COURSE CATALOG
This catalog is made available electronically by the University of Memphis. UofM students and potential students may publish the catalog if they so desire.
Below students can find information about required, elective and specialized courses offered at Memphis Law.
- Alphabetical Course List
- Electives & Specialized Areas of Study
- Upper-level Research & Skills Requirement
- Degree Programs
- Certificate Programs
Alphabetical Course List
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
•Skip to Electives and Specialized Areas of Study
Administrative agencies execute law affecting almost every aspect of daily life, including labor and employment, environmental, intellectual property, insurance, transportation, and health laws. This course does not focus on the substantive law of any particular agency; it instead examines principles and procedures common to all agencies, derived in large part from the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. The course will examine the sources of agency authority, the limitations on agency actions, the procedures that agencies must use in rulemaking and adjudication, and the availability and scope of judicial review of agency actions.
Course Number 312
2-hour elective course
This 2-hour course will focus on traditional admiralty and maritime law concepts, including an examination of the Jones Act, unseaworthiness, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, and the general maritime law. The course will also cover issues relating to maritime contracts and liens, limitation of liability, issues relating to collisions, allisions, and breakaways, fleeter’s liability, and issues relating to admiralty jurisdiction. The course will also review the available defenses and damages. While the concepts taught are applicable to all areas of maritime practice, the primary focus will be on maritime law as it applies to the inland waterways of the United States. There are no prerequisites.
Course 523
1- or 2-hour skills course
Advanced Appellate Advocacy is a skills course for students participating on Moot Court Travel Teams. It focuses on developing and practicing skills in brief-writing and oral advocacy. Students who both write a competition brief and argue orally are eligible for two credits. It is a non-classroom course and students should enroll during the semester in which they compete in an inter-school competition. Students are able to take the course more than once, if they compete in more than one inter-school competition. The Director of Advocacy may award grades of Excellent, Pass, or Fail, based on the recommendation of the team’s coach.
Course 453
2-hour research/writing course
This class is designed to offer students who have some experience with writing briefs
the opportunity to hone their brief-writing skills. The class will discuss how to research an issue in depth and present a case persuasively,
considering issues such as developing a theory of the case, arguing thematically,
using the components of the brief effectively, using precedent effectively, and structuring
the argument persuasively. Students will have substantial latitude in selecting an issue to brief. Students will write a brief to a court of last resort and will present the case orally.
This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.
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Advanced Criminal Prosecution is a one-credit intersession course offered annually over the Law School's Spring Break week in conjunction with the Tennessee District Attorney General's Conference's (TNDAG) Trial Advocacy Course. Advanced Criminal Prosecution is intended to offer a select number of students (maximum of eight) interested in criminal trial advocacy intensive training in and exposure to prosecutorial litigation skills and strategy. In a "master class" approach to learning, experienced prosecutors from across the state of Tennessee will present instruction on all aspects of criminal trial practice, including jury selection, pretrial motions, opening statements, direct and cross examinations, evidentiary objections, and closing argument. Devoted sessions will focus on interviewing and preparing witnesses, selecting juries, case analysis, charging decisions, discovery, prosecutorial ethics, and professionalism. In those sections requiring student performance (of examinations, opening statement, and closing argument), students will receive critique, including individual reviews of their performances. The course will satisfy the Experiential Course requirement.
1-hour skills course
Advanced Trial Advocacy is a skills course for students participating on mock trial travel teams. It focuses on developing and enhancing the skills necessary to put on a basic trial. It is a non-classroom course and students should enroll during the semester in which they compete in an inter-school competition. Students are able to take the course more than once if they compete in more than one inter-school competition. The Director of Advocacy may award grades of Excellent, Pass, or Fail, based on the recommendation of the team’s coach. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.
2-hour skills/simulation course
This course offers Negotiations and Mediation skills to prepare the student to properly represent clients in labor mediation and other alternative dispute resolution techniques. This course will satisfy the Experiential Course requirement.
Prerequisite (Recommended): Professional Responsibility and Evidence
Course 316
2-hour skills/simulation course
This course offers negotiation and mediation skills to prepare the student to properly represent clients in mediation. While students will likely gain insight into how the mediator conducts a mediation session, the goal of the course is lawyering skills in mediation, not skills as a mediator. This course will satisfy the Experiential Course requirement.
