School of Law (GRAD)

This course is designed to introduce students to the practical skills necessary to help clients identify, keep, and use trademarks. In this seminar, we will explore trademark law through practical exercises and writing assignments. We will work on a client matter throughout the semester.

The course will cover the basics of US taxation of international income earned by individuals and businesses, examine international tax norms, and compare different countries' tax rules. We will incorporate policy discussion and consideration of anti-abuse rules aimed at protecting global tax coffers. Topics include tax residence and "expatriation", source of income principles, the foreign tax credit, earnings stripping, transfer pricing, 2017 legislation regarding the taxation of foreign income, and the international tax treaty network.

Business of practicing law; professional responsibility and professionalism; basic financial concepts; employment agreements, equity-based compensation; basic accounting principles and use of financial statements; valuation methods; choice of entity (C corporation, S corporation, B corporation, partnership, limited liability company); owners' agreements; venture capital financing; corporate securities; mergers, acquisitions and reorganizations.

Honors version available.

This course will cover First Amendment issues in both the K-12 and higher education contexts. This will include the relationship of parents, students, and the state; speech rights of students, teachers, and professors; academic freedom; public school libraries; curriculum requirements / restrictions; speech restrictions on college athletes; religion and schools; and speaker policies.

This course combines the basic insurance-law course with a 3-week introduction to the law of disasters. The law of disasters is a growing field for attorneys, and insurance is directly or indirectly one of the largest employers of attorneys and law firms in the country. The principal private-law skill students will learn is how to read an insurance contract and how to navigate the interpretive doctrines courts use to resolve insurance disputes. Honors version available.

Permission of curriculum chair and instructor required. Practical problems of international law, including its nature; treaty making, interpretation, enforcement, and termination; recognition; territory; nationality; jurisdiction and immunities; state responsibility and international claims; and the law of war and neutrality.

This course will introduce students to the legislative process and the Legislative Branch of government, and develop practical skills associated with advocacy in the legislative arena. Areas of emphasis include: basic principles and processes of legislative lawmaking, public policy considerations that impact the legislative process and legislative lawmaking, legislative bill drafting; parliamentary procedure; legislative ethics; and advocacy skills such as oral presentation and debate, written argument and defense of a position.

The Civil Clinic represents individual clients and collaborates with partner organizations on civil matters related to racial, economic, and gender justice. It focuses on the rights of tenants and workers. For Fall semester, students represent individual clients in civil litigation related to preserving affordable housing or maintaining a living wage. For Spring semester, students will continue representing their clients and will work on advocacy projects related to housing, employment, or other areas of civil justice.

Students will have the opportunity to engage in non-litigation strategies and collaborate with state, national, and international human rights organizations on legislative and rule-making proposals, policy matters, research papers, and amicus briefs. Topics may include trafficking, domestic workers, police reform, and various human rights treaty obligations and compliance.

Permission of the Instructor. This course provides a review of core legal concepts in three bar-tested subjects per semester as students develop the skills essential for success on a bar exam. The fall course will focus on concepts in Constitutional Law, Contracts, and Torts. This course is open to 3Ls with permission of the instructor.

Advanced Bankruptcy is a transition-to-practice writing and experiential course designed for students who have taken the basic bankruptcy course and would like to continue studying business bankruptcy in a more applied context.

Art Law introduces students to a variety of legal areas surrounding artists, museums, galleries, auction houses and art collectors. This area of the law embodies contract issues, criminal law matters, intellectual property, constitutional concerns involving free expression, torts and the preservation of cultural heritage artifacts and sites. The impact of technology is another focus of the course. Recommended preparatory courses are Law 210 (Copyright) or 265 (IP).

This course will cover the major statutory, constitutional, regulatory, and common law rules applicable to amateur sports. Students will learn the major issues in amateur sports law and engage in exercises that simulate sports law practice, including drafting a sports-related employment contract and summary of a current legal issue, and participating in a contract negotiation exercise.

