J.D. Courses
We offer a variety of courses for whatever your professional interest is – private practice, public interest, government, litigation, corporate, marine, non-legal, educational, and more.
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HONORS COURSE
This course will meet for six weeks.
Course Description
This course will focus on materials selected by Adjunct Professor Don Migliori, whose law firm has worked on cases involving the September 11th attacks on the United States.
HONORS COURSE
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorCourse Description
This course explores aspects of the legal regulation of sexuality. Among the questions on which we will focus throughout the semester are these: How has sexuality (and related notions such as sexuality and gender) been defined, posed and addressed as a problem in and for the U.S. legal system? What role do various conceptions of sexuality play in framing the terms, the argumentative strategies and resolution of legal disputes? What shaping functions do legal constructions of sexuality exert in and on broader political conversations about sex and social justice in the contemporary U.S.? Topics to be discussed include the scope and limits of the “public/private” distinction as a conceptual framework in U.S. sex law; legal efforts to define and distinguish sex, gender and sexuality, sexual acts, gender identities and expressions (male, female, transgender, transsexual, intersex), and sexual identities (“homosexuality,” “heterosexuality,” and “bisexuality”); law, sexuality and intimate association; sexuality, gender, and reproduction; gender, sexuality, surveillance and citizenship; law, sexuality, kinship and family relations; gender identity, sexuality and the legal construction, and regulation, of the human body; sex.
Course Type
ElectiveCourse Credits
3.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawThis course will meet for six weeks.
Course Description
The text is the Pulitzer-Prize winning Simple Justice, by Richard Kluger. The book traces the line of cases from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. Board of Education, blending constitutional and historical analysis with fascinating portraits of the lawyers (and their litigation strategy) and the judges (and their personal struggles with how to dispense justice a changing society) who were involved in the history-making journey from “separate but equal” to the death of state-sponsored racial segregation in public schools. The grade will be based on class participation and a take-home exam.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawFaculty Associated
David A. LoganCourse Description
This seminar will introduce students to the federal, selected state, and international laws and policies now available to combat human trafficking and modern-day forms of slavery. The course will begin with a brief examination of abolitionism. It will then review the adoption of U.S. anti-slavery and peonage laws, showing how those laws proved. insufficient to curb modern slavery and trafficking, such failure forming the backdrop for the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000. The seminar will then conduct an in-depth analysis of federal laws prohibiting sex and labor trafficking crimes and consider how such laws are used to investigate and prosecute those offenses. A brief investigation of selected state laws as well as the problem of migrant smuggling will also be conducted. The last part of the seminar will examine the international anti-trafficking legal framework established under the U.N. Palermo Protocol and consider whether global efforts to implement the Protocol have had any success.
The methodology employed in the seminar will examine each topic using the lenses of legal history, analytical jurisprudence, and criminal law theory. The focus will be on the criminal law provisions of the TVPA as it is logistically impossible to cover the foreign policy, immigration, and social service aspects of that law in a course like this and our concern will be the implications of the TVPA for criminal theory and practice. After tracing the evolution of the legal definition(s) and social, religious, and economic conceptions of slavery and the rise of anti-slavery thought, we will explore the advent of legislative and prosecutorial recognition of the alleged new crime of “human trafficking” and examine how TVPA has been interpreted and applied by the courts in cases involving allegations of human trafficking and slavery. By the end of the course, students should come away with a good understanding of the major legal, jurisprudential, public policy, and practical law enforcement issues involved in the struggle against modern-day slavery and human trafficking. This will include a close examination of the role of the internet in sex and labor trafficking. The reading in the course will be supplied by the professor and will be substantial. The reading will be supplemented with lectures, video presentations, and talks by one or more guest speakers.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
2.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Bernard FreamonCourse Description
The law is used not only to secure justice for parties in individual cases but also to bring about social change. This course examines how lawyers have done that. The readings will be autobiographies, biographies, and other books about lawyers who pursued their visions of social justice. The class will discuss what motivated these lawyers, how they designed overarching strategies to achieve their objectives, the tactical decisions they made along the way, and their leadership styles. There will be no prescribed definition of “social justice.” Instead, students will be asked to think about what “social justice” means to them, and lawyers with different ideological perspectives will be studied. This course is designed for students who hope to pursue public interest careers and for students who hope to find opportunities to advance the public good while engaged in an ordinary legal practice.
Course Type
ElectiveCourse Credits
3.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawFaculty Associated
Carl T. BogusCourse Description
This course is a detailed introduction to social security disability law, policy and practice with a focus on the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. The course will include a look at the historical and social foundations of the Social Security Administration and the difference between social insurance and means-tested or welfare programs. The bulk of the course will focus on the largest and most heavily litigated programs in the social security system—the disability programs. It will explore the Social Security Administrations’ unique definition of “disability,” and provide a comprehensive examination of the substantive law, elaborate administrative adjudicative system, and federal court judicial review of social security disability claims.
Course Type
ElectiveCourse Credits
2.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorHONORS COURSE
This course will meet for six weeks.
