Cecil C Humphreys School of Law :: Course Catalog

Below students can find information about required, elective and specialized courses offered at Memphis Law.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 Constitutional Law: Law and Religion
Course 396
2-hour elective course

This course explores the intersection of law and religion with an emphasis on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Students will consider the U.S. Supreme Court's Religion Clause doctrine in the context of various topics including exemptions for religious believers, religious organizations and antidiscrimination law, school vouchers, school prayer, religious displays, religious speech, and religious voices in politics.

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.

This course is designed to provide second- and third- year law students with a background in arbitration practice. The course will address both the substantive law of arbitration and the development of practical skills critical to representing a client in an arbitration proceeding. Grades will be based on written assignments, oral presentations, and class participation. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

Professional Responsibility and Evidence are not required, but may be helpful to students in this 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 satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

This course offers negotiation and mediation skills to prepare the student to properly represent clients in mediation. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

Professional Responsibility and Evidence are recommended prerequisites.

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Appellate Advocacy is a skills course that builds on Legal Methods II. The course offers instruction in brief writing through regular writing and editing assignments. 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 geared most directly to students who wish to participate on moot court travel teams and to members of the moot court board, but is helpful to anyone who wishes to enhance his or her skills in written and oral advocacy. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

Banks have traditionally occupied a unique role in the operation of the financial system. This role has been magnified by the consolidation that has occurred in the financial services industry and the internationalization of the economy. This course will cover basic banking law: the structure of banking regulation, bank charters, bank holding companies, and lending and deposit issues. It will then go on to explore the recent consolidation of banking, insurance, and securities services. The course will examine the mechanics of key bank operations including, syndicated lending, underwriting and the securitization of debt securities. The course will also consider various international banking issues pertaining to the operation of foreign banks in this country and the offshore operations of United States banks.

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.

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 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 awakens 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. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

Professional Responsibility and Evidence are required prerequisites. Juvenile Law and Trial Advocacy are recommended prerequisites.

This course focuses on determining the proper court for litigation of civil suits, including understanding of subject matter and territorial jurisdiction, venue and service of process.

This course focuses on those doctrines that determine the scope and size of a lawsuit and the formulation of issues, including claim and issue preclusion and joinder of claims and parties. Various devices for disposition of a civil action are also examined, such as pretrial motions, discovery, judgments as a matter of law, and post-trial motions.

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This course covers complex, multiparty litigation with an emphasis on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure governing joinder of parties, intervention and class actions, as well as transfer and consolidation of multidistrict litigation.

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, Recovery (including attorney’s fees), and Jurisdictional issues.

Constitutional Law is a required prerequisite. Criminal Procedure is a recommended prerequisite.

The law of commercial paper is concerned with the facilitation of banking and other commercial transactions through the use of negotiable paper. The course focuses on Articles 3, 4, and 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code and on relevant federal legislation affecting payment systems.

This seminar course covers selected topics in comparative law, including topics of current interest. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.

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This is the study of the legal problems that arise when cutting across state and national boundaries. Emphasis is on the understanding and application of the traditional and modern approaches to choice of the applicable law, jurisdiction of the court, and the recognition of foreign judgments.

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.

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.

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 analysis of issues arising in factual settings.

Corporate Law Seminar (Corporate Finance)
Course 440
2-hour research/writing course

