BENJAMIN FRANKLIN... Here we go!!!
Yet, another CLS vs UPENN tread!!!
Posted Apr 01, 2010 22:52
Posted Apr 01, 2010 22:58
CLS all the way!!!!
Posted Apr 01, 2010 23:00
Why?
I would like some info and reasons for it!!!!
Tks anyway
I would like some info and reasons for it!!!!
Tks anyway
Posted Apr 01, 2010 23:02
UPENN rules. i v been there last year visiting a friend of my and the campus is reaaly great.... and you get to know everybody in your class (CLS = 220 students / UPenn = 95 students)... if you are concerned about academics and moiney, you should head to Upenn... no doubt....
Posted Apr 01, 2010 23:03
am now in the same boat, only difference is i am $500 down!!
Posted Apr 01, 2010 23:11
I hear the Penn Law class is made up of 95 students, compared to hundreds at CLS.
If you like smaller classes, then this is where to go to, I only know of Yale that has a class of less than 100 LL.M.'s.
In any case dude, you have nothing to loose, those are two great schools.
If you like smaller classes, then this is where to go to, I only know of Yale that has a class of less than 100 LL.M.'s.
In any case dude, you have nothing to loose, those are two great schools.
Posted Apr 01, 2010 23:54
Applicant2010 - I am 500 down as well. Are u going to Penn for sure? I am leaning towards Penn BTW..
Posted Apr 02, 2010 03:22
Newbie - man, I think Penn is better for you, but maybe an us citzen can help you with the "academic" issue. Any us in the board or an alumni from Penn or cls?
Posted Apr 02, 2010 05:46
Comments?
I would really thank some help
I would really thank some help
Posted Apr 02, 2010 07:14
well i'm from cls but i'm not sure what help is needed?
about the class size, i'm not sure how much this matters. in cls and upenn, there are certain classes that are taught in large sections, like corporations will always have 100 students whether you take it in cls or upenn. and in both cls and upenn, you will have the opportunity to take seminars, where you'll have more interaction with the prof, since it's a smaller class where it's just around 20 students. there are some classes where it's just 10 students and one prof. i heard the class on equal protection (con law) is like that.
about the class size, i'm not sure how much this matters. in cls and upenn, there are certain classes that are taught in large sections, like corporations will always have 100 students whether you take it in cls or upenn. and in both cls and upenn, you will have the opportunity to take seminars, where you'll have more interaction with the prof, since it's a smaller class where it's just around 20 students. there are some classes where it's just 10 students and one prof. i heard the class on equal protection (con law) is like that.
Posted Apr 02, 2010 19:37
Michael, could you please explain this to me, how do you compare an LL.M. class that admits over 300 candidates and one that limits itself to 95? Is that a fair comparison? I was rejected by both schools, but I always prefer small classes, so are you saying that its the same, 300=95 since most classes are seminar and you can end up in a size ten class? How is that even possible? Logic dictates that a class that admits over 300 people will not be able to have a smaller seminar even if a course is highly unpopular, this is a ration of nearly 3:1. Comparing oranges to apples?
well i'm from cls but i'm not sure what help is needed?
about the class size, i'm not sure how much this matters. in cls and upenn, there are certain classes that are taught in large sections, like corporations will always have 100 students whether you take it in cls or upenn. and in both cls and upenn, you will have the opportunity to take seminars, where you'll have more interaction with the prof, since it's a smaller class where it's just around 20 students. there are some classes where it's just 10 students and one prof. i heard the class on equal protection (con law) is like that.
<blockquote>well i'm from cls but i'm not sure what help is needed?
about the class size, i'm not sure how much this matters. in cls and upenn, there are certain classes that are taught in large sections, like corporations will always have 100 students whether you take it in cls or upenn. and in both cls and upenn, you will have the opportunity to take seminars, where you'll have more interaction with the prof, since it's a smaller class where it's just around 20 students. there are some classes where it's just 10 students and one prof. i heard the class on equal protection (con law) is like that. </blockquote>
Posted Apr 02, 2010 21:41
I'm a Penn (those in the know drop the U - ;) ) JD alumna and I think you might want to factor your area of specialization into your decision.
In terms of the environment, I think Penn wins hands down. It's a collegial law school that emphasizes collaboration over competition, which in turn generates a better learning atmosphere for JD and LLM candidates alike. (I also did my undergrad in nyc so I can also vouch for the lower Philly rents and general quality of life.) Some of its classes are quite large, but it the faculty is also approachable and stays in contact with its graduates. I never hesitate to contact them when I have a question that I can't answer on my own - and I always receive warm responses. In a nutshell, I cannot say enough nice things about my experiences at Penn. (This is in sharp contrast the experiences of my friends and colleagues who attended other T10 schools).
In terms of prestige Penn suffers a little due to the fact that it is often confused with Penn State, however, in most circles it is both well-known and well-respected.
That said, the courses that are offered at the two law schools are substantially different. Penn's business law/securities regulation/negotiation classes are wonderful (people claim to even enjoy Prof. Tyson) and the opportunity to take classes at Wharton is apparently an added bonus. Columbia offers similar courses but also has a significant set of classes on public law, public international law and human rights, while Penn's courses on these subjects are considerably sparser.
In terms of the environment, I think Penn wins hands down. It's a collegial law school that emphasizes collaboration over competition, which in turn generates a better learning atmosphere for JD and LLM candidates alike. (I also did my undergrad in nyc so I can also vouch for the lower Philly rents and general quality of life.) Some of its classes are quite large, but it the faculty is also approachable and stays in contact with its graduates. I never hesitate to contact them when I have a question that I can't answer on my own - and I always receive warm responses. In a nutshell, I cannot say enough nice things about my experiences at Penn. (This is in sharp contrast the experiences of my friends and colleagues who attended other T10 schools).
In terms of prestige Penn suffers a little due to the fact that it is often confused with Penn State, however, in most circles it is both well-known and well-respected.
That said, the courses that are offered at the two law schools are substantially different. Penn's business law/securities regulation/negotiation classes are wonderful (people claim to even enjoy Prof. Tyson) and the opportunity to take classes at Wharton is apparently an added bonus. Columbia offers similar courses but also has a significant set of classes on public law, public international law and human rights, while Penn's courses on these subjects are considerably sparser.
Posted Apr 02, 2010 21:50
Triple M -- Are you saying I am lying? If you want more information, then say so, but don't tell me that I am lying because I don't need to lie in order to attract people to Columbia. I'm just participating in these forums so that people who have questions will be able to get some answers from the perspective of a student. I am not being paid by Columbia to answer these questions, and every post I make here detracts from the time that I can spend studying or enjoying New York. With messages like yours, I don't know why I even bother helping out here. I will most likely cut my participation here.
Columbia offers lots of courses, and lots of sections of those courses. There are four sections of the Corporations class, two sections of Securities, three Bankruptcy classes. Two sections of International Law, two sections of Admin Law. A list of the classes offered in the Fall and Spring semester are attached to my message below. As you can see from the sheer number of course offerings and sections of each offered course, it is possible to have classes where there are only 10 students. I know people who signed up for five classes where each class is only 20 or so students.
And you can't just consider LLMs. You have to think of the JDs also. LLMs are basically just sitting in JD classes. So a school can admit 95 LLMs but take in 2 million JDs (not that UPenn takes in 2 million JDs, but this is something to consider if you think that you will be taking Corporations with just five other students because the LLM program in the school where you were accepted takes in only 10 students).
Below is what you will miss out on in Columbia --
FALL
Civil Procedure, sec 1
Civil Procedure, sec 2
Civil Procedure, sec 3
Civil Procedure, sec 4
Civil Procedure, sec 5
Civil Procedure, sec 6
Contracts, sec 1
Contracts, sec 2
Contracts, sec 3
Contracts, sec 4
Contracts, sec 5
Contracts, sec 6
Contracts, sec 7
Contracts, sec 8
Torts, sec 1
Torts, sec 2
Torts, sec 3
Torts, sec 4
Torts, sec 5
Torts, sec 6
American Contract Law
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 3
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 4
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 5
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 6
Administrative Law
Adv. Con Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties
Advanced Corporate Law: Theories and Practice
Advanced Criminal Law: The Death Penalty
African Law and Development
American Legal History
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 1
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 2
Comparative Law
Connection of Law and Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Finance
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Employment Law
Environmental Law
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Criminal Law
Federal Income Tax
Financial Statement Analysis
Gender Justice
Global Constitutionalism
Ideas of the First Amendment
Immigration Law
International and Comparative Criminal Law
International Copyright Law
International Courts and Tribunals
International Financial Transactions
International Law
Labor Law
Land Use
Law and Education: Regulation, Religion, Free Speech and Safety
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Internet Society
Law of the WTO
Leadership for Lawyers
Legal Profession and Delivery of Legal Services
Legislation
Mass Torts
National Security Law
Partnership Taxation
Patents
Professional Responsibility, sec 1
Professional Responsibility, sec 2
Real Estate Finance
Securities and Capital Markets
State and Local Government Law
Terror & Consent
The Law of Genocide
The Law of Transactions
Tort, Terrorism, Crime
Transnational Litigation & Arbitration
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Comparative Law
C Tax Policy
S Access to Healthcare
S Administrative Law and the White House: Where Law, Public Policy, and Politics Collide
S Advanced Cilmate Change Law
S Advanced Tort Practice
S Advanced Trial Practice
S Animal Law
S Authors, Artists, and Performers
S Big Case: Tactics and Strategy
S Black Letter Law/White Collar Crime
S Business and Law of Health Care
S Capital Markets: Development, Structure, and Pol
S Church and State
S Comparative Corporate Capitalism
S Contemporary Issues in Federalism
S Contracts, Collaboration and Interpretation
S. Corporate Social Responsibility
S Corporate Transactional Taxation
S Deals Litigation
S Deals Workshop: Mergers and Acquisitions: Practi, sec 2
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Diversity and Innovation
S Democracy & Distribution
S Doctoral Workshop
S Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development
S False Advertising Law
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S Foreign Direct Investment and Public Policy
S Global Poverty and Human Rights: Selected Issues
S Governance in the European Union
S Housing Discrimination
S Human Rights and Contemporary Problems
S Human Rights and Question of Culture
S Human Rights Reparations under Domestic & Int'l Law
S Human Rights, Law and Development Workshop
S Informed Consent
S International Bus & Investment Transactions with China
S International Bus Trans in Latin Am
S International Securities Regulatiom
S Intersectionalities: Theorizing Multiple Discrimination, Identity and Power
S Labor Rights in Global Economy
S Land Rights
S Language of DNA in the Domain of Legal Culture
S Law and Economics Workshop
S Law and Film Industry
S Law and Sports
S Law and the Music Industry
S Law, Economics, and Development
S Legal Interpretation
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Life, Liberty & Liability in the Digital Millennium
S Marriage as a Contract
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Non-Profit Institutions
S Problems in Legal Philosophy
S Protection of Natural Resources
S Role of the State Attorney General
S Selected Topics on the 4th Amendment
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S The Anatomy of Autonomy: From Personhood to Personification
S The Constitution and American Security
S The High-Profile Trial: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
S Third Party Opinions in Business Practice
S Topics in Jewish Law
S Transitional Justice
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S United Nations Peacekeeping
S Workshop in Briefcraft
S WTO Law
S. Readings in Legal Thought
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Criminal Appeals
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Immigration Law
Externship: US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of NY
Spanish for the Legal Profession (Intermediate)
SPRING
Constitutional Law, sec 1
Constitutional Law, sec 2
Constitutional Law, sec 3
Constitutional Law, sec 4
Criminal Law, sec 1
Criminal Law, sec 2
Criminal Law, sec 3
Criminal Law, sec 4
Property, sec 1
Property, sec 2
Property, sec 3
Property, sec 4
Art of Legal Persuasion
Ideas of the 1st Amendment
Law and Contemporary Society
Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders
Legislation
Principles of Intellectual Property
The United States & the International Legal System
Administrative Law
Advanced Constitutional Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Law & Political Process
Advanced Constitutional Law: Reading the Constitution
Advanced Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers and Other Problems
Advanced Corporate Law: Mergers and Acquisitions
Anatomy of the Large Law Firm
Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Bankruptcy Law
Capital Market Regulation
Civil Rights
Climate Change Law
Connections of Law & Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy
Corporate Taxation
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Deals: Public-Sector Problem Solving
Educational Policy Making & the Courts
Employment Discrimination Law
European Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
European Union Law & Institutions
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Income Tax, sec 1
Federal Income Tax, sec 2
Federal Indian Law
Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation
Health Law
Human Rights
International Environmental Law
International Finance: Law, Money and Banking in the Global Economy
International Law
International Taxation
Jurisprudence: Selected Problems
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Educational Institutions: Issues of Authority
Law and Legal Institutions in China
Legislative Behavior & Institutions
Private Investment Funds
Professional Responsibility
Professional Responsibility Issues in Business Practice
Professional Responsibility Issues in Public Interest Practice
Real Estate Transactions, sec 1
Real Estate Transactions, sec 2
Secured Transactions
Securities Regulation
Taxation of Financial Instruments
Telecommunications Law
Trademarks
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Chinese Law and Society
S Abortion: Law in Context
S Advanced Legal Research Techniques
S Advanced Patents
S Advanced Seminar on State Attorneys General
S Advanced Trial Practice, sec 2
S Aging and Disability Law
S Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law
S Asian Americans and the Law
S Civil Liberties and the Response to Terrorism
S Computers, Privacy, & the Law
S Constitutional Law of the UN
S Construction Industry Law
S Contemporary Corporate Law Scholarship: Reading Group
S Contemporary Issues in Business Law: South & North Korea
S Contemporary Issues in Corporate Reorganization
S Corporation and Modern Society
S Corporations in Court: An Inside Look at Major Corporate Cases
S Critical Race Theory
S Current Issues in Copyright
S Current Issues in European Union Law
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 3
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 4
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 5
S Deals Workshop: Transactional Legal Strategies, sec 2
S Derivatives Law and Regulation
S Diversity and Innovation
S Doctoral Workshop
S Domestic Violence and the Law
S Drafting Wills and Trusts
S Energy Law
S Enforcing International Law
S Environmental Litigation
S Federal Court Litigation: Trademark & Copyright Cases
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S First Amendment and the Institutional Press
S Immigration Law and Policy
S Insurance Law
S International Banking and Financial Law
S International Criminal Courts
S International Human Rights Advocacy
S International Humanitarian Law
S International Investment Law & Arbitration
S International Securities Regulation
S Interplay of Civil & Criminal Law
S Justice and Human Nature In An Era of Scientific Revolution
S Law and Policy of Homelessness
S Law and Theatre
S Law in Emerging Markets- Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States
S Law, Media and Public Policy
S Legal Aspects of US Foreign Economic Policy
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 6
S Nuremberg Trials and War Crimes Law
S Outlaws, Compliance, & Design of Legal Systems
S Patent Litigation
S Poverty
S Pre-trial Commercial Litigation
S Professional Responsibility
S Protection of Social & Economic Rights
S Public Law Workshop
S Publishing Law from Print to Digital
S Race and Poverty Law
S Readings in Legal Thought
S Religious Minorities in Supreme Court Litigation
S School Desegregation: US and East European Roma (Gypsies) compared
S Sexual Harassment in Employment: Policies & Practices
S Statistics for Lawyers
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S Strategies for Resolving Trust and Estate Planning Problems
S Topics in Criminal Prosecution and Defense
S Topics in Law & Sexuality
S Tort Theory
S Transnational Business and Human Rights
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S Trial Practice, sec 4
S Trial Problems of Major Current Cases
S University in American Life
S Use of Force in the International System
S Welfare Law - Legal Issues and Policy Choices
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Law Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Prisoners and Families Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Mediation Clinic 7 CARTER, ALEXANDRA
Prisoners and Families Clinic 5 GENTY, PHILIP
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic 7 GOLDBERG, SUZANNE
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Federal Prosecution
Externship: NYC Corporation Counsel
Externship: Pro Bono Practice and Design
Externship: United Nations
Columbia offers lots of courses, and lots of sections of those courses. There are four sections of the Corporations class, two sections of Securities, three Bankruptcy classes. Two sections of International Law, two sections of Admin Law. A list of the classes offered in the Fall and Spring semester are attached to my message below. As you can see from the sheer number of course offerings and sections of each offered course, it is possible to have classes where there are only 10 students. I know people who signed up for five classes where each class is only 20 or so students.
And you can't just consider LLMs. You have to think of the JDs also. LLMs are basically just sitting in JD classes. So a school can admit 95 LLMs but take in 2 million JDs (not that UPenn takes in 2 million JDs, but this is something to consider if you think that you will be taking Corporations with just five other students because the LLM program in the school where you were accepted takes in only 10 students).
