Required Courses
 
Civil Procedure I (3 units) and Civil Procedure II (2 units)
These courses provide an introduction to the court system, including jurisdiction over the person, venue, and the role of state law in federal courts. The courses also cover aspects of civil litigation, including pleading, discovery, parties, counterclaims, cross-claims, impleader, intervention, and interpleader.

Constitutional Law I (3 units) and Constitutional Law II (3 units)
These courses cover the powers of the federal government and selected topics regarding the relationship of the branches of the federal government to each other and to the States, as well as selected topics regarding the Bill of Rights, due process, equal protection, and the effect of the Fourteenth Amendment on the application of the Bill of Rights to the States.

Contracts I (3 units) and Contracts II (3 units)
A study of the fundamentals of contract law, including the common law, selected portions of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts, and selected portions of the Uniform Commercial Code. Areas of concentration include the bargaining process (offer and acceptance); consideration and other bases for enforcing  promises; the Statute of Frauds; capacity to contract; policing the agreement; unenforceability on grounds of public policy; the parol evidence rule and other rules of contract interpretation; performance and nonperformance; remedies; excuses for nonperformance (including mistake, misrepresentation, duress, impracticability, and frustration of purpose); assignment and delegation; rights of third parties; and other topics.

Corporations (3 units)
This course provides a basic understanding of both closely held and publicly held for-profit corporations.  Particular attention is given to the way in which corporations organize and operate.  The course also examines the respective roles, relationships, responsibilities, and liability exposure of shareholders, directors, and officers.  The study of corporate litigation and regulation under key portions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the rules and regulations of the S.E.C. is included.

Criminal Law (3 units)
This course is designed to enable law students to deal with substantive criminal law problems in both practical and policy terms.  There is inquiry into the proper scope and objectives of the criminal law, limitations on the State’s power to define criminal liability, and general principles of liability and defenses for offenses against the person and property.  The course also provides an opportunity for critical examination of statutes at an early stage in the law student’s career. 

Evidence (4 units)
This course covers the standards regulating admissibility of evidence in both criminal and civil trials. Special emphasis is placed on the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Federal Income Taxation (3 units)
This course introduces students to the system of federal income taxation of individuals.  The tax system is studied with emphasis on basic concepts rather than detailed computations.  Significant attention is given to the public policy served by various provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.  Primary consideration is given to principles and policies relating to the taxation of individuals including procedure, income, deductions, gains and losses, and transactional aspects of income taxation.  The Internal Revenue Code and Regulations are emphasized.

Lawyering Skills Requirement (2-3 units)
Students are required to fulfill this requirement by taking any one of the following lawyering skills courses:

 • Advanced Evidence (3 units)
 ▪ Advanced Legal Research (2 units)
 • Advanced Topics in Advocacy and Dispute Resolution:
         Preparation and Trial of a Civil Case (2 units)
 • Appellate Law Clinic (3 units)
 • Appellate Practice/Procedure (2 units)
 • Client Interviewing and Counseling (3 units)
 • Commercial Leasing (2 units)
 ▪ Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic (1-3 units)
 • Depositions and Discovery in Complex Litigation (3 units)
 • Elder Law: Theory and Practice (3 units)
 ▪ Environmental Law Practice (2 units)
 ▪ Externship (up to 8-10 units)
 ▪ Federal Tax Procedure & Administration with mandatory clinic option (4 units)
 • Legal Drafting (2 units)
 • Mediation (3 units)
 • Negotiations (3 units)
 • Pre-trial Civil Practice (3 units)
 • Tax Research (3 units)
 • Trial Practice (3 units)
 • U.S. Tax Court Clinic (3 units)

Course descriptions for these approved lawyering skills courses are included in the elective course listings.

Legal Research and Writing I (3 units) and Legal Research and Writing II (2 units)
The first course introduces students to fundamental legal reasoning, research, and writing skills in the context of objective legal documents, including client letters and memoranda of law. The course includes an overview of legal concepts, such as the structure of the court system and how law is made.The second course helps students refine and further develop their analytical, writing, and research skills in the advocacy context.  Students produce litigation documents including pleadings and either a pre-trial brief or an appellate brief. Students are introduced to computer assisted legal research.

Professional Responsibility (2 units)
The rules of law governing lawyers’ professional conduct are studied through the ethics codes, lectures, text, cases, problems, and class discussion.  Principal attention is given to whether lawyers should subordinate their own moral judgment to that of their clients, the lawyer’s role in an adversary system, zealous representation, lawyer-client confidentiality, conflicts of interest, competency in providing legal services, prosecutors’ ethics, solicitation of clients, and the lawyer’s professional obligation to do work for the benefit of the public.  Close attention is given to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

Real Property I (3 units) and Real Property II (3 units)
Property law is studied as a social and legal institution to facilitate the acquisition, disposition, and use of personal and real property.  Over two semesters, students explore a variety of rights and responsibilities in property, including distinctions between real and personal property, the nature of ownership and possession, adverse possession, landlord-tenant law, present and future estates in land, concurrent ownership, conveyancing and deeds, recording, private land-use restrictions (easements, covenants, and equitable servitudes), public land-use regulations, and eminent domain. The course may include introductory exposure to trusts, donative transfers, intellectual property, fixtures, mortgages, and ownership of natural resources (i.e., water, oil, gas, wildlife).

Torts I (3 units) and Torts II (3 units)
These courses cover the civil laws governing compensation for injury to person and property.  The courses emphasize intentional, negligent, and strict liability torts. Students become familiar with the fundamental principles and objectives of tort law including the basic rules governing the legal assessment of fault, victim compensation, and defenses.  Products liability, defamation, invasion of privacy, selected business torts, and other alternatives to negligence may be explored. 

Writing Requirement (2-3 units)
The substantial writing requirement may be satisfied by the production of one or more documents that require the student to engage in complex, critical analysis of a legal issue.  The assignments must challenge the student’s organizational, research, problem-solving, and writing abilities.  The project should enhance the student’s educational experience and may involve interdisciplinary work, the integration of theory and application, skills and values, or advocacy of a particular position.  Any project that satisfies the writing requirement must involve a close working relationship between the student and a full-time faculty supervisor during the research and preparation of the project, except where the associate dean for academic affairs approves an alternate arrangement.

The requirement may be satisfied by production of a paper of high academic quality in any of the following ways: 1) a document or documents in connection with an upper level course or seminar (as designated each semester by the full-time professor after approval by the associate dean for academic affairs); 2) a writing for law review that is of publishable quality; or, 3) directed research. The list of courses qualifying for the writing requirement is published with the course schedules each semester.

Student proposals for satisfying the writing requirement through directed research must include a detailed topic description and an estimate of the time requirement for completion of the project.  The faculty supervisor requires an outline and a draft in addition to the final paper.  The faculty member and student meet on a regular basis to discuss the progress of the paper.  All directed research projects are graded.  The faculty supervisor notifies the student in advance of all requirements for the project. The number of credits can be no fewer than two and no greater than three. While a faculty supervisor’s judgment as to the length of papers that satisfies the writing requirement through directed research is generally determinative, no work product of fewer than twenty-five pages will satisfy the requirement.