This course is designed to familiarize law students with the principles of corporate finance, which is the various ways that businesses obtain money to “finance” their operations. In particular, corporate finance law addresses how businesses manage financial constraints that affect their operations and investments decisions. Businesses use a variety of financial instruments to raise money such as loans, bonds, and securities. Each type of financial instrument gives the holder (owner) of the financial instrument a certain type of legal claim against the businesses’ assets. In the world of corporate finance, the distinction between lawyers and investment bankers has become blurred. Whether, rendering a fairness opinion, preparing for an appraisal hearing, litigating securities class action or derivative suits, issuing new securities, taking a firm private via an LBO or public via an IPO, negotiating a merger agreement, acquisition or divestiture, corporate lawyers and investment bankers work side-by-side, and lawyers without an appreciation of the basics of corporate finance are at a distinct disadvantage. Moreover, this course will provide important tools for litigators in identifying, preparing, and cross-examining financial expert witnesses. Even students who do not plan to venture into the corporate world will benefit from this course. The financial principles covered are essential for lawyers intending to do estate or tax planning, litigate divorces, or write the bylaws and compensation agreements for partnerships or closed corporations. In addition to the principles of finance, the course addresses the legal norms and economic constraints that affect a corporation’s choice of capital structure, including contemporary approaches to interpreting the scope of provisions commonly found in debt and preferred stock instruments. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.

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.

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 pre-trial identification procedures and other selected issues.

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.

Cyberlaw introduces students to the criminal and civil laws governing computer networks. Following a brief survey of the infrastructural regulation of the Internet, this course emphasizes the practical application of the major federal statutes governing online activity. The course focuses on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other significant computer crime provisions. The course also examines the scope of the Fourth Amendment in an online setting. Time permitting, the course may cover the legal issues involved in virtual property in virtual worlds, challenges posed by encryption, and copyleft software licensing.

This course is a survey course of debtor-creditor law covering state debt collection law including pre-judgment remedies and post-judgment remedies (garnishments, executions, judicial sales, etc.); federal statutes regulating collection practices; and the federal bankruptcy code emphasizing both consumer and business bankruptcy provisions.

Coverage includes intestate succession, wills, and trusts. Objectives include mastery of fundamental principles under the Uniform Probate Code, the Tennessee Code, and case law.

Disability Law and Practice introduces students to existing and developing laws and policies related to the expanding field of disability law. It will cover legal protection of individuals with physical and mental disabilities from discrimination in employment and public and private programs, including public accommodations, education, and higher education. It will provide an overview of civil rights statutes that deal with persons with disabilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and its 2008 Amendments, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1970, and the Fair Housing Amendments of 1988. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and its regulations will be covered in detail.

This course focuses on the application of these laws to actual practice. In lieu of a final examination, students will complete 4 written assignments that include preparation for a client interview, writing a due process complaint letter, drafting an expert witness examination, and preparing a witness cross examination. Students will team up in pairs and will present either the Plaintiff’s side or the Defendant’s side of a mock special education due process hearing before an administrative law judge. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

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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 make a number of motions. The course places particular emphasis on 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 information technology interviews, depositions, and exercises in proper written discovery practice as they relate to electronic discovery. The course satisfies the upper-level skills 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.

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.

Civil Procedure and Family Law is a required prerequisite. While not a prerequisite, students who have completed Evidence and/or Trial Advocacy may be given preference for enrollment.

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.

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.
Prerequisites (Advised): Decedents' Estates and Professional Responsibility.

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Student attorneys will represent indigent clients aged 55 and older and will develop skills in interviewing clients and witnesses, factual development of cases, legal research and writing, problem solving, written communications, and drafting wills, living wills, powers of attorney, and other legal documents. Elderly clients are often litigation and courtroom-adverse, and special emphasis will be placed on negotiations and alternative dispute resolution. Students should expect some litigation and courtroom experience, and may have experiences in dealing with administrative agencies. After the initial three weeks of orientation, when additional class meetings will be scheduled for purposes of acquainting students with office procedures, substantive elder law issues and court observation, students will participate in weekly case review meetings with their supervising clinical professor and class members to discuss issues and progress in their cases, and will learn office management, case management, and stress management skills. Students will have an opportunity to utilize their knowledge of substantive, procedural, and evidentiary law, and to consider and apply in a live client setting their knowledge of Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct. 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. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

Prerequisites: Professional Responsibility and Evidence
Recommended : Decedents’ Estates and Trial Advocacy