Below is what you will miss out on in Columbia --
FALL
Civil Procedure, sec 1
Civil Procedure, sec 2
Civil Procedure, sec 3
Civil Procedure, sec 4
Civil Procedure, sec 5
Civil Procedure, sec 6
Contracts, sec 1
Contracts, sec 2
Contracts, sec 3
Contracts, sec 4
Contracts, sec 5
Contracts, sec 6
Contracts, sec 7
Contracts, sec 8
Torts, sec 1
Torts, sec 2
Torts, sec 3
Torts, sec 4
Torts, sec 5
Torts, sec 6
American Contract Law
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 3
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 4
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 5
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 6
Administrative Law
Adv. Con Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties
Advanced Corporate Law: Theories and Practice
Advanced Criminal Law: The Death Penalty
African Law and Development
American Legal History
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 1
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 2
Comparative Law
Connection of Law and Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Finance
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Employment Law
Environmental Law
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Criminal Law
Federal Income Tax
Financial Statement Analysis
Gender Justice
Global Constitutionalism
Ideas of the First Amendment
Immigration Law
International and Comparative Criminal Law
International Copyright Law
International Courts and Tribunals
International Financial Transactions
International Law
Labor Law
Land Use
Law and Education: Regulation, Religion, Free Speech and Safety
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Internet Society
Law of the WTO
Leadership for Lawyers
Legal Profession and Delivery of Legal Services
Legislation
Mass Torts
National Security Law
Partnership Taxation
Patents
Professional Responsibility, sec 1
Professional Responsibility, sec 2
Real Estate Finance
Securities and Capital Markets
State and Local Government Law
Terror & Consent
The Law of Genocide
The Law of Transactions
Tort, Terrorism, Crime
Transnational Litigation & Arbitration
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Comparative Law
C Tax Policy
S Access to Healthcare
S Administrative Law and the White House: Where Law, Public Policy, and Politics Collide
S Advanced Cilmate Change Law
S Advanced Tort Practice
S Advanced Trial Practice
S Animal Law
S Authors, Artists, and Performers
S Big Case: Tactics and Strategy
S Black Letter Law/White Collar Crime
S Business and Law of Health Care
S Capital Markets: Development, Structure, and Pol
S Church and State
S Comparative Corporate Capitalism
S Contemporary Issues in Federalism
S Contracts, Collaboration and Interpretation
S. Corporate Social Responsibility
S Corporate Transactional Taxation
S Deals Litigation
S Deals Workshop: Mergers and Acquisitions: Practi, sec 2
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Diversity and Innovation
S Democracy & Distribution
S Doctoral Workshop
S Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development
S False Advertising Law
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S Foreign Direct Investment and Public Policy
S Global Poverty and Human Rights: Selected Issues
S Governance in the European Union
S Housing Discrimination
S Human Rights and Contemporary Problems
S Human Rights and Question of Culture
S Human Rights Reparations under Domestic & Int'l Law
S Human Rights, Law and Development Workshop
S Informed Consent
S International Bus & Investment Transactions with China
S International Bus Trans in Latin Am
S International Securities Regulatiom
S Intersectionalities: Theorizing Multiple Discrimination, Identity and Power
S Labor Rights in Global Economy
S Land Rights
S Language of DNA in the Domain of Legal Culture
S Law and Economics Workshop
S Law and Film Industry
S Law and Sports
S Law and the Music Industry
S Law, Economics, and Development
S Legal Interpretation
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Life, Liberty & Liability in the Digital Millennium
S Marriage as a Contract
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Non-Profit Institutions
S Problems in Legal Philosophy
S Protection of Natural Resources
S Role of the State Attorney General
S Selected Topics on the 4th Amendment
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S The Anatomy of Autonomy: From Personhood to Personification
S The Constitution and American Security
S The High-Profile Trial: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
S Third Party Opinions in Business Practice
S Topics in Jewish Law
S Transitional Justice
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S United Nations Peacekeeping
S Workshop in Briefcraft
S WTO Law
S. Readings in Legal Thought
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Criminal Appeals
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Immigration Law
Externship: US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of NY
Spanish for the Legal Profession (Intermediate)
SPRING
Constitutional Law, sec 1
Constitutional Law, sec 2
Constitutional Law, sec 3
Constitutional Law, sec 4
Criminal Law, sec 1
Criminal Law, sec 2
Criminal Law, sec 3
Criminal Law, sec 4
Property, sec 1
Property, sec 2
Property, sec 3
Property, sec 4
Art of Legal Persuasion
Ideas of the 1st Amendment
Law and Contemporary Society
Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders
Legislation
Principles of Intellectual Property
The United States & the International Legal System
Administrative Law
Advanced Constitutional Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Law & Political Process
Advanced Constitutional Law: Reading the Constitution
Advanced Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers and Other Problems
Advanced Corporate Law: Mergers and Acquisitions
Anatomy of the Large Law Firm
Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Bankruptcy Law
Capital Market Regulation
Civil Rights
Climate Change Law
Connections of Law & Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy
Corporate Taxation
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Deals: Public-Sector Problem Solving
Educational Policy Making & the Courts
Employment Discrimination Law
European Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
European Union Law & Institutions
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Income Tax, sec 1
Federal Income Tax, sec 2
Federal Indian Law
Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation
Health Law
Human Rights
International Environmental Law
International Finance: Law, Money and Banking in the Global Economy
International Law
International Taxation
Jurisprudence: Selected Problems
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Educational Institutions: Issues of Authority
Law and Legal Institutions in China
Legislative Behavior & Institutions
Private Investment Funds
Professional Responsibility
Professional Responsibility Issues in Business Practice
Professional Responsibility Issues in Public Interest Practice
Real Estate Transactions, sec 1
Real Estate Transactions, sec 2
Secured Transactions
Securities Regulation
Taxation of Financial Instruments
Telecommunications Law
Trademarks
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Chinese Law and Society
S Abortion: Law in Context
S Advanced Legal Research Techniques
S Advanced Patents
S Advanced Seminar on State Attorneys General
S Advanced Trial Practice, sec 2
S Aging and Disability Law
S Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law
S Asian Americans and the Law
S Civil Liberties and the Response to Terrorism
S Computers, Privacy, & the Law
S Constitutional Law of the UN
S Construction Industry Law
S Contemporary Corporate Law Scholarship: Reading Group
S Contemporary Issues in Business Law: South & North Korea
S Contemporary Issues in Corporate Reorganization
S Corporation and Modern Society
S Corporations in Court: An Inside Look at Major Corporate Cases
S Critical Race Theory
S Current Issues in Copyright
S Current Issues in European Union Law
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 3
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 4
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 5
S Deals Workshop: Transactional Legal Strategies, sec 2
S Derivatives Law and Regulation
S Diversity and Innovation
S Doctoral Workshop
S Domestic Violence and the Law
S Drafting Wills and Trusts
S Energy Law
S Enforcing International Law
S Environmental Litigation
S Federal Court Litigation: Trademark & Copyright Cases
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S First Amendment and the Institutional Press
S Immigration Law and Policy
S Insurance Law
S International Banking and Financial Law
S International Criminal Courts
S International Human Rights Advocacy
S International Humanitarian Law
S International Investment Law & Arbitration
S International Securities Regulation
S Interplay of Civil & Criminal Law
S Justice and Human Nature In An Era of Scientific Revolution
S Law and Policy of Homelessness
S Law and Theatre
S Law in Emerging Markets- Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States
S Law, Media and Public Policy
S Legal Aspects of US Foreign Economic Policy
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 6
S Nuremberg Trials and War Crimes Law
S Outlaws, Compliance, & Design of Legal Systems
S Patent Litigation
S Poverty
S Pre-trial Commercial Litigation
S Professional Responsibility
S Protection of Social & Economic Rights
S Public Law Workshop
S Publishing Law from Print to Digital
S Race and Poverty Law
S Readings in Legal Thought
S Religious Minorities in Supreme Court Litigation
S School Desegregation: US and East European Roma (Gypsies) compared
S Sexual Harassment in Employment: Policies & Practices
S Statistics for Lawyers
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S Strategies for Resolving Trust and Estate Planning Problems
S Topics in Criminal Prosecution and Defense
S Topics in Law & Sexuality
S Tort Theory
S Transnational Business and Human Rights
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S Trial Practice, sec 4
S Trial Problems of Major Current Cases
S University in American Life
S Use of Force in the International System
S Welfare Law - Legal Issues and Policy Choices
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Law Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Prisoners and Families Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Mediation Clinic 7 CARTER, ALEXANDRA
Prisoners and Families Clinic 5 GENTY, PHILIP
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic 7 GOLDBERG, SUZANNE
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Federal Prosecution
Externship: NYC Corporation Counsel
Externship: Pro Bono Practice and Design
Externship: United Nations
Posted Apr 02, 2010 21:57
Whoa.
I think you misunderstood my post. My point was that Columbia has more courses in certain topics HR/public law than Penn. (Basically I'm saying that Penn is lopsided -- great in some areas and a bit less so in others. I wasn't passing judgment on Columbia's business law-oriented class by pointing out that this is one area of Penn's strengths.
I think you misunderstood my post. My point was that Columbia has more courses in certain topics HR/public law than Penn. (Basically I'm saying that Penn is lopsided -- great in some areas and a bit less so in others. I wasn't passing judgment on Columbia's business law-oriented class by pointing out that this is one area of Penn's strengths.
Posted Apr 02, 2010 21:59
Whoa.
I think you misunderstood my post. My point was that Columbia has more courses in certain topics HR/public law than Penn. (Basically I'm saying that Penn is lopsided -- great in some areas and a bit less so in others. I wasn't passing judgment on Columbia's business law-oriented class by pointing out that this is one area of Penn's strengths.
Sorry sorry, no, I was replying to the post that was written ahead of yours by Triple M saying that there's no way Columbia can have 10 students in one class.
I think you misunderstood my post. My point was that Columbia has more courses in certain topics HR/public law than Penn. (Basically I'm saying that Penn is lopsided -- great in some areas and a bit less so in others. I wasn't passing judgment on Columbia's business law-oriented class by pointing out that this is one area of Penn's strengths.
</blockquote>
Sorry sorry, no, I was replying to the post that was written ahead of yours by Triple M saying that there's no way Columbia can have 10 students in one class.
Posted Apr 02, 2010 22:04
Ah. Thanks for clarifying. I'm sorry for the confusion too.
For the record, I agree with you. Both schools definitely have classes with 100s of students and others with less than 10.
For the record, I agree with you. Both schools definitely have classes with 100s of students and others with less than 10.
Posted Apr 03, 2010 14:55
Michael-I just asked for an explanation, I did not insinuate anywhere you where lying now, did I?
Triple M -- Are you saying I am lying? If you want more information, then say so, but don't tell me that I am lying because I don't need to lie in order to attract people to Columbia. I'm just participating in these forums so that people who have questions will be able to get some answers from the perspective of a student. I am not being paid by Columbia to answer these questions, and every post I make here detracts from the time that I can spend studying or enjoying New York. With messages like yours, I don't know why I even bother helping out here. I will most likely cut my participation here.
Columbia offers lots of courses, and lots of sections of those courses. There are four sections of the Corporations class, two sections of Securities, three Bankruptcy classes. Two sections of International Law, two sections of Admin Law. A list of the classes offered in the Fall and Spring semester are attached to my message below. As you can see from the sheer number of course offerings and sections of each offered course, it is possible to have classes where there are only 10 students. I know people who signed up for five classes where each class is only 20 or so students.
And you can't just consider LLMs. You have to think of the JDs also. LLMs are basically just sitting in JD classes. So a school can admit 95 LLMs but take in 2 million JDs (not that UPenn takes in 2 million JDs, but this is something to consider if you think that you will be taking Corporations with just five other students because the LLM program in the school where you were accepted takes in only 10 students).
Below is what you will miss out on in Columbia --
FALL
Civil Procedure, sec 1
Civil Procedure, sec 2
Civil Procedure, sec 3
Civil Procedure, sec 4
Civil Procedure, sec 5
Civil Procedure, sec 6
Contracts, sec 1
Contracts, sec 2
Contracts, sec 3
Contracts, sec 4
Contracts, sec 5
Contracts, sec 6
Contracts, sec 7
Contracts, sec 8
Torts, sec 1
Torts, sec 2
Torts, sec 3
Torts, sec 4
Torts, sec 5
Torts, sec 6
American Contract Law
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 3
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 4
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 5
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 6
Administrative Law
Adv. Con Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties
Advanced Corporate Law: Theories and Practice
Advanced Criminal Law: The Death Penalty
African Law and Development
American Legal History
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 1
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 2
Comparative Law
Connection of Law and Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Finance
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Employment Law
Environmental Law
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Criminal Law
Federal Income Tax
Financial Statement Analysis
Gender Justice
Global Constitutionalism
Ideas of the First Amendment
Immigration Law
International and Comparative Criminal Law
International Copyright Law
International Courts and Tribunals
International Financial Transactions
International Law
Labor Law
Land Use
Law and Education: Regulation, Religion, Free Speech and Safety
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Internet Society
Law of the WTO
Leadership for Lawyers
Legal Profession and Delivery of Legal Services
Legislation
Mass Torts
National Security Law
Partnership Taxation
Patents
Professional Responsibility, sec 1
Professional Responsibility, sec 2
Real Estate Finance
Securities and Capital Markets
State and Local Government Law
Terror & Consent
The Law of Genocide
The Law of Transactions
Tort, Terrorism, Crime
Transnational Litigation & Arbitration
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Comparative Law
C Tax Policy
S Access to Healthcare
S Administrative Law and the White House: Where Law, Public Policy, and Politics Collide
S Advanced Cilmate Change Law
S Advanced Tort Practice
S Advanced Trial Practice
S Animal Law
S Authors, Artists, and Performers
S Big Case: Tactics and Strategy
S Black Letter Law/White Collar Crime
S Business and Law of Health Care
S Capital Markets: Development, Structure, and Pol
S Church and State
S Comparative Corporate Capitalism
S Contemporary Issues in Federalism
S Contracts, Collaboration and Interpretation
S. Corporate Social Responsibility
S Corporate Transactional Taxation
S Deals Litigation
S Deals Workshop: Mergers and Acquisitions: Practi, sec 2
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Diversity and Innovation
S Democracy & Distribution
S Doctoral Workshop
S Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development
S False Advertising Law
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S Foreign Direct Investment and Public Policy
S Global Poverty and Human Rights: Selected Issues
S Governance in the European Union
S Housing Discrimination
S Human Rights and Contemporary Problems
S Human Rights and Question of Culture
S Human Rights Reparations under Domestic & Int'l Law
S Human Rights, Law and Development Workshop
S Informed Consent
S International Bus & Investment Transactions with China
S International Bus Trans in Latin Am
S International Securities Regulatiom
S Intersectionalities: Theorizing Multiple Discrimination, Identity and Power
S Labor Rights in Global Economy
S Land Rights
S Language of DNA in the Domain of Legal Culture
S Law and Economics Workshop
S Law and Film Industry
S Law and Sports
S Law and the Music Industry
S Law, Economics, and Development
S Legal Interpretation
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Life, Liberty & Liability in the Digital Millennium
S Marriage as a Contract
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Non-Profit Institutions
S Problems in Legal Philosophy
S Protection of Natural Resources
S Role of the State Attorney General
S Selected Topics on the 4th Amendment
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S The Anatomy of Autonomy: From Personhood to Personification
S The Constitution and American Security
S The High-Profile Trial: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
S Third Party Opinions in Business Practice
S Topics in Jewish Law
S Transitional Justice
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S United Nations Peacekeeping
S Workshop in Briefcraft
S WTO Law
S. Readings in Legal Thought
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Criminal Appeals
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Immigration Law
Externship: US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of NY
Spanish for the Legal Profession (Intermediate)
SPRING
Constitutional Law, sec 1
Constitutional Law, sec 2
Constitutional Law, sec 3
Constitutional Law, sec 4
Criminal Law, sec 1
Criminal Law, sec 2
Criminal Law, sec 3
Criminal Law, sec 4
Property, sec 1
Property, sec 2
Property, sec 3
Property, sec 4
Art of Legal Persuasion
Ideas of the 1st Amendment
Law and Contemporary Society
Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders
Legislation
Principles of Intellectual Property
The United States & the International Legal System
Administrative Law
Advanced Constitutional Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Law & Political Process
Advanced Constitutional Law: Reading the Constitution
Advanced Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers and Other Problems
Advanced Corporate Law: Mergers and Acquisitions
Anatomy of the Large Law Firm
Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Bankruptcy Law
Capital Market Regulation
Civil Rights
Climate Change Law
Connections of Law & Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy
Corporate Taxation
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Deals: Public-Sector Problem Solving
Educational Policy Making & the Courts
Employment Discrimination Law
European Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
European Union Law & Institutions
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Income Tax, sec 1
Federal Income Tax, sec 2
Federal Indian Law
Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation
Health Law
Human Rights
International Environmental Law
International Finance: Law, Money and Banking in the Global Economy
International Law
International Taxation
Jurisprudence: Selected Problems
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Educational Institutions: Issues of Authority
Law and Legal Institutions in China
Legislative Behavior & Institutions
Private Investment Funds
Professional Responsibility
Professional Responsibility Issues in Business Practice
Professional Responsibility Issues in Public Interest Practice
Real Estate Transactions, sec 1
Real Estate Transactions, sec 2
Secured Transactions
Securities Regulation
Taxation of Financial Instruments
Telecommunications Law
Trademarks
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Chinese Law and Society
S Abortion: Law in Context
S Advanced Legal Research Techniques
S Advanced Patents
S Advanced Seminar on State Attorneys General
S Advanced Trial Practice, sec 2
S Aging and Disability Law
S Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law
S Asian Americans and the Law
S Civil Liberties and the Response to Terrorism
S Computers, Privacy, & the Law
S Constitutional Law of the UN
S Construction Industry Law
S Contemporary Corporate Law Scholarship: Reading Group
S Contemporary Issues in Business Law: South & North Korea
S Contemporary Issues in Corporate Reorganization
S Corporation and Modern Society
S Corporations in Court: An Inside Look at Major Corporate Cases
S Critical Race Theory
S Current Issues in Copyright
S Current Issues in European Union Law
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 3
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 4
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 5
S Deals Workshop: Transactional Legal Strategies, sec 2
S Derivatives Law and Regulation
S Diversity and Innovation
S Doctoral Workshop
S Domestic Violence and the Law
S Drafting Wills and Trusts
S Energy Law
S Enforcing International Law
S Environmental Litigation
S Federal Court Litigation: Trademark & Copyright Cases
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S First Amendment and the Institutional Press
S Immigration Law and Policy
S Insurance Law
S International Banking and Financial Law
S International Criminal Courts
S International Human Rights Advocacy
S International Humanitarian Law
S International Investment Law & Arbitration
S International Securities Regulation
S Interplay of Civil & Criminal Law
S Justice and Human Nature In An Era of Scientific Revolution
S Law and Policy of Homelessness
S Law and Theatre
S Law in Emerging Markets- Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States
S Law, Media and Public Policy
S Legal Aspects of US Foreign Economic Policy
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 6
S Nuremberg Trials and War Crimes Law
S Outlaws, Compliance, & Design of Legal Systems
S Patent Litigation
S Poverty
S Pre-trial Commercial Litigation
S Professional Responsibility
S Protection of Social & Economic Rights
S Public Law Workshop
S Publishing Law from Print to Digital
S Race and Poverty Law
S Readings in Legal Thought
S Religious Minorities in Supreme Court Litigation
S School Desegregation: US and East European Roma (Gypsies) compared
S Sexual Harassment in Employment: Policies & Practices
S Statistics for Lawyers
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S Strategies for Resolving Trust and Estate Planning Problems
S Topics in Criminal Prosecution and Defense
S Topics in Law & Sexuality
S Tort Theory
S Transnational Business and Human Rights
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S Trial Practice, sec 4
S Trial Problems of Major Current Cases
S University in American Life
S Use of Force in the International System
S Welfare Law - Legal Issues and Policy Choices
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Law Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Prisoners and Families Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Mediation Clinic 7 CARTER, ALEXANDRA
Prisoners and Families Clinic 5 GENTY, PHILIP
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic 7 GOLDBERG, SUZANNE
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Federal Prosecution
Externship: NYC Corporation Counsel
Externship: Pro Bono Practice and Design
Externship: United Nations
<blockquote>Triple M -- Are you saying I am lying? If you want more information, then say so, but don't tell me that I am lying because I don't need to lie in order to attract people to Columbia. I'm just participating in these forums so that people who have questions will be able to get some answers from the perspective of a student. I am not being paid by Columbia to answer these questions, and every post I make here detracts from the time that I can spend studying or enjoying New York. With messages like yours, I don't know why I even bother helping out here. I will most likely cut my participation here.
Columbia offers lots of courses, and lots of sections of those courses. There are four sections of the Corporations class, two sections of Securities, three Bankruptcy classes. Two sections of International Law, two sections of Admin Law. A list of the classes offered in the Fall and Spring semester are attached to my message below. As you can see from the sheer number of course offerings and sections of each offered course, it is possible to have classes where there are only 10 students. I know people who signed up for five classes where each class is only 20 or so students.
And you can't just consider LLMs. You have to think of the JDs also. LLMs are basically just sitting in JD classes. So a school can admit 95 LLMs but take in 2 million JDs (not that UPenn takes in 2 million JDs, but this is something to consider if you think that you will be taking Corporations with just five other students because the LLM program in the school where you were accepted takes in only 10 students).