Prerequisites (Required): Professional Responsibility and Evidence, prior to or concurrently
Antitrust law is concerned with how firms compete in the marketplace. Given its broad focus on market competition, the study of antitrust allows students to better understand how modern economies function and why businesses (large and small) behave the way they do. The primary strategies addressed are monopolistic conduct, cartel behavior, mergers and acquisitions, and joint-venture activities. Particular areas of focus include amateur-sports regulation, regulatory capture of state licensing boards, and evolving healthcare and pharmaceutical markets.
Course 309
3-hour skills/simulation course
Appellate Advocacy is a writing skills course that builds on Legal Methods II. The course covers the basics of appellate advocacy: analyzing an issue on appeal, writing an appellate brief, and preparing and delivering an oral argument. The course offers instruction in brief writing through regular writing assignments, culminating in an appellate brief. It also offers instruction in how to prepare and deliver an oral argument. Students write a brief and give and judge oral arguments. Grades are based on the written work, oral arguments, and other aspects of class participation.
This course is integrated with the Advanced Moot Court Competition, although class members are not required to compete. The Advanced Moot Court problem will be the basis of class discussion. The Advanced Moot Court brief will be the draft brief for the course. Students will rewrite that brief for the final grade. The Advanced Moot Court Competition will give students the opportunity to practice their arguments for the final in-class argument.
The course will be scheduled around the Advanced Moot Court Competition. Classes will focus on brief-writing until the Advanced brief is due. Classes from the time the brief is due until the competition starts will discuss oral argument. The class will not meet during the Advanced Competition so students can devote their attention to competing. Students who complete the Advanced Moot Court Competition and one other competition are eligible for one credit in addition to the two credits for this course.
All students are highly encouraged to take this course to learn the basics of appellate advocacy and develop writing skills. This course is extremely important for students who wish to participate on moot court competition teams or become a member of the moot court board. This course satisfies the Experiential Course requirement.
This is a course to help graduating students prepare for the Bar Exam both by reviewing some substantive law and instructing on how successfully to navigate multiple choice, essay, and Multistate Performance Test questions. The class reviews substantive criminal law, constitutional law, and tort law. Students answer simulated multistate and essay questions and receive regular feedback on their performance. There will be graded mid-term and final examinations and a graded Multistate Performance Test. This course is in addition to, not a substitute for, a summer bar preparation course.
2-hour elective course
This course examines the legal pillars of contemporary medical ethics and, more broadly, "bioethics." It will focus particularly on [a] informed consent, [b] end of life, [c] medical research, and [d] the financial challenges of modern health care. The materials and discussion will emphasize the ways in which, historically, bioethics is rooted heavily in case law and the difficult human stories those cases addressed. And they will emphasize the day-to-day clinical realities that must be understood if difficult bioethical/legal questions are to be addressed insightfully and appropriately.
Course 211
3-hour practice foundation menu course
This course is a survey of agency law and selected statutory provisions, common law
doctrines, and administrative regulations related to the formation, operation, and
dissolution of general partnerships, limited partnerships, and corporations, along
with the rights and responsibilities of the primary internal stakeholders of these
entities. Class discussions of cases include both ethical issues associated with practicing
law within the context of business situations, and practical perspectives to forward
students’ development of lawyering skills while mastering terminology and substance. Although the broad framework of business serves as a backdrop for the legal doctrine,
the course is designed to be accessible to students without a business background.
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This clinic offers student attorneys the opportunity to develop the core legal skills determined by the ABA’s MacCrate Report to be fundamental to the successful practice of law. This is foremost a litigation clinic, which allows a student to practice essential skills necessary in a litigation practice, in the context of representing children. Due to the nature of a child and family law practice, this Clinic has a strong interdisciplinary bent.
Student attorneys primarily represent children as court-appointed Guardians ad Litem in juvenile court in child abuse and neglect or termination of parental rights proceedings. There is a great demand for court-appointed attorneys in juvenile courts in Tennessee, both in child representation and parent representation, and this Clinic prepares graduates to undertake these roles. In addition, student attorneys might represent a child in education matters, delinquency hearings, adoption, guardianships, conservatorships, administrative matters such as children’s SSI, or miscellaneous other problems that might take the student to chancery, probate, or circuit court, to administrative agencies, or even to the appellate courts. Through giving a vulnerable population ‘voice’ in the legal system, the Child and Family Litigation Clinic awaken within students who will be tomorrow’s litigators, advocates, lawmakers and judges a spirit of compassion, a sense of fairness, and an understanding of equal justice. The course will satisfy the Experiential Course requirement.
3-hour required course
Civil Procedure provides an overview of the procedural issues involved in the filing and adjudication of civil suits, primarily in federal court. Over two semesters (Civil Procedure I in the fall, Civil Procedure II in the spring), we will study: jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter; venue; the applicable law; pleadings; joinder of parties and claims; discovery; adjudication without trial; principles of trial by jury; the preclusive effects of former adjudication; and, if time permits, additional advanced topics.