In 2005, United Airlines terminated its four employee pension plans, with court permission, setting off the largest pension default in the three decades of government guaranteed pensions. In 2006, Hewlett-Packard, General Motors Corp., Alcoa Inc., IBM Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp. were among U.S. companies that reduced pension liabilities by freezing their defined benefit plans. Also in 2006, in response to the collapse of Enron, WorldCom and Tyco, in addition to numerous corporate bankruptcies, Congress passed 900 pages of new pension legislation, entitled the Pension Protection Act of 2006, the most sweeping legislation since the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). Currently, and for the past several years, employers are and have been cutting health care coverage as insurance costs continue to soar each year. The current year of 2009 is setting up for a “perfect storm” in the pension world as the global bear market combined with strict new funding requirements for pension plans have put many employers in a lose-lose situation with respect to fully funding their pension plans with little Congressional relief in sight. Also, the AIG scandal will undoubtedly spur new legislation related to excessive executive compensation issues. Additionally, approximately 10,000 ERISA cases are filed in federal court every year.

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, 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 survey course provides a broad, practical understanding of several important federal environmental statutes and related case law. The course is designed to introduce students to the variety of environmental challenges addressed by environmental laws, the difficult policy issues surrounding environmental problems, the legal complexities of environmental regulatory and administrative schemes, and issues associated with compliance and enforcement. The course focuses on the following federal acts: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).

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A study of Federal Estate & Gift Taxation through an examination of the Internal Revenue Code, regulations, revenue rulings and case law. The object is to gain a working knowledge of the law.

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.

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.

This course will deal with a broad spectrum of expert opinion testimony. It will cover the concept of expert testimony in general, standards for admissibility, discovery, and the practical aspects of using and challenging experts. It will consider the varied types of expert evidence such as: tests for alcoholic intoxication, speed detection devices, methodology for questioning the authenticity of documents, firearms identification, arson and explosives investigation, fingerprint identification, examination of trace evidence, pathology, serology and toxicology of body fluids, identification and analysis of illegal drugs, identification by DNA analysis, behavioral science evidence, and lie detection. In each area the class will discuss foundation for admission, methods of challenging admissibility, techniques for effective cross-examination, and methods of presentation of complex evidence through photographs, charts, videos, and other demonstrative resources. Students will have the opportunity to conduct simulated examinations of witnesses, laying the foundation and following the procedure for offering different types of evidence, and will examine in depth a topic of their choice for a written assignment and for the topic of a class discussion. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.

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.

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This is a survey course in Family Law that focuses primarily on marriage, divorce, and issues related to dissolution of a marriage. There is an emphasis on Tennessee law.

The coverage basis varies on the interest of the class. This is a follow up course to Family Law. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.

This course covers the role of the Federal Courts in the U.S. Constitutional system, the Case or Controversy Requirement, Non-Article III Courts, the original jurisdiction of U.S. District Courts, Supreme Court review of state decisions, habeas corpus, abstention and injunctions against suit, and the Rooker-Feldman Doctrine.

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.

Federal Taxation of Business Enterprises
Course 334
3-hour statutory menu course

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.

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In the Civil Litigation Clinic, University of Memphis law students represent indigent clients in a variety of housing, consumer protection cases pending in the General Sessions, Circuit, and Chancery courts of Shelby County. Under the direct supervision of licensed faculty, students engage in the examination of law and advocacy, actively navigating ethical, substantive, procedural, and evidentiary issues in the context of case work, classroom seminars, in-class case rounds and presentations, weekly case team meetings, and group and individual simulations. Through the vehicle of live-client representation, students make continuous use of the essential skills they will utilize to address the ever-changing needs of clients upon graduation, including interviewing, counseling, analysis and evolution of case theory, legal research and drafting, conducting formal discovery and informal fact investigation, problem solving, negotiation, written and oral advocacy, pretrial practice, and trial practice.

