Course Offerings

A study of the fundamentals of basic business associations with an emphasis on closely held businesses. Students will be introduced to agency concepts while exploring issues related to choice of entity. Various business forms will be examined such as general partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and privately held corporations. Corporate issues pertaining to corporations that are not publicly held will also be the focus. These include incorporation; financing for the small business; payment of dividends; roles of officers, directors, and shareholders; and management’s duty of care and loyalty.

All students must complete the Upper-Level Writing Requirement as a part of a seminar, an approved advanced writing course, an approved two (2) credit independent research paper, or through a note written by a FAMU Law Review member accepted for publication in a co-curricular law school journal as certified by the Law Review faculty advisor for the FAMU College of Law. Advanced writing courses in the following categories may satisfy the Upper-Level Writing Requirement: transactional legal drafting, litigation-oriented legal drafting, legislative drafting, and appellate legal drafting. Details regarding the specific requirements are provided in the Student Handbook.

Every student must complete one or more experiential courses totaling at least six credit hours. Every experiential course must integrate doctrine, theory, skills, and legal ethics, and engage students in performance of one or more of the professional skills identified in the learning outcomes; develop the concepts underlying the professional skills being taught; provide multiple opportunities for performance; and provide opportunities for self-evaluation.

The Experiential Learning Requirement may be satisfied by enrollment in a simulation course, a legal clinic, or a field placement. For details, please see Experiential Learning.

Basic considerations relating to administrative agencies, including nondelegation doctrine, fact versus law distinction, agency rulemaking, adjudication, due process requirements, information gathering and judicial review.

3 credits

The content of this course varies. It may include topics of current interest or not covered by other curricular offerings. The course may be repeated if there is no duplication of subject matter.

3 credits

The content of this course varies. It may include topics of current interest or not covered by other curricular offerings. The course may be repeated if there is no duplication of subject matter.

3 credits

 The content of this course varies. It may include topics of current interest or not covered by other curricular offerings. The course may be repeated if there is no duplication of subject matter.

3 credits

The content of this seminar varies. It may include topics of current interest or not covered by other curricular offerings. The course may be repeated if there is no duplication of subject matter.

2 credits

The content of this seminar varies. It may include topics of current interest or not covered by other curricular offerings. The course may be repeated if there is no duplication of subject matter.

2 credits

The content of this seminar varies. It may include topics of current interest or not covered by other curricular offerings. The course may be repeated if there is no duplication of subject matter.

2 credits

This seminar will provide a comparative as well as interdisciplinary approach to issues concerning race and the law. We will address the racial and legal history of major racial groups in the U.S., including African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Whites. In addition to these histories, the course includes the following topics: competing definitions and understandings of race and racism; the legal system’s contribution to the construction of race; race, voting, and participation in democracy; developing notions of equality; segregation and education; and crime.

2 credits

This course provides an intensive examination of dignitary and economic torts. Topics include defamation, privacy, tortious litigation, interference with family relationships, interference with economic interests, trade secrets and misrepresentation. The course not only explores substantive law in depth but also engages students in critical analysis of the doctrinal law’s underlying policies and values and whether the doctrine adequately addresses problems presented by technological advancements and changing social norms.

2 credits

This advanced trial practice seminar will provide instruction on advanced technique in criminal litigation. Students will learn these techniques through a mixture of lecture, class discussion, and practical exercises. Students will also have the opportunity to perform as a prosecuting or defense attorney in a criminal mock trial.

3 credits

This course examines the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement and technique for incorporating ADR into legal practice. A variety of readings and exercises are used as background for discussions of the utility of different mechanism for resolving certain kinds of disputes. This course includes the study adjudication, arbitration, negotiation, and mediation.

3 credits

The principal focus of this course is on the problems incident to the disposition of the estate of a failing or insolvent debtor. The course examines problems relating to execution of judgments, fraudulent conveyances, compositions, assignments for the benefit of creditors, receivership, and problems arising under the United States Bankruptcy Code. The course also considers creditors’ remedies that arise outside of the scope of the federal bankruptcy laws.

