First-Year Courses
First-year students share the same course load for the full academic year to establish a strong foundation in the law and expose students to various aspects of the law and lawyering. The first-year curriculum integrates practical training, legal writing, and career planning.
Fall Semester
Civil Procedure I*
LAW 801 | 3 credit hours
Pleading, joinder of claims and parties, discovery, trials, verdicts, judgments, and appeals. Emphasis on Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
Contracts I
LAW 803 | 3 credit hours
Basic agreement process and legal protections afforded contracts: offer and acceptance, consideration and other bases for enforcing promises; the Statute of Frauds, unconscionability and other controls of promissory liability. Introduction to relevant portions of Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code.
Criminal Law
LAW 809 | 3 credit hours
Substantive aspects of criminal law; general principles applicable to all criminal conduct; specific analysis of particular crimes; defenses to crimes.
Lawyering and Professionalism
LAW 811 | 1 credit hour
This course provides basic training in essential lawyering skills, introduces the values of the legal profession, and offers resources for early career planning.
Legal Process I
LAW 805 | 3 credit hours
Lawyer-like use of cases and statutes in prediction and persuasion. Analysis and synthesis of common law decisions; statutory interpretation; fundamentals of expository legal writing and legal research.
Legal Research
LAW 815 | .5 credit hour after the completion of both semesters of this course
Basics of court systems and structures and how they relate to legal sources; types of authorities and their use in the research process; formulation of research plans; basics of researching statutes, cases, and regulations; use of tools for research including indexes, digests, and keyword searching; expanding and updating research; and appropriate use of citations.
Torts I*
LAW 807 | 3 credit hours
Intentional torts, defenses and privileges related to intentional torts; negligence: standard of care, professional malpractice, and liability of owners and occupiers of land; defenses based on plaintiff’s conduct: contributory and comparative negligence, assumption of risk, failure to take precautions, and avoidable consequences; causation, proximate cause; duty rules; and questions of joint and several or several liability.
*First-year students enroll in an “In Practice” section of either Civil Procedure I or Torts I. The “In Practice” sections include three graded, simulation-based assignments. Each simulation places students in the role of lawyer, raises professionalism issues, requires students to perform a lawyering skill, and results in a written and/or oral work product. In addition to a final examination, the course also includes a midterm exam that includes at least one essay question.
Spring Semester
Civil Procedure II
LAW 802 | 3 credit hours
Binding effect of judgments, selecting proper court (jurisdiction and venue), ascertaining applicable law, and federal and state practice.
Contracts II
LAW 804 | 3 credit hours
Continuation of Contracts I. Issues arising after contract formation: interpretation, duty of good faith; conditions, impracticability and frustration of purpose; remedies; third party beneficiaries; assignment and delegation. Considerable coverage of Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code with respect to remedies, anticipatory repudiation, impracticability and good faith.
Legal Process II
LAW 806 | 3 credit hours
Continuation of Legal Process I. Formal legal writing, appellate procedure, and oral advocacy.
Legal Research
LAW 815 | .5 credit hour after the completion of both semesters of this course
Basics of court systems and structures and how they relate to legal sources; types of authorities and their use in the research process; formulation of research plans; basics of researching statutes, cases, and regulations; use of tools for research including indexes, digests, and keyword searching; expanding and updating research; and appropriate use of citations.
Property
LAW 810 | 4 credit hours
Introductory course treating issues of ownership, possession, and title in the areas of: landlord-tenant relations; estates in land and future interests; co-ownership and marital property; real estate sales agreements and conveyances; title assurance and recording statutes; servitudes; and selected aspects of nuisance law, eminent domain and zoning.
Torts II
LAW 808 | 2 credit hours
Vicarious liability; strict liability; products liability; nuisance; defamation; privacy torts; interference with contract; and damages.