This course involves representing clients before the U.S. Supreme Court. Students will write petitions for certiorari, oppositions to certiorari, merits briefs, and amicus briefs at the petition and merits stages. Students will also help identify cases that are good cases for Supreme Court review.

The course provides students with a solid foundation in basic and advanced estate-planning knowledge, skills, and strategies. It helps students build the technical and personal skills necessary to develop and implement a comprehensive estate plan. It will focus on ways to understand and meet a client's estate planning objectives with hands-on simulation exercises in developing, drafting, and executing an estate plan. Topics covered include tax mitigation, philanthropy, business succession, domicile, non-tax considerations, and fiduciary selection.

Specific topics related to decision-making processes of judges will be discussed. We will discuss assigned readings that provide informative and highly readable thoughts on the subject of how judges go about their job and the internal/external factors that influence their decisions. We will examine several landmark decisions from the US Supreme Court that exemplify judicial philosophies such as Originalism, the Living Constitution, Textualism, Purposivism, Formalism, and Legal Realism. Current or former NC judges will visit.

This 3-credit class will partner with Stanford Law's Criminal Justice Center on a national research project about survivors of gender-based violence who killed an abusive partner. It covers the doctrinal concepts related to GBV generally, including civil and criminal remedies, GBV and children, economic issues, and civil rights issues. Students will gather data, conduct interviews, and make recommendations for policy and legislative changes related to survivor representation, conditions of incarceration, and needs upon re-entry.

This seminar will examine the legal and policy challenges presented by the many private actors that make up the Internet, including internet service providers (ISPs), search engines, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, and X. Course themes include the jurisdictional challenges posed by the global Internet as well as changing conceptions of freedom of speech, intellectual property rights, and privacy. We will also touch on issues of cybersecurity, defamation, antitrust, and contract law.

This course will explore American law as it concerns Indigenous peoples and nations. The course will trace the historical development of the field as well as major contemporary issues. These include jurisdiction, gaming, family law issues, tribal law, and more. The course will explore the relationship between the federal government, states, tribal nations, and individuals. Students will gain a truly unique perspective on American law, Native America, and exercise of authority in a colonial context.

This seminar covers pretrial litigation under the NC Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence. Topics: pre-suit considerations, claims and defenses, written discovery and depositions, summary judgment and other motions and pretrial preparation. Course materials include an annotated copy of the NC Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence, assigned NC appellate decisions and other supplemental readings. Material will be presented in the context of torts, but concepts will be applicable to all areas of civil litigation.

This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of human rights law. It examines legal frameworks for protecting human rights at the United Nations and regional human rights institutions, as well as the ways in which these legal regimes intersect with domestic law. The course will also discuss critiques of the international human rights system, for example, claims that the system is ineffective or imperialist.

This course introduces students to various intellectual property ("IP") strategies encountered in different industries, and the practical skills necessary to help clients identify, acquire, use and commercialize their IP assets. Students will draft IP-related agreements, such as confidentiality agreements, opinion letters, letters of intent, assignment agreements, and license agreements. Students are provided sample agreements and hypothetical fact patterns, and will learn to draft contract language that addresses their clients' specific needs and business objectives.

This seminar will explore the fundamental policy issues that influence our choice of tax laws. We will not focus in significant detail on the mechanics of the current law but will focus on what the tax law could and should be. Specific topics will include theories of distributive justice, progressivity, tax compliance and enforcement, consumption taxes as an alternative to an income tax, the capital gains tax, and tax expenditures like the mortgage interest deduction.

The Youth Justice Clinic (YJC) is a four-credit hour clinic that can be taken in the fall, the spring, or for the full year. Law students in YJC represent children in delinquency proceedings and school suspension appeals, and adults in clemency applications and parole hearings.

The Community Development Law Clinic (CDL) is a one semester clinic in which students provide corporate and transactional counsel to North Carolina nonprofit community development organizations. The aim of the CDL Clinic is to help students develop skills in corporate and transactional law and, at the same time, show them how those skills can be put to use in serving the needs of nonprofit social entrepreneurs, particularly in under-resourced communities.

