legal arguments, and contribute to developing a national research database for use in asylum cases. Students will also deepen their understanding of immigration law and policy, develop historical and legal research skills, and explore the history of violence and migration through work on real-life asylum cases. This class is ideal for students who are eager to work conscientiously and ethically with others in teams to benefit a non-profit community partner. Instructor permission required.

• Type: Practice Simulation

Human trafficking encompasses all forms of compelled labor or services and it occurs around the world. The Human Trafficking Clinic (HTC) works to combat human trafficking by: (1) providing direct representation to survivors of human trafficking; and (2) developing disruptive, systemic solutions to reduce vulnerability to trafficking.
Law students enrolled in the HTC will engage in a combination of legal and systemic reform work. The legal work of HTC is best described as a poverty law practice on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and their families. It includes immigration, post-adjudication criminal relief, access to public benefits, expungement, and victim-witness advocacy. The reform work of the HTC focuses on creating change at policy, service, and industry levels through collaborative partnerships across the nonprofit, corporate, and governmental sectors. HTC students work side-by-side with students enrolled in the Business and Human Rights Lab to develop and execute their projects.
Overall, students in the HTC will learn and practice collaboration, problem solving, fact investigation, legal analysis, counseling, and advocacy skills. Students are responsible, under supervision, for all of the cases and projects within the HTC.
The HTC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement.

• Type: Clinic

Human trafficking encompasses all forms of compelled labor or services and it occurs around the world. The Human Trafficking Clinic (HTC) works to combat human trafficking by: (1) providing direct representation to survivors of human trafficking; and (2) developing disruptive, systemic solutions to reduce vulnerability to trafficking.
Law students enrolled in the HTC will engage in a combination of legal and systemic reform work. The legal work of HTC is best described as a poverty law practice on behalf of survivors of human trafficking and their families. It includes immigration, post-adjudication criminal relief, access to public benefits, expungement, and victim-witness advocacy. The reform work of the HTC focuses on creating change at policy, service, and industry levels through collaborative partnerships across the nonprofit, corporate, and governmental sectors. HTC students work side-by-side with students enrolled in the Business and Human Rights Lab to develop and execute their projects.
Overall, students in the HTC will learn and practice collaboration, problem solving, fact investigation, legal analysis, counseling, and advocacy skills. Students are responsible, under supervision, for all of the cases and projects within the HTC.
The HTC is a 7 credit course and meets the New York Pro-Bono requirement.

• Type: Clinic

Through the course, students will explore key laws and legal concepts applicable to American institutions of higher education. Among other issues, the course will focus on how to weigh and balance the sometimes competing rights and responsibilities of institutions, faculty, staff, and students. For instance, the course will explore: the potential clash between the academic freedom rights of faculty and the rights of students to be free from racial and sexual harassment; Title IX and women’s sports; affirmative action in admissions, financial aid, and faculty hiring; and the intellectual property rights of faculty, staff and students. The goal of the course is to introduce the fundamental legal areas affecting higher education so that students can recognize when legal issues and concepts are involved in the higher education context. Additionally, the course gives the opportunity to consider the role of “in house” counsel. The course also aims to use legal issues as a catalyst for a broader discussion of the role and meaning of higher education in today’s society. Furthermore, the course offers the opportunity to consider legal and policy matters in a context in which every student will have had personal, in-depth experience. The course format will include lecture and class discussion. The course is a meet-together with the School of Education and will include both law students and graduate students in education.

• Type: Upper Class

This course will examine the issues and concerns that are unique to well-funded ventures with “unicorn” valuations. The course will consider the pros and cons of different late-stage investment structures, the deal dynamics arising from the ever expanding pool of capital investing in this asset class, and the implications of unit economics for the investment thesis—all against the backdrop of the ever-blurring line between private equity and venture capital.
Students will learn the primary legal mechanics involved in venture capital investing, as well as the incentives and pragmatic considerations underlying these types of transactions.
Students will be expected to participate in a simulated term-sheet negotiation exercise, become familiar with spreadsheet capitalization tables, and learn to evaluate key deal terms against the backdrop of the broader deal dynamics.
Required readings for each session will include model deal documents and case studies.

