J.D. Courses

Course Description

This perspectives course will examine America’s healthcare system through the lens of how we provide care to low-income and other vulnerable populations. Assignments will include a mix of case law and other readings, with a focus on understanding the dynamics of major healthcare policy debates. Students will also gain a familiarity with critical healthcare programs and statutes, including the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, Medicare, ERISA, and more.
HONORS COURSE

Course Description

Accounting is the fundamental language of business. Businesses speak many different languages but the essential, core language, the one that deals directly with business performance and viability is accounting. In this course we will study some of the basic concepts of accounting such as debits and credits, double entry bookkeeping, financial statements, assets, liabilities, shareholders’ equity, accrual and cash methods of accounting, time value of money, depreciation, auditing, and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. We will explore how a working knowledge of these concepts is helpful to attorneys in a wide variety of different contexts so that, when you find yourself in a situation that requires at least a basic understanding of accounting concepts, you will be able to use that knowledge to successfully fulfill your role as an attorney.

Course Description

This course introduces the growth and development of administrative law and procedure. Topics include constitutionality and delegation of power, discretion, policy, regulatory and adjudicative functions, rules, orders, jurisdiction, investigative functions, procedures, due process and judicial review.

Course Description

The course will provide a condensed overview of the main topics of the doctrinal, such as separation of powers; sources and distribution of administrative power; the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”); judicial review; and APA rulemaking procedures. We will particularly focus on the components of administrative law that will be tested on the Next Gen Bar Exam, like the scope of executive power and procedural due process. The administrative state is changing rapidly and this course will allow students to not only prepare for the Bar Exam but also place current events in better context.

Course Description

In this course we'll examine developments in the enforcement, or not, of foreign arbitration clauses in maritime contracts since the Supreme Court decided to enforce them in contracts of carriage of goods in 1995 in The SKY REEFER.

Course Description

This course involves a study of the jurisdiction of admiralty courts and the laws affecting maritime rights and obligations. Areas included are the history of maritime law, choice of law in admiralty cases, maritime property interests, rights of seamen, carriage of goods, salvage, and collision.

Course Description

This is a skills-based course that will utilize the vehicle of an actual criminal trial transcript to learn the basics of persuasive writing and good oral advocacy. Instead of the soup-to-nuts approach of moot court, which covers every step in an appeal at a rather surface level, we will focus intensively on particular skills: issue-identification and framing, developing strategies for written and oral presentations, advanced research skills and analysis, partisan writing. Throughout the course, there will be opportunities to improve writing skills, to learn how to handle both helpful and harmful precedent, to structure oral arguments and field hard questions. Students should be prepared to critique their own writing and practice oral advocacy in class. Graded assignments will occur throughout the semester; there will be no final exam and no “big” paper. This course will help good researchers, writers and oralists become better, but even those whose skills are at a basic level will improve.

Course Description

A survey of legal and law-related research resources not covered in the first-year Legal Methods classes, including federal legislative history, administrative law research, loose-leaf services, practice materials, and law-related digital resources. There will be an emphasis on research strategy and process and on the integration of print and digital sources. Students will complete exercises in class in a workshop format; there will also be advanced training classes in computer-assisted legal research. Assignments will consist of problem sets covering topics and resources discussed in class.
This course can be used to fulfill the Experiential Requirement or the Graduation Writing Requirement but not both.

Course Description

This is a skills-based course that will utilize the vehicle of an actual criminal trial transcript to help good researchers, writers and oralists become better. It is a particularly valuable course for students considering judicial clerkships because of its attention to analysis of legal issues. We focus on a case involving the homicide of a toddler; students are warned that while there is no charge of sexual abuse, there is an intimation that it may have occurred. We concentrate on issue-identification and framing, developing strategies for written and oral presentations, advanced research skills and analysis, and writing from a strong viewpoint. Throughout the course, there will be opportunities to improve writing skills, to learn how to handle both helpful and harmful precedent, to structure oral arguments and field hard questions. Students should be prepared to critique their own writing and practice oral advocacy in class. Graded assignments will occur throughout the semester; there will be no final exam or final paper. The course will satisfy the writing requirement.