3 credits

This course will explore the historical, legal, and social context of the First Amendment. Constitutional analysis of important First Amendment cases will be explored

3 credits

This course examines the laws affecting the manufacture, marketing, and sale of consumer goods. Time is spent on the regulation of information, conduct, prices, and enforcement mechanisms.

3 credits

This course explores the key practices of contract drafting and the connection between the business transaction and the contract. Students will learn the skills of good drafting, such as understanding the business transaction, knowing how to use contract concepts to accurately reflect the parties’ deal, how to draft and recognize nuances in language that change the deal, and how to discern and resolve business issues. The course also addresses the ethical issues in contract drafting. Instruction includes drafting exercises and simulations.

3 credits

Problems related to the protection of artistic and creative properties, including a study of the methods for securing and maintaining a copyright, the laws that govern the exploitation of the entitlement created by a copyright, and the problems and methods of protecting those rights.

3 credits

This course covers police practice such as arrests, search and seizure, wiretapping, eavesdropping, use of informants, entrapment, confessions, and line ups. Credit for this course precludes credit for Criminal Procedure Survey (Law 6112). Students who have completed Criminal Procedure Survey (Law 6112) may not enroll in this course.

3 credits

This course covers commencement of formal criminal proceedings; bail, the decision to prosecute, the grand jury, the preliminary hearing, venue, joinder and severance, and speedy trail. Trial concerns such as guilty pleas, discovery, jury trial, prejudicial publicity, professional ethics, and double jeopardy are also considered.

3 credits

Introduction to basic criminal procedure from arrest through judicial review, with an emphasis on the fourth, fifth, sixth and fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution and their impact on the constitutional rights of the accused. Students who have completed Criminal Procedure: Arrest and Investigation Survey (Law 6117) may not enroll in this course.

3 credits

Domestic violence is a societal problem of epidemic proportions. This course will explore domestic violence issues in various areas of the law. Students will produce a domestic violence manual for a particular community, conduct a presentation on domestic violence before a group or organization, and write a paper on a selected domestic violence topic. The course will provide students with the opportunity to prepare memoranda, motions, and protection orders. Students will observe domestic violence hearings. Relevant Florida Statutes will be used in the course.

3 credits

This course covers legal issues that arise in institutions of learning on the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels. Public and private issues examined include: affirmative action, freedom of speech, student dismissals, tenure, institutional closing, religion in the schools, and business planning.

3 credits

This seminar will provide an in-depth treatment of both the legal and technical aspects of electronic discovery – the preservation, collection, review, production and use of electronically stored information in civil and criminal litigation (and investigations). Coverage includes selected aspects of the quickly developing body of e-discovery case law, federal and state e-discovery rules, and the technology issues impacting electronic discovery. This seminar will provide the student with a detailed grounding in the law and application of electronic discovery principles to civil and criminal litigation. Demonstrations using live technology will occur when helpful to providing a learning “laboratory” for the students.

2 credits

This course focuses on the major state and federal employment laws affecting individual employees. Coverage includes the legal regulation of the hiring and firing process, testing and privacy issues, wage and hour laws, discrimination, occupational health and safety, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, covenants not to compete, and related topics.

3 credits

This course explores barriers to workplace equality and laws designed to remedy discrimination in the workplace including the 14th Amendment, Title VII, the ADA, ADEA, Equal Pay Act and others.

3 credits

Entertainment law surveys the many legal doctrines that shape the entertainment industry and explores how those various doctrines interact. Topics include free speech, defamation, invasion of privacy, publicity rights, copyright, contractual relations in the entertainment industry, and performer organizations. The course also explores practical aspects of entertainment law, such as client counseling and litigation strategy, and theoretical questions raised by the interplay of federal law, state law, and the rules of private organizations.

