JD 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.

Refines and strenghthens the written and oral advocacy skils acquired in Appellate Advocacy, and prepares students to represent VLS in extramural moot court competitions.  Successful participants will become members of competing teams and/or members of VLS's Moot Court Advisory Board.

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 undertakes an intensive and comprehensive examination of the constitutional, legal, procedural, and public policy issues surrounding a topic in criminal law. Specific topic varies from year to year and is detailed in the class description

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.

Download the 2013 Summer Course Syllabus

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.

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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 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 negotiation, mediation, and arbitration that constitute the foundation of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) through lecture and simulations.  Examines the different theories and approaches to ADR, as well as the wide range of issues that arise in the selection and application of these dispute resolution techniques.

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.

Download the 2013 Summer Course Syllabus

A discussion of legal rights for nonhuman animals, the sources and characteristics of fundamental rights, why nonhuman animals are presently denied them, why all humans are presently entitled to them, whether they should be available for nonhumans under the common law and, and what strategies are available for obtaining them.

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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.

An advanced international human rights law course in which students engage in research on cutting-edge issues in human rights law and policy for non-governmental organizations and inter-governmental organizations under the supervision of the professor. 

Explores the interface of environmental laws and federal bankruptcy statutes, as well as the tension between the goals of bankruptcy and the goals of environmental law, in particular CERCLA. Topics covered include the rights and obligations of debtors and creditors under the Bankruptcy Code, the discharge of environmental debts in bankruptcy, and the abandonment of contaminated property by the bankruptcy trustee.

Survey of income tax issues of corporations, partnerships, S Corporations, limited liability companies, and their owners arising out of the business entity's formation, operation and liquidation.