Must attend Intensive Weekend in Fall. The Immigration Clinic is a two-semester clinic that provides students with an opportunity to represent low-income clients seeking humanitarian immigration relief. Students represent clients in their applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and before Immigration Court or the Board of Immigration Appeals, depending on the client's needs. Students work in teams of two and will have weekly team meetings with their faculty supervisor about their client representation.

This invitation-only course addresses ways to mentor and support first-year students as they adjust to RRWA and to legal advocacy, professionalism, research, and writing. An HWS meets with RRWA students--individually or in small groups--several times per semester to listen to them, mentor them on RRWA-related matters, and assist them with short exercises. An HWS also periodically cooperates with the students' RRWA professor.

The lab follows and builds upon the fall semester Honors Writing Scholars Seminar. Using the training they will have received in the Seminar, the Honors Writing Scholars students will assist a section of the first-year RRWA students inside and outside the classroom.

This course explores contemporary issues in corporate governance. Areas of focus include the role of corporate constituents and their place within the broader corporate governance framework; the balance of power between various stakeholders in a corporation; and the future of corporate governance in light of new regulatory and technological developments.

Permission of the instructor. This course provides a review of critical legal concepts in six subjects as students develop skills essential for success on bar examinations and as new practicing attorneys. It focuses on constitutional law, contracts, and torts during one semester and criminal law and procedure, evidence, and property in the other semester.

The Domestic and Sexual Violence Clinic is a full-year clinic in which third-year law students represent low-income clients in civil matters aimed at assisting them in safely leaving abusive relationships. Principally, students will be representing clients in domestic violence protective order hearings in District Court.

The course uses a series of negotiation exercises and mock negotiations, readings, and discussion to teach the skills involved in negotiation. In addition, lawyers from the community are brought in to observe the students and give them feedback on their skills and techniques for one half-day weekend.

This course studies such substantive types of economic regulation (and deregulation) as those found in the regulation of energy and electricity, telecommunications and the internet, food and pharmaceuticals, and consumer and financial affairs. The course will be offered every other year.

This seminar will examine the legal and policy aspects of food and fiber production, with specific attention being paid to both traditional agricultural law issues and contemporary debates regarding how we grow, market, and sell food in the United States.

The course uses a series of role playing exercises, readings and discussion to teach the skills involved in interviewing and counseling. Occasionally, an outside individual will be invited to the class to make the role plays more realistic. In addition, both mental health professionals and lawyers from the community will observe students and give feedback on their skills and techniques.

The Economic Justice (EJ) Clinic is a semester or year-long clinic in which students represent individual and organizational clients in civil matters related to consumer credit and debt, including issues related to home ownership and foreclosure, car ownership and repossession, and student debt. Certain courses may be helpful in providing background doctrinal understanding, including Consumer Law, Bankruptcy Law, Secured Transactions, and Negotiation. Departmental permission via the lottery selection process.

This 6-credit, 20-hour/week fall/spring externship opportunity is for a select group of our North Carolina partner sites such as federal judges, federal agencies, US Attorney Offices and others. It enables a limited group of 3L students to essentially take a half course classroom load while increasing on-site participation and deepening their externship learning experience.

The Intellectual Property Clinic (IP Clinic) is a one semester clinic in which third-year students assist individual entrepreneurs, small businesses and startups with the protection, acquisition and management of intellectual property rights. In addition to their direct client representation, all students will have the opportunity to become certified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which provides students with limited recognition to practice before the USPTO under the supervision of the clinic faculty supervisor.

The seminar will examine, initially, the nature, extent and characteristics of poverty in NC. Early classes will consider the data and demographics of economic hardship in the state. Issues of economic inequality will also be explored. Finally, it will examine the impact of various recent NC public policy decisions on low income Tar Heels.