3 credits

This course surveys the wide variety of topics that together comprise Environmental Law. Relying on concepts drawn from risk management, economics, ecology, and political theory, this course addresses both common law and statutory responses to conventional and toxic pollution and other adverse impacts on the physical environment, as well as conservation issues of species and habitat and resource management more generally. The course also considers administrative structures that govern much of the field and how federalism affects the law and the environment in the United States. The issues of climate change and control of global warming are woven into several phases of the coverage.

3 credits

This workshop-type course relies primarily on simulations and problems that explore a variety of environmental law subject areas. The sampling is surprisingly broad, including matters that touch on all media (air, water, land) and all aspects of practice (ethical representation, client counseling, client defense, investigation, governmental enforcement and charging decisions, penalty calculation, and many more).

3 credits

This course provides students with a study of the federal estate and gift tax structure and its impact on the transfer of property and of income taxation of trusts and estates. The redistribution of wealth through taxation is also studied. Taxation of income of trusts and estate also includes annuities, property distributions, and income in respect of decedent. This course primarily involves a study of the unified system of federal gift and estate transfer taxes imposed by Chapters 11 and 12 of the Internal Revenue Code. With respect to the gift tax, the student will explore the transfers that are subject to tax as well as the annual exclusion and gifts to minors. With respect to the estate tax, the student will explore the transfers (both during life and at death) that are included in a decedent’s “gross estate,” as well as certain of the deductions that are available to reduce the size of the gross estate (and, ultimately, the estate tax owed).

3 credits

Estate planning focuses on the process by which individuals make comprehensive arrangements for their property and personal needs which remain in effect during disability and after death. Topics covered in this course include disability planning for property and health care needs, planning for the physical aspects of death, the use of non-probate techniques, the preparation and execution of wills, trusts, and other documents, and the fundamentals of federal gift and estate taxation.

Prerequisites: Will and Estates; Federal Income Tax.

3 credits

The law governing the definition, formation, maintenance and dissolution of the family. Topics include adoption, alimony, annulment, child custody, divorce, emancipation of minors, intra-family torts, legitimacy, marriage, paternity, pre-marital agreements, property division, tax implications of divorce, and procedure and jurisdiction in various types of causes of action in domestic relations. Attention is given to common law, state law , and recent constitutional doctrine.

3 credits

The purpose of this course is to give the student an overview of the federal income tax system (particularly as it deals with individuals). The emphasis will be on the proper way to read and interpret the tax code.

3 credits

This course covers the constitutional right to private firearms, covering the history and development of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and various aspects of firearms policy and regulations. The course serves as a starting point for discussions of contemporary gun law issues raised by state courts and the Supreme Court’s rulings

2 credits

This course will provide training in bar exam essay-writing skills through a survey of substantive material covering topics frequently tested on the Florida Bar examination, including Florida Constitutional Law, Wills and Trusts, and Family Law. Students will learn techniques that improve issue spotting and issue resolution as it pertains to answering examination questions posed in the essay format. Students will write a substantial number of essay examination answers, receive feedback on those answers, and learn self-critiques techniques.

4 credits

An analysis of selected provisions of the Florida Constitution, with emphasis on recent decisions of the Florida Supreme Court and an analysis of current proposals for constitutional change.

2 credits

A study of the unique aspects of Florida Law, including Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, the preparation of pleadings and materials for trial, the court system, legislative procedures, and the significance of Florida’s integrated bar with an emphasis on professional responsibility. The course examines jurisdiction and process. The Rules of Florida Civil Procedure are reviewed in depth.

3 credits

This course explores all the major topics in the health care field such as treatment, relationship, liability, professional licensure, right to die, reproductive rights, health care insurance, and regulation of health care facilities and transactions.

3 credits

This course is designed to provide students with a general knowledge of immigration law, including a basic understanding of admission of aliens under the non-immigrant and immigrant categories, removal, naturalization, and the law of refugee and political asylum. Detailed statutory and regulatory analysis of the applicable immigration laws as well as analyzing the impact of immigration in other areas, including criminal law, family unification, human rights, politics, and discrimination.

3 credits

Approved research and writing supervised by a member of the full-time faculty.

