JD/MELP Courses

An introduction to accounting and basic business principles for attorneys, including reading annual reports and financial statements, researching the financial structure of corporations and non-profits, and exploring relevant issues such as socially responsible investing.

Provides students with a working knowledge of the general principles of administrative law;  implementation of legislative policy through administrative agencies, including the role of administrative agencies in the governmental process, rulemaking, adjudication, and judicial review of agency actions

This is a rule drafting course.  Students, working the Reporter to the Vermont Supreme Court's Advisory Committees on procedural rules, will draft proposed amendments to sets of Vermont Rules , with explanatory notes. Students will participate in the judicial rulemaking process by orally presenting their drafts to the appropriate Advisory Committee, which will ultimately propose a restyled set of Rules to the Court.

This seminar provides an opportunity to explore emerging issues in dispute resolution through research and writing. The goal is to produce a publishable quality article. 

This seminar provides students an opportunity to produce a significant written paper based on sophisticated research and thinking about a key area in energy policy and law. Seminar topics include proposals for reducing the economic and environmental costs of meeting energy needs. Efforts to reduce costs through more efficient delivery and end-use are assessed, with specific attention to the statutory, regulatory, and contractual techniques for creating sound incentives.

Provides in-depth exposure to the most useful, efficient strategies and resources for environmental law research, including highly specialized information databases, advanced administrative law research, legislative history, and environmental news/updating services.

Provides in-depth exposure to the most useful, efficient strategies and resources for environmental law research, including highly specialized information databases, advanced administrative law research, legislative history, and environmental news/updating services.

Provides in-depth exposure to the most useful research strategies and resources for researching international, comparative and foreign law competently.  The goal of the seminar is to produce a research guide on an international, foreign, or comparative law topic.

Land use development and management practices can have significant impacts on the conservation of biodiversity, yet land use is not systematically regulated to address those impacts.  Instead, a mosaic of intersecting legal institutions regulate private land use through federal laws (e.g. the Endangered Species Act, wetlands regulation under the Clean Water Act) state laws (e.g., growth management systems, environmental impact assessment requirements) local regulation (e.g. general plans, subdivision regulations, zoning ordinances) and private actions (e.g. conservation easements).  This writing seminar examines the intersection of advanced forms of land use regulation in the context of an in-depth student investigation of a significant biodiversity conservation challenge.  Reading focuses on (1) the relationship between local, state, and federal regulation, and (2) the relationship between public regulation and private means of conserving biodiversity.  Each student will select a case study of a conservation effort involving land use that involves multiple regulatory actors and multiple laws.  Students will review regulatory and easement documents, interview regulators, community participants and developers, produce a written case-study, and prepare present the case to the class.

Skills-development course designed to provide students with the analytical, test-taking, writing, and study skills that are critical to students' success on the bar exam and in the practice of law.  The course consists of an intensive substantive and analytical review of major multistate bar exam subjects and of numerous writing and practice assignments.  .

This seminar focuses on statutory law including legislative history, administrative law, municipal law, and case law as well as secondary sources not covered in the introductory research course. The seminar will review specialized resources for topics such as international law, tax law, and interdisciplinary research. 

Prepares students for legal research in various work settings by teaching advanced "practice oriented" skills as well as exposing students to new resources they are likely to encounter after graduating.  While the course gives students a chance to explore highly specialized databases on Lexis and WestlawNext, the course focuses on cost effective alternatives to Lexis and Westlaw such as FastCase, CaseMaker, BloombergLaw and others.

An overview of the environmental impacts of agriculture, U.S. agricultural policy, the Farm Bill, genetically modified crops, organic farming certification, and international trade and environmental agreements that influence agricultural practices in the U.S.

An exploration of the major programs and regulatory strategies embodied in the Clean Air Act that are used to address conventional air pollution, toxic air pollution, and greenhouse gas pollution. 

This course presents the theory and practice of arbitration, negotiation, mediation and other processes placed under the umbrella of alternative dispute resolution. This survey course focuses on the theory and practice of dispute resolution as either an alternative or an addition to formal litigation. Students will study the legal, sociological, and ethical issues in dispute resolution and apply them in simulation exercises designed to explore the three major types of alternative dispute resolution.

A historical approach to questions about American identity that have arisen regularly in the history of the Constitution.  Are we a single people, or an uneasy gathering of different cultural groups? One republic, or a confederation? What are American values? Is a secular government appropriate, or should the American constitution reflect the spirituality of its people? The laws concerning citizenship and human rights are a record of answers given at different times.

This course addresses the fundamental crisis in which growing energy demands are threatening the buffering capacity of our global atmosphere, while also producing the greatest emissions of most primary pollutants, and the struggle to identify and create the legal elements necessary to promote and ensure solutions.

An exercise in appellate brief writing and oral argument using a case pending before the United States Supreme Court.  Classes focus on the appellate process, complex research and analysis, preparation of briefs, critical writing skills, and oral argument.

Examines the nature of the arbitration process, rules governing hearings, the relationship between arbitration and the court system, the enforceability of agreements to arbitrate,  and judicial review of arbitration award.  This course also explores the controversial areas of arbitration such as requiring arbitration in employment and consumer contracts. 

This seminar invites the student to consider the way in which argument (or rhetoric) can operate as a transformative force in culture. It proceeds upon a critical reading of the great works of Western Civilization, inviting the student to ask critically what implication these works have for one's legal education and practice.