This transition to practice course is designed for upper-level students interested in environmental law and/or civil rights law. Environmental Justice sits at the cross roads of environmental law and civil rights law. The course will examine the application of the law in practice, teaching students how to identify and address environmental injustice in various settings.

This course will introduce students to one of the critical, culminating events in the life of a business organization: the negotiated merger or acquisition transaction. It will survey the work lawyers do at each of the main stages of the transaction and is directed at students who are considering careers as business lawyers.

The course will explore the historical, social, and political context in which people's reproductive decisions are shaped and through which reproductive rights and justice law and policy has emerged. It will necessarily provide a basic overview and understanding of how broader public health laws and policies intersect with reproductive rights and justice issues.

The Military and Veterans Law Clinic is a one-semester or full-year clinical course that is focused on assisting both former and current servicemembers. Students will represent low-income former servicemembers seeking legal status as a veteran. Veteran status is a prerequisite to VA health care and other life-altering benefits. Students may also serve as expert veterans benefits eligibility consultants to active duty military defense counsel who represent servicemembers in a variety of disciplinary proceedings.

This seminar will serve as an introduction to the nuts and bolts of contracting drafting. The seminar will address not only legal drafting issues, but also how to understand a client's practical business needs in order to effectively use the contract as a planning and problem-solving tool.

This transition-to-practice course, taught by a career general counsel, will introduce students to life as an in-house attorney. The course is for students considering careers as in-house counsel, whether as generalists, transactional lawyers, litigators or legal managers, and whether for manufacturers, financial institutions, technology firms, insurers, utilities, information providers, healthcare providers, other service providers or non-profits.

This seminar will examine global climate change and the range of policy responses at the international, national, and subnational levels. Students will study policy options for mitigating climate change, the evolving international response to climate change, and national and subnational policies, including U.S. EPA regulation under the Clean Air Act, other federal laws and policies relevant to climate change mitigation, and state-level action by California, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, and North Carolina.

This course will serve as a survey of the basic theory and techniques of lawyering communication skills, like client interviewing, counseling, negotiations, and conflict resolution.

This course examines how law constructed the program of removal and detention of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry in WWII, and how Japanese Americans experienced and contested the government's program. The course will examine prewar Asian American legal history, the actions of the executive, legislative and judicial branches in carrying out the removal and detention program, the postwar path to redress, and the legacy of this history for antiterrorism policy and reparations for historical injustices.

Writing for Practice (W4P) builds on the practical writing skills introduced in RRWA I and II to prepare students for writing in various legal practice settings. Like RRWA, W4P uses cycles of instruction-writing-feedback to help students hone their writing processes--for example drafting and revising--and products, including familiar genres such as internal memoranda and motion memos and new genres with new audiences, for example blog posts, letters, and feedback on others' writing.

This course will offer students the opportunity to expand their skills in using legal resources and online research tools in the context of transactional law practice. A range of topics will include practitioner resources, transactional drafting tools, company research, and specialized topical resources for transactional areas such as securities, banking & finance, corporate governance, and intellectual property. Students will have gained experience formulating efficient research methodologies and using online practitioner tools in various research databases.

This course focuses on United States privacy law, including torts, contracts, constitutional laws, statutes and regulations, and societal norms that safeguard the right of privacy and personal dignity in the United States and which balance that interest against competing interests.

In this intensive practicum, students will engage in high-stakes negotiations involving the buying, selling or licensing of intellectual property rights. Students will be directly supervised and mentored by one of the two faculty members, each of whom is a recognized expert in intellectual property licensing negotiations. Hypothetical facts and clients will be based on real-world examples of high-stakes IP acquisition transactions.

This course builds on the practical writing skills introduced in RRWA to prepare students to write for the Uniform Bar Exams, with a particular emphasis on the Multistate Performance Test (MPT). Students will write multiple MPTs and bar essays, receive feedback from the professor, and learn to self-assess their performance.

