Course Descriptions

Please select the courses you would like to review from the list below.

First Year Curriculum
Second Year Required
Third Year Required
Administrative
Perspective
Elective
Seminars
Advanced Skills
Practice Elective
LLM
Advanced Writing Requirement

IMPORTANT NOTE: Courses are graded unless indicated as Pass/Fail. Unless otherwise indicated, all courses will employ one or more evaluation methods, such as a final examination. Students are encouraged to speak with instructors for more details about course coverage and requirements.

Advanced Skills Courses
Fall Semester
Trusts and Estates Drafting	LAW 421 2 Hours
This course focuses on the design and drafting of estate planning documents. Substantive discussions are integrated into exercises in drafting documents used by estate and trust practitioners. These documents will include wills, trusts, and advance directives. Numerically graded. Limit 24. Prerequisite: Law of Wills and Intestate Succession. This course will satisfy the Advanced Writing requirement.
Spring Semester
Advanced Criminal Trial Techniques	LAW 436 2 Hours
This course focuses on the strategy and tactics employed by trial lawyers in criminal cases. Topics include analysis of evidence, developing a theory of the case, plea negotiations, guilty pleas, witness interviews and preparation, jury selection, sentencing, and post-conviction remedies. The course will also address preparation of pre-trial motions, objections at trial, direct and cross-examination techniques, opening statements and closing arguments. Students will participate in exercises designed to strengthen their trial skills in these areas. Evidence and Trial practice are prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 24.
Advanced Litigation Drafting	LAW 534 2 Hours
This course will explore technical and strategic issues in the drafting of litigation documents such as briefs, complaints, answers, written discovery, affidavits, discovery schedules, pretrial orders, jury charges, releases and correspondence. The course will discuss the use and misuse of form books, and the viability of the “plain English” movement. The course will review some basic rhetorical strategies for maximizing the effect of favorable law and facts, or for minimizing the import of adverse law and facts. The course will examine good legal writing from the perspective of the Bench, and the Bar. In the context of litigation drafting, the course will offer students practical instruction about a litigation practice in general. The course will provide students with form litigation documents for their future use. Enrollment limited to 24. This course will satisfy the Advanced Writing requirement.
Advanced Trial Practice	LAW 536 2 Hours
A continuation of the skills addressed in the basic Trial Practice course using the same methods. Evidence and Trial Practice are prerequisites. Enrollment limited to 24.
Appellate Practice & Procedure	LAW 457 2 Hours
This course will cover topics of appellate procedure, including standards of review, timeliness, ripeness, harmless error, writs, preservation of error, preparation of the record, and court rules. Using a simulated Georgia record, students will draft the procedural documents relevant to an appeal, such as a Notice of Appeal, a Designation of Record, a Request for Oral Argument, an Enumeration of Errors, opening, responsive and reply briefs. Students will make at least one oral argument. The course will be graded. Enrollment limit of 16. Not offered spring 2013.
Business Drafting	LAW 659 2 Hours
This course will explore issues surrounding the drafting of business-related documents. During the course students will draft a number of different documents including corporate formation documents, documents used in the sale of a business, employment agreements, deeds, loan documents and general business contracts. The course will explore the use and misuse of form books, the importance of language in this type of drafting, the role of the business attorney, and the viability of the "plain English" movement. The course will offer students practical instruction about various areas of a general business practice. Business Associations is a co-requisite or pre-requisite. Enrollment limited to 24. Previously titled Advanced Transactional Drafting.) This course will satisfy the Advanced Writing requirement.
Case Settlement Negotiation	LAW 632 2 Hours
Students will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their hypothetical clients' cases and attempt to negotiate a favorable settlement with the opposing party. May not be taken simultaneously with Negotiations. Enrollment limited to 16.
Consumer Bankruptcy Practice	LAW 568 2 Hours
Students will be presented with hypothetical fact situations. Students will write short papers in which they will explain, based on the facts presented, what advice they would give to a client, what additional information they require to provide proper advice, what they need to do to satisfy their professional and statutory duties as attorneys, and other such issues. Students also will prepare and file various documents as attorneys for debtors (e.g., initial petition, schedules, a statement of financial affairs and a plan)and as attorneys for creditors (e.g., an objection to confirmation, a motion for relief from the stay). Time permitting, hearings may be scheduled in the law school courtroom, or possibly in the courtroom of a local bankruptcy judge, where students will appear and present their arguments. Classroom work would include presentation of material related to the papers and documents prior to their preparation and then follow-up discussion and critique of the students’ work after submission. Debtor/Creditor is a prerequisite. Enrollment limited to 24.
Contract Drafting	LAW 519 2 Hours