A subset of the above-listed topics is covered in Civil Procedure I (fall semester). Please check with the instructor for a list of the specific topics covered.
Course 124
2-hour required course
Civil Procedure provides an overview of the procedural issues involved in the filing and adjudication of civil suits, primarily in federal court. Over two semesters (Civil Procedure I in the fall, Civil Procedure II in the spring), we will study: jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter; venue; the applicable law; pleadings; joinder of parties and claims; discovery; adjudication without trial; principles of trial by jury; the preclusive effects of former adjudication; and, if time permits, additional advanced topics.
A subset of the above-listed topics is covered in Civil Procedure II (spring semester). Please check with the instructor for a list of the specific topics covered.
3-hour elective course
This course covers § 1983 litigation and aims to make students familiar with issues that arise in prosecuting or defending a § 1983 action. TOPICS: Action under color of state law, statutory claims, Fourth Amendment, Eighth Amendment, Due Process, Immunities, Municipal Liability, Eleventh Amendment, and if time allows, Recovery (including attorney’s fees), and Jurisdictional issues.
This course examines core concepts of the Uniform Commercial Code, focusing on Sales (Article 2), Negotiable Instruments (Article 3), and Secured Transactions (Article 9). Related areas of law (i.e., bankruptcy, payment systems, consumer law, etc.) and aspects of commercial and business practices will be discussed as required. This course is intended to provide an overview of commercial law for students who will not be enrolling in each of the commercial law trilogy (Sales, Commercial Paper, and Secured Transactions), but who wish to obtain a significant exposure to the structure and operation of the Uniform Commercial Code, as well as to fundamental commercial law and business practices.
Note: Students who already have completed two or more of the commercial law menu courses will not be permitted to enroll in Commercial Law Survey. Students who have completed Commercial Law Survey may take one of the other commercial law courses in order to gain in-depth knowledge about the chosen area; the student may take both Commercial Law Survey and one other commercial law course in the same semester.
Course 441
2-hour research/writing course
Despite accelerating globalization, the world remains governed by an overlapping set
of fragmented legal regimes. This seminar will survey a number of non-U.S. national
legal traditions from historical, critical, and comparative perspectives. Topics
of current interest will include studies of horizontal and vertical legal harmonization
and regionalism. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.
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Course 324
3-hour elective course
Bar course
When an Arkansas driver is involved in an accident in Tennessee, which state's law applies? Are states ever required to recognize out-of-state divorces or apply foreign laws? When and how can contracting parties choose a particular set of laws to govern their relationship? This course will prepare you to address the issues that arise when a matter may be governed by more than one legal system. Particular areas of focus include horizontal (state-versus-state) choice-of-law approaches, constitutional limits on horizontal choice of law, and recognition and enforcement of out-of-state judgments, and vertical (federal-versus-state) conflicts.
Course 212
4-hour required course
The objective of this course is to become familiar with major topics of constitutional debate and to learn to make a constitutional argument. Coverage: Article III, Commerce Clause, Dormant Commerce Clause, Articles IV & VI, Due Process, Equal Protection and (time allowing) First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion.
3-hour required course/2-hour required course
This course addresses contract formation and breach of contract. Coverage includes: the meaning of the word “contract”; the doctrine of consideration and when promises may be unenforceable due to the absence of bargained-for exchange; the elements of and the subtle twists associated with offer and acceptance; the requirement of a writing for certain types of contracts; the extent to which courts “police” the substance of a bargain to prevent unfairness and limit contract enforcement; the process of defining the scope of a contract; and the interpretation of contract language.
Course 325
2- or 3-hour elective course
This course covers the subject matter of copyright, limitations on the subject matter of copyright, infringement of copyright, and defenses to infringement. This course will teach concepts fundamental to Copyright Law so that students will understand and be able to apply them to the analysis of issues arising in factual settings.
This course covers corporate governance and compliance. "Corporate Governance" refers to the processes by which decisions are made within firms, including the roles played by shareholders, directors, and executives. "Corporate Compliance" refers to the processes by which an organization seeks to ensure that employees and others conform to applicable norms, which can include either the requirements of laws or regulations or the internal rules of the organization. Covered compliance mechanisms include internal enforcement, as well as the role played by regulators, prosecutors, whistleblowers, and attorneys.
2-hour research/writing course
This course provides an in-depth discussion of the law, theory and policy of corporate governance. The course will be taught in a seminar format and will require the completion of a paper. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.