Course Description
In this perspectives course we'll to read and discuss Thomas D. Morris, Southern Slavery and The Law, 1619-1860 (1999), as way of examining both the legal institution of slavery in the American South and the ways in which the law reacts to social and economic forces and in influenced social and economic development.
HONORS COURSE
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Jonathan M. GutoffCourse Description
This course is intended to help law students who are proficient in Spanish understand how to utilize those skills in a legal setting. The course will focus on various part of the life of a case, including: intake, working with foreign documents, explaining the legal process to clients, and working with interpreters. Throughout, the course will place great emphasis on cultural competency. “
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Joseph Molina FlynnThis course will meet for four weeks
Course Description
This course will be taught by Professor Colleen Murphy explores a lawyer’s identity and purpose beyond the “material” aspects of practicing law. The readings in the course, evidencing a variety of religious and secular perspectives, address topics such as the integration of deeply-held personal values into the practice of law; clients who have deeply held values that are in tension with the dominant values of the legal system; exploring with the client whether justice, peace, or reconciliation is the client’s true goal; and the extent to which a lawyer might engage the client in moral conversation.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawFaculty Associated
Colleen P. MurphyCourse Description
What is “on the table” during the course of an appellate case? This course will examine what appellate courts consider during the consideration of various types of appeals.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
The Honorable Francis X. FlahertyHONORS COURSE
Course Description
In every type of modern legal practice, lawyers must regularly deal with problems that require a basic understanding of concepts and methods from statistics and economics. This course provides an introduction to these subjects and their application and relevance to law. The purpose of this course is to make you competent enough with numbers so that you are prepared to handle the range of quantitative issues that come up in modern legal practice. Grades will be based on class participation, graded problem sets, and a final examination. No prior background in statistics or economics is required; however, we will regularly use basic algebra and arithmetic. Students with strong backgrounds in economics, mathematics, or statistics should consult with the professor before enrolling in the course
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorCourse Description
Much of today’s law is statutory, and attorneys will be called upon to read and interpret statutes in representing their clients, whether public or private. Students will read and discuss the caselaw that gives attorneys tools used to interpret statutory language, including textual tools, legislative history, and canons of statutory construction, and then apply those tools. The class will include group and partnered assignments to draft statutory or regulatory language, and to analyze and resolve statutory problems.
Course Type
ElectiveCourse Credits
2.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Terry SeligmannThis course will meet for six weeks.
Course Description
The course will consider the federal government's waiver of sovereign immunity in the Public Vessels Act and the Suits in Admiralty Act, as was well as state sovereign immunity in maritime proceedings. Some prior knowledge of maritime law and practice would be helpful.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawFaculty Associated
Jonathan M. GutoffSummer Only
Course Description
The Summer Clinical Externship Program combines our Corporate Counsel, Prosecution and Government and Public Interest Programs for the summer semester. Students train under the supervision of practicing attorneys in a those legal settings and attend a weekly seminar. The seminar will focus on professional identity formation, goal setting, ethics, informal presentation skills and other lawyering skills. Students must secure their own placement and all placements must be vetted and approved by RWU Law.
Course Type
Clinic/ExternshipCourse Credits
4.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Laurie BarronSUMMER ONLY
Course Description
The Summer Clinical Externship Program combines our Corporate Counsel, Prosecution and Government and Public Interest Programs for the summer semester. Students train under the supervision of practicing attorneys in a those legal settings and attend a weekly seminar. The seminar will focus on professional identity formation, goal setting, ethics, informal presentation skills and other lawyering skills. Students must secure their own placement and all placements must be vetted and approved by RWU Law.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
2.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorCourse Description
This one-credit course will focus on preparing you for the Multistate Performance Test, a section of the Uniform Bar Exam through written assignments and a final exam. This course will help refine your analytical and critical thinking skills as you prepare for a life as a lawyer. We will discuss various areas of law and the hypothetical impact superpowers would have on our law. Some of those questions will involve who pays for the damage after a superhero battle and if masked superheroes can testify in court. You do not need to know anything about comics or superheroes to get the most out of this class.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Christopher GerlicaT
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 Type
ElectiveCourse Credits
4.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawCourse Description
This course introduces students to various frameworks of the law, questions of liability and recent litigation related to artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), biometrics and facial recognition, unmanned aerial systems (UAS or drones), autonomous vehicles, telemedicine, smart cities and advertising through social media. Students will learn about state and federal laws and regulations (and proposed laws and regulations) related to the privacy and security of these technological innovations. Students will discuss laws ranging from the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Part 107 Small UAS rule to the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Students will also explore the role of law in responding to, regulating and promoting, these new and emerging technologies.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorCourse Description
This course surveys software systems that embody specialized legal knowledge and know-how, considers the role of technology on lawyering and the legal services delivery system, and provides hands-on instruction in current technologies including document assembly, automated client interviews, social media marketing, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, data analytics, project management, and virtual law practice. The course will also examine the burgeoning literature on the practicalities and ethics of “e-lawyering,” with attention to the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Student projects will provide hands-on experience in current technologies with broad application in public interest and pro bono contexts, as well as application appropriate to solo and small firm practitioners.
