Upper-Level Course Design

For a law student considering upper-level course offerings, a course in a substantive area not covered in required courses—for instance, Employment Law or Immigration Law—might serve any of several purposes. The student might want to explore the area of law as a possible area of practice or concentration. The student might know that he or she wants to concentrate in this area. The student might want to have a basic knowledge of the subject as along with other subjects.

To provide advanced coverage within different broad areas, the curriculum includes a variety of 2-hour and 3-hour credit electives and 1-hour “Topics” courses. Each Topics course is one credit hour and has a unique course number. Each course may be offered multiple times, on multiple subjects (listed below). Students may take multiple Topics courses. Examples of Topics courses might include:

• Criminal Law Topics (Post-conviction litigation; Juvenile Law)
•  Employment Law Topics (ERISA; Employment Discrimination)
•  Civil Liability Topics (Products Liability; Mass Torts; Business Torts)
•  Family Law Topics (Marital Property and Tracing)
•  Health Care Topics (Bioethics)
•  Public Law Topics (Poverty Law; Non-profit Law; Education Law)
•  Transactional and Business Topics (International Business Transactions)
•  Trial Advocacy Topics (Expert Witnesses; Exhibits)

In addition, courses within the three categories of experiential courses will develop advanced substantive knowledge and skills within areas of practice.

• Criminal Law Practicum
• Motions Practicum
• Business Lawyer Practicum
• Appellate Advocacy Practicum
• Energy Practicum
• Tax Law Practicum
• Constitutional Law Practicum
• Disability/Elder Law Practicum
• Mediation Practicum
• Criminal Law Practicum