Emphasis is additionally placed on allowing students in the Civil Litigation Clinic to reflect upon their experiences in light of issues such as rapport-building and control in the lawyer-client relationship, professionalism, diversity, the role of lawyers in social change work, and other questions related to lawyering and society. Students also gain continuous exposure to collaborative lawyering, working together with supervising attorneys and class members to confront and address the many case, office, and time management issues arising in their representations. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

This seminar covers a variety of topics related to the law of firearms violence, including the meaning of the Second Amendment, the history of the right to bear arms in civilized societies, modern gun control laws, civil litigation against the firearms industry, cultural factors affecting gun violence, and gun laws in other nations. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.

This course is designed to provide broad coverage of major regulatory, transactional, litigation, and liability issues affecting the delivery and financing of health care. Topics include patient rights, bioethics, regulation and discipline of professionals, medical malpractice, fraud and abuse, business structures, and obligation to provide care.

Health Law Organization, Regulation, and Finance
Course 302
2-hour elective course

This introductory health law course focuses on the regulation, structure, and financing of the American health care system. Regulation and structural issues may include the legal organization of health care institutions, accreditation, medical staff disputes, managed care, fraud and abuse, tax exemption, health care transactions, and antitrust. Access and financing issues may include private health insurance, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the continuation of health insurance under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and Medicare and Medicaid.

This course is designed to give students an opportunity to write a publishable quality paper in the area of health law. Readings for the course will focus on reading cases, briefs, and law review articles. Students should be prepared to write a substantial paper and present their work to the class.

Students enrolled in the Housing Adjudication Clinic will have the unique opportunity to study law and lawyering from the standpoint of the administrative law judge rather than that of direct client representative. Working under faculty supervision, students will be assigned to investigate, research, hear, adjudicate, and issue written opinions ruling on administrative appeals involving participants in the Memphis Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher Program who have challenged adverse decisions affecting their public housing assistance. To complement their work as adjudicators, Clinic students will participate in a twice-weekly classroom seminar designed to survey substantive fair housing law, explore administrative law and procedure, provide skills training, and consider issues of ethics and professionalism that arise in the context of the hearings to which they are assigned. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

The subject matter of Immigration Law. OBJECTIVES: To teach concepts fundamental to Immigration Law so that students will understand and be able to apply them to analysis of issues arising in factual settings.

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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Acting as attorneys, clinical law students fully prepare and litigate a one-day “merits” deportation defense hearing in Memphis Immigration Court. The course affords students first-hand experience with trial practice and an introduction to the specialty field of immigration law known as “removal defense.” It also affords opportunities for legal research and writing in the field of immigration and refugee law.” Professional Responsibility and Evidence are prerequisites, and Immigration Law is recommended but not required. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

This course will focus on traditional insurance law concepts and cutting edge legal issues affecting insurance law theory and practice. The course work 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 policy holders after 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 all types of practices.

The Intellectual Property Survey course covers the basics of intellectual property law including trade secret, copyright, trademark, and patent laws. The course will involve both the transactional and litigation sides of intellectual property. There will be both theoretical and real world application to intellectual property issues.

This course consists of two parts. The first part introduces the student to the environments within which transnational business operations take place. Within this framework a basic introduction to Public International Law will be followed by a concise examination of the leading institutions of the World Economic Environment such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. On the transactional level the corporate actors in the transnational business environment will be introduced focusing on the special role of the multinational enterprise. A comparative law overview of transnational legal practice opportunities will lead to a more comprehensive discussion on international litigation strategies covering forum selection, choice of law, international commercial arbitration, and other practical private international law problems. The second part of this course presents problem exercises in transnational business, such as drafting and consulting on transnational sales, distributorship agreements, and licensing agreements.

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2-hour elective course

This course examines the core economic principles of international trade law, including the economic theory of comparative trade. The course examines the law administered by the World Trade organization and domestic rules affecting international trade, including anti-dumping and countervailing duties law. As time permits, the course also examines NAFTA.