Below is what you will miss out on in Columbia --
FALL
Civil Procedure, sec 1
Civil Procedure, sec 2
Civil Procedure, sec 3
Civil Procedure, sec 4
Civil Procedure, sec 5
Civil Procedure, sec 6
Contracts, sec 1
Contracts, sec 2
Contracts, sec 3
Contracts, sec 4
Contracts, sec 5
Contracts, sec 6
Contracts, sec 7
Contracts, sec 8
Torts, sec 1
Torts, sec 2
Torts, sec 3
Torts, sec 4
Torts, sec 5
Torts, sec 6
American Contract Law
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 3
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 4
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 5
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 6
Administrative Law
Adv. Con Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties
Advanced Corporate Law: Theories and Practice
Advanced Criminal Law: The Death Penalty
African Law and Development
American Legal History
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 1
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 2
Comparative Law
Connection of Law and Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Finance
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Employment Law
Environmental Law
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Criminal Law
Federal Income Tax
Financial Statement Analysis
Gender Justice
Global Constitutionalism
Ideas of the First Amendment
Immigration Law
International and Comparative Criminal Law
International Copyright Law
International Courts and Tribunals
International Financial Transactions
International Law
Labor Law
Land Use
Law and Education: Regulation, Religion, Free Speech and Safety
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Internet Society
Law of the WTO
Leadership for Lawyers
Legal Profession and Delivery of Legal Services
Legislation
Mass Torts
National Security Law
Partnership Taxation
Patents
Professional Responsibility, sec 1
Professional Responsibility, sec 2
Real Estate Finance
Securities and Capital Markets
State and Local Government Law
Terror & Consent
The Law of Genocide
The Law of Transactions
Tort, Terrorism, Crime
Transnational Litigation & Arbitration
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Comparative Law
C Tax Policy
S Access to Healthcare
S Administrative Law and the White House: Where Law, Public Policy, and Politics Collide
S Advanced Cilmate Change Law
S Advanced Tort Practice
S Advanced Trial Practice
S Animal Law
S Authors, Artists, and Performers
S Big Case: Tactics and Strategy
S Black Letter Law/White Collar Crime
S Business and Law of Health Care
S Capital Markets: Development, Structure, and Pol
S Church and State
S Comparative Corporate Capitalism
S Contemporary Issues in Federalism
S Contracts, Collaboration and Interpretation
S. Corporate Social Responsibility
S Corporate Transactional Taxation
S Deals Litigation
S Deals Workshop: Mergers and Acquisitions: Practi, sec 2
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Diversity and Innovation
S Democracy & Distribution
S Doctoral Workshop
S Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development
S False Advertising Law
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S Foreign Direct Investment and Public Policy
S Global Poverty and Human Rights: Selected Issues
S Governance in the European Union
S Housing Discrimination
S Human Rights and Contemporary Problems
S Human Rights and Question of Culture
S Human Rights Reparations under Domestic & Int'l Law
S Human Rights, Law and Development Workshop
S Informed Consent
S International Bus & Investment Transactions with China
S International Bus Trans in Latin Am
S International Securities Regulatiom
S Intersectionalities: Theorizing Multiple Discrimination, Identity and Power
S Labor Rights in Global Economy
S Land Rights
S Language of DNA in the Domain of Legal Culture
S Law and Economics Workshop
S Law and Film Industry
S Law and Sports
S Law and the Music Industry
S Law, Economics, and Development
S Legal Interpretation
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Life, Liberty & Liability in the Digital Millennium
S Marriage as a Contract
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Non-Profit Institutions
S Problems in Legal Philosophy
S Protection of Natural Resources
S Role of the State Attorney General
S Selected Topics on the 4th Amendment
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S The Anatomy of Autonomy: From Personhood to Personification
S The Constitution and American Security
S The High-Profile Trial: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
S Third Party Opinions in Business Practice
S Topics in Jewish Law
S Transitional Justice
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S United Nations Peacekeeping
S Workshop in Briefcraft
S WTO Law
S. Readings in Legal Thought
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Criminal Appeals
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Immigration Law
Externship: US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of NY
Spanish for the Legal Profession (Intermediate)
SPRING
Constitutional Law, sec 1
Constitutional Law, sec 2
Constitutional Law, sec 3
Constitutional Law, sec 4
Criminal Law, sec 1
Criminal Law, sec 2
Criminal Law, sec 3
Criminal Law, sec 4
Property, sec 1
Property, sec 2
Property, sec 3
Property, sec 4
Art of Legal Persuasion
Ideas of the 1st Amendment
Law and Contemporary Society
Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders
Legislation
Principles of Intellectual Property
The United States & the International Legal System
Administrative Law
Advanced Constitutional Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Law & Political Process
Advanced Constitutional Law: Reading the Constitution
Advanced Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers and Other Problems
Advanced Corporate Law: Mergers and Acquisitions
Anatomy of the Large Law Firm
Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Bankruptcy Law
Capital Market Regulation
Civil Rights
Climate Change Law
Connections of Law & Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy
Corporate Taxation
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Deals: Public-Sector Problem Solving
Educational Policy Making & the Courts
Employment Discrimination Law
European Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
European Union Law & Institutions
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Income Tax, sec 1
Federal Income Tax, sec 2
Federal Indian Law
Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation
Health Law
Human Rights
International Environmental Law
International Finance: Law, Money and Banking in the Global Economy
International Law
International Taxation
Jurisprudence: Selected Problems
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Educational Institutions: Issues of Authority
Law and Legal Institutions in China
Legislative Behavior & Institutions
Private Investment Funds
Professional Responsibility
Professional Responsibility Issues in Business Practice
Professional Responsibility Issues in Public Interest Practice
Real Estate Transactions, sec 1
Real Estate Transactions, sec 2
Secured Transactions
Securities Regulation
Taxation of Financial Instruments
Telecommunications Law
Trademarks
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Chinese Law and Society
S Abortion: Law in Context
S Advanced Legal Research Techniques
S Advanced Patents
S Advanced Seminar on State Attorneys General
S Advanced Trial Practice, sec 2
S Aging and Disability Law
S Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law
S Asian Americans and the Law
S Civil Liberties and the Response to Terrorism
S Computers, Privacy, & the Law
S Constitutional Law of the UN
S Construction Industry Law
S Contemporary Corporate Law Scholarship: Reading Group
S Contemporary Issues in Business Law: South & North Korea
S Contemporary Issues in Corporate Reorganization
S Corporation and Modern Society
S Corporations in Court: An Inside Look at Major Corporate Cases
S Critical Race Theory
S Current Issues in Copyright
S Current Issues in European Union Law
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 3
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 4
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 5
S Deals Workshop: Transactional Legal Strategies, sec 2
S Derivatives Law and Regulation
S Diversity and Innovation
S Doctoral Workshop
S Domestic Violence and the Law
S Drafting Wills and Trusts
S Energy Law
S Enforcing International Law
S Environmental Litigation
S Federal Court Litigation: Trademark & Copyright Cases
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S First Amendment and the Institutional Press
S Immigration Law and Policy
S Insurance Law
S International Banking and Financial Law
S International Criminal Courts
S International Human Rights Advocacy
S International Humanitarian Law
S International Investment Law & Arbitration
S International Securities Regulation
S Interplay of Civil & Criminal Law
S Justice and Human Nature In An Era of Scientific Revolution
S Law and Policy of Homelessness
S Law and Theatre
S Law in Emerging Markets- Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States
S Law, Media and Public Policy
S Legal Aspects of US Foreign Economic Policy
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 6
S Nuremberg Trials and War Crimes Law
S Outlaws, Compliance, & Design of Legal Systems
S Patent Litigation
S Poverty
S Pre-trial Commercial Litigation
S Professional Responsibility
S Protection of Social & Economic Rights
S Public Law Workshop
S Publishing Law from Print to Digital
S Race and Poverty Law
S Readings in Legal Thought
S Religious Minorities in Supreme Court Litigation
S School Desegregation: US and East European Roma (Gypsies) compared
S Sexual Harassment in Employment: Policies & Practices
S Statistics for Lawyers
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S Strategies for Resolving Trust and Estate Planning Problems
S Topics in Criminal Prosecution and Defense
S Topics in Law & Sexuality
S Tort Theory
S Transnational Business and Human Rights
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S Trial Practice, sec 4
S Trial Problems of Major Current Cases
S University in American Life
S Use of Force in the International System
S Welfare Law - Legal Issues and Policy Choices
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Law Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Prisoners and Families Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Mediation Clinic 7 CARTER, ALEXANDRA
Prisoners and Families Clinic 5 GENTY, PHILIP
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic 7 GOLDBERG, SUZANNE
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Federal Prosecution
Externship: NYC Corporation Counsel
Externship: Pro Bono Practice and Design
Externship: United Nations</blockquote>
Posted Apr 03, 2010 16:22
Haha, Triple M, you were PWNED supremely by michaelcorleone and lost_applicant.
For your future reference (in reading comprehension exams):
REQUEST FOR EXPLANATION: Please tell me how Columbia can have 20 students to one class if it accepts 300 LLM students.
INSINUATION OF LYING AND STUPIDITY: "could you please explain this to me, how do you compare an LL.M. class that admits over 300 candidates and one that limits itself to 95? Is that a fair comparison? [...] so are you saying that its the same, 300=95 since most classes are seminar and you can end up in a size ten class? How is that even possible? Logic dictates that a class that admits over 300 people will not be able to have a smaller seminar even if a course is highly unpopular, this is a ration of nearly 3:1. Comparing oranges to apples?
Michael-I just asked for an explanation, I did not insinuate anywhere you where lying now, did I?Triple M -- Are you saying I am lying? If you want more information, then say so, but don't tell me that I am lying because I don't need to lie in order to attract people to Columbia. I'm just participating in these forums so that people who have questions will be able to get some answers from the perspective of a student. I am not being paid by Columbia to answer these questions, and every post I make here detracts from the time that I can spend studying or enjoying New York. With messages like yours, I don't know why I even bother helping out here. I will most likely cut my participation here.
Columbia offers lots of courses, and lots of sections of those courses. There are four sections of the Corporations class, two sections of Securities, three Bankruptcy classes. Two sections of International Law, two sections of Admin Law. A list of the classes offered in the Fall and Spring semester are attached to my message below. As you can see from the sheer number of course offerings and sections of each offered course, it is possible to have classes where there are only 10 students. I know people who signed up for five classes where each class is only 20 or so students.
And you can't just consider LLMs. You have to think of the JDs also. LLMs are basically just sitting in JD classes. So a school can admit 95 LLMs but take in 2 million JDs (not that UPenn takes in 2 million JDs, but this is something to consider if you think that you will be taking Corporations with just five other students because the LLM program in the school where you were accepted takes in only 10 students).
Below is what you will miss out on in Columbia --
FALL
Civil Procedure, sec 1
Civil Procedure, sec 2
Civil Procedure, sec 3
Civil Procedure, sec 4
Civil Procedure, sec 5
Civil Procedure, sec 6
Contracts, sec 1
Contracts, sec 2
Contracts, sec 3
Contracts, sec 4
Contracts, sec 5
Contracts, sec 6
Contracts, sec 7
Contracts, sec 8
Torts, sec 1
Torts, sec 2
Torts, sec 3
Torts, sec 4
Torts, sec 5
Torts, sec 6
American Contract Law
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 3
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 4
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 5
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 6
Administrative Law
Adv. Con Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties
Advanced Corporate Law: Theories and Practice
Advanced Criminal Law: The Death Penalty
African Law and Development
American Legal History
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 1
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 2
Comparative Law
Connection of Law and Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Finance
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Employment Law
Environmental Law
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Criminal Law
Federal Income Tax
Financial Statement Analysis
Gender Justice
Global Constitutionalism
Ideas of the First Amendment
Immigration Law
International and Comparative Criminal Law
International Copyright Law
International Courts and Tribunals
International Financial Transactions
International Law
Labor Law
Land Use
Law and Education: Regulation, Religion, Free Speech and Safety
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Internet Society
Law of the WTO
Leadership for Lawyers
Legal Profession and Delivery of Legal Services
Legislation
Mass Torts
National Security Law
Partnership Taxation
Patents
Professional Responsibility, sec 1
Professional Responsibility, sec 2
Real Estate Finance
Securities and Capital Markets
State and Local Government Law
Terror & Consent
The Law of Genocide
The Law of Transactions
Tort, Terrorism, Crime
Transnational Litigation & Arbitration
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Comparative Law
C Tax Policy
S Access to Healthcare
S Administrative Law and the White House: Where Law, Public Policy, and Politics Collide
S Advanced Cilmate Change Law
S Advanced Tort Practice
S Advanced Trial Practice
S Animal Law
S Authors, Artists, and Performers
S Big Case: Tactics and Strategy
S Black Letter Law/White Collar Crime
S Business and Law of Health Care
S Capital Markets: Development, Structure, and Pol
S Church and State
S Comparative Corporate Capitalism
S Contemporary Issues in Federalism
S Contracts, Collaboration and Interpretation
S. Corporate Social Responsibility
S Corporate Transactional Taxation
S Deals Litigation
S Deals Workshop: Mergers and Acquisitions: Practi, sec 2
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Diversity and Innovation
S Democracy & Distribution
S Doctoral Workshop
S Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development
S False Advertising Law
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S Foreign Direct Investment and Public Policy
S Global Poverty and Human Rights: Selected Issues
S Governance in the European Union
S Housing Discrimination
S Human Rights and Contemporary Problems
S Human Rights and Question of Culture
S Human Rights Reparations under Domestic & Int'l Law
S Human Rights, Law and Development Workshop
S Informed Consent
S International Bus & Investment Transactions with China
S International Bus Trans in Latin Am
S International Securities Regulatiom
S Intersectionalities: Theorizing Multiple Discrimination, Identity and Power
S Labor Rights in Global Economy
S Land Rights
S Language of DNA in the Domain of Legal Culture
S Law and Economics Workshop
S Law and Film Industry
S Law and Sports
S Law and the Music Industry
S Law, Economics, and Development
S Legal Interpretation
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Life, Liberty & Liability in the Digital Millennium
S Marriage as a Contract
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Non-Profit Institutions
S Problems in Legal Philosophy
S Protection of Natural Resources
S Role of the State Attorney General
S Selected Topics on the 4th Amendment
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S The Anatomy of Autonomy: From Personhood to Personification
S The Constitution and American Security
S The High-Profile Trial: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
S Third Party Opinions in Business Practice
S Topics in Jewish Law
S Transitional Justice
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S United Nations Peacekeeping
S Workshop in Briefcraft
S WTO Law
S. Readings in Legal Thought
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Criminal Appeals
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Immigration Law
Externship: US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of NY
Spanish for the Legal Profession (Intermediate)
SPRING
Constitutional Law, sec 1
Constitutional Law, sec 2
Constitutional Law, sec 3
Constitutional Law, sec 4
Criminal Law, sec 1
Criminal Law, sec 2
Criminal Law, sec 3
Criminal Law, sec 4
Property, sec 1
Property, sec 2
Property, sec 3
Property, sec 4
Art of Legal Persuasion
Ideas of the 1st Amendment
Law and Contemporary Society
Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders
Legislation
Principles of Intellectual Property
The United States & the International Legal System
Administrative Law
Advanced Constitutional Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Law & Political Process
Advanced Constitutional Law: Reading the Constitution
Advanced Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers and Other Problems
Advanced Corporate Law: Mergers and Acquisitions
Anatomy of the Large Law Firm
Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Bankruptcy Law
Capital Market Regulation
Civil Rights
Climate Change Law
Connections of Law & Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy
Corporate Taxation
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Deals: Public-Sector Problem Solving
Educational Policy Making & the Courts
Employment Discrimination Law
European Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
European Union Law & Institutions
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Income Tax, sec 1
Federal Income Tax, sec 2
Federal Indian Law
Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation
Health Law
Human Rights
International Environmental Law
International Finance: Law, Money and Banking in the Global Economy
International Law
International Taxation
Jurisprudence: Selected Problems
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Educational Institutions: Issues of Authority
Law and Legal Institutions in China
Legislative Behavior & Institutions
Private Investment Funds
Professional Responsibility
Professional Responsibility Issues in Business Practice
Professional Responsibility Issues in Public Interest Practice
Real Estate Transactions, sec 1
Real Estate Transactions, sec 2
Secured Transactions
Securities Regulation
Taxation of Financial Instruments
Telecommunications Law
Trademarks
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Chinese Law and Society
S Abortion: Law in Context
S Advanced Legal Research Techniques
S Advanced Patents
S Advanced Seminar on State Attorneys General
S Advanced Trial Practice, sec 2
S Aging and Disability Law
S Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law
S Asian Americans and the Law
S Civil Liberties and the Response to Terrorism
S Computers, Privacy, & the Law
S Constitutional Law of the UN
S Construction Industry Law
S Contemporary Corporate Law Scholarship: Reading Group
S Contemporary Issues in Business Law: South & North Korea
S Contemporary Issues in Corporate Reorganization
S Corporation and Modern Society
S Corporations in Court: An Inside Look at Major Corporate Cases
S Critical Race Theory
S Current Issues in Copyright
S Current Issues in European Union Law
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 3
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 4
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 5
S Deals Workshop: Transactional Legal Strategies, sec 2
S Derivatives Law and Regulation
S Diversity and Innovation
S Doctoral Workshop
S Domestic Violence and the Law
S Drafting Wills and Trusts
S Energy Law
S Enforcing International Law
S Environmental Litigation
S Federal Court Litigation: Trademark & Copyright Cases
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S First Amendment and the Institutional Press
S Immigration Law and Policy
S Insurance Law
S International Banking and Financial Law
S International Criminal Courts
S International Human Rights Advocacy
S International Humanitarian Law
S International Investment Law & Arbitration
S International Securities Regulation
S Interplay of Civil & Criminal Law
S Justice and Human Nature In An Era of Scientific Revolution
S Law and Policy of Homelessness
S Law and Theatre
S Law in Emerging Markets- Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States
S Law, Media and Public Policy
S Legal Aspects of US Foreign Economic Policy
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 6
S Nuremberg Trials and War Crimes Law
S Outlaws, Compliance, & Design of Legal Systems
S Patent Litigation
S Poverty
S Pre-trial Commercial Litigation
S Professional Responsibility
S Protection of Social & Economic Rights
S Public Law Workshop
S Publishing Law from Print to Digital
S Race and Poverty Law
S Readings in Legal Thought
S Religious Minorities in Supreme Court Litigation
S School Desegregation: US and East European Roma (Gypsies) compared
S Sexual Harassment in Employment: Policies & Practices
S Statistics for Lawyers
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S Strategies for Resolving Trust and Estate Planning Problems
S Topics in Criminal Prosecution and Defense
S Topics in Law & Sexuality
S Tort Theory
S Transnational Business and Human Rights
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S Trial Practice, sec 4
S Trial Problems of Major Current Cases
S University in American Life
S Use of Force in the International System
S Welfare Law - Legal Issues and Policy Choices
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Law Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Prisoners and Families Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Mediation Clinic 7 CARTER, ALEXANDRA
Prisoners and Families Clinic 5 GENTY, PHILIP
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic 7 GOLDBERG, SUZANNE
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Federal Prosecution
Externship: NYC Corporation Counsel
Externship: Pro Bono Practice and Design
Externship: United Nations
For your future reference (in reading comprehension exams):
REQUEST FOR EXPLANATION: Please tell me how Columbia can have 20 students to one class if it accepts 300 LLM students.
INSINUATION OF LYING AND STUPIDITY: "could you please explain this to me, how do you compare an LL.M. class that admits over 300 candidates and one that limits itself to 95? Is that a fair comparison? [...] so are you saying that its the same, 300=95 since most classes are seminar and you can end up in a size ten class? How is that even possible? Logic dictates that a class that admits over 300 people will not be able to have a smaller seminar even if a course is highly unpopular, this is a ration of nearly 3:1. Comparing oranges to apples?
<blockquote>Michael-I just asked for an explanation, I did not insinuate anywhere you where lying now, did I?
<blockquote>Triple M -- Are you saying I am lying? If you want more information, then say so, but don't tell me that I am lying because I don't need to lie in order to attract people to Columbia. I'm just participating in these forums so that people who have questions will be able to get some answers from the perspective of a student. I am not being paid by Columbia to answer these questions, and every post I make here detracts from the time that I can spend studying or enjoying New York. With messages like yours, I don't know why I even bother helping out here. I will most likely cut my participation here.
Columbia offers lots of courses, and lots of sections of those courses. There are four sections of the Corporations class, two sections of Securities, three Bankruptcy classes. Two sections of International Law, two sections of Admin Law. A list of the classes offered in the Fall and Spring semester are attached to my message below. As you can see from the sheer number of course offerings and sections of each offered course, it is possible to have classes where there are only 10 students. I know people who signed up for five classes where each class is only 20 or so students.
And you can't just consider LLMs. You have to think of the JDs also. LLMs are basically just sitting in JD classes. So a school can admit 95 LLMs but take in 2 million JDs (not that UPenn takes in 2 million JDs, but this is something to consider if you think that you will be taking Corporations with just five other students because the LLM program in the school where you were accepted takes in only 10 students).