Students will provide legal services to a range of for-profit organizations, ranging from tech start-ups to small businesses in low-income communities. The course will focus upon basic corporate work and commercial contracts, including choice of entity, forming corporations and limited liability companies, and drafting shareholder and operating agreements.

This skills-based seminar provides the opportunity to explore and practice a trauma-informed approach to lawyering through readings, discussion, interdisciplinary guest speakers, and a multi-step simulation. Simulations will permit students to "represent" a client in a domestic violence or Title IX matter. Permission from Program Director.

This course helps students learn (primarily through simulation exercises) practical, effective strategies to transmit legal analysis, advice, and risk assessment to diverse clients and stakeholders in highly sensitive or crisis-type situations. Exercises challenge students to communicate substantive legal analysis and advice in ways that are responsive to a specific client's needs and expectations. For each exercise, students will analyze a scenario, plan communication strategies, use their strategies in a communication simulation, and receive feedback.

Students will learn how the EU General Data Protection Regulation impacts businesses in all sectors and in all countries, including the United States. The course highlights the legal context of the GDPR, requirements, and enforcement. Grades will be based on class participation and 2-3 short papers. To enroll in course, students must be enrolled in law school.

This seminar will explore the entwinement of race with American institutions through a legal lens in historical and contemporary contexts. Among other things, the course will interrogate how the concept of race has influenced law and legal thought, and how law and legal thought have influenced the concept of race.

This course covers the legal options available to policy makers for addressing financial crises. It examines limitations on financial institutions to reduce risk and legal authorities to resolve systemic institutions. This course also examines the rulemaking, legal challenges and subsequent legislative changes that shaped today's legal framework. This course builds upon the Banking Law course, but it is possible for a student to be successful in the course who has not enrolled in Banking Law.

This seminar will prepare students to be critical and informed observers of, and participants in, legal developments, disputes and discourses surrounding AI technologies. Topics will include the transformation of labor, including the practices of legal services and institutions; the rights, duties and liabilities attaching to the designs and activities of robotic and transactional AI agents; and the privacy, security, social and ethical impacts of AI and automation.

This clinic provides students with the opportunity to explore innovative methods for developing advocacy strategies to address issues of racial and social injustice and inequality. Students will learn to merge theories gleaned from critical race theory into effective legal advocacy strategies. Students will engage in direct representation of clients in a range of cases including but not limited to employment discrimination, fair housing, racial disparities in education, and collateral consequences of criminal convictions.

Introduction to key issues and documents that companies and investors negotiate when seeking or funding private investment, including venture capital, private equity, or angel investment transactions. The course will utilize the market-standard equity investment documents promulgated by the National Venture Capital Association to discuss negotiated terms in a practical context with real-world examples. The course will also cover other investment vehicles, including convertible notes and SAFEs. Moderate proficiency in Microsoft Excel required for this course.

In this year-long reading group, students will consider the relationship between US law and racial inequality today. Students will meet for two-hour sessions eight times during the year. At each session, we will discuss a book that explores how a particular field of law has contributed to racial inequality, including criminal justice, the child welfare system, and housing segregation. Students will also assess the potential for law to play a role in redressing racial inequality.

This seminar will introduce students to the major legal and policy issues surrounding the role of prosecutors in the criminal justice system. The reading for this course will include cases, law review articles, and some materials from popular media. Students will be asked to complete a seminar paper which will be written in stages during the semester.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to state and federal intellectual property law: trademarks, utility patents, design patents, copyright, trade secrets and rights of publicity are covered briefly. Students may only receive credit for one of these two courses: LAW 565, or LAW 265.

This course examines the goals of immigration enforcement and its implementation in the United States. Topics include border and interior enforcement, employer-based enforcement, state and local enforcement, and the merger of criminal and immigration law. This course is not limited to students interested in immigration law careers. Issues of immigration enforcement are of general interest to the public, given their impact on employers, localities, and criminal prosecutors and defense attorneys, among others.