J.D. Courses

Course Description

In May 2022 the Governor signed a piece of legislation, the Rhode Island Cannabis Act, legalizing the adult-use of cannabis in the state. Even though RI joins over a dozen other states in legalizing adult-use cannabis, it remains a federally illegal substance classified as Schedule 1 under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. This one-credit course will provide students with a comprehensive survey of this complex and evolving legal landscape with a focus on the new Rhode Island Law and the continued challenges businesses face due to federal illegality.

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

COMPLEX LITIGATION: PRACTICAL AND ETHICAL LESSONS FROM THE STATION NIGHTCLUB FIRE
On February 20, 2003 a heavy metal band set off pyrotechnics inside a crowded Rhode Island nightclub, igniting foam insulation on the walls. The ensuing fire and panic killed 100 persons and injured hundreds more, spawning civil litigation that lasted seven years. This interactive seminar, conducted by a lead attorney representing plaintiffs in that litigation, explores the legal and ethical issues faced by counsel in that case. While the factual context of this seminar is tort-based, emphasized skills will be useful for all future litigators. John Barylick's book, KILLER SHOW: The Station Nightclub Fire, America's Deadliest Rock Concert, is the seminar's main text and a jumping-off point for explorations of: legal ethics, civil procedure, plaintiff selection, defendant selection and liability theories, formal and informal discovery methods, mediation and formulation of a damages distribution plan. Audiovisuals include materials from the Station Fire case and mediations. Additional readings include sections of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Title 28 of the United States Code, law review articles and pleadings from the case. There will be a 12-15 page final written assignment, rather than a final exam.
HONORS COURSE

Course Description

This class will explore the Station Fire litigation in its depth, including some of the many interesting and complex legal, factual, expert witness, and mediationissues that arose. Several victims will come to class to explain their views of what happened both factually and legally in what was oneof themost, if not the most, complex cases ever filed in Rhode Island.The results were obtained due to a team effort by a small number of plaintiff’s law firms.Several of those lawyers will attend toexplain the division of responsibilities and their particular roles.

Course Description

Cyber crime – presents a criminal and national security threat that grows in proportion to the increasing ubiquity of digital and networked devices, and that is limited only by the bounds of human creativity. Moreover, as digital and networked devices permeate more and more into daily lives and economic sectors, concepts underlying the investigation and prosecution of cyber crime become more broadly relevant. The vast quantity of data that such devices collect and store about their owners and third parties also implicates significant privacy considerations. The investigative authorities available to law enforcement thus have a direct impact upon privacy interests. Finally, as new technology and new uses of technology continue to emerge, substantive criminal law and procedural law governing lawful access to data must be applied in new, often unanticipated contexts. In the absence of legislative change, the executive and judicial branches are left to apply old statutes and to rely on analogies to physical-world doctrines that do not always translate easily into the digital context.
Students who intend to investigate, prosecute, or defend criminal cases require an understanding of the substantive and procedural law in this area, regardless of the types of cases that interest them. A street-level drug case, a white-collar fraud case, and a human trafficking case, for example, will all have cyber components. Also, an increasing number and type of businesses hold third-party data that is potentially subject to lawful demands by law enforcement seeking evidence of criminal conduct. Businesses may also, of course, be the victims of cyber crime or of insider criminal conduct that leaves a digital trail. Accordingly, students who intend to counsel corporate clients or employers will benefit from a cyber crime and investigations course. Finally, students interested in privacy and technology outside the criminal context the opportunity to round out their understanding of constitutional, statutory, and caselaw considerations in digital and networked environments.

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 covers choice of law, jurisdiction, and judgments—topics tested on the Bar exams
of over half the states and on the Uniform Bar. It explores the legal consequences of transactions
touching on more than one state or nation, using subjects that range from contracts to torts to
family law to internet and ecommerce, looking at the appropriate forum for the actions and the
appropriate law that applies to such matters. Disputes between parties from different states or
countries and disputes having contacts with multiple jurisdictions raise a host of challenging
legal questions, including: (1) which court(s) have jurisdiction to adjudicate (personal
jurisdiction); (2) which jurisdiction’s law will govern the dispute; (3) whether and in what
circumstances a judgment rendered in one state or country will be recognized and enforced in
other jurisdictions; and (4) how courts should make these determinations. The course (and
casebook) includes a small comparative component, looking at European regulations.

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.

Course Description

This course offers a hands-on approach to learning how to intake, analyze, process, file and complete consumer bankruptcy cases in Federal Bankruptcy Court. We will discuss the rights debtors and creditors under state law outside of bankruptcy, and in which cases bankruptcy is an appropriate option for addressing financial difficulties. Bankruptcy relief will be reviewed for debtors under Chapters 7 and Chapter 13. The primary goal of this course is to develop a working understanding of how to represent consumer debtors in Federal Bankruptcy Court.