Below is what you will miss out on in Columbia --
FALL
Civil Procedure, sec 1
Civil Procedure, sec 2
Civil Procedure, sec 3
Civil Procedure, sec 4
Civil Procedure, sec 5
Civil Procedure, sec 6
Contracts, sec 1
Contracts, sec 2
Contracts, sec 3
Contracts, sec 4
Contracts, sec 5
Contracts, sec 6
Contracts, sec 7
Contracts, sec 8
Torts, sec 1
Torts, sec 2
Torts, sec 3
Torts, sec 4
Torts, sec 5
Torts, sec 6
American Contract Law
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 3
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 4
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 5
A Comparative Introduction to American Law, sec 6
Administrative Law
Adv. Con Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties
Advanced Corporate Law: Theories and Practice
Advanced Criminal Law: The Death Penalty
African Law and Development
American Legal History
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 1
Antitrust and Trade Regulation, sec 2
Comparative Law
Connection of Law and Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Finance
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Employment Law
Environmental Law
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Criminal Law
Federal Income Tax
Financial Statement Analysis
Gender Justice
Global Constitutionalism
Ideas of the First Amendment
Immigration Law
International and Comparative Criminal Law
International Copyright Law
International Courts and Tribunals
International Financial Transactions
International Law
Labor Law
Land Use
Law and Education: Regulation, Religion, Free Speech and Safety
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Internet Society
Law of the WTO
Leadership for Lawyers
Legal Profession and Delivery of Legal Services
Legislation
Mass Torts
National Security Law
Partnership Taxation
Patents
Professional Responsibility, sec 1
Professional Responsibility, sec 2
Real Estate Finance
Securities and Capital Markets
State and Local Government Law
Terror & Consent
The Law of Genocide
The Law of Transactions
Tort, Terrorism, Crime
Transnational Litigation & Arbitration
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Comparative Law
C Tax Policy
S Access to Healthcare
S Administrative Law and the White House: Where Law, Public Policy, and Politics Collide
S Advanced Cilmate Change Law
S Advanced Tort Practice
S Advanced Trial Practice
S Animal Law
S Authors, Artists, and Performers
S Big Case: Tactics and Strategy
S Black Letter Law/White Collar Crime
S Business and Law of Health Care
S Capital Markets: Development, Structure, and Pol
S Church and State
S Comparative Corporate Capitalism
S Contemporary Issues in Federalism
S Contracts, Collaboration and Interpretation
S. Corporate Social Responsibility
S Corporate Transactional Taxation
S Deals Litigation
S Deals Workshop: Mergers and Acquisitions: Practi, sec 2
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Diversity and Innovation
S Democracy & Distribution
S Doctoral Workshop
S Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development
S False Advertising Law
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S Foreign Direct Investment and Public Policy
S Global Poverty and Human Rights: Selected Issues
S Governance in the European Union
S Housing Discrimination
S Human Rights and Contemporary Problems
S Human Rights and Question of Culture
S Human Rights Reparations under Domestic & Int'l Law
S Human Rights, Law and Development Workshop
S Informed Consent
S International Bus & Investment Transactions with China
S International Bus Trans in Latin Am
S International Securities Regulatiom
S Intersectionalities: Theorizing Multiple Discrimination, Identity and Power
S Labor Rights in Global Economy
S Land Rights
S Language of DNA in the Domain of Legal Culture
S Law and Economics Workshop
S Law and Film Industry
S Law and Sports
S Law and the Music Industry
S Law, Economics, and Development
S Legal Interpretation
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Life, Liberty & Liability in the Digital Millennium
S Marriage as a Contract
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Non-Profit Institutions
S Problems in Legal Philosophy
S Protection of Natural Resources
S Role of the State Attorney General
S Selected Topics on the 4th Amendment
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S The Anatomy of Autonomy: From Personhood to Personification
S The Constitution and American Security
S The High-Profile Trial: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
S Third Party Opinions in Business Practice
S Topics in Jewish Law
S Transitional Justice
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S United Nations Peacekeeping
S Workshop in Briefcraft
S WTO Law
S. Readings in Legal Thought
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Criminal Appeals
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Immigration Law
Externship: US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of NY
Spanish for the Legal Profession (Intermediate)
SPRING
Constitutional Law, sec 1
Constitutional Law, sec 2
Constitutional Law, sec 3
Constitutional Law, sec 4
Criminal Law, sec 1
Criminal Law, sec 2
Criminal Law, sec 3
Criminal Law, sec 4
Property, sec 1
Property, sec 2
Property, sec 3
Property, sec 4
Art of Legal Persuasion
Ideas of the 1st Amendment
Law and Contemporary Society
Lawyering Across Multiple Legal Orders
Legislation
Principles of Intellectual Property
The United States & the International Legal System
Administrative Law
Advanced Constitutional Law: Equal Protection
Advanced Constitutional Law: Law & Political Process
Advanced Constitutional Law: Reading the Constitution
Advanced Constitutional Law: Separation of Powers and Other Problems
Advanced Corporate Law: Mergers and Acquisitions
Anatomy of the Large Law Firm
Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Bankruptcy Law
Capital Market Regulation
Civil Rights
Climate Change Law
Connections of Law & Literature
Copyright Law
Corporate Reorganization and Bankruptcy
Corporate Taxation
Corporations, sec 1
Corporations, sec 2
Criminal Adjudication
Deals
Deals: Public-Sector Problem Solving
Educational Policy Making & the Courts
Employment Discrimination Law
European Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
European Union Law & Institutions
Evidence, sec 1
Evidence, sec 2
Family Law
Federal Courts
Federal Income Tax, sec 1
Federal Income Tax, sec 2
Federal Indian Law
Financial Statement Analysis and Interpretation
Health Law
Human Rights
International Environmental Law
International Finance: Law, Money and Banking in the Global Economy
International Law
International Taxation
Jurisprudence: Selected Problems
Law and Educational Institutions: Equity Issues
Law and Educational Institutions: Issues of Authority
Law and Legal Institutions in China
Legislative Behavior & Institutions
Private Investment Funds
Professional Responsibility
Professional Responsibility Issues in Business Practice
Professional Responsibility Issues in Public Interest Practice
Real Estate Transactions, sec 1
Real Estate Transactions, sec 2
Secured Transactions
Securities Regulation
Taxation of Financial Instruments
Telecommunications Law
Trademarks
Trusts, Estates, and Estate Planning
C Chinese Law and Society
S Abortion: Law in Context
S Advanced Legal Research Techniques
S Advanced Patents
S Advanced Seminar on State Attorneys General
S Advanced Trial Practice, sec 2
S Aging and Disability Law
S Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law
S Asian Americans and the Law
S Civil Liberties and the Response to Terrorism
S Computers, Privacy, & the Law
S Constitutional Law of the UN
S Construction Industry Law
S Contemporary Corporate Law Scholarship: Reading Group
S Contemporary Issues in Business Law: South & North Korea
S Contemporary Issues in Corporate Reorganization
S Corporation and Modern Society
S Corporations in Court: An Inside Look at Major Corporate Cases
S Critical Race Theory
S Current Issues in Copyright
S Current Issues in European Union Law
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 1
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 3
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 4
S Deals Workshop: The Art of the Deal, sec 5
S Deals Workshop: Transactional Legal Strategies, sec 2
S Derivatives Law and Regulation
S Diversity and Innovation
S Doctoral Workshop
S Domestic Violence and the Law
S Drafting Wills and Trusts
S Energy Law
S Enforcing International Law
S Environmental Litigation
S Federal Court Litigation: Trademark & Copyright Cases
S Feminist Legal Theory Workshop
S First Amendment and the Institutional Press
S Immigration Law and Policy
S Insurance Law
S International Banking and Financial Law
S International Criminal Courts
S International Human Rights Advocacy
S International Humanitarian Law
S International Investment Law & Arbitration
S International Securities Regulation
S Interplay of Civil & Criminal Law
S Justice and Human Nature In An Era of Scientific Revolution
S Law and Policy of Homelessness
S Law and Theatre
S Law in Emerging Markets- Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States
S Law, Media and Public Policy
S Legal Aspects of US Foreign Economic Policy
S Legal Theory Workshop
S Legal Theory Workshop, Discussion
S Mental Health Law
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 1
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 2
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 3
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 4
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 5
S Negotiation Workshop, sec 6
S Nuremberg Trials and War Crimes Law
S Outlaws, Compliance, & Design of Legal Systems
S Patent Litigation
S Poverty
S Pre-trial Commercial Litigation
S Professional Responsibility
S Protection of Social & Economic Rights
S Public Law Workshop
S Publishing Law from Print to Digital
S Race and Poverty Law
S Readings in Legal Thought
S Religious Minorities in Supreme Court Litigation
S School Desegregation: US and East European Roma (Gypsies) compared
S Sexual Harassment in Employment: Policies & Practices
S Statistics for Lawyers
S Strategic International Commercial Transactions
S Strategies for Resolving Trust and Estate Planning Problems
S Topics in Criminal Prosecution and Defense
S Topics in Law & Sexuality
S Tort Theory
S Transnational Business and Human Rights
S Trial Practice, sec 1
S Trial Practice, sec 2
S Trial Practice, sec 3
S Trial Practice, sec 4
S Trial Problems of Major Current Cases
S University in American Life
S Use of Force in the International System
S Welfare Law - Legal Issues and Policy Choices
Child Advocacy Clinic
Environmental Law Clinic
Human Rights Clinic
Lawyering in the Digital Age
Mediation Clinic
Prisoners and Families Clinic
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic
Mediation Clinic 7 CARTER, ALEXANDRA
Prisoners and Families Clinic 5 GENTY, PHILIP
Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic 7 GOLDBERG, SUZANNE
Externship: Arts Law
Externship: Community Defense
Externship: Federal Appellate Court
Externship: Federal Court Clerk
Externship: Federal Prosecution
Externship: NYC Corporation Counsel
Externship: Pro Bono Practice and Design
Externship: United Nations</blockquote></blockquote>
Posted Apr 03, 2010 19:16
COME ON sophia_abrenica, PWNED? Now, I must be getting all messed up. Ok here goes.
Penn admits 95 LL.M's, CLS admits 330, that is a ratio actually of about 4:1.
Michael 'PAWNED' me by putting a list of courses at CLS, assuming here that the courses at CLS are so many, the over 300 students will get a teacher to student ratio that is similar to Penn. Oh, and do not forget Penn LL.M's also have the option of studying at Wharton, and essentially getting an Executive MBA from one of the most recognized business schools in the world in addition to their LL.M.
Herein are the courses offered at Penn for a class of 95 LL.M's.
ALPHABETICAL COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
(S) = Seminar
1L Legal Writing Instructor: Yearlong
3.5 sem. hrs.
Legal Writing Instructors and Legal Writing Fellows only.
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Accounting
2 sem. hrs.
This course is designed to provide the student with an understanding of the basic fundamentals of accounting, emphasizing the nature and purpose of financial statements. The course will focus on legal problems that lawyers and their clients should consider in using and relying on financial statements and not on the technical aspects of preparing financial records and financial statements. No prior background in bookkeeping or accounting is necessary. The course's format will be approximately 50% lectures, 50% Socratic. The takeaway exam will be a combination of short-answer, essay and multiple-choice questions.
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Administrative Law
3 sem. hrs.
We live in an administrative state, populated by thousands of governmental bodies that collectively exercise pervasive authority over the entire economy and the lives of every citizen. Unlike courts, which enjoy explicit constitutional independence, administrative agencies constitute a more constitutionally ambiguous fourth branch of government. Also unlike courts, most agencies have authority to wield a wide variety of regulatory powers other than adjudication, including rulemaking, licensing, advice-giving, and prosecution. Administrative law is the body of constitutional, statutory, executive, and common law principles that constrain and thereby seek to legitimate the exercise of these powers. This course will provide a critical examination of these principles, preparing you for the inevitable encounters lawyers have with administrative agencies in their professional practice. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.
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Adv Issues in Priv Fin & Corp Reorg - Yearlong (S)
1.5 sem. hrs.
This seminar will address topics in private financing and corporate reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The principal emphasis will be on student research; a written research paper (which may satisfy the senior writing requirement) will be required. Students will be required to select a paper topic and submit a brief abstract before December 1, 2008. The instructor will be available in during the fall term consult with students about the selection of a topic. There also will be one or more organizational meetings in the fall term. Beginning after spring break seminar meetings will be devoted to students' presentations of their research and discussions by the seminar participants. Students wishing credit for the senior writing requirement must submit an initial draft for my review and comment by the week following spring break. All final papers will be due no less than five days before grades are due in the Registrar's Office for graduating students. THIS IS A FULL-YEAR SEMINAR AND STUDENTS MUST ENROLL FOR BOTH SEMESTERS.
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Advanced Business Law: Understanding Business Law Scholarship (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course is designed to introduce the student to current academic research and scholarship on a range of business law topics. Students will read 6-8 works in progress by leading academics, and then attend workshop sessions in which the authors present their work. Prepatory sessions will focus on background readings that enable students to understand the scholarship in context. Students are expected to write short (approximately 5 page) position papers analyzing each of the papers presented and to participate actively in the discussion sessions. Students may complete the writing requirement and receive an additional credit by writing a research paper. Several sessions of this class will be cancelled, including October 9th. Make-up sessions will be announced. Corporations is required as a pre-requisite or co-requisite.
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Advanced Constitutional Law
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on topics not covered or covered slightly, in the first-year constitutional law course. There will be some, but hopefully not much, overlap with other advanced elective courses. Emphasis will be placed on important current issues and recent or pending cases. Among the topics, or subject areas, to be discussed: Civil liberties in the Age of Terrorism; immigration, citizenship and alien rights; congressional enforcement of the reconstruction amendments; new developments in racial equality (e.g., Michigan) sexuality and the constitution (e.g. Lawrence); religion and the First Amendment; the distribution of national power; commerce clause limitations on state power; congressional regulation of the political process. This list is not set in stone; there may be additions or subtractions.
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Advanced Criminal Law
3 sem. hrs.
This term's Advanced Criminal Law course will have three components. The largest will be work for the Pennsylvania Legislature in doing a study of the penalty inconsistencies in current Pennsylvania criminal law. The work is aimed toward writing legislation that will rationalize offense penalties and grades throughout the Pennsylvania Code. The class will work with the members and staff of the Democratically-controlled House Judiciary Committee and the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. A second class component will be a study of the competing arguments for how criminal liability and punishment should be distributed: a theoretical analysis of who should be punished how much. After reading Distributive Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford 2008), each student will present and defend her own distributive principle proposal. Finally, throughout the term, students will serve as prosecutors and defense counsel for a series of real-world case studies that present issues of special theoretical and practical importance, drawn from Criminal Law Case Studies, 3d edition (West 2007). Any student wishing to enroll in this class must be present at the first class meeting.
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Advanced Legal Research
1 sem. hrs.
Advanced Legal Research. 1 sem. hr. George and Greenlee. QIII. Spring. This course is designed to permit students to master the legal research skills they started exploring in the first year legal writing course. An emphasis will be placed on problem analysis and efficient research strategies, including the ability to take full advantage of all the options the various online sources offer. Topics covered include administrative materials, legislative history, specialized subject resources, the use of indices and controlled vocabularies, and electronic resources beyond Westlaw and Lexis. The course is strongly recommended for anyone wanting to strengthen his or her skills with legal research for whatever reason, including serving as a Legal Writing Instructor or as an editor journal or preparing for employment during the summer or after graduation. Students will complete 2-4 brief papers (1-3 pp) comparing aspects of different resources or research strategies and a 15-20 page pathfinder on a topic of your choice. A pathfinder is a bibliographic/legal essay recommending a research strategy on a particular topic and will permit you to explore all the resources in depth on a topic of your own interest. The pathfinder will be due approximately one month after the last class.
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Advanced Problems in Federal Procedure (S)
3 sem. hrs.
Study of selected problems in federal procedure, particularly complex litigation and discovery. There will be no exam. Each student will give two brief class presentations on selected readings. Each student will write a final paper, and will make a class presentation concerning his or her paper topic towards the end of the course. With instructors' prior permission, the final paper can be used to fulfill the senior writing requirement.
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Advanced Seminar in Local Government Law (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course will address certain core topics in the area of local government law through a focus on the laws governing The City of Philadelphia. Among the topics we will examine are the separation of powers between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its largest City, Philadelphia, including the extent of the Citys home rule powers and the issue of state preemption of local laws with a focus on campaign finance limits and gun control laws. In addition, the course will examine topics involving the separation of powers within the City government itself, primarily between Philadelphias City Council and its Mayor, but also in regard to other internal divisions of power and tensions in decision-making. Finally, the class will look at such important local government topics as land use planning (zoning), economic development, family law, housing policy, civil rights, and the First Amendment. In addition to examining the nuts and bolts of law and policy in these areas, the class will also look at these issues from a theoretical perspective: Why are certain decisions made (or why should they be made) at a certain level of government? What are the socioeconomic and political theories that provide the best explanation of the legal and policy outcomes in these areas? A few visiting presenters will be invited to provide expert and insider views on some of these issues. Class participation will account for about a third of the grade for the course, and attendance is important in that regard. A variety of reading materials (cases, articles, book excerpts, essays) will be assigned, but there will be no assigned text. The course will require the submission of three short papers on topics related to the issues and theories addressed in class. The papers will not require significant, if any, legal research, but may require personal observation of, or inquiry into, current Philadelphia local government matters. Students who have taken Local Government Law (Pritchett) are encouraged to enroll.
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Advanced Topics in Commercial Real Estate Seminar (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar is designed to introduce students to the variety and fluidity of structures in today's commercial real estate transactions and the lawyer's role in "structuring and negotiating the deal," taking into account the current state of the commercial real estate market. In the first part of the course, the students will get an overview of the impact of the capital markets crisis on commercial real estate transactions and real estate development, as well as an overview of the lenders forced to acquire the property securing their financing. Subsequently, the course will involve an examination and discussion of shopping center and mixed use development, acquisition, sale and leasing, including, the legal issues inherent in obtaining the entitlements, structuring the acquisition, the role of the lender as simply a source of financing or as an equity partner, and the legal relationships and conflicts among developers, contractors, architects, tenants, lenders, Wall Street, surety companies, hotel franchising companies and management companies. The exams will consist of a paper on selected topics. One or more paper topics will require research into points of law discussed in the earlier part of the course; other paper topics will involve creative analysis and deal structuring using tools learned in class and from the textbook.
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Advanced Topics in Corporate Law (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar will analyze the canonical cases in corporate law. The text for the course is a recently published volume that provides a substantive analysis of the cases. The reading list will also include major cases that led up to the decision or that subsequently relied on the decision to further develop the emerging doctrine. Finally, the reading list will cover some of Vice Chancellor Strine's emblematic decisions. Students will be reading the cases in their entirety which will provide a better understanding of the structure of Delaware corporate law. Students are expected to attend class and participate actively in seminar discussion. In addition, students will be expected to write a paper based on a case not covered in the class, but using the format of the text. The paper will thus provide a substantive discussion of the doctrine as well as the history surrounding the case. The grade in the class will be based 50% on class participation and 50% on the paper.
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Advising the Board of Directors
2 sem. hrs.
A director of a Delaware corporation owes just two fiduciary duties (care and loyalty) to the corporation and its stockholders. Although these duties are easily articulated, it is generally far more challenging to explain what board conduct is required to satisfy these duties. As a result, when a Delaware court considers challenges to the boards actions in the M&A setting, the courts analysis is particularly nuanced and contextually specific. This course will examine some of the issues corporate boards confront, including (i) addressing board and management conflicts, (ii) selecting financial and legal advisors, (iii) engaging in a sales process, (iv) preparing for and responding to hostile bidders, (v) anticipating (and responding to) litigation, (vi) dealing with activist stockholders, (vii) navigating the tensions between different corporate constituencies, and (viii) managing a business in a distressed economic environment. The goal of the course will focus on the advice that counsel should provide to a corporate board in each context. The instructors for this course include the Honorable Myron T. Steele, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware and a former Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, and Mark A. Morton, a Delaware transactional attorney with more than 20 years of experience. The course materials will include abstracts from relevant cases, treatises, articles and law firm memos. On several occasions during the course of the semester, the instructors will invite partners from some of the nations leading firms to participate in a panel discussion. Course grades will be based on one take away at the end of the semester. Class participation will be expected.
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American Trials (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course will examine prominent trials of the 20th century that were impacted by and had an impact on our culture. The course will be interdisciplinary. We will read and view actual trial materials as well as literature, journalism, history, and films that grew out of the trials. The goal is to discuss the ways in which the lawyers molded the stories they told to fit the time, politically and socially, and how the trial itself then affected society and was depicted in various media. The reading for the course will be heavy but enjoyable, and films may be screened outside the normal class time. Consistent class participation and attendance are required. Students will write a paper for each of the six trials we study and give one presentation. Five of the papers will be short (3-4 pages), and one will be longer (10-15 pages). With the permission of the instructor, a 20-page seminar paper may be written in lieu of two of the papers to fulfill the senior writing requirement. Drop/add will end on Friday, January 16 at 4:00 p.m.