The course focuses on the federal income tax aspects of corporate formation, capital structure, distributions to shareholders, redemptions of shareholders, liquidations, taxable acquisitions and reorganizations, and nontaxable reorganizations.
Prerequisite (Required): Basic Income Tax
Course 126
3-hour required course
This course introduces students to basic principles of substantive criminal law (under the common law and one Model Penal Code), the principals of criminal culpability and the analysis of criminal statutes. Topics include the criminal act, mens rea, homicide, attempt, complicity, conspiracy, and defenses.
Course 223
3-hour practice foundation menu course
An examination of principles of constitutional criminal procedure, with a focus on search and seizure, the right to counsel, the law governing interrogation and confessions, and pretrial identification procedures and other selected issues.
Course 326
2-hour elective course
Covers all aspects of criminal procedure from pre-arrest through post-conviction and habeas corpus. Upon completion of course, students should have a thorough and practical understanding of criminal procedure, particularly Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Prerequisite (Recommended): Criminal Procedure I is recommended, but not required. Primarily statutory, but some practice emphasis. Although not specifically listed as a topic that is bar tested, some bar questions in the past have included matters covered by this class.
Debtor-Creditor Law is a foundational course that addresses the question of what to do when there's not enough money to go around. It provides a brief introduction to state and federal debt collection laws before diving into federal bankruptcy law. The emphasis is on the consumer side because that is most often the context in which these questions arise, but also explores concepts such as fraudulent conveyances and preferential transfers that are encountered in business contexts as well, The course serves as an excellent review of concepts learned in secured transactions that are likely to be encountered on the bar exam. It is a must for both transactional lawyers who want to draft documents that adequately address the possibility of financial default and litigators who want to know what to do once a judgment is entered.
It is strongly recommended, but not required, that students complete Secured Transactions before taking this course.
Course 213
3-hour practice foundation menu course
Coverage includes intestate succession, wills, nonprobate assets, and a brief introduction to trusts. Objectives include mastery of fundamental principles under the Uniform Probate Code, the Tennessee Code, and case law.
Course 377
2-hour skills/simulation course
This course covers the pre-trial practices used by one party to obtain facts and information about a case from another party in order to assist the party's preparation for trial. Students study depositions, interrogatories, production of documents, requests for admissions, and other pre-trial discovery practices. The course is hands-on and requires students to draft pleadings, conduct discovery activities, and participate in a mediation. The course also includes electronic discovery and discusses counsel's duty to properly identify, preserve, collect, review, and produce electronically stored information (ESI), as well as on the basic technological knowledge litigation counsel should possess. The course covers the growing case law in the area and prepares students through exercises in mock depositions, and exercises in properly written discovery practice and an exercise in a mock mediation. The course satisfies the Experiential Course requirement.
The Divorce Law Practicum is a semester-long course designed to convey the essential principals, skills, and values that a lawyer must embrace and master in order to provide competent counsel in the practice of divorce law. Working in the context of a simulated case file and related mock writing and advocacy opportunities, students will consider the potential effects of the substantive law, procedural rules, and ethical guidelines, as well as the accepted customs and practices of lawyers. This course will satisfy the Experiential Course requirement. Designed for students who have completed the fundamental Family Law survey course, the 3-hour Divorce Law Practicum will closely examine the primary areas of divorce practice.
Prerequisite (Required): Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Family Law
The objective of the course is to expose students to the economic analysis of the law. The course covers at a basic level various economic principles and considers the application of those principles to basic areas of law, ie; tort, contract, and property.
Course 310
3-hour elective course
This course explores the intersection of education law and policy as it meets constitutional and equal protection law. Students will be asked to consider policy decisions that impact civil rights in various areas, including student assignment, student admissions, and student instruction, and relate them to disparities across lines of race, ethnicity, gender, native language, and religion.
Course 374
3-hour elective course
Coverage includes ethical issues, age discrimination in employment, income maintenance, health care, long-term care, housing, guardianship, health care decision making, elder abuse and neglect, and basic estate planning. The objective is to provide an overview of principal issues facing the practitioner of Elder Law.
Prerequisites (Required): First-year courses.