The purpose of the course is to present students with a real world approach to drafting contracts. Students will develop an understanding of the fundamental working parts of a contract and how the basic principles of contract law are memorialized in various types of agreements. The course will provide an overview of the issues and processes involved in drafting contracts and transactional instruments. It will enable students to analyze the basic structure of contracts and other deal documents and to develop techniques used to efficiently create instruments with precision and clarity. Students will explore principles for understanding the common structures of transactional documents and their provisions, including their applicability to specific transactions. Contracts drafting will combine lectures with drafting exercises and two to four graded drafting assignments. The course will introduce the students to foundational concepts, including representations and warranties, covenants, rights, conditions, discretionary authority and declarations. Students will be exposed to how and why a drafter chooses a specific contract concept in terms of translating the business deal into the four corners of the agreement. The course will address the framework of an agreement and its various provisions, from the recitals to the signature lines, in each instance examining the business, legal and drafting issues that may arise. Students will learn approaches to good drafting and techniques to enhance clarity and avoid ambiguity in the context of the business deal. Students will also learn how to look at a deal from the client’s perspective and how to add value to a transaction by identifying business issues. In addition, the course will address ethical issues unique to contract drafting. Numerically graded. Limit 24 students. This course will satisfy the Advanced Writing Requirement.
Divorce Mediation	LAW 650 2 Hours
The course is designed to enable students to develop skills needed by attorneys or mediators in mediations of divorce issues, including child custody, visitation, property division, and alimony. The course will consider, in addition to the skills of mediation, distinctions between mediation and other forms of settling disputes and substantive law issues relevant to mediation, such as confidentiality of the process and product of mediation. For students who do not meet the attendance requirement, a research paper is required. Domestic Relations is a prerequisite. Enrollment limited to 24. Seniors only.
Effective and Affective Lawyering	LAW 574 2 Hours
The course covers the psychology of lawyering as it relates to the effective practice of law. This course includes an in-depth study of the science and theory of personality and affective assessments used by mental health professionals. The student will be able to apply these theories and techniques to all areas of "lawyering," including selecting juries, developing and maintaining relationships with clients, witnesses, and other lawyers, as well as making persuasive arguments to judges. Enrollment limited to 24.
Environmental Law Practice	LAW 669 2 Hours
The course is designed to enable students to develop skills needed by attorneys that practice environmental law or that encounter environmental law in their general practice of law. Skills will include client and witness interviewing and counseling, researching and finding the law, drafting and reviewing environmental documents or environmental provisions in business or real estate documents, working with administrative agencies on policy development (e.g., commenting on rulemakings) or in an adjudicatory setting (e.g., applying for a permit, negotiating with an agency in an enforcement proceeding, or participating in mediation or similar dispute resolution processes), and trial advocacy. The course will be taught through a combination of lecture, simulations, and written assignments. Pre-req Environmental Law or permission of instructor. Limited to 16 students.
Labor Arbitration	LAW 499 2 Hours
This course will consider labor arbitration. Topics covered are judicial review of arbitration awards, ethics and professional responsibility of arbitrators, arbitration awards and public policy, arbitration and individual rights. Each student will be required to author two arbitration awards. Enrollment limited to 16. Seniors only. (Not offered spring 2013.)
Managing Law Practice	LAW 629 2 Hours
This course explores the organizational setting of law practice through student simulations and guest appearances by practicing lawyers. Special attention is given to the management of law firms with fewer than ten lawyers. Subjects include partnership structure, client relations, malpractice insurance, computer applications, billing, financial planning, marketing, specialization, compensation, and the hiring process. One session is devoted to solo practice. Enrollment limited to 24.
Patent Drafting & Prosecution	LAW 654 2 Hours
This class will provide lecture and drafting exercises in drafting specifications, claims, and responses to office actions in patent prosecution practice. It will be a two hour graded course, taught once a week for two hours by synchronous video conferencing. Limit 20. Prerequisite: Patent Law and Litigation.
Pretrial Practice	LAW 567 2 Hours
Students will examine and use the tools of civil discovery. Working in teams, you will plan and implement a discovery program. Most of your work will focus on drafting discovery documents, including interrogatories, document requests, requests for admission, a request for sanctions, objections to discovery requests and the like. You will also be responsible for preparing and arguing one major pretrial motion, including a short brief. If time permits, you will also take a deposition. Although the class is scheduled for three hours, no one meets for more than two hours, except when it comes to depositions and settlements negotiations. Otherwise, frankly, most of your work is done outside of class time. Enrollment limited to 16. (Not offered spring 2013.)
Problems in Trial Evidence	LAW 640 2 Hours
Students will research, brief and orally present courtroom arguments of relatively to highly complex evidentiary issues as they might arise in the pre-trial and mid-trial stages of civil and criminal trials. Limited enrollment of 16. Evidence and Trial Practice are prerequisites. Computer skills advised.
Scientific Evidence & Expert Witnesses	LAW 430 2 Hours
This advanced evidence course will consider common issues involving scientific evidence and expert witness testimony in federal court. Rule 702 and Daubert will be discussed in depth covering specific types of experts and specific methods used by experts. We will review hearsay and exceptions to the hearsay rule that commonly arise at trial with expert witnesses, and also Rule 703, dealing with a specific exception for expert witnesses. The course will involve practical application of the legal principles learned in class, including simulated pre-trial conferences and the direct examination and cross examination of an expert witness. Limit: 20 (Not offered spring 2013.)