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Analytical Methods in the Law
3 sem. hrs.
Familiarity with quantitative reasoning and statistics is increasingly an important part of a lawyers job. This course will prepare students to understand the use of and to apply quantitative tools from statistics, finance, and economics to problems of legal importance. Topics covered include decision analysis, hypothesis testing, linear regression, game theory, microeconomics, and finance. Legal applications include litigation, negotiation, environmental law, corporate law, criminal law, employment law, antitrust, and intellectual property. In addition to a main textbook, sources for course material are drawn from legal cases, scientific studies, and journal and newspaper articles. The goal of the course is for students to develop their quantitative intuition through practical application, including the use of computer tools such as Excel. No specific mathematics background is required, and students with little or no quantitative coursework are especially encouraged to take the course. Students with more extensive math or economics backgrounds should consult with the professor to determine whether the course is appropriate.
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Anatomy of a Divorce
2 sem. hrs.
More than 50% of the marriages in this country end in divorce; the percentage is even higher in many countries outside of the United States. Besides its emotional and financial impact on the divorcing parties, the transfers of wealth attendant to marital dissolutions have substantial economic consequences on society at large with the property subject to distribution in divorce expanding to include career achievements or career potential, celebrity status, enhanced earning capacity, license and degrees. This course provides exposure to the dynamic process of representing the spectrum of clients, including same-sex couples, in a dissolution of marriage case and the unique issues, such as dealing with the media, gag orders, and seeking to close courtrooms to shield children when representing high-profile and high net worth individuals. Topics are covered from the perspective of a practicing lawyer and include: initial client interviews and retention, jurisdiction and choice of law issues, child custody and visitation, the interplay between the Court and matrimonial attorneys, mental health issues, temporary and permanent maintenance for spouses and support for children, awards of attorney and expert fees, the nature of property subject to division and distribution, the valuation process, unique issues raised by certain types of property, effects of bankruptcy, pre- and post-marital agreements, negotiating and drafting marital settlement agreements, pre-trial discovery preparation for and conduct of trial, and Federal tax aspects of marital dissolution. Guest lecturers may include a sitting matrimonial judge, a forensic accountant and a former client.
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Anatomy of a Merger
2 sem. hrs.
This class will focus on a single transaction (probably the acquisition of TXU by a private equity consortium led by KKR and TPG) to frame the legal issues that often arise in connection with the sale of a public company by merger, including confidentiality agreements, laws applicable to the disclosure of merger proposals and negotiations, duties of directors, reason for and role of special committees of directors, structure of merger agreements generally and with private equity buyers in particular, typical merger agreement issues, acquisition financing issues, post-announcement shareholder litigation, rules applicable to merger disclosure and solicitation of proxies and the role of hedge funds and more traditional institutional investors in merger votes. Corporations is a pre-requisite for this course; Mergers and Acquisitions is a suggested co-requisite.
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Animal Law and Ethics (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar course will focus both on fundamental legal and ethics questions, including human duties toward animals and whether conceiving of rights for animals is appropriate, as well as on an understanding of the current legal and administrative means through which the relationship between humans and animals is regulated. We will discuss the varying viewpoints expressed by animal advocates, generally falling into the category of either "animal welfare" or "animal rights" positions. We will discuss the fact that nonhuman animals are not legally "persons" and currently have no legal rights, per se, only limited legal "protections." Discussion of animal rights will necessarily entail an examination of the sources and characteristics of fundamental rights, why animals have historically been denied them, and whether legal rights are appropriately limited to humans. Further, we will discuss whether, if any such rights were recognized, what nonhuman animals should be entitled to them and, if so, to which legal rights they should be entitled. The class will also consider such issues as establishing standing to bring suits on behalf of animals, constitutional issues raised in animal protection cases and an analysis of the law and theory behind the protections afforded (or not afforded) animals under various federal and state laws. The focus will be on the status of animals as property, the doctrine of standing, and the nature of legal rights as applied to nonhuman animals. We will examine the content and enforcement of state anticruelty laws, the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Animal Welfare Act and accompanying regulations. We will have guest speakers for several sessions. In the past, these speakers have included including litigators and legislative advocates from the Humane Society of the United States and public interest law firms, a prosecutor who specializes in animal fighting, and leading legal scholars on animal ethics. Three short papers will be submitted based on the assigned readings in lieu of a final exam. As this course is intended, in part, as an opportunity to engage in an open dialogue on the potential for developments in this nascent area of law, attendance and participation in class discussion is crucial and laptops are not permitted.
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Antitrust
3 sem. hrs.
The course considers the basic principles of antitrust law. It will examine the laws of horizontal restraints (including price fixing and other forms of collusion), vertical restraints (including resale price maintenance and territorial and customer restrictions placed on dealers), monopolization, merger regulation, and the relationship between antitrust and other forms of economic regulation. Although a background in economics may be useful, no previous knowledge of economics is assumed.
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Appellate Advocacy
3 sem. hrs.
Each student will be assigned two problems requiring a written assignment and an oral argument. One of the written assignments will be a full brief under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. Students will also be assigned readings in advocacy and related topics. No more than 12 students are admitted to each section; preference is given to second-year students.
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Approaches to Islamic Law
1 sem. hrs.
This course aims to introduce students to the study of Islamic law, the all-embracing sacred law of Islam. In this course we will attempt to consider many different facets of the historical, doctrinal, institutional and social complexity of Islamic law. In addition, the various approaches that have been taken to the study of these aspects of Islamic law will be analyzed. The focus will be mostly, though not exclusively, on classical Islamic law. Specific topics covered include the beginnings of legal thought in Islam, various areas of Islamic positive law (substantive law), public and private legal institutions, Islamic legal theory, and issues in the contemporary development and application of Islamic law.
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Bioethics and the Law: Mental Illness and Moral Lives Seminar (S)
3 sem. hrs.
People affected by bipolar disorder, major unipolar depression, anxiety disorders, stress disorders, schizophrenia and other DSM-IV mental illnesses have rich and difficult moral lives. This includes lawyers, judges, physicians and other highly regarded professionals. Read their autobiographies and discover remarkable levels of moral and ethical engagement. This seminar will examine how moralists recommend that a just and caring society judge and respond to the harmful and offensive acts of people with mental conditions. The seminar will also examine how we can rethink moral agency and other basic moral concepts to account for the moral engagement by people with mental conditions. What services and opportunities will a just society offer persons affected by mental illness to enhance their moral agency? The required texts for the course include five books (three of them riveting memoirs written by accomplished professionals with serious mental conditions) and a compilation of readings assembled by Prof. Allen.
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Bioethics, Babies and Babymaking (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course examines the interactions and conflicts between law and ethics in the context of reproduction, reproductive technology, family formation, and child rearing. In recent decades, regulators, lawmakers, ethicists, and others have struggled to understand and, in some cases, contain developments in how babies are made, how families are formed, and how parents care for their children. As evidenced by frequent media sensations such as the birth of mega multiples or women giving birth well past menopause, controversies regularly arise about advancing reproductive technologies. These debates take place in the social, political, and medical arenas with varying consequences for individuals and the larger society. During the semester, we will study how the law has responded to changes in family formation, babymaking, and child rearing. More specifically, we will grapple with the relationship between law and ethics and seek to determine whether the law of babymaking and child rearing is or should be ethical. Through a study of topics such as disputes over parentage for children created using technology, fetal rights, sex selection, and limitations on access to parenting, we will evaluate where law and ethics intertwine and where they depart from each other. While we will study cases and learn black letter law, the class will also focus squarely on ethics, particularly feminist bioethics, and how policymaking does and does not reflect the ethical imperatives in any given situation. The final grade will be based on performance on exercises conducted in and out of class, attendance, participation and a final paper.
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Business Acquisition Process
2 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on developing the lawyering skills required by an attorney advising a client who is selling or purchasing a closely held business. Individual drafting exercises, as well as client interview/strategy discussions and negotiations by student(s) acting as counsel to the buyer or seller, will be interspersed with periodic lectures on the business acquisition process and analysis of selected court opinions and publicly available documentation of actual acquisition transactions. A prerequisite is the course on Corporations (aka Business Associations).
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Business Strategy and Corporate Law
3 sem. hrs.
This course explores strategic, business and legal decision making in a fluid real world corporate context. Classes will cover a series of timely financial and legal subjects as well as case studies that deal with topical problems in corporate governance, investment strategy, executive compensation and potential corporate and criminal behavior. Press, public market reaction and governmental/political considerations will be integrated into the discussion. All students will be required to participate in one major team project. An equal number of graduate law and business students will participate. The instructor, a 24 year veteran and partner at a major private equity firm, is also an attorney and CPA. No pre-requisites.
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Chapter 11: Corporate Reorganization
3 sem. hrs.
This course, taught by an experienced practioner, will focus on the practical and strategic applications of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. It will examine applicable statutory and case law with particular emphasis on considerations confronting debtors and creditors in a business reorganization so that students will appreciate the negotiation, litigation, and the transactional components of a Chapter 11 case. Students will be assigned to discuss problems from the text. Those students who have not taken the basic bankruptcy course should read West Nutshell in the first two weeks of the course.
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China & International Law (S)
3 sem. hrs.
During the last quarter-century, China has become a principal participant in the international legal order. The PRCs entry into the WTO in 2001 was a major milestone in its long march to membership in almost all of the major international organizations. China has enacted and repeatedly amended elaborate legal frameworks for foreign investment and trade, acceded to (or promised to accede to) major international conventions, entered into myriad bilateral agreements, engaged in the legal and political debates over international human rights and the rule of law, negotiated and disputed with other states over several of the major contemporary cases of unsettled territory, and become (directly or through its instrumentalities) a frequent party to, or focus of scrutiny in, transnational litigation. This seminar examines contemporary China's approach to international law, focusing on how China has understood and addressed key principles and doctrines of international law, and on international legal disputes and actions that have been important for China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong). Specific topics to be covered include Chinas approach to sources of international law, treaties, statehood and sovereignty, the relationship between domestic and international law, state jurisdiction, immunity and responsibility, international dispute resolution, the law of the sea, human rights, the use of force and international economic law. In each of these areas, the course addresses concrete contemporary controversies as well as broader patterns and underlying issues. Introductory sessions will focus on major themes in China's earlier approach to international law, including those that emerged during the Maoist/high socialist period, the 19th-century encounter with Western powers and their conception of international law, and traditional Chinese approaches to international law (during the late imperial period and in classical Chinese thought).
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Chinese Law
3 sem. hrs.
For thirty years, Chinese laws and legal institutions have developed rapidly, if unevenly, amidand in response toChinas breathtaking economic transformation and integration the outside world, and the social and political challenges and consequences that reform and opening have produced. Some aspects of legal change in contemporary China are unprecedented while others perhaps echo influences from earlier periods, including the PRCs first decades, the initial impact of the West, the broad sweep of Chinese tradition, and diverse Chinese challenges to that tradition. This course provides a brief overview of classical Chinese thought on law, governance and economic regulation, the legal norms and institutions of law and government during the late imperial period, and the influence of Western ideas and pressures and of Chinese reformers and revolutionaries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of the course focuses on the PRC years, with primary emphasis on the contemporary reform era. For this period, the course addresses selected topics such as criminal law and other means of social control, the legal regulation and promotion of economic activity, law and government accountability, and legal aspects of regulating Chinas external economic relations. Throughout, political, economic and social contexts are emphasized. The exam will be open-book, essay. It will be take-home with a lenght limit. Class participation, partly in the form of panels for specific weeks and topics, will count toward the final grade.
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Christianity and American Law: 1880-present (S)
3 sem. hrs.
In this seminar, we will explore the influence of Christianityespecially Protestant Christianityon American law since the Gilded Age. Focusing both on prominent individuals such as William Jennings Bryan, Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King, Jr., and on influential organizations such as the Federal Counsel of Churches and more recent evangelical defense funds, we will pay particular attention to the way differing interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount have been reflected in shifting Protestant stances toward legal reform. Our readings will include speeches, scholarly articles, and chapters from several books. Guest speakers may be invited to join the seminar on occasion. Students will be required to write brief (one paragraph or so) responses for at least 9 of our classes. The responses will not be graded, but will be treated as part of the students class participation. Students will be required to write one long paper. The paper should be a maximum of twenty pages (double-spaced) in length (with references given in footnotes, not endnotes), and will be due at the end of the semester. Each students grade will be based on the paper and the students class participation.
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Church and State
3 sem. hrs.
This course explores the tensions, common interests and political ramifications of religious faith and religious activity in an ostensibly secular society. The course will focus on constitutional issues, including the establishment and free exercises clauses of the federal constitution, and state and federal statutes such as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. It will also address questions of broad social applicability, including but not limited to compulsory flag salutes, school prayer, religious accommodation for employees, polygamy and same-sex marriage, drugs, ritual slaughter of animals, and government funding of religious freedom in the United States, as well as the development of constitutional doctrine and caselaw. There will be an in-class, open book exam.
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Civil Practice Clinic: Fieldwork
7 sem. hrs.
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES FOR CLINICS AVAILABLE ON THE REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS PAGE. This clinical course examines first hand the challenging issues that confront lawyers who represent clients in civil disputes and litigation. Under close faculty supervision, students will serve as litigators in the Penn Legal Assistance Office, a teaching law firm providing legal representation to actual clients whose interests are directly at stake in state and federal court proceedings and in administrative agency hearings. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theories, negotiate with opposing parties, and provide legal representation in formal adjudicatory hearings under Pennsylvania's student practice rule. Students will be assigned their own individual cases in which they will have primary responsibility in a broad range of substantive areas, such as housing, social security disability, child custody and support, civil forfeiture, education, and discrimination and civil rights. The skills and experience obtained in this course will serve students throughout their professional careers, whether or not they choose to pursue litigation practice. In addition to their casework as lawyers, students will engage in classroom seminars twice weekly to obtain training in basic interactional skills (e.g., interviewing, counseling, negotiating) and to discuss in a collegial setting issues of case development, strategy and professional responsibility which arise in the Clinic's cases. Students will also participate in videotaped simulations utilizing trained actors as a means of enhancing skills development. Most important, each student will be assigned to an individual faculty supervisor with whom he/she will meet regularly on a one-to-one basis to receive close supervision and constructive feedback. Students will develop competence in basic lawyering skills as well as self-reflection, acquiring an ability to analyze what it is they do as lawyers and to learn from their own experiences. The Penn Legal Assistance Office is located in Silverman Hall which includes a court room, client interview and conference rooms, computerized student work and research areas and videotaping facilities. Fieldwork and classroom components of the course are graded separately. Class attendance is mandatory. N.B. You may not enroll in this course if: a) you are enrolled in another clnic, or an externship in the same semester; or b) you are responsible for 3 or more incomplete grades at the beginning of the semester. You must appear at the first meeting of the course, or you may be automatically dropped from the course (unless you have advance permission from the instructor). The drop/add period for this course ends at 4 p.m. on the first Friday after the start of the course. Students who elect to use their enrollment in the Civil Practice Clinic toward their public service requirement will receive one less credit for this course.
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Civil Pre-trial Litigation
3 sem. hrs.
Students will take a mock case from initial client contact through settlement. Topics included will be problem identification and claim formulation, pleadings, discovery, dispositive and non-dispositive motion practice, settlement, strategic considerations, and ethical issues. The course will be writing-intensive. Students will draft a complaint or an answer, document requests, interrogatories, and motion papers. Students will also participate in a client interview, a deposition, motion arguments, and a pretrial conference.
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Civil Procedure
4 sem. hrs.
This course is devoted to a consideration of the basic problems of civil procedure. Pleading, discovery, multi-party actions, trial practice, and judgments are considered in terms of function and technique. The course is also designed to introduce the student to underlying problems such as jurisdiction, the choice of law in the federal system, and the role of courts as lawmaking institutions.
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Commercial Credit I
3 sem. hrs.
The course will provide an intensive examination of some of the practices and legal problems which arise in the extension of credit, particularly business credit. The principal focus of the course will be on Article 9 of the UCC, which deals with security interests in personal property. The course will also introduce basic practices and principles involved in the extension of both secured and unsecured credit. Attention will be given to problems of relating the UCC to underlying legal principles of general applicability and to other statutes, such as the Bankruptcy Code.
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Commercial Credit II
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus principally on bankruptcy, although we will also briefly consider state collection remedies and other nonbankruptcy issues that overlap with bankruptcy. We will consider all aspects of bankruptcy law, starting with commencement of the bankruptcy case; continuing through issues such as trustee avoidance powers and operating a business in bankruptcy; and concluding with liquidation, individual wage earner plans, and corporate reorganization. At various points, we will pay particular attention to recent legislative reform efforts. The course will consider both the theoretical debate as to the proper role of bankruptcy, and the doctrinal apparatus of the Bankruptcy Code. The class will be roughly 60% participatory, but will at times be Socratic (30%) or lecture (10%) in format. Class participation may be taken into account in grading. There will be an in-class exam.
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Commercial Litigation Strategy (S)
3 sem. hrs.
The course includes case studies of categories of litigation and the types of relief that plaintiffs seek, including damages, injunctive relief, declaratory judgments, and class actions. Experienced litigators will be guest speakers. Students will be expected to read cases assigned and participate in class discussions. Generally, each class will have two separate segments. One segment will be discussion of the cases from the assigned reading, generally led by one of the students, subject to advance assignment. The discussion will focus on the contentions by counsel and the courts decision, with an emphasis on strategic objectives and alternatives. The second segment will discuss a general litigation topic, usually with a guest speaker. The specific topics are listed above, but are subject to change. There is no exam. The grade will be based on class participation (20%), one short paper (20%), and one long paper (60%).
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Common Law Contracts
2 sem. hrs.
This course provides a summary of modern American contract law. The emphasis is on how the common law of contracts developed, and how common law principles have been modified by common law courts, by the Restatements of Contracts, and by the Uniform Commercial Code. An overview of such basic concepts as offer, acceptance, consideration, defenses to contract formation, and remedies will be presented. The course assumes some familiarity with U.S. civil procedure (federal and state ) It is designed to give practicing lawyers familiar with Code contract principles an idea of how the American common law has shaped and developed similar commercial concepts and principles. The emphasis is on practice rather than theory and is geared to the practitioner rather than the student. Course requirements - there will be one final examination and a group project.
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Comparative Environmental Law and Economics (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar takes an economic approach to explaining and normatively critiquing the environmental regulatory systems of the U.S. and Europe. It will focus on topics involving environmental federalism that are common to both the U.S. and Europe. These topics include: the judicial role in the evolution of regulatory centralization; the economic rationale and positive political-economic explanations for regulatory centralization (federalization); transboundary pollution; environmental standard-setting; institutions for public participation in environmental decisionmaking; and, climate change. Students are expected to attend all meetings of the seminar, and the course grade will be based 20% on class participation and 80% on participation on a 24 hour take-home examination.
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Comparative Law
3 sem. hrs.
This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to the legal systems of the civil law, with a focus on continental Europe. Many of the characteristic features of the Civil Law -- the absence of a jury, the relative lack of reliance on judicial precedents, the civilian approach to civil and criminal procedure -- have their origin in ancient and medieval times. The course will therefore start with a brief introduction to European legal history. After that, we will turn to an examination of the three most influential modern systems: those of France, Germany, and Italy. We will examine the civil codes, the nature of continental adjudication, the inquisitorial approach to criminal justice, and comparative constitutional law. After having treated the domestic systems, we will briefly turn our attention to the rise of the EU, the nature of its institutions, the way in which it functions on the international scene, and the way in which it has been bringing fundamental change to the domestic legal systems of Europe. The emphasis throughout the course will be on the ideas underlying legal change - that is, on the intellectual justifications the civil lawyers have provided for their distinctive approach to legal problems.
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Complex Litigation
3 sem. hrs.