Introduction to public international law that also explores selected private transnational legal problems. Covers the nature and sources of international law, jurisdiction of states over persons and territory, recognition of states and governments, governmental immunities, the law of treaties and principles of state responsibility. Special emphasis is on the study of the international protection of human rights, legal controls on the use of force and selected transnational economic problems.

The principal goal is to provide students with an opportunity to learn about the role that judges play in our judicial systems and the responsibilities that lawyers discharge in that system. Moreover, the program is intended to foster student research and writing skills; to facilitate student exposure to lawyering skills and values; to foster student oral advocacy skills through their participation in court activities and proceedings and close working relationships with judges; to give students an opportunity to study legal process through their participation in the work of a legal institution; and to expose students to issues of professional responsibility within the context of actual courtroom experiences and lawyer practices. This course satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

General survey of jurisprudential subjects, including stare decisis, methods of legal analysis; methods of judging; legislative intent; Natural Law; Positive Law; Legal Realism; Sociological Jurisprudence; Critical Legal Studies; Feminist Jurisprudence; and Critical Race Theory.

This course covers the parent-child relationship and its regulation by the state. Individual topics covered vary but generally include the following: abortion, contraception, medical care, adoption, abuse, termination of parental rights, juvenile delinquency, unwed father's rights, paternity, and guardian ad litems.

This is a three credit survey course that covers doctrine, practice, and procedure regarding children's rights, juvenile delinquency, juvenile dependency (abuse, neglect, and abandonment), and termination of parental rights. Because the right to family integrity on the civil side and a child's potential loss of liberty on the delinquency side serve as bedrocks for juvenile statutes and rules, the course, of necessity, dwells on constitutional law principles. Practice in Tennessee courts will be highlighted. Students will be required to observe three hours of proceedings in the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County and write a reflection paper. During the first five weeks of the semester, doctrine and drafting will be emphasized. During the last two weeks of the semester, trial skills will be emphasized, and students will be expected to conduct a mock juvenile trial. Students will be graded on two written drafting exercises, their performance in the mock trial, and on a one (1) hour closed book examination.

This course is a study of labor relations law, with a special focus on the federal statutes. Primary emphasis is placed on union organization, employer responses, union economic weapons (strikes, picketing, and boycotts), internal union discipline of members, collective bargaining, and the role of the National Labor Relations Board. The problems involved in balancing the interests of management and labor, the individual and the group, and the state and federal governments will also be discussed.

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The Law and Medicine Seminar for the spring 2010 semester is a two credit hour advanced writing course. First preference for the Seminar will be given to students who previously have not completed the writing requirement. The Seminar will focus on Medical Liability.

The public regulation of health care, the financing and structure of the health care system, and bioethics issues are not the focus of this seminar. For these subjects, check the broader Health Law class, taught by Prof. Whittaker.

The seminar will focus on Medical Liability issues, but will not be limited to Medical Malpractice, although the procedural history of a medical malpractice action in Tennessee will be covered.

Paper topics may include medical liability in tort (medical malpractice, battery, informed consent, fraud) of medical doctors, nurses, and hospitals, both public and private. On the civil side, topics may include antitrust issues; contract, confidentiality, and privacy issues; wrongful life, wrongful pregnancy, and abortions; medical liability for participation in end of life decisions; conversion cases, e.g. mishandling of stem cells and embryos, and the selling bodies and body parts. Other topics may include civil or criminal liability for overprescribing drugs, sex with patients with and without consent, and Medicare and Medicaid fraud. Papers may be written about the products liability actions against pharmacists, prescribing doctors, and manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, and other medical products. The liability of medical insurers and HMOs when they deny authorization of medical treatment may also be considered.

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.

Legal Argument and Appellate Practice
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 satisfies the upper-level skills requirement.

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 upper-level skills requirement.