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The Elder Health Law Advocacy Clinic will provide students with the opportunity to 1) represent low-income elderly patients facing legal issues related to health care, such as advanced health care decision making, Medicaid, and Medicare eligibility, nursing home quality of care and residents' rights issues, hospice care, and medical futility; 2) engage in collaborative health policy discussions and initiatives with aging network providers; and 3) conduct community education efforts targeting health law issues of concern to the elderly. During orientation, student attorneys will interface with the Long Term Care Ombudsman for West Tennessee and various other aging network health care providers, while also becoming acquainted with pertinent ethical issues, substantive health law issues affecting elders, administrative law relating to TennCare and Medicare appeals and Clinic office procedures. After the initial three weeks of orientation, students will participate in weekly case review meetings with their supervising clinical professor and other class members to discuss issues and progress in their cases, policy initiatives and community education efforts. Students are expected to devote 15 hours per week (which includes seven office hours and a weekly one-hour twenty-minute case review session) on Clinic activities.
Prerequisites: Professional Responsibility and Evidence
Recommended: Decedents' Estates and Elder Law
3-hour elective course
With employee benefits issues, laws, and regulations changing so rapidly and at the forefront of the news, business and legal worlds, employee benefits law has become one of the fastest growing and most critical areas of the law today. Employee benefits issues affect not just traditional “pension” lawyers but also affect the practices of many practicing lawyers, including the corporate lawyer, the domestic relations lawyer, the litigation lawyer, the estate planning lawyer and the general practitioner. This course will provide an introduction to ERISA-governed employee benefit plans (including the impact of the Affordable Care Act on such plans), welfare benefit plans, and executive compensation plans. It will be an applied problem method of instruction with emphasis on questions, issues and problems involving employee benefit plans likely to arise in a general litigation or business transaction practice.
This course combines aspects of contract, tort, intellectual property, antitrust, and secured transactions, and applies those disciplines to the unique entertainment business setting. We will study the entertainment industry from both a macro level (i.e., the organization of the motion picture, television video game and music business, including the function of studios, producers, networks, record companies, agencies, managers, lawyers and labor unions) and a micro level (i.e., examining actual agreements in order to understand the principal components of motion picture talent, production and distribution contracts, television series contracts, gaming, music and book publishing contracts). We will also examine key litigation issues that affect the industry, such as the interaction of the First Amendment and the right of publicity, the right of privacy and libel, the anti-SLAPP laws, and the "final cut" and profit participation cases. The impact of the digital media (including the internet) will also be analyzed, along with the future of the entertainment industry, including convergence, holograms, syntho-thespians and the like.
3-hour elective course
Analysis of all aspects of Wills, probate procedures, trusts, Living Wills, Guardianships, Durable Powers of Attorney, Irrevocable Trusts, Estate Tax savings techniques, generation-skipping techniques, life insurance in estate planning and probate avoidance techniques.
Prerequisites (Required): Decedents' Estates
Course 221
4-hour required course
Considers the presentation of and admissibility of factual information in the trial of a case: including the determination of relevance; proof of writings and other real evidence; qualification, examination and impeachment of witnesses; privileges; opinion testimony; and the application of the hearsay rule. Emphasis is on the Federal Rules of Evidence.
Focuses on statutes banning discrimination in employment and other fair employment issues. Federal and state laws dealing with discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, religion, disability, and national origin will be examined. Questions regarding affirmative action and "reverse discrimination" will be discussed. The course will also look at the recent erosion of the employment at will doctrine and a variety of special employment-related topics.
3-hour practice foundation menu course
Bar Course
This is a survey course in Family Law that focuses primarily on marriage, divorce, and issues related to the dissolution of a marriage. There is an emphasis on Tennessee law.
2-hour research/writing course
This seminar examines current topics in family law with an emphasis on reproductive rights, the establishment of the parent-child relationship, and the evolving definition of family. Students will write and present a substantial, publishable quality paper. This seminar satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.
Prerequisites (Required): Constitutional Law and Family Law
Course 333
3-hour elective course
This course addresses the constitutional and statutory provisions, as well as the judicially-created doctrines, that shape and limit the role that federal courts play in our system of government. It pays particular attention to issues implicating the separation of powers and federalism and to contending visions of the functions federal courts should perform in American society. Selected topics include the nature of the federal judicial function, standing and justiciability doctrines, congressional control of federal court jurisdiction, Supreme Court review of state court decisions and the relationship between state and federal law, the federal question jurisdiction of the federal district courts, judicial abstention doctrines and the power of federal courts to enjoin state court proceedings, and state sovereign immunity from suit in federal and state court.
Corequisite: Constitutional LawPrerequisite (Required): Civil Procedure I & II
Course 444
2-hour elective course
This seminar looks at current topics in federal discrimination law. Topics include disparate impact analysis, affirmative action, gay rights, voting rights issues, and others. Reading assignments are included in a packet provided by the professor and average 30-40 pages per week. The packet includes excerpts from cases, law review articles, congressional testimony, and newspaper and magazine articles, as well as several short writing exercises. Students will write one 25-page research paper, and present that paper in a class toward the end of the semester. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.