This course has two basic purposes. First, it is intended to expose students to topics of importance to the study of procedure that are not covered in most basic courses. Second, even as to matters covered in the first year, this course is intended to introduce additional (or at least non-traditional) perspectives, including: the values that inform or should inform a procedural system, the rhetoric of procedure and procedure as an instrument of power (whether in the hands of litigants or lawmakers). This course seeks to achieve both of its purposes through the study of procedural problems in complex litigation. The topics covered (including e.g., joinder of parties, class actions, judicial control of litigation, claim and issue preclusion) are considered largely, and sometimes exclusively, in the context of litigation that is complex because it involves multiple parties and/or multiple claims or because it involves lawsuits dispersed among the federal and state courts. This course will be taught in a seminar/participatory format. Class participation will be considered in grading. The in-class exam will be limited open-book, essay.
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Conflict of Laws
3 sem. hrs.
A study of the resolution of cases connected to more than one jurisdiction: when different jurisdictions (states or nations) have adopted different substantive rules of law, which should govern? Major topics will include the more significant historical approaches (vested rights and interest analysis); the Second Restatement; the role of the U.S. Constitution in interstate conflicts; international conflicts; and domestic relations.
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Constitutional Criminal Procedure
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus upon constitutional law issues that arise during the investigation of a criminal case. Attention is given to Fourth Amendment limitations on police conduct; the scope of the exclusionary rule; the law of confessions, including Miranda v. Arizona and its progeny; lineups and other pre-trial identification procedures; the use of informants and secret agents; and the privilege against self-incrimination in the grand jury setting.
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Constitutional Law
4 sem. hrs.
A study of basic issues of federal constitutional law. Major topics will be: the role of courts in the interpretation of enforcement of the U.S. Constitution; the scope of federal legislative powers under the Constitution; federalism limitations placed on the powers of state and local governments; individual civil, political, and human rights under the U.S. Constitution, with the primary emphasis on the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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Constitutional Litigation
4 sem. hrs.
The United States Constitution purports to restrain the actions of state and federal governments. When these restraints are transgressed, the injured parties and their representatives look to the federal courts for remedies. This course considers the legal doctrines that shape the courts' readiness to provide those remedies and the ways in which doctrines are likely to manifest themselves in the course of litigation. Topics include: the availability of damage actions, sovereign and official immunities, jurisdictional problems, abstention, Younger v. Harris and its emanations, standing and issues of institutional litigation. The format is Socratic. Exam will be a takeaway open-book essay.
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Constitutional Theorizing (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar will evaluate major theoretical works about the constitution, its meaning and interpretation. We shall begin with several of the most important essays in the Federalist Papers, regarded by many as America's foremost contribution to political theory. Among the other theorists whose work will be considered are Ames, Hand, Ely Michelman, Ackerman, Sunstein, MacKinnon, Bork, Dworkin, and Scalia.
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Contract Drafting (S)
3 sem. hrs.
The aim of this course will be to teach students how to draft contracts that are clear and effective; participants can expect learn in one semester what a corporate associate might take several years to learn, if at all. The course will focus on two overarching topics: what to say in a contract, and how you should say it. In terms of contract language, much of our time will be devoted to having students put into practice the recommendations contained in Professor Adamss ABA book A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. In addition, we will examine the building blocks of a contract and the linkages between them; we will explore certain key contract concepts, such as material adverse change provisions and best efforts and its variants; and we will study the boilerplate provisions that are found in most contracts. We will also explore how contracts are drafted and negotiated. Throughout, we will consider the shortcomings of current drafting practices, in terms of both quality and process. There will be several written assignments, each requiring that students either draft a contract expressing the terms of a mock transaction or redraft a contract that is representative of mainstream practices but is nonetheless deficient. Students will be permitted to drop the course only after the first class. And anyone who wishes to add the class will be permitted to do so only if they attended the first class.
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Copyright
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on the protection of literary, musical and artistic works through copyright and related doctrines. Topics will include the concept and purposes of copyright (including a brief discussion of patents and trademarks), copyrightable subject matter, ownership of copyright, formalities, and rights, limitations, and remedies provided by copyright. There will be an in-class examination. Class participation will be taken into account in grading.
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Copyright Theory (S)
3 sem. hrs.
The objective of this Seminar is to expose students to the various theoretical and policy debates that are today endemic to the copyright system. Each week, the readings will focus on one or more theories that purport to explain and justify the institution of copyright. Topics will include economic theories, labor/desert theories, personality theories, democratic/free speech theories, natural rights theories and theories of cultural production. Classroom discussions will then focusing on evaluating these theories against the actual workings of copyright doctrine. In the process we will ask if copyright is indeed the best way of stimulating creativity in different settings, whether there might indeed be other values/goals that drive copyright law, and whether at times the copyright system imposes more costs than benefits on society as a whole. Each student will be required to help lead class discussions during one class session. Additionally, every student enrolled in the seminar must complete a research paper that satisfies the law schools writing requirement.
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Corporate Finance
3 sem. hrs.
This course presents an overview of the basic principles of corporate finance. Topics include securities valuation including the discounted cash flow analysis, pricing of bonds and common stocks; portfolio theory including the capital asset pricing model and precepts of market efficiency; and capital structure of firms, including the weighted average cost of capital and debt policy. This material is then combined in a section dealing with approaches to valuing entire companies. A final brief section introduces option theory. The course combines finance and legal perspectives for each topic. The primary reading is a standard MBA-level finance text. There will be a series of ungraded problem sets and a graded open-book final exam. This course or an equivalent course satisfies the requirements needed to register in upper-level MBA courses offered by the Wharton Finance Department. Prerequisite: A completed course in or current enrollment in Corporations. There will be an in-class exam.
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Corporate Governance (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course is designed to introduce the student to current developments and policy debates in corporate governance. Selected topics will include the shareholder primacy debate, the role and composition of the board of directors, shareholder voting, instituitonal investors, shareholder litigation, and executive compensation. The class will generally meet once per week (on Tuesdays), with a limited number of Thursday sessions that will be announced in advance. Students are expected to attend regularly and participate actively in class discussion. A research paper is required and may be used to complete the writing requirement. Corporations is required as a pre-requisite or co-requisite.
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Corporate Lawyering
2 sem. hrs.
The nature and substantive aspects of the practice of law in a corporation or other business setting: the unique role of in-house counsel; the ethical considerations and professional responsibilities of the employee/attorney; the multi-faceted functions and responsibilities of in-house lawyering including fostering the corporate conscience, corporate compliance, educating the organization, implementing corporate governance procedures, interfacing with business operations, participating in governmental/public affairs and legislative activities, and selecting, utilizing, and supervising outside counsel. The course will feature the participation of leading corporate executives and outside practitioners. Please note that there will be a double session on Monday, Sept 14; class will meet 420 and 620. Food will be provided for this extra class.
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Corporate Taxation
2 sem. hrs.
Tax issues relating to the formation, capitalization, operation, restructuring, liquidation, and reorganization of corporate entities form the core of this course. The course will examine the tax consequences of equity and debt to both the issuing corporation and the shareholder or holder of corporate debt instruments and will provide a brief introduction to certain hybrid financial products commonly issued or acquired by corporate entities. While the focus is on tax issues, the business reasons for engaging in various transactions will be an integral part of the course. This course is useful both to students considering tax practice and to students interested in general business practice. Federal Income Tax I is a prerequisite. The course will combine lecture and problem solving.
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Corporations
4 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on the structure and characteristics of the modern business corporation, with particular attention given to problems relating to the large, publicly held company. Some emphasis will be given to federal securities laws and the impact of federal securities regulation on corporate governance. The class will be roughly 60% participatory, but will at times be Socratic (30%) or lecture (10%) in format. The open-book exam will be in a multiple choice format.
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Cost-Benefit Analysis: Law, Policy and Practice (S)
3 sem. hrs.
Federal and state governments, and the U.S. public, are increasingly turning to cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment to guide rulemaking decisions and to set priorities among interventions intended to protect health, safety, environmental quality, homeland security, financial assets, etc. This course prepares students to critically evaluate risk and cost-benefit analyses, in order to help make decisions that are responsive to law, science, economics, and public values. Students will analyze recent and pending decisions by EPA, FDA, OSHA, and other agencies, to explore how analysis has informed or obscured important controversies, and how the courts have shaped both analysis and outcome. We will also discuss the art of crafting cost-effective controls, considering both traditional rulemaking and innovative proposals for new policy instruments. Required readings will include a mix of journal articles about methods of analysis and regulatory policy, along with close analysis of several major court decisions. The course instructor is an environmental health scientist, but the course will not require any particular science or math background. Rather, lectures and class discussion will emphasize insights the instructor gleaned during 10 years as the chief rulemaking official at OSHA and member of numerous EPA advisory committees, including many details of regulatory analyses, court decisions, and enforcement actions that are poorly captured in the public record. Because of the MLK holiday on January 18, there will be a first organizational class meeting scheduled for Friday, January 15th, 1050 in Silverman Ground 48. Depending on the interests of the students who attend this meeting, the course content might be modified to emphasize topic areas of particular interest (e.g., bioethics aspects, scientific integrity and whistleblowing issues, specific regulatory controversies ongoing at the time of the course).
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Criminal Defense Clinic
4 sem. hrs.
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES FOR CLINICS AVAILABLE ON THE REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS PAGE. This clinical course will combine hands on trial experience with an educational component tailored to developing litigation skills. Students will try cases under the close supervision of a senior trial attorney from the Defender Association of Philadelphia. During the first four weeks there will be intensive classroom study where students will learn Pennsylvania Criminal Law, Procedure, Evidence, trial and cross examination skills. During this period students will also be assigned mock cases to prepare in addition to observing actual preliminary arraignments, preliminary hearings, and trials in municipal court. Students will then be assigned to represent defendants. Students will conduct misdemeanor trials and preliminary hearings for felony cases. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theories, negotiate with opposing parties, and prepare various pretrial motions. Students will be interacting with their clients, members of the judiciary, District Attorneys, witnesses and complainants. Successful participants will need to be able to persuasively articulate legal arguments, work with a wide variety of individuals and maintain their composure in difficult situations. It is the instructors expectation that each student will have the experience of representing clients on 5 to 7 different cases. In addition to the classroom educational component described above, students will be exposed to a variety of guest speakers who will examine some of the ethical and social issues raised in criminal defense, and particular issues involved in representing the indigent. This course will meet for 6-1/2 hours, over two days per week. There will be a mid-semester evaluation of the student's progress and weekly feedback of the student's in-court performance, which can be scheduled at the student's convenience. Clinical instruction will be conducted at the Law School, except when courtroom appearances are required. This course will be open to 2L's who have completed three semesters and have had Evidence. (Students who have not had three semesters will be ineligible for certification by the court to appear on behalf of clients.) Enrollment is limited to 8 students. Class attendance and courtroom appearances are mandatory. You must appear at the first meeting of the course, or you may be automatically dropped from the course (unless you have advance permission from the instructor). The drop/add period for this course ends at 4 p.m. on the first Friday after the start of the course. Students who elect to use their enrollment in the Criminal Defense Clinic toward their public service requirement will receive three credits for this course. In addition to various handouts provided by the instructor, the required text is Crimes Code of Pennsylvania, Gould Publications.
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Criminal Law
4 sem. hrs.
This course will examine the criminal law as a device for defining and controlling harmful behavior. Attention is given to the theoretical justifications for and the effectiveness of punishment, the foundations of culpability, the basic principles of criminal liability, and the definition of offenses and defenses.
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Criminal Law Theory (S)
3 sem. hrs.
Seminar in Criminal Law Theory Fall 2009: The Credibility of Criminal Justice This term's Seminar will examine what gives a criminal justice system more or less credibility with the community for doing justice in a fair way, and how this reputation can have an effect on the system's crime-control effectiveness. Readings will be from Robinson & Cahill, Law Without Justice and from Tom Tyler, Legitimacy and Criminal Justice. (Professor Tyler, Chair of the Psychology Department at NYU, will be a visitor to the Seminar.) Both books are on reserve in the library. During the first half of the course, students will prepare weekly one-page comments on the week's assigned readings. During the second half of the course, students will present and discuss their own papers on a relevant topic approved by the instructor. Final drafts with a maximum of ten single-spaced pages will be due by the last day of the term. Any student wishing to enroll in this class must be present at the first class meeting.
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Criminal Procedure: Investigation
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus upon constitutional, statutory, case-law, policy, and ethical issues that arise during the investigation of a criminal case. Topics will include Fourth Amendment and other limitations on police searches, seizures, and surveillance; the scope of the exclusionary rule; the law of confessions, including Miranda v. Arizona and its progeny; lineups and other pre-trial identification procedures; the use of informants and secret agents; and the privilege against self-incrimination in the grand jury setting. This course is a renamed version of what has traditionally been called Constitutional Criminal Procedure, renamed to emphasize the variety of issues beyond constitutional ones that arise in a criminal case. Students may not take both that course and this one for credit. The instructor expects prompt and consistent class attendance. Students must add the class no later than the first class session, though they may drop during the first or second week of class but not thereafter, absent exceptional circumstances. Students may not use laptop computers in this class, except during exam review sessions. Students should focus on listening and responding to the professor and one another instead of trying to transcribe every word spoken in class. The final grade will depend almost entirely on an eight-hour, open-book, issue-spotting essay exam, which students may take wherever they wish but must take on the particular date set by the Registrar. Students may also choose to take an optional oral midterm, which will count only if it raises a student's grade. Class participation may raise but not lower a student's grade.
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Criminal Procedure: Prosecution and Adjudication
3 sem. hrs.
Traditional criminal procedure courses share two features: First, they treat criminal procedure as a subset of constitutional law. This means that they focus on doctrine and case law, in particular the decisions of the Supreme Court and how the Warren Court expanded defendants rights while the Burger and Rehnquist Courts have stayed or reversed this trend. Second, traditional courses focus on jury trials. This course will not be a traditional criminal procedure course. As a former federal prosecutor, my own view is that law schools focus too much on Supreme Court doctrine, ignoring variations among states and how police, prosecutors, and judges implement these rules in the real world. I also think that we should move beyond our obsession with jury trials, which today account for only 4-5% of felony adjudications. The real action today is in charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing, and this course will pay much more attention to these topics.This course will not overlap with Constitutional Criminal Procedure (now called Criminal Procedure: Investigation), which covers searches and seizures, Miranda warnings, etc., so those who have taken that course should feel free to take this one as well (and that class is NOT a prerequisite for this one). This course will, however, overlap with the Advanced Criminal Procedure course, so students may not take both. This lecture course will survey post-arrest criminal procedure. Topics
Penn admits 95 LL.M's, CLS admits 330, that is a ratio actually of about 4:1.
Michael 'PAWNED' me by putting a list of courses at CLS, assuming here that the courses at CLS are so many, the over 300 students will get a teacher to student ratio that is similar to Penn. Oh, and do not forget Penn LL.M's also have the option of studying at Wharton, and essentially getting an Executive MBA from one of the most recognized business schools in the world in addition to their LL.M.
Herein are the courses offered at Penn for a class of 95 LL.M's.
ALPHABETICAL COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
(S) = Seminar
1L Legal Writing Instructor: Yearlong
3.5 sem. hrs.
Legal Writing Instructors and Legal Writing Fellows only.
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Accounting
2 sem. hrs.
This course is designed to provide the student with an understanding of the basic fundamentals of accounting, emphasizing the nature and purpose of financial statements. The course will focus on legal problems that lawyers and their clients should consider in using and relying on financial statements and not on the technical aspects of preparing financial records and financial statements. No prior background in bookkeeping or accounting is necessary. The course's format will be approximately 50% lectures, 50% Socratic. The takeaway exam will be a combination of short-answer, essay and multiple-choice questions.
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Administrative Law
3 sem. hrs.
We live in an administrative state, populated by thousands of governmental bodies that collectively exercise pervasive authority over the entire economy and the lives of every citizen. Unlike courts, which enjoy explicit constitutional independence, administrative agencies constitute a more constitutionally ambiguous fourth branch of government. Also unlike courts, most agencies have authority to wield a wide variety of regulatory powers other than adjudication, including rulemaking, licensing, advice-giving, and prosecution. Administrative law is the body of constitutional, statutory, executive, and common law principles that constrain and thereby seek to legitimate the exercise of these powers. This course will provide a critical examination of these principles, preparing you for the inevitable encounters lawyers have with administrative agencies in their professional practice. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.
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Adv Issues in Priv Fin & Corp Reorg - Yearlong (S)
1.5 sem. hrs.
This seminar will address topics in private financing and corporate reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The principal emphasis will be on student research; a written research paper (which may satisfy the senior writing requirement) will be required. Students will be required to select a paper topic and submit a brief abstract before December 1, 2008. The instructor will be available in during the fall term consult with students about the selection of a topic. There also will be one or more organizational meetings in the fall term. Beginning after spring break seminar meetings will be devoted to students' presentations of their research and discussions by the seminar participants. Students wishing credit for the senior writing requirement must submit an initial draft for my review and comment by the week following spring break. All final papers will be due no less than five days before grades are due in the Registrar's Office for graduating students. THIS IS A FULL-YEAR SEMINAR AND STUDENTS MUST ENROLL FOR BOTH SEMESTERS.
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Advanced Business Law: Understanding Business Law Scholarship (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course is designed to introduce the student to current academic research and scholarship on a range of business law topics. Students will read 6-8 works in progress by leading academics, and then attend workshop sessions in which the authors present their work. Prepatory sessions will focus on background readings that enable students to understand the scholarship in context. Students are expected to write short (approximately 5 page) position papers analyzing each of the papers presented and to participate actively in the discussion sessions. Students may complete the writing requirement and receive an additional credit by writing a research paper. Several sessions of this class will be cancelled, including October 9th. Make-up sessions will be announced. Corporations is required as a pre-requisite or co-requisite.
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Advanced Constitutional Law
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on topics not covered or covered slightly, in the first-year constitutional law course. There will be some, but hopefully not much, overlap with other advanced elective courses. Emphasis will be placed on important current issues and recent or pending cases. Among the topics, or subject areas, to be discussed: Civil liberties in the Age of Terrorism; immigration, citizenship and alien rights; congressional enforcement of the reconstruction amendments; new developments in racial equality (e.g., Michigan) sexuality and the constitution (e.g. Lawrence); religion and the First Amendment; the distribution of national power; commerce clause limitations on state power; congressional regulation of the political process. This list is not set in stone; there may be additions or subtractions.
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Advanced Criminal Law
3 sem. hrs.
This term's Advanced Criminal Law course will have three components. The largest will be work for the Pennsylvania Legislature in doing a study of the penalty inconsistencies in current Pennsylvania criminal law. The work is aimed toward writing legislation that will rationalize offense penalties and grades throughout the Pennsylvania Code. The class will work with the members and staff of the Democratically-controlled House Judiciary Committee and the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. A second class component will be a study of the competing arguments for how criminal liability and punishment should be distributed: a theoretical analysis of who should be punished how much. After reading Distributive Principles of Criminal Law (Oxford 2008), each student will present and defend her own distributive principle proposal. Finally, throughout the term, students will serve as prosecutors and defense counsel for a series of real-world case studies that present issues of special theoretical and practical importance, drawn from Criminal Law Case Studies, 3d edition (West 2007). Any student wishing to enroll in this class must be present at the first class meeting.
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Advanced Legal Research
1 sem. hrs.
Advanced Legal Research. 1 sem. hr. George and Greenlee. QIII. Spring. This course is designed to permit students to master the legal research skills they started exploring in the first year legal writing course. An emphasis will be placed on problem analysis and efficient research strategies, including the ability to take full advantage of all the options the various online sources offer. Topics covered include administrative materials, legislative history, specialized subject resources, the use of indices and controlled vocabularies, and electronic resources beyond Westlaw and Lexis. The course is strongly recommended for anyone wanting to strengthen his or her skills with legal research for whatever reason, including serving as a Legal Writing Instructor or as an editor journal or preparing for employment during the summer or after graduation. Students will complete 2-4 brief papers (1-3 pp) comparing aspects of different resources or research strategies and a 15-20 page pathfinder on a topic of your choice. A pathfinder is a bibliographic/legal essay recommending a research strategy on a particular topic and will permit you to explore all the resources in depth on a topic of your own interest. The pathfinder will be due approximately one month after the last class.
