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Fundamentals of Accounting for Attorneys
LAWS 79112
- 01
(3)
m, s, x
This seminar will teach the basic fundamentals of accounting to better prepare you to recognize and understand financial business issues related to the practice of law. Topics include key accounting concepts, reading financial statements and financial statement analysis. The class sessions will include guest speakers presenting on current accounting hot topics such as Sarbanes Oxley, working with the SEC and forensic accounting (investigating accounting frauds).
The class is designed for those who have never taken an accounting class and/or have little financial background.
There are no prerequisites but you should not take this class if you have taken an accounting class before or if you have experience in finance or accounting.
Grades will be based on papers and a final examination.
Autumn 2013
Philip Bach, Sean Young
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Gendered Violence and the Law Clinic
LAWS 63313
- 01
(3)
a, s
This clinic explores the intersecting legal issues that face survivors of gender-based violence--both civil and criminal--and explores how well those systems work to help survivors achieve safety and stability. Students will explore these issues through a 2-hour weekly seminar, combined with 12 hours per week of field work spent working at LAF (Legal Assistance Foundation) in downtown Chicago. LAF provides a full-range of civil legal services to indigent clients in Cook County, and students will have the opportunity to explore the multitude of civil legal tools available to victims of domestic and sexual violence. Students will work primarily in LAF’s Children and Family Practice Group, while accepting some assignments from LAF’s Housing, Consumer, Public Benefits, and Immigrant and Workers’ Rights Practice Groups. Students will assist with representation of domestic and sexual violence survivors to meet a broad range of legal needs, which could include protective orders, divorce and custody litigation, VAWA self-petitions and U-Visa applications, advocacy in child abuse and neglect proceedings, housing and eviction matters, unemployment insurance hearings, and TANF appeals. All students will be expected to interview clients, prepare written discovery, develop witness statements, conduct legal research, and draft pleadings, motions and court orders. Third-year students eligible for a 711 license will appear in court under attorney supervision.
Students will be assigned to the various practice groups based on the capacity of LAF to accommodate the students into each practice area. Prior experience and language skills may be considered in determining each student’s clinical placement. Students’ grades will be based on participation in the seminar, evaluation of performance in the clinical field work, a series of reaction/reflection papers, a class presentation, and a simulated hearing exercise. Participation over both Winter and Spring quarters is required.
Winter 2014
Neha Lall
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Gendered Violence and the Law Clinic
LAWS 63313
- 01
(4)
a, s
This clinic explores the intersecting legal issues that face survivors of gender-based violence--both civil and criminal--and explores how well those systems work to help survivors achieve safety and stability. Students will explore these issues through a 2-hour weekly seminar, combined with 12 hours per week of field work spent working at LAF (Legal Assistance Foundation) in downtown Chicago. LAF provides a full-range of civil legal services to indigent clients in Cook County, and students will have the opportunity to explore the multitude of civil legal tools available to victims of domestic and sexual violence. Students will work primarily in LAF’s Children and Family Practice Group, while accepting some assignments from LAF’s Housing, Consumer, Public Benefits, and Immigrant and Workers’ Rights Practice Groups. Students will assist with representation of domestic and sexual violence survivors to meet a broad range of legal needs, which could include protective orders, divorce and custody litigation, VAWA self-petitions and U-Visa applications, advocacy in child abuse and neglect proceedings, housing and eviction matters, unemployment insurance hearings, and TANF appeals. All students will be expected to interview clients, prepare written discovery, develop witness statements, conduct legal research, and draft pleadings, motions and court orders. Third-year students eligible for a 711 license will appear in court under attorney supervision.
Students will be assigned to the various practice groups based on the capacity of LAF to accommodate the students into each practice area. Prior experience and language skills may be considered in determining each student’s clinical placement. Students’ grades will be based on participation in the seminar, evaluation of performance in the clinical field work, a series of reaction/reflection papers, a class presentation, and a simulated hearing exercise. Participation over both Winter and Spring quarters is required.
Spring 2014
Neha Lall
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Greek Tragedy and Philosophy
LAWS 96303
- 01
(3)
+, c/l, m
Ancient Greek tragedy has been of continuous interest to philosophers, whether they love it or hate it. But they do not agree about what it is and does, or about what insights it offers. This seminar will study the tragic festivals and a select number of tragedies, also consulting some modern studies of ancient tragedy. Then we shall turn to philosophical accounts of the tragic genre, including Plato, Aristotle, the Greek and Roman Stoics, Seneca, Lessing, Schlegel, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Iris Murdoch, and Bernard Williams. If we have time we will include some study of ancient Greek comedy and its philosophical significance.
Admission by permission of the instructor. Permission must be sought in writing by September 15.
