M.S.L. Courses

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

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 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

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 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 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

This course would focus on the law and policies underlying the allocation of power and responsibility among children, parents and the state. Areas that the course covers include children’s constitutional rights; child abuse and neglect; and juvenile crime and delinquency.

Course Description

This two-semester course provides an introduction to the adversary system and the historical basis and evolving functions of both the state and the federal systems of civil procedure. Topics include an introduction to claims and remedies, jurisdiction, venue, pleading, discovery, joinder of claims and parties, res judicata, collateral estoppel, disposition without trial, court selection, jury and non-jury trials, post-trial motions and appellate review. The drafting of pleadings for a case is included.

Course Description

This two-semester course provides an introduction to the adversary system and the historical basis and evolving functions of both the state and the federal systems of civil procedure. Topics include an introduction to claims and remedies, jurisdiction, venue, pleading, discovery, joinder of claims and parties, res judicata, collateral estoppel, disposition without trial, court selection, jury and non-jury trials, post-trial motions and appellate review. The drafting of pleadings for a case is included.

Course Description

This course will look at the issues arising from bringing cases against government actors under the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §1983-- the federal statute which authorizes lawsuits for the violation of Constitutional and civil rights. It focuses on the ways such civil rights claims are litigated in lawsuits against public officials and local governments. Topics will include what it means to act "under color of state law;" absolute and qualified immunities; government liability for the acts of individual officials; remedies for constitutional violations, including monetary and injunctive relief; and the award of attorney's fees.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:
• Begin to appreciate the multiple roles of a lawyer practicing civil rights law, whether representing plaintiffs, defendants, or governments; or working for the administrative, legislative or judicial branches. 

• Appreciate the complexity of the law and facts confronted by civil rights lawyers and the frequency of situations that do not have obvious or easy solutions. 

• In a given factual situation, students will be able to identify the 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or federal constitutional 4th, 8th, 14th Amendment issues, and 11th Amendment issues, and be able to develop arguments reasonable lawyers, legislators, or administrators would make with respect to those issues.
Students will know, and appreciate circuit variation in, the rules that govern:
1. Eighth Amendment claims 

2. Substantive due process claims based on executive action 

3. Fourth Amendment seizures 

4. Procedural due process claims 

5. 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action under color of law 

6. Absolute immunity 

7. Qualified immunity 

8. 42 U.S.C. § 1983 standards for local government liability 

9. 42 U.S.C. § 1988 attorneys fees 

10. Eleventh Amendment defense 


Course Description

This course covers the great Civil Rights cases, focusing on School Desegregation, Affirmative Action, and discrimination based on Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation. The course will chart the history of the Equal Protection clause and students will closely study and analyze its evolution over time. In addition, the course looks outside of the court system to contextualize the significance of various court decisions and helps students gain a better understanding of the societal concerns that the cases helped address.

Course Description

This course explores the impact that climatic changes are having, and will continue to have, on law and policy in the United States. Recent reports anticipate increased climate change impacts including water scarcity and decreased quality, ocean warming and acidification, sea level rise and coastal impacts, extreme weather events, risks to public health, increased forest wildfires, and national security risks. Coastal states on the forefront for these climate change impacts. Many coastal states are beginning to address adaptation through changes in law and policy. This course will examine the framework for federal and state policy and law changes to adapt to climate change, and the status of efforts throughout the United States. While the focus will be on efforts within the nation in coastal areas, the course will briefly discuss non-coastal and international climate change laws and policies. Students will be evaluated based on class participation and a paper that can fulfill their writing requirements.

Course Description

Callie from California and Max from Massachusetts get into a car accident with each other in the parking lot of Disney World (Florida). Max returns home to Massachusetts and sues Callie and Disney World in Massachusetts state court. Does the Massachusetts court have jurisdiction over Callie and/or Disney World? If so, what law would a Massachusetts court apply to the dispute – Massachusetts law? California law? Florida law? If Max obtains judgment against Callie and Disney World, are these judgments enforceable in California and Florida? If Callie moves to France and obtains a declaratory judgment there that she is not liable to Max for the car accident, would this French judgment be recognized by a Massachusetts court to preclude Max’s lawsuit? These are the questions to be explored in this Conflict of Laws course. The course will focus on three broad questions: 1. Jurisdiction: When does a court have jurisdiction over a dispute? 2. Choice of Law: What law will a court apply to a dispute? 3. Enforcement of Judgments: When will a judgment from a foreign court (U.S. state or foreign country) be recognized and/or enforced? The approach taken is a mix between academic and practical. The ultimate goal is to have students not only understand the doctrines that comprise the conflict of laws, but be able to apply and manipulate them to achieve a desired result.

Course Description

This course examines the basic principles of constitutional law through the analysis of the opinions of the United States Supreme Court. Topics include judicial review, federal system relationships, commerce clause,
governmental powers and civil rights.

Course Description

This course examines the basic constitutional protection of individual rights, including equal protection implied fundamental rights or modem substantive due process (including rights of privacy, privileges and immunities, and the incorporation controversy) due process and the first amendment freedoms of expression and religion.

Course Description

This course examines various legal issues affecting public and private construction projects from inception through post-completion. Among the topics covered in the course are: (1) project delivery methods; (2) risk identification and allocation; (3) responsibilities and liabilities of project owners, architects, contractors and subcontractors; (4) design and construction contracting principles and standard forms of agreement; (5) risk mitigation using insurance, bonds, indemnities and limitations of liability; (6) change management; (7) common dispute types such as design errors and omissions, project delays and differing site conditions; and (8) claims and dispute resolution.