Course Description

This Honors course is centered around a real-life breach of contract problem involving “Dr. B.” Dr. B entered into a recruitment agreement with a Hospital in Florida, whereby he would serve as the hospital’s ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor. As part of the recruitment agreement, Dr. B accepted a “loan” from the hospital (or an advance on his salary) in the amount of approximately $140,000. The loan was contingent upon Dr. B staying with the hospital for 3 years. Dr. B left the hospital after 2.5 years and did not repay any amounts advanced to him. Two years after leaving the hospital, the hospital is now demanding repayment. This course will focus on developing the skills to help Dr. B with his legal issues. The course will involve fact-gathering, identifying and researching factual and legal issues, communicating with the client and with the senior partner, making concrete recommendations to Dr. B on what he should do, critically evaluating the case for Dr. B and for the senior partner, assessing the benefits and drawbacks to various courses of action, communicating with opposing counsel, etc. This will not be a traditional course. Rather, it is designed as a practicum which will enable students to develop and practice the skills that they will need to respond to real-life contracts disputes. Students will be evaluated based on a series of assignments (e.g. drafting a memo to the senior partner, writing a letter to the client, writing to opposing counsel, etc.), and based on their interactions with the client and with the senior partner.

Course Description

This two-semester course provides an introduction to the law of agreements. Topics include contract formation, the doctrine of consideration and its substitutes, the Statute of Frauds, contract regulation, the parole evidence rule, interpretation, performance and breach, conditions, anticipatory breach, remedies for breach, specific performance, damages, restitution and impracticability and frustration. Both the common law and the Uniform Commercial Code are emphasized. The rights and duties of non-parties are covered to the extent possible.

Course Description

This two-semester course provides an introduction to the law of agreements. Topics include contract formation, the doctrine of consideration and its substitutes, the Statute of Frauds, contract regulation, the parole evidence rule, interpretation, performance and breach, conditions, anticipatory breach, remedies for breach, specific performance, damages, restitution and impracticability and frustration. Both the common law and the Uniform Commercial Code are emphasized. The rights and duties of non-parties are covered to the extent possible.

Course Description

This class provides an in-depth study of copyright law, which grants a limited monopoly to authors of creative works, and related state law doctrines such as unfair competition law. The course will focus on the constitutional basis for copyright, the statutory requirements for copyright protection, the scope of rights granted to copyright owners, the elements of a copyright infringement action, related state law claims, and licensing issues related to copyright. Discussion and readings will encompass topics of current interest in copyright law, including the impact of the internet, digital copying capabilities, new technologies, and the information-based economy.

Course Description

Students are assigned to in-house corporate offices of prominent for-profit and not-for-profit entities in and around Rhode Island and southern New England. Students will conduct legal research, write memoranda of law, draft legal documents, and engage in other activities as assigned. Students will be exposed to the various ways in which law is practiced in-house and for corporate clients. The program requires the devotion of substantial amounts of time both in and out of the assigned office and must be taken in conjunction with the Corporate Counsel Seminar. 4 Credits- 180 hours (approx. 2 days/week for 14-weeks)

Course Description

Students are assigned to in-house corporate offices of prominent for-profit and not-for-profit entities in and around Rhode Island and southern New England. Students will conduct legal research, write memoranda of law, draft legal documents, and engage in other activities as assigned. Students will be exposed to the various ways in which law is practiced in-house and for corporate clients. The program requires the devotion of substantial amounts of time both in and out of the assigned office and must be taken in conjunction with the Corporate Counsel Seminar. 6 Credits -270 hours (approx. 3 days/week for 14 weeks)

Course Description

Students are assigned to in-house corporate offices of prominent for-profit and not-for-profit entities in and around Rhode Island and southern New England. Students will conduct legal research, write memoranda of law, draft legal documents, and engage in other activities as assigned. Students will be exposed to the various ways in which law is practiced in-house and for corporate clients. The program requires the devotion of substantial amounts of time both in and out of the assigned office and must be taken in conjunction with the Corporate Counsel Seminar. 8 Credits -360 hours (approx. 5 days/week for 10 weeks) SUMMER SEMESTER ONLY

Course Description

Students are assigned to in-house corporate offices of prominent for-profit and not-for-profit entities in and around Rhode Island and southern New England. Students will conduct legal research, write memoranda of law, draft legal documents, and engage in other activities as assigned. Students will be exposed to the various ways in which law is practiced in-house and for corporate clients. The program requires the devotion of substantial amounts of time both in and out of the assigned office and must be taken in conjunction with the Corporate Counsel Seminar.

Course Description

This course looks at high-profile corporate scandals to understand how deep-rooted conflicts of interest can trigger crimes, and examines the role of scandals in prompting corporate reforms and government regulation intended to improve the practice of corporate governance. We will explore how the response to scandal comprises both market (economic) and non-market (social, political, legal) components.