• Type: Practice Simulation

This contemporaneous seminar is intended to provide substantive context for the Geneva Externship field work (Law 947). It provides an environment for students to share their work experiences and reflect on the varying approaches to international problem-solving arising at the organizations where they are placed. In addition, students will attend guest lectures with legal and policy advisors at international and nongovernmental organizations, who will discuss current issues of international law, describe the role of international organizations in various fields of international law, and describe their individual career paths.
Students apply in the Winter before the program begins the following January. For more information, visit our website at https://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/externshipsandindependentstudy/Pages/default.aspx or contact [email protected]. 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

Spend a semester in Geneva working with leading intergovernmental and nongovernmental institutions during the winter term. Students are immersed in the work of these international institutions and closely supervised by their legal staffs to explore how international legal regimes intersect with such diverse fields as trade, human rights, intellectual property, environment, telecommunications, and health. Externs participate in a contemporaneous seminar intended to provide them substantive context for their externships.
Students apply in the Winter before the program begins the following January. For more information, visit our website at https://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/externshipsandindependentstudy/Pages/default.aspx or contact [email protected]. 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

This contemporaneous, one-credit seminar is held every semester as a required companion to the Full-Time Externship (Law 940). For more information, please visit the course description for Law 940.

• Type: Externship

The Full-Time Externship Program offers an exciting opportunity to augment classroom study with real-world work experience. Students (under the guidance of both a Law School faculty member and a field placement site supervisor) immerse themselves full-time in legal work with local, state, and federal governmental agencies, and with nonprofit organizations located throughout the country and world. The externship is expected the complete the student’s personal agenda of study, complementing courses carefully chosen at the Law School and enabling the student to pursue sophisticated work and research in a particular field beyond our curricular offerings.

Students will receive twelve credits total, eleven for the field work portion and one for the accompanying seminar (Law 941). Since field placement proposals must be approved in advance, EVEN IF A STUDENT DOES NOT HAVE A PLACEMENT FINALIZED, the student must apply for a Full-Time Externship by the deadline, which is April 1 for a Fall Externship, and November 1 for a Winter Externship. If a student’s placement is not secured, the student is welcome, even encouraged, to propose a few potential placements for consideration.

For more information, visit our website at https://michigan.law.umich.edu/academics/experiential-learning/externships or contact [email protected]. We are happy to meet with students to answer questions, give guidance on potential placements, provide information on how to apply, etc. Please note that if students are interested in the Geneva, India, or South Africa Externship Programs, they should visit the websites for each of those programs separately, as their details and deadlines are different.

• Type: Externship

This course examines the early history of the English Common Law and explores various approaches to legal history. We will study both medieval documents and key works of modern historical writing in order to obtain an overall picture of the chronology, processes, and causes of legal development. Following an introduction to the history of the period (no prior study of history is required) and to the use of historical sources, a combination of chronological and thematic approaches will be adopted. Key issues will be the role of royal authority in legal development; the impact of changes in literacy; changes in the nature of legal knowledge and thought; the separation of legal from other social norms; the degree to which legal change works by its own internal logic.

• Type: Upper Class

From fingerprints to burn marks, shoe prints to bite-marks, and dozens of other disciplines, our courts certainly have a lot of forensic science thrown at them on a daily basis. But how equipped is our legal system to properly handle scientific evidence? And what about individual lawyers and judges: can they be trusted to properly vet, scrutinize—and when necessary, exclude—forensic science disciplines they scarcely understand?
This course will explore the tenuous but necessary relationship between forensic science and the law, which begins with the fundamental difference between ?truth? as defined by science and as defined by law. From that foundation, we will consider how various forensic techniques have come to be accepted, admitted—and in many cases later repudiated—by our judicial system. We will study what goes right, what goes wrong and how we as lawyers can work to improve the system of forensic science in America.

• Type: Seminar

The ability to give and receive quality feedback plays a major role in every lawyer’s career trajectory. Yet few of us are ever taught how to develop this important skill.
“Feedback Loops” is designed to help change that. We’ll learn better ways to deliver feedback, better ways to receive feedback, and better ways to solicit feedback. We’ll also get to practice a crucial and often overlooked kind of feedback: self-feedback.

• Type: Practice Simulation

An intensive and critical examination of the role of federal courts in maintaining a constitutional order in the United States. Among the topics considered are justiciability, the power of Congress to control the jurisdiction of federal and state courts, Supreme Court review of state court decisions, federal habeas corpus for state prisoners, and suits challenging official action.

• Type: Upper Class

Students who have taken Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic I are eligible to enroll in Federal Appellate Litigation Clinic II by invitation of the professors. Faculty and invited students determine the number of credits (2-5) to be awarded.

• Type: Clinic