Course Type
ElectiveCourse Credits
2.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawFaculty Associated
Larry ApplemanCourse Description
This course will explore housing policy and housing law as presented in Richard Rothstein’s book The Color of Law: A forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. We will discuss the role of the US government in the development of American housing and neighborhoods. The course will examine racial policies and practices that shaped suburban and urban development. The course will also review the lasting impacts of historical polices on modern communities.
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Lorraine N. LalliHONORS COURSE
This course will meet a Friday and Saturday of two separate weeks.
Course Description
In just a few years, the benefits of mindfulness training have permeated American society, from elementary schools to the military, from yoga studios to corporate boardrooms, and into the legal world as well. This course explores how legal advocates can benefit from mindfulness training. At the core of most interpersonal lawyerly activity is some form of communication, whether it is to persuade, inform or dispute. Successful oral advocacy requires one to be truly present and mindful for two reasons: First, to speak in a non-rehearsed way that genuinely connects with the listener. And second, to maintain a flexible awareness that permits a lawyer to adjust to new information. Mindfulness -- defined here as moment-to-moment awareness without judgment – is a powerful tool for the legal advocate to remain focused and on-message but still open to perceiving, interpreting, and feeling what is happening around him or her. In this course, students will engage in a variety of simulation exercises including appellate argument, trial advocacy, negotiation, and mediation aided by mindfulness exercises designed to simultaneously focus and relax the participants in what can be stressful legal environments. This course is for students who desire to be stronger legal advocates by developing the resiliency skills that mindfulness training offers. The professor was on the faculty of RWU Law for many years but returned to full-time practice in Washington six years ago where he has endeavored to integrate mindfulness into his practice as a government lawyer and investigator. He also runs the RWU D.C. Semester-in-Practice program in the Spring semester.
HONORS COURSE
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
David M. ZlotnickHONORS COURSE
This course will meet for six weeks.
Course Description
The Nature of the Judicial Process was published in 1921 by Justice Benjamin J. Cardozo and remains one of the most important and influential treatments of the topic. We will consider contending judicial theories of interpretation (e.g. textualism, historical, logical, etc.) in light of the text and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The professor, the Honorable Stephen J. Fortunato, is a retired Associate Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court.
HONORS COURSE
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorThis course will meet for six weeks.
Course Description
This course will ask students to take a hard look at crime and punishment in the United States in the age of mass incarceration. The phenomenon of mass incarceration commonly refers to the historic increase in the prison population in this country over the past 40 years, unexplained by the crime rate and in stark contrast to the incarceration rates of other countries, that has had a disproportionate impact on certain racial, ethnic and social classes (particularly younger African American men living in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage). A critical examination of Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, will guide us in exploring the phenomenon of mass incarceration, its historical context, causes and consequences, and the future of crime and punishment in America. The course will be taught by Justice Judith C. Savage, Rhode Island Superior Court (ret.).
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorMaster of Studies in LawHONORS COURSE
Course Description
This course, taught by Dean Michael Yelnosky, looks at the history of the U.S. Supreme Court’s uneasy relationship with organized labor.
HONORS COURSE
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Michael J. YelnoskyHONORS COURSE
This course will meet for six weeks.
Course Description
Do courts have a monopoly on interpretation of the Constitution? The traditional course on constitutional law focuses almost exclusively on the Supreme Court as the interpreter of the Constitution, but scholars have begun to recognize the importance of constitutional arguments and interpretations made outside the courts. Congress and the President frequently are called upon to resolve constitutional issues in ways that are unnoticed and go unchallenged. In addition, political and social movements like the Tea Party movement often make constitutional arguments and present their claims in constitutional terms. The American people often are asked to take sides in constitutional contests by participating in everyday politics. Constitutional interpretations outside the courts have had profound impacts on both popular and elite understandings of the meaning of the Constitution. This course will examine the Tea Party movement and other movements that have sought to advance their constitutional vision outside the courts, in order to assess the role that “popular constitutionalism” plays in the development of constitutional law.
HONORS COURSE
Course Type
SeminarCourse Credits
1.0Course Degree
Juris DoctorFaculty Associated
Jared A. GoldsteinCourse Types
We have classified RWU Law classes under the following headers. One of the following course types will be attached to each course which will allow students to narrow down their search while looking for classes.
Core Course
Students in the first and second year are required to take classes covering the following aspects of the law—contracts, torts, property, criminal law, civil procedure, and constitutional law, evidence, and professional responsibility. Along with these aspects, the core curriculum will develop legal reasoning skills.
Elective
After finishing the core curriculum the remaining coursework toward the degree is completed through upper level elective courses. Students can choose courses that peak their interests or courses that go along with the track they are following.
Seminar
Seminars are classes where teachers and small groups of students focus on a specific topic and the students complete a substantial research paper.
Clinics/Externships
Inhouse Clinics and Clinical Externships legal education is law school training in which students participate in client representation under the supervision of a practicing attorney or law professor. RWU Law's Clinical Programs offer unique and effective learning opportunities and the opportunity for practical experience while still in law school.