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 upper-level skills requirement.

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.

Objective: To produce competent practitioners using a guided approach to legal research, legal drafting, and legal analysis; emphasis on substance and form of objective legal research memos, the process of legal research, and the analysis of legal issues.

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 trial memo or appellate brief and arguing before a mock court.

Many law school courses focus on judge-made law and appellate opinions. The vast majority of American law, however, is enacted law—statutory and regulatory law. This course is designed to teach students how legislatures enact law. Studying Article I of the U.S. Constitution as well as House and Senate standing rules, students explore how Congress is structured and how it operates to make law and policy. The course also discusses courts' relationship with statutory law and the canons of statutory construction. Finally, the course teaches students how to draft legislation—at the end of the term the class will sit as a mock legislature debating bills drafted by students.

This course begins with a discussion of mental disorders from the medical perspective. Next, attention is turned to the role of mental health experts in legal matters, with special emphasis on that to which they can and cannot testify and when a defendant is entitled to the assistance of an expert. In this area, many of the cases involve the insanity defense, including those with the death penalty at stake.

The focus then turns to civil commitment, which is the largest part of the course. In short, a person can be involuntarily hospitalized if he or she has a mental illness and as a result of that mental illness is either dangerous to himself/herself or others. Both the substantive and procedural aspects of civil commitment are covered. To see these in practice, students have the opportunity to observe civil commitment hearings, which are closed to the public.

Some time is also spent on the issue of competency and the appointment of a guardian or conservator. Finally, students examine what mental issues are required to be disclosed on the Tennessee Bar Application, and the consequences of those disclosures.

This course introduces students to the legal principles that underlie mergers and acquisitions. The advantages and disadvantages of various acquisition forms, such as mergers, asset acquisition, stock purchases, and tender offers are discussed. Significant focus is also given to the fiduciary duties and other obligations of company boards of directors, the role of shareholder voting, externalities arising from some merger/acquisition transactions, state anti-takeover statutes, disclosure requirements arising from the securities laws, and the effects of mergers and acquisitions on other constituencies (beyond shareholders and management). Prerequisite: Business Organizations.

Students can receive one or two credits for Moot Court by successfully completing intra-school moot court or mock trial competitions. A student who successfully completes two competitions is eligible for one credit. A student who successfully completes four competitions is eligible for two credits. Students generally register for credits in their final semester of study.

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This course is designed for upper level students, particularly those interested in employment opportunities in the significant number of positions with the U.S. Government, U.S. Military, or private practice. Major areas to be covered will include the constitutional and legislative framework for Presidential power and the powers of Congress, using armed force abroad, detaining "enemy combatants" (terrorist suspects), intelligence gathering, Homeland Security, and future threats to national security. Significant current events also will influence the scope of the course schedule.

This course covers the state law requirements regarding the organization and operation of nonprofit organizations. In addition, a heavy emphasis is placed on the federal income tax treatment of nonprofit organizations, including the requirements for obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status, the distinction between a public charity and a private foundation, the private foundation excise taxes, and the unrelated business income tax.

Prerequisites (Required): Income Tax.
Prerequisites (Advised): Business Organizations.

The course focuses on the federal income tax aspects of partnership formation, operations, sales and exchanges of partnership interests, operating distributions, liquidations and S Corporations.

Public policies underlying various invention protection systems are analyzed as background for understanding the fundamental concepts of U.S. patent law. The nature of patentable subject matter in the U.S. and the statutory requirements of utility, novelty, and nonobviousness are examined in detail. Students also consider the process of obtaining and enforcing patent rights. Such consideration includes an overview of the disclosure, enablement and claim requirements for a patent application, as well as the scope of protection granted to the owner of an issued patent. The interpretation of patent claims is covered, with special emphasis placed on construing claims under the evolving doctrine of equivalents. Remedies for patent infringement are also reviewed, as well as the defense of patent misuse.