The primary focus of this class will be on the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act generally and the FDA, in particular. The course covers such contemporary issues as protecting against unsafe or mislabeled food, controlling carcinogens, color additives, expediting approval of AIDS and cancer drugs, assuring the safety of prescription drugs before and after marketing, importing drugs from abroad, switching drugs from prescription to nonprescription status, balancing the benefits and risks of breast implants, the compassionate use of experimental products, regulating complex new medical device technology, control of such biotechnology techniques, requiring adequate consumer and professional labeling for FDA-regulated products, and the relationship among international, federal and state regulatory enforcement. There are no prerequisites, but Administrative Law is recommended.
This course will cover the statutory requirements on becoming a lobbyist at the federal level, as well as applying it to interactive scenarios using real examples. This course is geared toward the practical practice of lobbying, whether in law firms, corporations, or government bodies.
Course 724
3-hour elective course
Health Policy Practicum
Course 705
3-hour skills course
Health Law Seminar
Course 400
2-hour research/writing course
Course 337
3-hour elective course
The subject matter of Modern Immigration Law and Policy. Fundamental to Immigration Law are taught so that students will understand and be able to apply them to the analysis of issues arising in factual settings.
Course 214
3-hour statutory menu course
This course covers concepts of gross income, exclusions from gross income, deductions,
capital gains, timing, and tax systems. An important objective of the course is to
develop the skill of reading statutes and applicable regulations.
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3-hour elective course
This course will focus on traditional insurance law concepts and cutting-edge legal issues affecting insurance law theory and practice. The coursework will include an examination of insurance history and fundamental concepts, insurance contract law, government regulation, insurable interest requirements, limitations of risk, defenses and duties of policyholders after a loss. The course will include a review of property, liability, life, health, disability, automobile and other forms of insurance coverage. We will spend a considerable time with insurance coverage that attorneys will be called upon to consider and understand in most types of practices.
Course 395
3-hour elective course
This course covers the basics of intellectual property law relating to trade secrets, patents, copyrights, and trademarks.
Course 399
3-hour elective course
International Economic Law
Course 397
3-hour elective course
This course examines the legal and economic frameworks of international trade. The course focuses on the arguments for and against free trade and on the law of the World Trade Organization.
Course 340
3-hour elective course
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Courses 912, 913, 914
3- or 4-hour research/writing course
The University of Memphis Law Review is the law school’s scholarly journal, publishing articles written by law professors, judges, and practitioners, as well as student “Notes” written by members of the law review. Students serving as staff members or editors earn credit writing their notes, editing and cite-checking articles, and fulfilling the other obligations necessary to publish 4 issues of the law review each year. Students are selected to become law review staff members through a “write-on” competition held in the summer after the first year of law school that considers their performance on the write-on competition paper, their score on a legal citation style (i.e., Bluebook) test, and other factors. In their second year of law school, staff members interested in becoming editors may apply in the Spring semester for positions on the editorial board. A minimum GPA of 2.50 is required to participate in and remain eligible for law review. Successful completion of the Law Review Note satisfies the research/writing requirement.
Course 347
2- or 3-hour research/writing OR skills course
This is a practical course which focuses on the skills involved in taking a first appeal. Students will work with a real trial transcript. The class will focus on identifying issues for appeal and will cover topics such as preservation of error, plain error, harmless error, and standards of review. Students will write a brief to a court of appeals and argue the appeal orally. This course will satisfy the upper-level skills requirement or the research/writing requirement, but not both.
Course 513
2-hour skills/simulation course
This course is designed to provide second- and third- year law students with the skills and knowledge necessary to draft client letters, pleadings, and motions involved in civil litigation. Students will be challenged to refine their writing skills and strategic analysis of pre-trial issues in this practical based course. This course satisfies the Experiential Course requirement.
Course 597
2-hour skills/simulation course
This course is a transactional drafting course for second- and third-year law students. The course is designed to provide students with the analytic skill of translating the business deal into contract concepts, and an understanding of the rules and techniques for good transactional drafting to enhance clarity and avoid ambiguity. Students will be challenged to learn to think like lawyers and develop skills in translating that thinking into the contracts they draft, utilizing a variety of contracts and transactional practice areas. This course satisfies the Experiential Course requirement.