This is a course that teaches advocacy. We are criminal defense attorneys – that’s what we know. Because the course depends on assuming a particular advocacy role, all the assignments and exercises will put you in the position of a defense attorney. Since understanding the opposing point of view is an essential skill for good advocacy, we will frequently discuss prosecution strategies and positions. Persuasive advocacy is persuasive advocacy, and while we tend to look at things from an appellate point of view, everything you learn will be equally useful to trial litigation or any situation in which you as a lawyer are advocating a particular position.

Prerequisites: Students must have passed criminal procedure. Evidence is helpful but not required.

Admission to course: Admission to the course is discretionary with the instructors. Students must submit a writing sample that was not written with the assistance of the writing center or a tutor. While it can be something you wrote for another course, it need not be a legal writing sample: it could be from undergraduate days or an opinion piece or a significant work that you did for another purpose.

Faculty: Barbara Hurst is the Pro Se Law Clerk for the United States District Court of Rhode Island, and is a former Chief Appellate Attorney for the Rhode Island Public Defender, as well as former (Acting) Public Defender; Angela Yingling is a staff attorney in the Appellate Division of the Rhode Island Public Defender, and the Financial Director of the Rhode Island Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Course Description

This course provides an in-depth coverage to a number of classic torts cases including Palsgraf, U.S. v. Carroll Towing, MacPherson Buick and others. It also covers the torts of defamation and invasion of privacy.

Course Description

This course will take a criminal case as the jumping off point. Students will learn how to prepare and try a complex case. The class will focus on trial technique and strategy using cutting edge trial techniques and theories. Students will be evaluated based upon class participation and role playing in mock trial during the last two sessions of the class. Trial Advocacy is a prerequisite.

Course Description

In this course, which will function as part seminar and part workshop, students will explore the relationship between form and content in legal writing and employ the techniques learned to craft high-quality briefs for Moot Court competitions. Specifically, this course will guide students—from start to finish—through the process of developing research into an outline and then transitioning that outline into a polished written product. Students will, in particular, learn how to separate, group, and organize their ideas into focused and logically arranged paragraphs that are both clear and designed to achieve a desired rhetorical outcome. Along with developing those structural elements, students will also deepen their understanding of the foundational and stylistic elements of writing—such as grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure—so as to create documents that are not only error-free but also use their readability to engage readers. While this course will act as both a regressive and progressive writing experience, it will also introduce more-sophisticated writing concepts like semiotics, prosody, and classical rhetoric to help students consider and refine their writing as well as their arguments and opinions. Writing and revision will likely be required for each class but, if done with care, should result in a finely crafted and persuasive composition fit for competition.

Course Description

Using Ethan Mollick’s book Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI as a guidepost, this (mostly) online course will be a beginner’s look into how generative AI works, and how it can work (and fail miserably) for us as lawyers. Through the course of this class we will learn about several types of AI for both legal and non-legal tasks. We will discuss ways AI is being used in the practice of law. We will discuss the pitfalls of AI. Finally, we will work hands-on with several AI technologies and discuss the helpful (and possibly disastrous results) and how this relates to our duty of competence as a lawyer.

Course Description

This course will cover the basics and indispensable intricacies of negotiation as well as the
dispute resolution mechanisms of arbitration and mediation. It will address the roles of the
participants as well as rules, best practices, and effective strategies to be employed by all parties.
With alternative dispute resolution on the rise in use and popularity, this course will help prepare
students to be lawyers who can function and excel in these venues. The course will include role
play and a practical focus to assist in developing proficiencies that are applicable in virtually all
areas of practice and even contract negotiation methods. The instructor is a sitting State Court
Judge who as a practicing attorney participated in and presided over countless arbitrations,
meditations and negotiations, for decades and continues to be a highly requested mediator in his
court's mediation program.

Course Description

This course will discuss the origins and evolution of the present day American jury system. We will also explore whether changes need to be made to that system and what those changes might be. The American Jury System by Randolph N. Janokait will be the text for the course. The course will be taught by Distinguished Jurist in Residence, Justice Edward C. Clifton, Rhode Island Superior Court (ret.).