Prerequisite: An undergraduate major in philosophy or some equivalent solid philosophy preparation, OR a solid grounding in Classics, including language training. In other words, those who qualify on the basis of philosophical background do not have to know ancient Greek, but someone without such preparation may be admitted on the basis of knowledge of Greek and other Classics training of the sort typical of our Ph.D. students in Classics. An extra section will be held for those who can read some of the materials in Greek.
Autumn 2013
Martha Nussbaum
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Greenberg Seminar: Cheating
LAWS 95902
- 07
(1)
a, x
This seminar will explore legal, ethical, and procedural issues inherent in questions of cheating and rule breaking in contexts ranging from sports and academics to private career advancement. We will look at the nature of rules and difficult distinctions that must be drawn such as why some rules are expected to be broken while others are not. We will explore the line between artificial performance enhancement as cheating on the one hand and as positive personal improvement on the other. For example, we will look at the different treatment of performance enhancing drugs in athletics and in performance art. We will also explore how and when law and government should be involved in setting and enforcing rules.
Autumn 2013
Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Anthony Casey
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Greenberg Seminar: Crime and Politics in Charm City: A Portrait of the Urban Drug War
LAWS 95902
- 03
(1)
a, x
We will explore these works on crime, politics, and policing in the City of Baltimore: David Simon, “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,” Davis Simon & Ed Burns, “The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner City Neighborhood,” Peter Moskos, "Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore’s Eastern District,” and all of “The Wire.” We will focus particularly on the drug war – the economics and violence of the trade; the culture of the police bureaucracy; alternative law enforcement strategies such as informants and wiretapping; the politics of race, crime rates, and legalization; and the effects of addiction. But these works also examine, within Baltimore, the effects of declining blue collar jobs and weakening labor unions; the effects of race, incumbency, and corruption on local politics; the challenges and failures of urban education and child welfare agencies; and the role of the city newspaper in self-governance.
Preference is given to 3L students.
Graded Pass/Fail.
Autumn 2013
Jonathan Masur, Richard H. McAdams
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Greenberg Seminar: Korea
LAWS 95902
- 01
(1)
a, x
Korea is a remarkable country. Politically, it remains divided along cold war lines, with one half still technically at war with the United States. The South is a relatively new democracy, but its politics are still dominated by the influence of powerful families (of both former dictators and powerful business groups). Economically, it is one of the most incredible success stories in history. In 1950, Korea was poorer than Egypt but today it has a per capita income about 8 times that of Egypt, and is one of the most dynamic economies in the world. Culturally, it is a paradox. Rigidly hierarchical and conservative, it has nevertheless produced some of the best books and films of the past several decades. In this Greenberg seminar, we will explore the richness of Korea through several avenues. We will discuss several fiction and non-fiction books, as well as a recent Korean film. Students will be required, to the extent class schedules permit, to attend part of a one-day workshop on the Korean Constitution of 1948 on Friday October 25. Korean food and drink will accompany each of the evening sessions.
Autumn 2013
Tom Ginsburg, M. Todd Henderson
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Greenberg Seminar: Law and Disaster
LAWS 95902
- 06
(1)
a, x
The Greenberg seminar on law and disaster will examine different ways in which the law responds to, or prepares for, disasters, and how disasters shape the law. Natural calamities like Hurricane Katrina, mass accidents like the Titanic, environmental tragedies like a large oil spill, economic crashes like the collapse of the financial markets, impending catastrophes like climate change, and even colossal legal blunders -- all have met patterns of legal responses that are uniquely shaped by the social and psychological attitudes towards disaster.
Autumn 2013
Omri Ben-Shahar, William H. J. Hubbard
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Greenberg Seminar: Southern Literature and the Law
LAWS 95902
- 02
(1)
+, a
In this seminar we will discuss a group of classic works of nineteenth and twentieth-century Southern literature, asking what light they shed on legal issues, particularly those connected to race and gender. We begin with Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain, then move to the twentieth century, where the primary authors read will be William Faulkner, Katherine Anne Porter, Flannery O'Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison.
Candidates should submit to both instructors a statement describing their background in literature and their reasons for wanting to take the seminar. Please apply as early as you can, since we usually fill spaces in the order of application (saving three slots for LL.M. students).
This seminar is capped at 15.
Graded Pass/Fail.
Autumn 2013
Richard A. Posner, Martha Nussbaum
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Greenberg Seminar: States and Markets in American History
LAWS 95902
- 05
(1)
a, x
From the colonial period to the twentieth century, America evolved from a colonial outpost into the world’s largest economic power. Its tremendous growth was embedded in and helped to facilitate broader transformations in the state and society. This Greenberg samples from a recent resurgence in historical literature on the social, political, economic, and cultural dimensions of American capitalism. It aims to take up developments such as (but not limited to) the proliferation of state institutions for managing risk, the rise of transnational corporations, the history of antitrust, globalization, and the expansion of marketing and distribution.