Course 447
2-hour research/writing course
This seminar gives the students an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of selected issues in professional responsibility and professionalism. Coverage will include confidentiality, conflicts of interest, litigation tactics, perjury, the client-lawyer relationship, counseling clients, competence, admission to practice, professional discipline, delivery of legal services, and legal education. Students research and write a paper on a selected professional responsibility or professionalism issue. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.
Course 113
3-hour required course
Objective: To produce competent practitioners using a guided approach to legal research, legal drafting, and legal analysis. This course focuses on the process of legal research, the objective analysis of legal issues, and the substance and form of objective legal memoranda.
Course 123
2-hour required course
The objective of this course is to produce competent advocates. LM II covers persuasive advocacy. Building on LM I's emphasis on research, analysis, and objective writing, students further refine these skills by drafting a persuasive brief and arguing before a mock court.
Course 348
3-hour statutory course menu course
Course 394
3-hour elective course
Course 402
3-hour research/writing course
Course 301
2- or 3-hour elective
Moot Court
Course 811
1- or 2-hour elective
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Course 317
2-hour skills/simulation course
In the Neighborhood Preservation Clinic, students represent the City of Memphis in lawsuits filed against the owners of badly neglected, vacant and abandoned properties. Clinic students investigate property ownership and conditions, communicate with field code enforcement professionals, prepare civil lawsuits alleging claims arising under the Tennessee Neighborhood Preservation Act (NPA), and handle all aspects of those lawsuits as they proceed in the Shelby County Environmental Court. Each Clinic student assumes the role of lead attorney for the NPA cases he or she is assigned during the academic semester. Clinic responsibilities include weekly appearances in the Environmental Court, during which students present at hearings and status updates, negotiate with opposing counsel and parties, and do all else that is necessary to move the lawsuits forward. To complement their casework, Clinic students participate in a weekly classroom session focused on the pervasive challenge of property vacancy and abandonment in Memphis. The seminar segment of the weekly class exposes the law students to substantive code enforcement and housing law, national models of legal strategies to address problem properties, practice and procedure in the Shelby County Environmental Court, and the issues of ethics and professionalism that arise in the context of their cases. The seminar also includes a case rounds component, during which students engage in an ongoing dialogue about the challenges they are experiencing while managing Clinic's cases.
Course 370
3-hour elective course
Prerequisites (Recommended): Business Organizations.
Prerequisite (Recommended): Corporate Tax
Patent Law
Course 390
3-hour elective course
3-hour skills course
2-hour elective course
Course 357
2-hour elective course
Course 224
2-hour required course
Bar course
Course 115
3-hour required course
Course 125
3-hour required course
Course 702
3-hours elective course
2-hour research/writing course
Public international law is concerned with the law governing relations between States (i.e., U.S., China, Germany) as legal entities. This 2-hour seminar course is not bar tested and is not a menu course, but it is an indispensable course for anyone who wants to understand global power structures. Week-by-week, we will cover a range of foundational doctrines in international law, including the doctrines of sources, jurisdiction, sovereign immunity, treaty law, and various remedial mechanisms and processes. over the course of the semester, students will prepare a seminar paper on an international law topic of their choice. While there are no prerequisites for the course, success in the course will require immersion in current events and heightened awareness of major global developments.
This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.
Course 368
3-hour elective course
Bar course
Course 711
1-hour elective
Course 222
3-hour statutory menu course
3-hour elective course
This course considers federal regulation of the registration, issuance, and trading of securities in national, regional and private markets for securities. Materials in the course will examine the 1933 and 1934 Acts and other federal statutory provisions (for example, The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010) and their effects on markets for issuance and trading of securities.
Prerequisites (Recommended): Business Organizations I
Recommended: Corporate Tax and concurrent enrollment in Partnership Tax.
2-hour research/writing course
Tennessee Civil Procedure Seminar
Course 429
2-hour research/writing course
Course 445
2-hour research/writing course
This seminar will explore state constitutional doctrine. While development under the Constitution of Tennessee will be a principal focus, selected issues in other states will be examined as well, as will the methodology of state constitutional analysis. This course satisfies the Research/Writing requirement.
Prerequisites (Required): Constitutional Law
Course 112
3-hour required course
3-hour required course
Torts II picks up where Torts I leaves off, with further consideration of the tort of negligence. Other topics that may be covered include strict liability (of which products liability is the largest component), wrongful death, tort damages, and defamation and privacy.
Course 707
2- or 3-hours elective course
Trade secrets are one of the four core areas of intellectual property law and the
one most likely to be encountered in legal practice by non-specialists, as trade secret
issues arise in areas as diverse as employment law, business formation, mergers and
acquisitions, licensing, franchising, venture financing, development of new technologies,
and contractual relationships of all sorts between competitors, joint venturers and
vendors.