1-2 credits

This is a survey course that introduces students to patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of publicity and unfair competition law. The course is designed to give students entering a general business or civil litigation practice a thorough overview of the various intellectual property doctrines.

3 credits

This course examines the legal framework of the international sales transactions, including the commercial terms of the sales agreement, shipping contracts, insurance, financing arrangements, and customs documentation. Students will also examine the foreign direct investment transaction, international franchise and distribution agreements, and contracts for the transfer of technology.

3 credits

This course introduces students to the concept of established and evolving legal issues regarding human rights. The philosophical, political, and legal basis of defining human rights in various parts of the world will be addressed. The central theory of this course is that common international norms form basic international understanding of human treatment. Contemporary issues impacting regional and global areas will be discussed.

3 credits

This course studies theories and skills involved in interviewing, counseling, and negotiating. Student performances in role plays and simulations will be a primary means of instruction. 

2 credits

This course explores the special procedural and substantive law applicable to children, with particular emphasis given to specialized juvenile courts.

2 credits

This course focuses on the law governing and policy issues surrounding the major facets of union-management relations in the private sector under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). These include union organizing, collective bargaining, contract enforcement, picketing and the economic weapons of both sides, including strikes. The course also covers the procedural mechanisms by which rights under the NLRA are enforced and remedies for NLRA violations.

3 credits

This seminar will examine how the law and lawyers have been depicted in film and television over the years; other media may be included. Students will be required to view two movies and selected television programs each week and prepare a written comparison of the role of the law and lawyers as they are depicted by the authors and actors. Topics that will be examined include the use of the rules of evidence, courtroom etiquette, ethics, gender, ethnicity, and a comparison of the victims and types of legal issues covered by the shows.

2 credits

This course examines the domestic and international law and politics of Sub-Saharan Africa from the pre-colonial era through the colonization period and post-colonial independence and post Cold War eras. The course will introduce students to: (1) the historical and contemporary socio-political and legal development of African state systems, institutions and peoples; (2) the unique relationship between African states and those outside of Africa; (3) the extent to which Africa forms an integral part of the international system, and contributes to the progressive development of international law.

2 credits

An introduction to management of a law practice. This course will develop concepts related to four areas – business management, practice management, client management and life management. In the area of business management, students will be exposed to business start-up considerations, including choice of entity, financing, bookkeeping and trust accounting. In the area of practice management, the students will cover administrative and substantive systems, including conflicts of interest, docket management, form files and employee management. In client management, the students will be exposed to issues related to client acceptance, declination, disengagement, client satisfaction and malpractice to name a few. Quality management rounds out the course with quality-of-life issues such as succession planning, contingency arrangements, substance abuse and maintaining a balance in life.

2 credits

The course explores the intersection between law, policy, and social justice. The focus of the seminar is to explore how social justice may be affected by seemingly neutral policies and laws. The objective of this seminar is three-fold: (1) to provide the opportunity to explore a wide variety of issues relating to different laws and policies through a social justice lens; (2) to provide exposure to comparative evaluations of various state statutes, federal laws and policies, international rules and laws; and (3) to provide advanced instruction in the history, goals, structure, values, rules and responsibilities of the legal professionals and their roles in social justice paradigm.

2 credits

This course is designed to sharpen students’ legal research skills and increase students’ mastery of the process and strategies involved in developing effective legal research skills. The course will address United States primary and secondary sources and international law materials. Multiple formats will be covered, which will include both online and print resources.

2 credits

This course will give students an introduction to the legislative process, to legislative interpretation, and to contemporary debates of law and policy that surround the legislative branch.

2 credits

This course presents a summary overview of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes, focusing on the facilitative model of mediation. The fundamentals of the facilitative mediation model are explored to gain an understanding of the primary causes for conflict, the fuel that keeps conflict going, and the methods to resolve conflict through the use of collaborative problem solving and principled negotiation. It is a skills development course that emphasizes the importance of the mediator’s empowerment of the parties to help them resolve their dispute through more effective communication. Because of a strong emphasis on the nuances of communication, the skills developed in more precise and effective communication are generally very helpful in human interaction.