Prerequisites (Required): Property I & II - Courses 115 & 125
Prerequisites (Advised): Intellectual Property Survey - Course 395

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A study of pre-trial practice from Rule 11 through consolidated pre-trial order.

This advanced torts seminar focuses on the four privacy torts: appropriation, intrusion, public disclosure of private facts, and false light. It explores not only the history, doctrinal requirements, and application of the privacy torts, but uses them as a vehicle and framework for exploring privacy as a societal value and individual right.

Addressing, discussing, and solving selective bankruptcy problems involving, for example, home mortgages, trustee's avoidance powers, relief from stay, plan confirmation utilizing applicable Code and Rule provisions and decisional law.

A complete review of the current status of product liability law, including an examination of the bases of liability (warranty, misrepresentation, negligence and strict liability); issues relating to proximate cause; issues related to industry liability, market share and enterprise liability; a review of defenses available (comparative negligence, assumption of the risk, product misuse; product alteration, governmental standards pre-emption, statutes of limitations and statutes of repose, learned intermediary doctrine, idiosyncratic reaction); a review of damages issues peculiarly related to product liability law; evidentiary problems such as those related to expert witnesses and spoliation; an examination on the type of entities who are liable under presently existing product liability law (employers, lessors, bailors, franchisors, used product sellers, real estate vendors, landlords and personal service providers); and an examination in detail of the Tennessee Product Liability Act of 1978.

Examines the cannons, ethical considerations and disciplinary rules of the ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility and the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct. This course may be taken in the 2L or 3L year.

Coverage includes personal property, private interests in land, and the sale of land. Objectives include mastery of principal concepts of acquisition, retention, and transfer of property rights.

This course covers transactional aspects of the buying; selling and financing of real property; professional responsibility problems; brokerage law; contracts; real estate closings; title examinations and title insurance; deeds of trust and mortgages; foreclosures; bankruptcy; income tax implications; and environmental issues.

This course studies the nature and measurement of the judicial remedies to which a party is entitled after establishing that a substantive right has been violated. It focuses on Coercive Remedies (injunctions, specific performance), Damages (compensatory, punitive) and Restitution.

Independent Research is intended to permit students with an avid interest in a particular topic to explore that topic at length under the supervision of a faculty member. Accordingly, it is contemplated that students will generate the topic based upon the student’s interests. In other words, it is not the purpose of Independent Study to enable a student to fill a gap in the student’s schedule or to satisfy graduation requirements. Independent Study does not satisfy the advanced writing requirement, in whole or in part. Students may enroll in Independent Research for not more than one credit hour. In addition, permission of a supervising faculty member (who shall be a full-time, tenured or tenure-track faculty member) is required, as is approval by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. No more than a total of 8 credit hours may be earned by completion of any combination of the following: Externships, Law Review, Moot Court and Independent Research. All papers must comply with the terms set forth in the Requirements for Student Research Papers and any successor publication or communication.

General survey of topics relating to the creation, perfection, and priority of security interests, as well as topics relating to the identification of types of collateral and rights upon default.

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 and state statutory provisions (for example, RICO, the Investors' Advisement Act, State Blue Sky laws) and their effects on markets for issuance and trading of securities.

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This course is designed to introduce students to the legal, business and policy issues and disputes that arise in the world of amateur and professional sports. The course will approach topics from the perspective of various players in the sports industry, such as the sports lawyer, the corporate counselor, the university administration, team management, various sports regulatory bodies, the athletes and even the fans. In addition, we will discuss and dissect current events in the world of sports.

Assigned readings on various tax policy topics are discussed in class. In addition, each student prepares a research paper on a selected tax policy topic and presents that paper to the class. To further enhance writing skills, each student edits two other students’ research papers. This course satisfies the Advanced Research/Writing requirement.