This course will cover the laws protecting trade secrets and confidential business information, including the variously related doctrines that govern the ownership and use of information between employers and employees, fiduciary duties, non-compete agreements, and assignment agreements concerning new inventions and discoveries.
The focus of the course will be on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act now in effect in almost every state (including Tennessee), as well as the federal Economic Espionage Act. The "hot" topics in current trade secret practice, including what does and does not constitute an actual trade secret, the doctrine of inevitable disclosure, and real-world contractual restrictions on employee mobility through non-competes and non-solicitation covenants, will be covered in depth. Alongside this practice-oriented approach, the course will also explore certain public policy concerns, including the effect of trade secret laws on employee rights and on technological innovation. There are no prerequisites for this course and no prior experience in Intellectual Property is required.
Course 366
2-hour elective course
3-hour skills/simulation course
Trial Advocacy is a simulation course wherein students will learn about the various phases of jury trial in civil and criminal contexts, as well as the differences between a jury and non-jury trials. Students will simulate jury selection, opening statements, direct and cross examinations, and closing arguments, and will learn how to introduce exhibits, present expert testimony, raise and respond to objections, and deal with problem witnesses. Students will have weekly simulation assignments and, in most sections, will conduct a full trial at the end of the semester. This course satisfies the Experiential Course requirement.
Prerequisite (Required): Evidence, may be taken concurrently
Course 392
2-hour elective course
U.S. Taxation of International Income
Course 385
3-hour elective course
The course will examine U.S. tax rules applicable to business and investment activities
of foreign individuals and corporations in the United States (“inbound transactions”)
and U.S. tax rules applicable to U.S. taxpayers who invest and conduct business abroad
(“outbound transactions”. Specific topics will include sourcing and characterization of items of income and
deductions, the branch profits tax, foreign investment in U.S. real estate, the foreign
tax credit, property transfers, controlled foreign corporations, and U.S. tax treaties. Federal Taxation of Business Entities is a prerequisite but it may be taken concurrently.
Electives & Specialized Areas of Study
Memphis Law's curriculum provides many elective courses which cover a wide range of substantive legal knowledge and lawyering skills. The upper level curriculum permits students to take courses in specialty areas of law, develop fundamental lawyering skills, and concentrate their legal education in particular areas of interest. These elective courses are listed by basic specialty areas.
Commercial Law
Bankruptcy Externship
Debtor-Creditor
Problems in Bankruptcy
Sales
Civil Rights
Federal Courts
Tennessee Constitutional Law Seminar
Antitrust
Business Organizations
Securities Regulation
Child and Family Litigation Clinic
Divorce Law Practicum
Estate Planning and Probate Law
Elder Law
Elder Law Clinic
Estate Planning
Trust Law
Health Law Seminar
Health Policy Practicum
Intellectual Property Law
Copyright
Patent Law
Immigration Law
International Business Transactions
International Economic Law
Jurisprudence, Interdisciplinary Study and Public Policy
Education/Civil Rights
Federal Discrimination Seminar
Jurisprudence
Mental Health Law
Labor Law
NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) Externship
Lawyering Skills Practice
Administrative Law
Civil Procedure III
Conflicts
Criminal Procedure II
Federal Courts
Remedies
Tennessee Civil Procedure Seminar
Real Estate/Environmental Law
Land Use Planning
Realty Transactions
Taxation
Corporate Tax
Non-Profit Organization Tax
Partnership Tax
Experiential Learning Requirement
Students matriculating after August 1, 2016, are required to satisfactorily complete
one or more experiential course(s) totaling at least six (6) credit hours, including
a minimum of one clinic course or externship. The courses that qualify as experiential
courses are below. See Academic Regulation 16.c.
ADR: Labor (2 Credits)
ADR: Mediation (2 Credits)
Advanced Criminal Prosecution (1 Credit; Spring Break Intersession only)
Appellate Advocacy (3 Credits)
Discovery (2 Credits)
Divorce Law Practicum (3 Credits)
Legal Drafting: Contracts (2 Credits)
Legal Drafting: Litigation (2 Credits)
Negotiation & Mediation (2 Credits)
Tax Lawyering (2 Credits)
Trial Advocacy (3 Credits)
Upper-level Research/Writing Requirement: A student must have two-credits of research/writing credits to satisfy the Upper-level Research/Writing Requirement.
- Successful completion of the Law Review Note
- Seminar