Students will gain an understanding of the mediation process and through participation in role plays will be able to experience the significance of the empowerment of the parties in the resolution of their own disputes.

3 credits

Inter-school competition.

1 credit

This course will familiarize students with the bar exam process generally, bar exam essay writing skills, and MBE multiple-choice skills through a survey of multistate substantive material. The six multistate subjects are Federal Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Torts, Property and Evidence.

4 credits

This seminar is designed to introduce students to the legal and business aspect of the music industry. Students will negotiate an inter-band agreement, a band management contract, and a short form recording contract. In addition, students will write a paper on a music industry topic that may satisfy the Upper-Level Writing Requirement.

2 credits

This course addresses taxation of partnerships and tax consequences of partnership formation, termination, distributions of money or property to partners, and consequences of sale or exchange of a partnership interest or of the death of a partner.

3 credits

This course will survey the uses of different payment mechanisms (negotiable and nonnegotiable instruments, credit cards and electronic funds transfer and wire transfer systems) in both credit and cash transactions. The course will consider allocation of risks for fraud, countermands, defenses on the underlying contract, mistake, timeliness and unauthorized payments. In each case the allocation of risks in connection with different payment mechanisms will be considered, along with whether these allocations should be the same or different for each mechanism. The course will focus on Articles 3 and 4 of the Uniform Commercial Code and consider letters of credit under U.C.C. Article 5 and international payment regimes as well. The impact of federal legislation on the state payments law (U.C.C. Articles 3, 43 and 4A) may also be treated.

3 credits

This course covers every aspect of pretrial preparation of a civil or criminal case. The focus of the course focus varies by semester. When the course covers civil pretrial practice, students proceed from initial client interview through formulating client representational strategy, developing a theory of the case, drafting pleadings, fact investigation, discovery and disclosure (depositions, issues, requests for production), motion practice, settlement conferences and negotiations, and final pre-trial preparation. When the course covers criminal pretrial practice, students proceed from initial client interview through formulating client representational strategy, developing a theory of the case, drafting motions, fact investigation, discovery and disclosure (depositions), Motions to Suppress, Arthur Hearings, Richardson Hearings and Motions in Limine.

This course also covers professionalism issues that arise in pretrial practice.

Prerequisite: Evidence.

3 credits

An analysis of modern products liability law, including policy goals, basis of liability, types of product defects and the role of user and plaintiff fault.

3 credits

Surveys the history and development of basic remedies for civil wrongs. Topics covered include contempt, damages, declaratory judgments, election of remedies, equity jurisdiction, injunctions, modern equity practice, present value adjustment, proof requirements, rescission, reformation and restitution.

3 credits

Sales is an advanced course in contracts that builds upon the basic first-year offerings and focuses on the planning and regulation of sales transactions under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The course also covers international sales governed by the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG). Major topics include electronic commercial transactions; the methodology and scope of the UCC and CISG; allocating the risk of loss; warranties; breach; excuse for non-performance; warranty disclaimers and remedy limitations; rejection, revocation, and cure; anticipatory repudiation and the right to demand adequate assurances; and techniques of statutory analysis.

2 credits

The goal of this course is to acquaint the student with the arsenal that benefits and protects both the debtor and the creditor. Specifically, the student will be introduced to the legal system and rules governing the relationship between the debtor and the creditor (in those instances where the creditor has or has attempted to acquire an interest in the debtor’s property as a means of ensuring satisfaction of the underlying obligation) and between that creditor and all of the debtor’s other creditors including, on frequent occasion, a bankruptcy trustee. Students will also be introduced to the concepts of secured financing transactions using the problem approach.