Autumn 2013
Aziz Huq, Laura Weinrib
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Greenberg Seminar: The Rise of Women
LAWS 95902
- 04
(1)
a, x
Popular literature and academic writing have taken up the "gender upheaval" of recent years. Women are a substantial majority of college graduates, and not only in the United States. Many professions have been transformed by the rise of women – or is it the fall of man? Law firms may be next, though our profession seems harder to conquer. In this seminar we will read and discuss several books including Hanna Rosin, The End of Men and the Rise of Women and Paul Seabright, The War of the Sexes.
We will meet on specified Thursday evenings during the Autumn and Winter Quarters. Please do not sign up for this seminar if you have other obligations on Thursday evenings between 7:30-9:30. Meetings will be in Professor Levmore and Roin's home, where we will be joined by a different visiting faculty member at each meeting. Tentative dates: October 10, 24; November 7; January 16, 30; February 6.
Autumn 2013
Saul Levmore, Julie Roin
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Health Law and Policy
LAWS 78801
- 01
(3)
c/l, w
This course will explore various policies that underlie regulation of the provision of health care in the United States. We will begin with an examination of the principal government programs for financing the delivery of health care in America, Medicare and Medicaid. This first third of the course will focus on how these programs seek to resolve the tension between controlling costs, promoting quality, and assuring access. We will next address other federal legislation affecting the delivery of health care, including the Affordable Care Act. We will then move to a consideration of policy issues relating to managed care organizations, including the functioning of these organizations and the impact of ERISA on their actions. Next, we will explore issues relating to the behavior of physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes. This exploration will focus on the impact of the antitrust, labor, and tax laws on these entities. The goal of the course is to expose the student to the conflicting law and policy issues that impact on the delivery of health care in this country.
Winter 2014
Jack Bierig
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Higher Education And The Law
LAWS 52102
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
The university has long maintained that its history and role as a creator of knowledge and refuge for society's critics require that the government and the courts extend a special respect to the academy's need to govern itself. This seminar discusses how the courts have dealt with this argument in areas such as academic freedom; student admissions and discipline; faculty tenure, dismissal, and unionization; and teaching and research restrictions. Discussions focus on the competing interests of society and the university and the role of the courts in balancing these interests. The student's grade is based on class participation and a major or substantial paper. This seminar may be taken for fulfillment of the Substantial Writing Requirement.
Winter 2014
Arthur Sussman
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Historic Preservation Law
LAWS 61302
- 01
(2)
m, x
In this seminar on historic preservation law, we will study the rationale for preserving historic resources; the tension between private property rights under the constitution and the public benefit of preserving our historic heritage; the standards for designating landmarks; federal, state and local laws regulating landmarks; tax and other financial incentives to encourage preservation of historic buildings; and governmental regulation of historic churches. The Law School’s historic Eero Saarinen building will illustrate the issues arising in using and rehabbing older structures for modern uses. Prior courses in land use or real estate are helpful.
Your grade will be based upon short reaction papers and your participation and attendance.
Spring 2014
Richard F. Friedman
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Historical Semantics and Legal Interpretation: Questions and Methods
LAWS 51601
- 01
(3)
+, c/l, m, r, w
This seminar aims to combine methodologies in research on historical jurisprudence and in theoretical and computational linguistics, with a view to understanding the meanings of words and phrases in context. We will examine theories of textual meaning from legal studies and linguistics, including originalism, textualism, common law constitutionalism, and other methods that require the interpreter to have a theory of which written sources, and which words, count for purposes of determining constitutional meaning. The seminar will also introduce distinctions from formal semantics and pragmatics concerning the construction of meaning, and corpus-based modeling of lexical meaning. The seminar thus aims to acquaint students with these techniques, to apply them to several interpretive questions (e.g., those surrounding the Second Amendment), and to model how such research can be conducted for questions of the students' own interest.
Third hour of course optional for Law students.
16 seats will be initially allocated to Law School students and 10 to Linguistics students.
Law students wishing to enroll in the seminar should email a short statement of interest to both professors, including their background in relevant areas and the reasons for their interest in the seminar, by August 26. Linguistics students should email no later than December 17.
A final paper will be required.