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Advanced Problems in Federal Procedure (S)
3 sem. hrs.
Study of selected problems in federal procedure, particularly complex litigation and discovery. There will be no exam. Each student will give two brief class presentations on selected readings. Each student will write a final paper, and will make a class presentation concerning his or her paper topic towards the end of the course. With instructors' prior permission, the final paper can be used to fulfill the senior writing requirement.
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Advanced Seminar in Local Government Law (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course will address certain core topics in the area of local government law through a focus on the laws governing The City of Philadelphia. Among the topics we will examine are the separation of powers between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its largest City, Philadelphia, including the extent of the Citys home rule powers and the issue of state preemption of local laws with a focus on campaign finance limits and gun control laws. In addition, the course will examine topics involving the separation of powers within the City government itself, primarily between Philadelphias City Council and its Mayor, but also in regard to other internal divisions of power and tensions in decision-making. Finally, the class will look at such important local government topics as land use planning (zoning), economic development, family law, housing policy, civil rights, and the First Amendment. In addition to examining the nuts and bolts of law and policy in these areas, the class will also look at these issues from a theoretical perspective: Why are certain decisions made (or why should they be made) at a certain level of government? What are the socioeconomic and political theories that provide the best explanation of the legal and policy outcomes in these areas? A few visiting presenters will be invited to provide expert and insider views on some of these issues. Class participation will account for about a third of the grade for the course, and attendance is important in that regard. A variety of reading materials (cases, articles, book excerpts, essays) will be assigned, but there will be no assigned text. The course will require the submission of three short papers on topics related to the issues and theories addressed in class. The papers will not require significant, if any, legal research, but may require personal observation of, or inquiry into, current Philadelphia local government matters. Students who have taken Local Government Law (Pritchett) are encouraged to enroll.
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Advanced Topics in Commercial Real Estate Seminar (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar is designed to introduce students to the variety and fluidity of structures in today's commercial real estate transactions and the lawyer's role in "structuring and negotiating the deal," taking into account the current state of the commercial real estate market. In the first part of the course, the students will get an overview of the impact of the capital markets crisis on commercial real estate transactions and real estate development, as well as an overview of the lenders forced to acquire the property securing their financing. Subsequently, the course will involve an examination and discussion of shopping center and mixed use development, acquisition, sale and leasing, including, the legal issues inherent in obtaining the entitlements, structuring the acquisition, the role of the lender as simply a source of financing or as an equity partner, and the legal relationships and conflicts among developers, contractors, architects, tenants, lenders, Wall Street, surety companies, hotel franchising companies and management companies. The exams will consist of a paper on selected topics. One or more paper topics will require research into points of law discussed in the earlier part of the course; other paper topics will involve creative analysis and deal structuring using tools learned in class and from the textbook.
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Advanced Topics in Corporate Law (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar will analyze the canonical cases in corporate law. The text for the course is a recently published volume that provides a substantive analysis of the cases. The reading list will also include major cases that led up to the decision or that subsequently relied on the decision to further develop the emerging doctrine. Finally, the reading list will cover some of Vice Chancellor Strine's emblematic decisions. Students will be reading the cases in their entirety which will provide a better understanding of the structure of Delaware corporate law. Students are expected to attend class and participate actively in seminar discussion. In addition, students will be expected to write a paper based on a case not covered in the class, but using the format of the text. The paper will thus provide a substantive discussion of the doctrine as well as the history surrounding the case. The grade in the class will be based 50% on class participation and 50% on the paper.
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Advising the Board of Directors
2 sem. hrs.
A director of a Delaware corporation owes just two fiduciary duties (care and loyalty) to the corporation and its stockholders. Although these duties are easily articulated, it is generally far more challenging to explain what board conduct is required to satisfy these duties. As a result, when a Delaware court considers challenges to the boards actions in the M&A setting, the courts analysis is particularly nuanced and contextually specific. This course will examine some of the issues corporate boards confront, including (i) addressing board and management conflicts, (ii) selecting financial and legal advisors, (iii) engaging in a sales process, (iv) preparing for and responding to hostile bidders, (v) anticipating (and responding to) litigation, (vi) dealing with activist stockholders, (vii) navigating the tensions between different corporate constituencies, and (viii) managing a business in a distressed economic environment. The goal of the course will focus on the advice that counsel should provide to a corporate board in each context. The instructors for this course include the Honorable Myron T. Steele, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware and a former Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, and Mark A. Morton, a Delaware transactional attorney with more than 20 years of experience. The course materials will include abstracts from relevant cases, treatises, articles and law firm memos. On several occasions during the course of the semester, the instructors will invite partners from some of the nations leading firms to participate in a panel discussion. Course grades will be based on one take away at the end of the semester. Class participation will be expected.
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American Trials (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course will examine prominent trials of the 20th century that were impacted by and had an impact on our culture. The course will be interdisciplinary. We will read and view actual trial materials as well as literature, journalism, history, and films that grew out of the trials. The goal is to discuss the ways in which the lawyers molded the stories they told to fit the time, politically and socially, and how the trial itself then affected society and was depicted in various media. The reading for the course will be heavy but enjoyable, and films may be screened outside the normal class time. Consistent class participation and attendance are required. Students will write a paper for each of the six trials we study and give one presentation. Five of the papers will be short (3-4 pages), and one will be longer (10-15 pages). With the permission of the instructor, a 20-page seminar paper may be written in lieu of two of the papers to fulfill the senior writing requirement. Drop/add will end on Friday, January 16 at 4:00 p.m.
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Analytical Methods in the Law
3 sem. hrs.
Familiarity with quantitative reasoning and statistics is increasingly an important part of a lawyers job. This course will prepare students to understand the use of and to apply quantitative tools from statistics, finance, and economics to problems of legal importance. Topics covered include decision analysis, hypothesis testing, linear regression, game theory, microeconomics, and finance. Legal applications include litigation, negotiation, environmental law, corporate law, criminal law, employment law, antitrust, and intellectual property. In addition to a main textbook, sources for course material are drawn from legal cases, scientific studies, and journal and newspaper articles. The goal of the course is for students to develop their quantitative intuition through practical application, including the use of computer tools such as Excel. No specific mathematics background is required, and students with little or no quantitative coursework are especially encouraged to take the course. Students with more extensive math or economics backgrounds should consult with the professor to determine whether the course is appropriate.
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Anatomy of a Divorce
2 sem. hrs.
More than 50% of the marriages in this country end in divorce; the percentage is even higher in many countries outside of the United States. Besides its emotional and financial impact on the divorcing parties, the transfers of wealth attendant to marital dissolutions have substantial economic consequences on society at large with the property subject to distribution in divorce expanding to include career achievements or career potential, celebrity status, enhanced earning capacity, license and degrees. This course provides exposure to the dynamic process of representing the spectrum of clients, including same-sex couples, in a dissolution of marriage case and the unique issues, such as dealing with the media, gag orders, and seeking to close courtrooms to shield children when representing high-profile and high net worth individuals. Topics are covered from the perspective of a practicing lawyer and include: initial client interviews and retention, jurisdiction and choice of law issues, child custody and visitation, the interplay between the Court and matrimonial attorneys, mental health issues, temporary and permanent maintenance for spouses and support for children, awards of attorney and expert fees, the nature of property subject to division and distribution, the valuation process, unique issues raised by certain types of property, effects of bankruptcy, pre- and post-marital agreements, negotiating and drafting marital settlement agreements, pre-trial discovery preparation for and conduct of trial, and Federal tax aspects of marital dissolution. Guest lecturers may include a sitting matrimonial judge, a forensic accountant and a former client.
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Anatomy of a Merger
2 sem. hrs.
This class will focus on a single transaction (probably the acquisition of TXU by a private equity consortium led by KKR and TPG) to frame the legal issues that often arise in connection with the sale of a public company by merger, including confidentiality agreements, laws applicable to the disclosure of merger proposals and negotiations, duties of directors, reason for and role of special committees of directors, structure of merger agreements generally and with private equity buyers in particular, typical merger agreement issues, acquisition financing issues, post-announcement shareholder litigation, rules applicable to merger disclosure and solicitation of proxies and the role of hedge funds and more traditional institutional investors in merger votes. Corporations is a pre-requisite for this course; Mergers and Acquisitions is a suggested co-requisite.
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Animal Law and Ethics (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar course will focus both on fundamental legal and ethics questions, including human duties toward animals and whether conceiving of rights for animals is appropriate, as well as on an understanding of the current legal and administrative means through which the relationship between humans and animals is regulated. We will discuss the varying viewpoints expressed by animal advocates, generally falling into the category of either "animal welfare" or "animal rights" positions. We will discuss the fact that nonhuman animals are not legally "persons" and currently have no legal rights, per se, only limited legal "protections." Discussion of animal rights will necessarily entail an examination of the sources and characteristics of fundamental rights, why animals have historically been denied them, and whether legal rights are appropriately limited to humans. Further, we will discuss whether, if any such rights were recognized, what nonhuman animals should be entitled to them and, if so, to which legal rights they should be entitled. The class will also consider such issues as establishing standing to bring suits on behalf of animals, constitutional issues raised in animal protection cases and an analysis of the law and theory behind the protections afforded (or not afforded) animals under various federal and state laws. The focus will be on the status of animals as property, the doctrine of standing, and the nature of legal rights as applied to nonhuman animals. We will examine the content and enforcement of state anticruelty laws, the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Animal Welfare Act and accompanying regulations. We will have guest speakers for several sessions. In the past, these speakers have included including litigators and legislative advocates from the Humane Society of the United States and public interest law firms, a prosecutor who specializes in animal fighting, and leading legal scholars on animal ethics. Three short papers will be submitted based on the assigned readings in lieu of a final exam. As this course is intended, in part, as an opportunity to engage in an open dialogue on the potential for developments in this nascent area of law, attendance and participation in class discussion is crucial and laptops are not permitted.
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Antitrust
3 sem. hrs.
The course considers the basic principles of antitrust law. It will examine the laws of horizontal restraints (including price fixing and other forms of collusion), vertical restraints (including resale price maintenance and territorial and customer restrictions placed on dealers), monopolization, merger regulation, and the relationship between antitrust and other forms of economic regulation. Although a background in economics may be useful, no previous knowledge of economics is assumed.
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Appellate Advocacy
3 sem. hrs.
Each student will be assigned two problems requiring a written assignment and an oral argument. One of the written assignments will be a full brief under the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. Students will also be assigned readings in advocacy and related topics. No more than 12 students are admitted to each section; preference is given to second-year students.
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Approaches to Islamic Law
1 sem. hrs.
This course aims to introduce students to the study of Islamic law, the all-embracing sacred law of Islam. In this course we will attempt to consider many different facets of the historical, doctrinal, institutional and social complexity of Islamic law. In addition, the various approaches that have been taken to the study of these aspects of Islamic law will be analyzed. The focus will be mostly, though not exclusively, on classical Islamic law. Specific topics covered include the beginnings of legal thought in Islam, various areas of Islamic positive law (substantive law), public and private legal institutions, Islamic legal theory, and issues in the contemporary development and application of Islamic law.
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Bioethics and the Law: Mental Illness and Moral Lives Seminar (S)
3 sem. hrs.
People affected by bipolar disorder, major unipolar depression, anxiety disorders, stress disorders, schizophrenia and other DSM-IV mental illnesses have rich and difficult moral lives. This includes lawyers, judges, physicians and other highly regarded professionals. Read their autobiographies and discover remarkable levels of moral and ethical engagement. This seminar will examine how moralists recommend that a just and caring society judge and respond to the harmful and offensive acts of people with mental conditions. The seminar will also examine how we can rethink moral agency and other basic moral concepts to account for the moral engagement by people with mental conditions. What services and opportunities will a just society offer persons affected by mental illness to enhance their moral agency? The required texts for the course include five books (three of them riveting memoirs written by accomplished professionals with serious mental conditions) and a compilation of readings assembled by Prof. Allen.
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Bioethics, Babies and Babymaking (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course examines the interactions and conflicts between law and ethics in the context of reproduction, reproductive technology, family formation, and child rearing. In recent decades, regulators, lawmakers, ethicists, and others have struggled to understand and, in some cases, contain developments in how babies are made, how families are formed, and how parents care for their children. As evidenced by frequent media sensations such as the birth of mega multiples or women giving birth well past menopause, controversies regularly arise about advancing reproductive technologies. These debates take place in the social, political, and medical arenas with varying consequences for individuals and the larger society. During the semester, we will study how the law has responded to changes in family formation, babymaking, and child rearing. More specifically, we will grapple with the relationship between law and ethics and seek to determine whether the law of babymaking and child rearing is or should be ethical. Through a study of topics such as disputes over parentage for children created using technology, fetal rights, sex selection, and limitations on access to parenting, we will evaluate where law and ethics intertwine and where they depart from each other. While we will study cases and learn black letter law, the class will also focus squarely on ethics, particularly feminist bioethics, and how policymaking does and does not reflect the ethical imperatives in any given situation. The final grade will be based on performance on exercises conducted in and out of class, attendance, participation and a final paper.
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Business Acquisition Process
2 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on developing the lawyering skills required by an attorney advising a client who is selling or purchasing a closely held business. Individual drafting exercises, as well as client interview/strategy discussions and negotiations by student(s) acting as counsel to the buyer or seller, will be interspersed with periodic lectures on the business acquisition process and analysis of selected court opinions and publicly available documentation of actual acquisition transactions. A prerequisite is the course on Corporations (aka Business Associations).
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Business Strategy and Corporate Law
3 sem. hrs.
This course explores strategic, business and legal decision making in a fluid real world corporate context. Classes will cover a series of timely financial and legal subjects as well as case studies that deal with topical problems in corporate governance, investment strategy, executive compensation and potential corporate and criminal behavior. Press, public market reaction and governmental/political considerations will be integrated into the discussion. All students will be required to participate in one major team project. An equal number of graduate law and business students will participate. The instructor, a 24 year veteran and partner at a major private equity firm, is also an attorney and CPA. No pre-requisites.
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Chapter 11: Corporate Reorganization
3 sem. hrs.
This course, taught by an experienced practioner, will focus on the practical and strategic applications of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. It will examine applicable statutory and case law with particular emphasis on considerations confronting debtors and creditors in a business reorganization so that students will appreciate the negotiation, litigation, and the transactional components of a Chapter 11 case. Students will be assigned to discuss problems from the text. Those students who have not taken the basic bankruptcy course should read West Nutshell in the first two weeks of the course.
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China & International Law (S)
3 sem. hrs.
During the last quarter-century, China has become a principal participant in the international legal order. The PRCs entry into the WTO in 2001 was a major milestone in its long march to membership in almost all of the major international organizations. China has enacted and repeatedly amended elaborate legal frameworks for foreign investment and trade, acceded to (or promised to accede to) major international conventions, entered into myriad bilateral agreements, engaged in the legal and political debates over international human rights and the rule of law, negotiated and disputed with other states over several of the major contemporary cases of unsettled territory, and become (directly or through its instrumentalities) a frequent party to, or focus of scrutiny in, transnational litigation. This seminar examines contemporary China's approach to international law, focusing on how China has understood and addressed key principles and doctrines of international law, and on international legal disputes and actions that have been important for China (including Taiwan and Hong Kong). Specific topics to be covered include Chinas approach to sources of international law, treaties, statehood and sovereignty, the relationship between domestic and international law, state jurisdiction, immunity and responsibility, international dispute resolution, the law of the sea, human rights, the use of force and international economic law. In each of these areas, the course addresses concrete contemporary controversies as well as broader patterns and underlying issues. Introductory sessions will focus on major themes in China's earlier approach to international law, including those that emerged during the Maoist/high socialist period, the 19th-century encounter with Western powers and their conception of international law, and traditional Chinese approaches to international law (during the late imperial period and in classical Chinese thought).
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Chinese Law
3 sem. hrs.
For thirty years, Chinese laws and legal institutions have developed rapidly, if unevenly, amidand in response toChinas breathtaking economic transformation and integration the outside world, and the social and political challenges and consequences that reform and opening have produced. Some aspects of legal change in contemporary China are unprecedented while others perhaps echo influences from earlier periods, including the PRCs first decades, the initial impact of the West, the broad sweep of Chinese tradition, and diverse Chinese challenges to that tradition. This course provides a brief overview of classical Chinese thought on law, governance and economic regulation, the legal norms and institutions of law and government during the late imperial period, and the influence of Western ideas and pressures and of Chinese reformers and revolutionaries during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of the course focuses on the PRC years, with primary emphasis on the contemporary reform era. For this period, the course addresses selected topics such as criminal law and other means of social control, the legal regulation and promotion of economic activity, law and government accountability, and legal aspects of regulating Chinas external economic relations. Throughout, political, economic and social contexts are emphasized. The exam will be open-book, essay. It will be take-home with a lenght limit. Class participation, partly in the form of panels for specific weeks and topics, will count toward the final grade.
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Christianity and American Law: 1880-present (S)
3 sem. hrs.
In this seminar, we will explore the influence of Christianityespecially Protestant Christianityon American law since the Gilded Age. Focusing both on prominent individuals such as William Jennings Bryan, Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King, Jr., and on influential organizations such as the Federal Counsel of Churches and more recent evangelical defense funds, we will pay particular attention to the way differing interpretations of the Sermon on the Mount have been reflected in shifting Protestant stances toward legal reform. Our readings will include speeches, scholarly articles, and chapters from several books. Guest speakers may be invited to join the seminar on occasion. Students will be required to write brief (one paragraph or so) responses for at least 9 of our classes. The responses will not be graded, but will be treated as part of the students class participation. Students will be required to write one long paper. The paper should be a maximum of twenty pages (double-spaced) in length (with references given in footnotes, not endnotes), and will be due at the end of the semester. Each students grade will be based on the paper and the students class participation.
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Church and State
3 sem. hrs.
This course explores the tensions, common interests and political ramifications of religious faith and religious activity in an ostensibly secular society. The course will focus on constitutional issues, including the establishment and free exercises clauses of the federal constitution, and state and federal statutes such as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. It will also address questions of broad social applicability, including but not limited to compulsory flag salutes, school prayer, religious accommodation for employees, polygamy and same-sex marriage, drugs, ritual slaughter of animals, and government funding of religious freedom in the United States, as well as the development of constitutional doctrine and caselaw. There will be an in-class, open book exam.
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Civil Practice Clinic: Fieldwork
7 sem. hrs.
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES FOR CLINICS AVAILABLE ON THE REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS PAGE. This clinical course examines first hand the challenging issues that confront lawyers who represent clients in civil disputes and litigation. Under close faculty supervision, students will serve as litigators in the Penn Legal Assistance Office, a teaching law firm providing legal representation to actual clients whose interests are directly at stake in state and federal court proceedings and in administrative agency hearings. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theories, negotiate with opposing parties, and provide legal representation in formal adjudicatory hearings under Pennsylvania's student practice rule. Students will be assigned their own individual cases in which they will have primary responsibility in a broad range of substantive areas, such as housing, social security disability, child custody and support, civil forfeiture, education, and discrimination and civil rights. The skills and experience obtained in this course will serve students throughout their professional careers, whether or not they choose to pursue litigation practice. In addition to their casework as lawyers, students will engage in classroom seminars twice weekly to obtain training in basic interactional skills (e.g., interviewing, counseling, negotiating) and to discuss in a collegial setting issues of case development, strategy and professional responsibility which arise in the Clinic's cases. Students will also participate in videotaped simulations utilizing trained actors as a means of enhancing skills development. Most important, each student will be assigned to an individual faculty supervisor with whom he/she will meet regularly on a one-to-one basis to receive close supervision and constructive feedback. Students will develop competence in basic lawyering skills as well as self-reflection, acquiring an ability to analyze what it is they do as lawyers and to learn from their own experiences. The Penn Legal Assistance Office is located in Silverman Hall which includes a court room, client interview and conference rooms, computerized student work and research areas and videotaping facilities. Fieldwork and classroom components of the course are graded separately. Class attendance is mandatory. N.B. You may not enroll in this course if: a) you are enrolled in another clnic, or an externship in the same semester; or b) you are responsible for 3 or more incomplete grades at the beginning of the semester. You must appear at the first meeting of the course, or you may be automatically dropped from the course (unless you have advance permission from the instructor). The drop/add period for this course ends at 4 p.m. on the first Friday after the start of the course. Students who elect to use their enrollment in the Civil Practice Clinic toward their public service requirement will receive one less credit for this course.