3 credits

This course exposes students to a study of the federal and state securities laws and the industry they govern. Emphasis will be on the regulation of the distribution process and trading in securities. Subjects dealt with include the functions of the Securities and Exchange Commission, registration and disclosure requirements and related civil liabilities, "blue-sky" laws, proxy solicitation and reporting requirements, broker-dealer regulation, the self-regulatory functions of the exchanges, and the regulation of investment companies.

3 credits

This seminar will provide a comparative as well as interdisciplinary approach to issues concerning race and the law. We will address the racial and legal history of major racial groups in the U.S., including African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Whites. In addition to these histories, the course includes the following topics: competing definitions and understandings of race and racism; the legal system’s contribution to the construction of race; race, voting, and participation in democracy; developing notions of equality; segregation and education; and crime.

2 credits

The focus of this seminar is to provide the student with the essential skills needed in order to become an effective legal researcher.  This seminar will build upon the basic principles of legal research introduced in the first year and in other upper-level research courses. Topics generally covered include the use of primary and secondary sources; case law research; statutory law and legislative history; administrative law; effective use of legal research databases; and specialized research topics.  Strong emphasis will be placed on developing those skills needed to develop efficient and effective search strategies to locate and evaluate authoritative sources, electronic, that are appropriate for the researcher’s information needs.

2 credits

This seminar will explore the barriers to workplace equality, and the laws that touch upon those barriers. Specifically, we will examine both constitutional and statutory efforts to curtail discrimination including the Equal Protection Clause, Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the Equal Pay Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and others as well as the theoretical underpinnings of these statutes. Covered topics include sexual and racial harassment, sexual orientation discrimination, and affirmative action and other interventions aimed at increasing the minority and/or female representation in certain job categories or segments of the labor market. In addition to surveying the doctrine—as it stands and as it has developed over time—we will also study the array of social forces that led to the expansion of these laws and the recent retrenchment away from them.

2 credits

This course explores the government's regulation of sexuality and gender. This course will cover legal doctrines relating equal protection, family law, employment, First Amendment, and privacy law. Topics will include the right to sexual privacy, theories of sexuality, military policies that discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender, government censorship of sexually defined explicit art, and state control of familial relationship.

3 credits

A study of state and federal laws relating to the business of sporting competitions as entertainment, including matters such as the creation of a free market for players’ services, the relationships of franchise owners to the league commissioner, player/agent relationships and contract negotiation. There is also some study of the NCAA regulation of collegiate athletics.

2 credits

Few tax lawyers have formal training in tax policy even though a good foundation in tax policy helps in the understanding of the tax laws. Tax policy involves generally two broad questions: (1) does this particular tax law makes sense? And (2) is Congressional intent being followed? This course will begin by looking at the rationale behind some of the basic tax concepts such as gross income and the various deductions provided by the code. We will also look at whether some of the current code sections can be improved. This course is highly recommended to the student specializing in tax.

2 credits

This course will examine the law, theory and practice of international, regional and sub-regional courts and other justice mechanisms such as truth and reconciliation commissions in South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, El Salvador and Colombia, among others. It will examine the structure and practice of international courts and justice mechanisms, particularly the International Court of Justice as well as introduce a variety of other international tribunals including the International Criminal Court and the International tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, European Court of Justice, World Trade Organization dispute settlement regime, World Bank Inspection Panel, and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

3 credits

A series of classes and simulations devoted to the study of trial techniques, followed by the preparation and trial of a mock trial.

Prerequisite: Evidence.

3 credits

Inter-school competition.

1 credit

This is an introductory course will substitutes; the nature, use and varieties of trusts; elements of trust; creation of trusts; the nature of trust beneficiary's interest; modification and termination of trusts; ethical concerns and fiduciary administration.

3 credits

The course deals primarily with the disposition of family wealth, including the passage of property from deceased to living persons for both intestate and testate succession; the rules governing the execution, revocation, and probate of wills; will substitutions, principles governing the modern trust, fiduciary powers, duties and liabilities.

3 credits

This seminar deals with the history and legal issues surrounding gender from a national and international perspective. The seminar presupposes that there are political, cultural and legal implications that result from sex and gender.

2 credits