Winter 2014
Alison LaCroix
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Housing and Development: Law and Policy
LAWS 98903
- 01
(3)
m, r, x
In this seminar we will explore a range of issues concerning American housing law and policy. Topics will include the historical development of interventions in the housing market as well the economic justifications for these interventions. Regulatory and spending programs will be compared and contrasted. We will consider the current mortgage and mortgage foreclosure crisis and its implications for housing policy and law. In addition, we will discuss comparative advantages and disadvantages of government programs designed to stimulate supply and those geared to increasing demand. One class will also be devoted to issues of housing discrimination. We live in a wonderful laboratory for studying what does and does not work in housing policy. Therefore, where appropriate, we will draw comparisons and contrasts between housing laws and policies in Chicago and those of the nation as a whole.
Winter 2014
Michael H. Schill
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Housing Initiative Clinic
LAWS 95013
- 01
(1 to 2)
a, s
The Housing Initiative is a transactional clinic in which students provide legal representation to community-based housing developers, tenant groups, and other parties involved in affordable housing development. Students serve as deal lawyers, advising clients on structuring issues; negotiating, drafting and reviewing construction loan documents, construction contracts, purchase and sale agreements, partnership agreements, and other contracts; securing zoning and other governmental approvals; assisting clients in resolving compliance issues under the applicable state and federal housing programs; and participating in the preparation of evidentiary and closing documents. Some of our work also involves community organizing and legislative and policy advocacy around affordable housing and public housing issues. In addition to working on specific transactions and projects, students in the Housing Initiative Clinic meet as a group in a weekly seminar in Autumn quarter, and periodically during Winter and Spring quarters, to discuss the substantive rules and legal skills pertinent to housing transactions and to examine emergent issues arising out of the students' work. During the fall quarter seminar, returning clinic students need only attend the first hour; new students should attend for the full two hours.
Academic credit for the Housing Initiative Clinic varies and is awarded according to the Law School's general criteria for clinical courses as described in the Law School Announcements and by the approval of the clinical faculty.
Winter 2014
Jeff Leslie
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Housing Initiative Clinic
LAWS 95013
- 01
(1 to 2)
a, s
The Housing Initiative is a transactional clinic in which students provide legal representation to community-based housing developers, tenant groups, and other parties involved in affordable housing development. Students serve as deal lawyers, advising clients on structuring issues; negotiating, drafting and reviewing construction loan documents, construction contracts, purchase and sale agreements, partnership agreements, and other contracts; securing zoning and other governmental approvals; assisting clients in resolving compliance issues under the applicable state and federal housing programs; and participating in the preparation of evidentiary and closing documents. Some of our work also involves community organizing and legislative and policy advocacy around affordable housing and public housing issues. In addition to working on specific transactions and projects, students in the Housing Initiative Clinic meet as a group in a weekly seminar in Autumn quarter, and periodically during Winter and Spring quarters, to discuss the substantive rules and legal skills pertinent to housing transactions and to examine emergent issues arising out of the students' work. During the fall quarter seminar, returning clinic students need only attend the first hour; new students should attend for the full two hours.
Academic credit for the Housing Initiative Clinic varies and is awarded according to the Law School's general criteria for clinical courses as described in the Law School Announcements and by the approval of the clinical faculty.
Autumn 2013
Jeff Leslie
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Housing Initiative Clinic
LAWS 95013
- 01
(1 to 2)
a, s
The Housing Initiative is a transactional clinic in which students provide legal representation to community-based housing developers, tenant groups, and other parties involved in affordable housing development. Students serve as deal lawyers, advising clients on structuring issues; negotiating, drafting and reviewing construction loan documents, construction contracts, purchase and sale agreements, partnership agreements, and other contracts; securing zoning and other governmental approvals; assisting clients in resolving compliance issues under the applicable state and federal housing programs; and participating in the preparation of evidentiary and closing documents. Some of our work also involves community organizing and legislative and policy advocacy around affordable housing and public housing issues. In addition to working on specific transactions and projects, students in the Housing Initiative Clinic meet as a group in a weekly seminar in Autumn quarter, and periodically during Winter and Spring quarters, to discuss the substantive rules and legal skills pertinent to housing transactions and to examine emergent issues arising out of the students' work. During the fall quarter seminar, returning clinic students need only attend the first hour; new students should attend for the full two hours.
Academic credit for the Housing Initiative Clinic varies and is awarded according to the Law School's general criteria for clinical courses as described in the Law School Announcements and by the approval of the clinical faculty.
Spring 2014
Jeff Leslie
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Immigration Law
LAWS 50001
- 01
(2)
This course will focus on an examination of US immigration policy with respect to the admission and exclusion of immigrants. In particular, the class will focus on: the federal government’s authority over immigration law and policy; deportation and removal; the intersection of criminal and immigration law; family-based and employment-based immigration; the law of asylum; and the regulation of undocumented immigrants.
The student's grade is based on a take-home final examination.
Winter 2014
Elizabeth Frankel