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Civil Pre-trial Litigation
3 sem. hrs.
Students will take a mock case from initial client contact through settlement. Topics included will be problem identification and claim formulation, pleadings, discovery, dispositive and non-dispositive motion practice, settlement, strategic considerations, and ethical issues. The course will be writing-intensive. Students will draft a complaint or an answer, document requests, interrogatories, and motion papers. Students will also participate in a client interview, a deposition, motion arguments, and a pretrial conference.
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Civil Procedure
4 sem. hrs.
This course is devoted to a consideration of the basic problems of civil procedure. Pleading, discovery, multi-party actions, trial practice, and judgments are considered in terms of function and technique. The course is also designed to introduce the student to underlying problems such as jurisdiction, the choice of law in the federal system, and the role of courts as lawmaking institutions.
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Commercial Credit I
3 sem. hrs.
The course will provide an intensive examination of some of the practices and legal problems which arise in the extension of credit, particularly business credit. The principal focus of the course will be on Article 9 of the UCC, which deals with security interests in personal property. The course will also introduce basic practices and principles involved in the extension of both secured and unsecured credit. Attention will be given to problems of relating the UCC to underlying legal principles of general applicability and to other statutes, such as the Bankruptcy Code.
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Commercial Credit II
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus principally on bankruptcy, although we will also briefly consider state collection remedies and other nonbankruptcy issues that overlap with bankruptcy. We will consider all aspects of bankruptcy law, starting with commencement of the bankruptcy case; continuing through issues such as trustee avoidance powers and operating a business in bankruptcy; and concluding with liquidation, individual wage earner plans, and corporate reorganization. At various points, we will pay particular attention to recent legislative reform efforts. The course will consider both the theoretical debate as to the proper role of bankruptcy, and the doctrinal apparatus of the Bankruptcy Code. The class will be roughly 60% participatory, but will at times be Socratic (30%) or lecture (10%) in format. Class participation may be taken into account in grading. There will be an in-class exam.
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Commercial Litigation Strategy (S)
3 sem. hrs.
The course includes case studies of categories of litigation and the types of relief that plaintiffs seek, including damages, injunctive relief, declaratory judgments, and class actions. Experienced litigators will be guest speakers. Students will be expected to read cases assigned and participate in class discussions. Generally, each class will have two separate segments. One segment will be discussion of the cases from the assigned reading, generally led by one of the students, subject to advance assignment. The discussion will focus on the contentions by counsel and the courts decision, with an emphasis on strategic objectives and alternatives. The second segment will discuss a general litigation topic, usually with a guest speaker. The specific topics are listed above, but are subject to change. There is no exam. The grade will be based on class participation (20%), one short paper (20%), and one long paper (60%).
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Common Law Contracts
2 sem. hrs.
This course provides a summary of modern American contract law. The emphasis is on how the common law of contracts developed, and how common law principles have been modified by common law courts, by the Restatements of Contracts, and by the Uniform Commercial Code. An overview of such basic concepts as offer, acceptance, consideration, defenses to contract formation, and remedies will be presented. The course assumes some familiarity with U.S. civil procedure (federal and state ) It is designed to give practicing lawyers familiar with Code contract principles an idea of how the American common law has shaped and developed similar commercial concepts and principles. The emphasis is on practice rather than theory and is geared to the practitioner rather than the student. Course requirements - there will be one final examination and a group project.
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Comparative Environmental Law and Economics (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar takes an economic approach to explaining and normatively critiquing the environmental regulatory systems of the U.S. and Europe. It will focus on topics involving environmental federalism that are common to both the U.S. and Europe. These topics include: the judicial role in the evolution of regulatory centralization; the economic rationale and positive political-economic explanations for regulatory centralization (federalization); transboundary pollution; environmental standard-setting; institutions for public participation in environmental decisionmaking; and, climate change. Students are expected to attend all meetings of the seminar, and the course grade will be based 20% on class participation and 80% on participation on a 24 hour take-home examination.
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Comparative Law
3 sem. hrs.
This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to the legal systems of the civil law, with a focus on continental Europe. Many of the characteristic features of the Civil Law -- the absence of a jury, the relative lack of reliance on judicial precedents, the civilian approach to civil and criminal procedure -- have their origin in ancient and medieval times. The course will therefore start with a brief introduction to European legal history. After that, we will turn to an examination of the three most influential modern systems: those of France, Germany, and Italy. We will examine the civil codes, the nature of continental adjudication, the inquisitorial approach to criminal justice, and comparative constitutional law. After having treated the domestic systems, we will briefly turn our attention to the rise of the EU, the nature of its institutions, the way in which it functions on the international scene, and the way in which it has been bringing fundamental change to the domestic legal systems of Europe. The emphasis throughout the course will be on the ideas underlying legal change - that is, on the intellectual justifications the civil lawyers have provided for their distinctive approach to legal problems.
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Complex Litigation
3 sem. hrs.
This course has two basic purposes. First, it is intended to expose students to topics of importance to the study of procedure that are not covered in most basic courses. Second, even as to matters covered in the first year, this course is intended to introduce additional (or at least non-traditional) perspectives, including: the values that inform or should inform a procedural system, the rhetoric of procedure and procedure as an instrument of power (whether in the hands of litigants or lawmakers). This course seeks to achieve both of its purposes through the study of procedural problems in complex litigation. The topics covered (including e.g., joinder of parties, class actions, judicial control of litigation, claim and issue preclusion) are considered largely, and sometimes exclusively, in the context of litigation that is complex because it involves multiple parties and/or multiple claims or because it involves lawsuits dispersed among the federal and state courts. This course will be taught in a seminar/participatory format. Class participation will be considered in grading. The in-class exam will be limited open-book, essay.
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Conflict of Laws
3 sem. hrs.
A study of the resolution of cases connected to more than one jurisdiction: when different jurisdictions (states or nations) have adopted different substantive rules of law, which should govern? Major topics will include the more significant historical approaches (vested rights and interest analysis); the Second Restatement; the role of the U.S. Constitution in interstate conflicts; international conflicts; and domestic relations.
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Constitutional Criminal Procedure
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus upon constitutional law issues that arise during the investigation of a criminal case. Attention is given to Fourth Amendment limitations on police conduct; the scope of the exclusionary rule; the law of confessions, including Miranda v. Arizona and its progeny; lineups and other pre-trial identification procedures; the use of informants and secret agents; and the privilege against self-incrimination in the grand jury setting.
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Constitutional Law
4 sem. hrs.
A study of basic issues of federal constitutional law. Major topics will be: the role of courts in the interpretation of enforcement of the U.S. Constitution; the scope of federal legislative powers under the Constitution; federalism limitations placed on the powers of state and local governments; individual civil, political, and human rights under the U.S. Constitution, with the primary emphasis on the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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Constitutional Litigation
4 sem. hrs.
The United States Constitution purports to restrain the actions of state and federal governments. When these restraints are transgressed, the injured parties and their representatives look to the federal courts for remedies. This course considers the legal doctrines that shape the courts' readiness to provide those remedies and the ways in which doctrines are likely to manifest themselves in the course of litigation. Topics include: the availability of damage actions, sovereign and official immunities, jurisdictional problems, abstention, Younger v. Harris and its emanations, standing and issues of institutional litigation. The format is Socratic. Exam will be a takeaway open-book essay.
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Constitutional Theorizing (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This seminar will evaluate major theoretical works about the constitution, its meaning and interpretation. We shall begin with several of the most important essays in the Federalist Papers, regarded by many as America's foremost contribution to political theory. Among the other theorists whose work will be considered are Ames, Hand, Ely Michelman, Ackerman, Sunstein, MacKinnon, Bork, Dworkin, and Scalia.
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Contract Drafting (S)
3 sem. hrs.
The aim of this course will be to teach students how to draft contracts that are clear and effective; participants can expect learn in one semester what a corporate associate might take several years to learn, if at all. The course will focus on two overarching topics: what to say in a contract, and how you should say it. In terms of contract language, much of our time will be devoted to having students put into practice the recommendations contained in Professor Adamss ABA book A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting. In addition, we will examine the building blocks of a contract and the linkages between them; we will explore certain key contract concepts, such as material adverse change provisions and best efforts and its variants; and we will study the boilerplate provisions that are found in most contracts. We will also explore how contracts are drafted and negotiated. Throughout, we will consider the shortcomings of current drafting practices, in terms of both quality and process. There will be several written assignments, each requiring that students either draft a contract expressing the terms of a mock transaction or redraft a contract that is representative of mainstream practices but is nonetheless deficient. Students will be permitted to drop the course only after the first class. And anyone who wishes to add the class will be permitted to do so only if they attended the first class.
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Copyright
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on the protection of literary, musical and artistic works through copyright and related doctrines. Topics will include the concept and purposes of copyright (including a brief discussion of patents and trademarks), copyrightable subject matter, ownership of copyright, formalities, and rights, limitations, and remedies provided by copyright. There will be an in-class examination. Class participation will be taken into account in grading.
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Copyright Theory (S)
3 sem. hrs.
The objective of this Seminar is to expose students to the various theoretical and policy debates that are today endemic to the copyright system. Each week, the readings will focus on one or more theories that purport to explain and justify the institution of copyright. Topics will include economic theories, labor/desert theories, personality theories, democratic/free speech theories, natural rights theories and theories of cultural production. Classroom discussions will then focusing on evaluating these theories against the actual workings of copyright doctrine. In the process we will ask if copyright is indeed the best way of stimulating creativity in different settings, whether there might indeed be other values/goals that drive copyright law, and whether at times the copyright system imposes more costs than benefits on society as a whole. Each student will be required to help lead class discussions during one class session. Additionally, every student enrolled in the seminar must complete a research paper that satisfies the law schools writing requirement.
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Corporate Finance
3 sem. hrs.
This course presents an overview of the basic principles of corporate finance. Topics include securities valuation including the discounted cash flow analysis, pricing of bonds and common stocks; portfolio theory including the capital asset pricing model and precepts of market efficiency; and capital structure of firms, including the weighted average cost of capital and debt policy. This material is then combined in a section dealing with approaches to valuing entire companies. A final brief section introduces option theory. The course combines finance and legal perspectives for each topic. The primary reading is a standard MBA-level finance text. There will be a series of ungraded problem sets and a graded open-book final exam. This course or an equivalent course satisfies the requirements needed to register in upper-level MBA courses offered by the Wharton Finance Department. Prerequisite: A completed course in or current enrollment in Corporations. There will be an in-class exam.
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Corporate Governance (S)
3 sem. hrs.
This course is designed to introduce the student to current developments and policy debates in corporate governance. Selected topics will include the shareholder primacy debate, the role and composition of the board of directors, shareholder voting, instituitonal investors, shareholder litigation, and executive compensation. The class will generally meet once per week (on Tuesdays), with a limited number of Thursday sessions that will be announced in advance. Students are expected to attend regularly and participate actively in class discussion. A research paper is required and may be used to complete the writing requirement. Corporations is required as a pre-requisite or co-requisite.
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Corporate Lawyering
2 sem. hrs.
The nature and substantive aspects of the practice of law in a corporation or other business setting: the unique role of in-house counsel; the ethical considerations and professional responsibilities of the employee/attorney; the multi-faceted functions and responsibilities of in-house lawyering including fostering the corporate conscience, corporate compliance, educating the organization, implementing corporate governance procedures, interfacing with business operations, participating in governmental/public affairs and legislative activities, and selecting, utilizing, and supervising outside counsel. The course will feature the participation of leading corporate executives and outside practitioners. Please note that there will be a double session on Monday, Sept 14; class will meet 4:30-6:20 and 6:30-8:20. Food will be provided for this extra class.
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Corporate Taxation
2 sem. hrs.
Tax issues relating to the formation, capitalization, operation, restructuring, liquidation, and reorganization of corporate entities form the core of this course. The course will examine the tax consequences of equity and debt to both the issuing corporation and the shareholder or holder of corporate debt instruments and will provide a brief introduction to certain hybrid financial products commonly issued or acquired by corporate entities. While the focus is on tax issues, the business reasons for engaging in various transactions will be an integral part of the course. This course is useful both to students considering tax practice and to students interested in general business practice. Federal Income Tax I is a prerequisite. The course will combine lecture and problem solving.
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Corporations
4 sem. hrs.
This course will focus on the structure and characteristics of the modern business corporation, with particular attention given to problems relating to the large, publicly held company. Some emphasis will be given to federal securities laws and the impact of federal securities regulation on corporate governance. The class will be roughly 60% participatory, but will at times be Socratic (30%) or lecture (10%) in format. The open-book exam will be in a multiple choice format.
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Cost-Benefit Analysis: Law, Policy and Practice (S)
3 sem. hrs.
Federal and state governments, and the U.S. public, are increasingly turning to cost-benefit analysis and risk assessment to guide rulemaking decisions and to set priorities among interventions intended to protect health, safety, environmental quality, homeland security, financial assets, etc. This course prepares students to critically evaluate risk and cost-benefit analyses, in order to help make decisions that are responsive to law, science, economics, and public values. Students will analyze recent and pending decisions by EPA, FDA, OSHA, and other agencies, to explore how analysis has informed or obscured important controversies, and how the courts have shaped both analysis and outcome. We will also discuss the art of crafting cost-effective controls, considering both traditional rulemaking and innovative proposals for new policy instruments. Required readings will include a mix of journal articles about methods of analysis and regulatory policy, along with close analysis of several major court decisions. The course instructor is an environmental health scientist, but the course will not require any particular science or math background. Rather, lectures and class discussion will emphasize insights the instructor gleaned during 10 years as the chief rulemaking official at OSHA and member of numerous EPA advisory committees, including many details of regulatory analyses, court decisions, and enforcement actions that are poorly captured in the public record. Because of the MLK holiday on January 18, there will be a first organizational class meeting scheduled for Friday, January 15th, 10:30-11:50 in Silverman Ground 48. Depending on the interests of the students who attend this meeting, the course content might be modified to emphasize topic areas of particular interest (e.g., bioethics aspects, scientific integrity and whistleblowing issues, specific regulatory controversies ongoing at the time of the course).
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Criminal Defense Clinic
4 sem. hrs.
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES FOR CLINICS AVAILABLE ON THE REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS PAGE. This clinical course will combine hands on trial experience with an educational component tailored to developing litigation skills. Students will try cases under the close supervision of a senior trial attorney from the Defender Association of Philadelphia. During the first four weeks there will be intensive classroom study where students will learn Pennsylvania Criminal Law, Procedure, Evidence, trial and cross examination skills. During this period students will also be assigned mock cases to prepare in addition to observing actual preliminary arraignments, preliminary hearings, and trials in municipal court. Students will then be assigned to represent defendants. Students will conduct misdemeanor trials and preliminary hearings for felony cases. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theories, negotiate with opposing parties, and prepare various pretrial motions. Students will be interacting with their clients, members of the judiciary, District Attorneys, witnesses and complainants. Successful participants will need to be able to persuasively articulate legal arguments, work with a wide variety of individuals and maintain their composure in difficult situations. It is the instructors expectation that each student will have the experience of representing clients on 5 to 7 different cases. In addition to the classroom educational component described above, students will be exposed to a variety of guest speakers who will examine some of the ethical and social issues raised in criminal defense, and particular issues involved in representing the indigent. This course will meet for 6-1/2 hours, over two days per week. There will be a mid-semester evaluation of the student's progress and weekly feedback of the student's in-court performance, which can be scheduled at the student's convenience. Clinical instruction will be conducted at the Law School, except when courtroom appearances are required. This course will be open to 2L's who have completed three semesters and have had Evidence. (Students who have not had three semesters will be ineligible for certification by the court to appear on behalf of clients.) Enrollment is limited to 8 students. Class attendance and courtroom appearances are mandatory. You must appear at the first meeting of the course, or you may be automatically dropped from the course (unless you have advance permission from the instructor). The drop/add period for this course ends at 4 p.m. on the first Friday after the start of the course. Students who elect to use their enrollment in the Criminal Defense Clinic toward their public service requirement will receive three credits for this course. In addition to various handouts provided by the instructor, the required text is Crimes Code of Pennsylvania, Gould Publications.
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Criminal Law
4 sem. hrs.
This course will examine the criminal law as a device for defining and controlling harmful behavior. Attention is given to the theoretical justifications for and the effectiveness of punishment, the foundations of culpability, the basic principles of criminal liability, and the definition of offenses and defenses.
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Criminal Law Theory (S)
3 sem. hrs.
Seminar in Criminal Law Theory Fall 2009: The Credibility of Criminal Justice This term's Seminar will examine what gives a criminal justice system more or less credibility with the community for doing justice in a fair way, and how this reputation can have an effect on the system's crime-control effectiveness. Readings will be from Robinson & Cahill, Law Without Justice and from Tom Tyler, Legitimacy and Criminal Justice. (Professor Tyler, Chair of the Psychology Department at NYU, will be a visitor to the Seminar.) Both books are on reserve in the library. During the first half of the course, students will prepare weekly one-page comments on the week's assigned readings. During the second half of the course, students will present and discuss their own papers on a relevant topic approved by the instructor. Final drafts with a maximum of ten single-spaced pages will be due by the last day of the term. Any student wishing to enroll in this class must be present at the first class meeting.
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Criminal Procedure: Investigation
3 sem. hrs.
This course will focus upon constitutional, statutory, case-law, policy, and ethical issues that arise during the investigation of a criminal case. Topics will include Fourth Amendment and other limitations on police searches, seizures, and surveillance; the scope of the exclusionary rule; the law of confessions, including Miranda v. Arizona and its progeny; lineups and other pre-trial identification procedures; the use of informants and secret agents; and the privilege against self-incrimination in the grand jury setting. This course is a renamed version of what has traditionally been called Constitutional Criminal Procedure, renamed to emphasize the variety of issues beyond constitutional ones that arise in a criminal case. Students may not take both that course and this one for credit. The instructor expects prompt and consistent class attendance. Students must add the class no later than the first class session, though they may drop during the first or second week of class but not thereafter, absent exceptional circumstances. Students may not use laptop computers in this class, except during exam review sessions. Students should focus on listening and responding to the professor and one another instead of trying to transcribe every word spoken in class. The final grade will depend almost entirely on an eight-hour, open-book, issue-spotting essay exam, which students may take wherever they wish but must take on the particular date set by the Registrar. Students may also choose to take an optional oral midterm, which will count only if it raises a student's grade. Class participation may raise but not lower a student's grade.
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Criminal Procedure: Prosecution and Adjudication
3 sem. hrs.
Traditional criminal procedure courses share two features: First, they treat criminal procedure as a subset of constitutional law. This means that they focus on doctrine and case law, in particular the decisions of the Supreme Court and how the Warren Court expanded defendants rights while the Burger and Rehnquist Courts have stayed or reversed this trend. Second, traditional courses focus on jury trials. This course will not be a traditional criminal procedure course. As a former federal prosecutor, my own view is that law schools focus too much on Supreme Court doctrine, ignoring variations among states and how police, prosecutors, and judges implement these rules in the real world. I also think that we should move beyond our obsession with jury trials, which today account for only 4-5% of felony adjudications. The real action today is in charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing, and this course will pay much more attention to these topics.This course will not overlap with Constitutional Criminal Procedure (now called Criminal Procedure: Investigation), which covers searches and seizures, Miranda warnings, etc., so those who have taken that course should feel free to take this one as well (and that class is NOT a prerequisite for this one). This course will, however, overlap with the Advanced Criminal Procedure course, so students may not take both. This lecture course will survey post-arrest criminal procedure. Topics
Posted Apr 03, 2010 19:23
I was set on going to Penn until I got admitted in Columbia. So now its Columbia all the way!!! Though I hate to miss out on the Wharton part of penn law.
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