Course Description

This course includes legal frameworks that establish what can and cannot be done with and to animals. Animal law is an evolving legal field that is developing rapidly. It overlaps with contracts, criminal law, torts, property, constitutional law, wills and trusts, domestic relations, environmental law, evidence, patent law, tax law, and other areas. Animal law is interconnected with other fields of law, from FOIA requests to pet trusts to veterinary malpractice. The study of these concepts helps attorneys and law students understand not only the law's evolving attitude toward animals but also how the law operates and develops.

Course Description

This course examines the limitations imposed by the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and Federal Trade Commission Act on anti-competitive practices of businesses. The course includes price fixing, monopolization, mergers, tying, restraints in distribution, boycotts, price discrimination, procedural issues in private enforcement, and the relationship between state and federal laws and enforcement.

Course Description

This course focuses on the art of persuasion, with attention paid to both written and oral advocacy.
Students will have an opportunity to write from either prosecution or defense perspectives. Using
transcripts of two actual criminal trials – one raising 4th Amendment issues and the other exploring 5th
Amendment Miranda law – we look at how the choice of language impacts persuasion. Words count!
When do we choose to call a defendant “Ms. Smith,” when “Jacqueline,” when “Jackie” and when “the
young woman”? Do we refer to “the prosecution” or “the State” or “the government” or the prosecutor by
name? Do we say, “Despite the late hour, she claimed she was alert and watching carefully out the
window,” or do we say, “She testified she was awake and looking out the window at 2:14 a.m.”? Or
even, “Apparently wide awake and unable to sleep at 2:14 a.m., she was intently peering out the window.”
What difference does it make? We stress creating themes, supporting them with propositions, and crafting
messages to sell those propositions. We will also spend time on issue selection and framing: how does
framing influence success? Issue analysis, creative reasoning, research skills and persuasive organization
are all part of the advocacy process. The class is conducted as a writing workshop. You will write drafts,
we will review and discuss them, and you will have the benefit of instructor and peer comments in
refining your graded product. We will also look at research techniques and focus on using both good and
bad cases to our advantage. By the end of the course, you will have written two short appellate briefs. No
exam or final paper; all work will be completed by the final class.

Course Description

This class is the bridge between the three-year law school curriculum and the two months of bar review following graduation. The course teaches much of the law tested on the bar exam, yet focuses primarily on thinking skills and test-taking strategies. Extensive coverage is given to the most difficult part of the bar exam: the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), the 200-question multiple-choice test that is part of the bar exam of every state except Louisiana. The course also covers essay and performance test writing techniques. The Fall Semester will cover Torts, Evidence, Criminal Law, & Criminal Procedure. The spring course will cover Contracts, Property, & Constitutional Law. The Fall Semester course is not a formal prerequisite for the Spring Semester, but is highly recommended.

Course Description

This course examines the systems of federal and state commercial bank and bank-holding company regulations. Coverage ranges from the business of banking and its role to consideration of permissible activities and international banking by U.S. banks.

Course Description

This course covers the basic principles of individual and business bankruptcies. The course will first cover the core bankruptcy principles that are generally applicable to every type of bankruptcy, including the automatic stay, the bankruptcy estate, and the rights of creditors. These provisions of the Bankruptcy Code are found in Chapters 1, 3 and 5. The course will then cover the basic principles of individual bankruptcies. This part of the course will focus on Chapters 7 and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. The course will then cover the basic principles of business bankruptcies. This part of the course will focus on Chapter 11.

Course Description

This course will examine primarily the taxation of corporations and other business organizations under the federal tax law. Consideration will also be given to international taxation issues, as well as the systems of taxation developed in the various states.

Course Description

This course surveys and analyzes the various forms of business enterprises. Organizations include sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. Topics include the legal relationships between the corporation and its directors, officers, stockholders, and creditors; risk reduction devices; formation, dissolution, and termination; and agency relationships and responsibilities. Consideration is given to cases, statutes, model acts, and securities laws.

Course Description

This course combines work in corporate law and federal corporate taxation in a problem context of business planning and counseling. The course focuses on several complex fact situations, giving students the opportunities to analyze and resolve issues presented. Federal Income Tax is a prerequisite.

Course Description

The Roger Williams University School of Law Business Start-up Clinic provides services to small start-up businesses and nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Services include navigating legal entity choice, drafting basic contracts, and certain intellectual property assistance. The primary goal of the clinic is to teach the practice of transactional lawyering while providing service to under-served entrepreneurs and organizations.