This course will highlight the importance of issues involving accounting to the practice of law. To practice law effectively, every lawyer should understand certain fundamentals about accounting and financial statements. Students will use information from real companies to analyze and interpret their financial statements. The design of the course assumes that participants have very little background with respect to the preparation, analysis, and interpretation of financial statements. While the mechanics of financial statement preparation will be covered, emphasis will be placed on what the numbers mean and how they are used. Students will learn: (1) how financial statements are prepared; (2) the linkage between the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement; and, (3) how these statements need to be examined as a whole to really understand how a company is performing. Ratio analysis will be explained and guidance will be given regarding what to look for when analyzing a company’s performance, liquidity, and leverage ratios. The course also will examine the uses and misuses of financial statement data and will be heavily focused on analyzing real companies’ financial disclosures.