The Tennessee Civil Procedure Seminar addresses the subject matter jurisdiction of Tennessee’s various courts; judicial jurisdiction with emphasis on Tennessee’s long arm statutes; venue; statutes of limitation and repose; pleadings; pre-trial motion practice; discovery; trial practice including jury selection, opening statements , presentation of evidence and objections under the Tennessee Rules of Evidence, jury instructions, closing arguments, verdicts, and post trial motions; and appeals under the Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure. Ethics issues as they relate to Tennessee Civil Procedure will be addressed as will enforcement of judgments. General Sessions Court and Juvenile Court practice.

Students enrolled in this seminar will prepare original research papers on a topic of Tennessee Civil Procedure, which may include topics regarding civil trial practice, rules of evidence, appellate practice, and ethics, among other topics. It is expected that student papers will be of a quality worthy of publication as a Note in a law review such as the UM Law Review. Students will be expected to prepare initial and final drafts of their papers. Papers that earn a grade of C or better will satisfy the Advanced Research/Writing Requirement.

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Tennessee Constitutional Law Seminar
Course 445
2-hour research/writing course

This seminar will explore state constitutional doctrine, with an emphasis upon individual rights provisions. 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.

Torts addresses civil wrongs, other than breaches of contract, for which the law provides a monetary remedy. Torts I begins with coverage of the basic intentional torts (battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, trespass to land, trespass to chattels, and conversion) and the privileges or defenses to the intentional torts. Most of the course, however, is devoted to the broad tort of negligence. Simplistically, negligence law is the study of liability for accidental injuries.

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.

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 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 upper-level skills requirement.

A comprehensive, theoretical study of the law of trusts, including the history, the necessary elements of a trust and the role of trustees.

This course covers common law doctrines of unfair methods of competition including false advertising and product disparagement, constitutional doctrines governing regulation of competitive practices, trademark law, and as time permits, Federal Trade Commission regulation of deceptive and unfair practices, state unfair competition statutes, trade secrets, interference with expectancies and contract, and publicity.

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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.

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
Commercial Paper
Debtor-Creditor
Problems in Bankruptcy
Sales

Education & Civil Rights
Federal Courts A
Federal Courts B
Tennessee Constitutional Law Seminar

Domestic Relations Law
Child and Family Litigation Clinic
Divorce Law Practicum

Estate Planning and Probate Law
Elder Law
Elder Law Clinic
Elder Law Seminar
Estate and Gift Tax
Estate Planning
Trust Law

Health Law
Bioethics and the Law
Health Law
Health Law Organization, Regulation and Finance
Health Law Seminar
Law and Medicine Seminar
Mental Health Law

International and Comparative Law
Comparative Law Seminar
Immigration Law
International Business Transactions
International Economic Law
International Law

Jurisprudence, Interdisciplinary Study
and Public Policy
Education/Civil Rights
Federal Discrimination Seminar
Gun Control/Gun Rights Seminar
Jurisprudence
Law and Accounting
Law and Economics
Legal History
Mental Health Law
Social Welfare/Poverty Law Seminar

Labor and Employment Law
Fair Employment Practices
Labor Relations
NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) Externship
Worker's Compensation

Procedure/Civil and Criminal
Administrative Law
Civil Procedure III
Conflicts
Criminal Procedure II
Federal Courts A
Federal Courts B
Remedies
Tennessee Civil Procedure Seminar

Real Estate/Environmental Law
Environmental Law
Environmental Law Seminar
Land Use Planning
Realty Transactions

Taxation
Estate and Gift Tax
Federal Taxation of Business Enterprises
Non-Profit Organization Tax
Partnership Tax
Tax Seminar

To graduate, a student must successfully complete the upper-level research requirement and the skills requirement. See Academic Regulation 16.c.

Skills Course: A student must have two-credits of skills credit to satisfy the Skills Requirement.

Upper-level Research/Writing Requirement: A student must have two-credits of research/writing credits to satisfy the Upper-level Research/Writing Requirement.

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