Administrative Law Research

Credits: 1
Prerequisite: LAWRS I & II.
Students will study the theory, methodology, and research environment associated with performing administrative law research. The course will focus on both federal and New Jersey administrative research resources. Students will gain hands-on experience in finding and utilizing administrative law resources in both print and online formats. There will be short weekly in-class and take home assignments to help students master the use of relevant research tools. Each student will produce a legal memorandum that addresses and analyzes an administrative law problem

Advanced Legislative Research

Credits: 1 
This one-credit intensive course will be offered during the summer session. Instruction will consist of lectures and direct research over three class days. Students will study the theory and methodology of performing legislative research and compiling legislative histories and learn to use legislative research as a tool for legal advocacy. The course will focus on federal legislative materials as well as legislative documents in New Jersey and New York. Students will gain hands-on experience utilizing the resources of the Rutgers Law Library and the library’s computer labs and examine legislative documents in both print and online formats. Each student will produce a legal memorandum that analyzes the legislative history of a particular statute.

Advanced Topics in Criminal Law Seminar

Credits: 2
This seminar will examine a range of selected issues dealt with only in passing, if at all, in the first-year Criminal Law course. The overarching purpose of the course will be to explore the moral concepts that underlie the substantive criminal law, particularly those of harm, culpability, and wrongfulness. We will deal with issues involving both the “general part” of the criminal law (the part that deals with general rules and principles that apply to some or all of the range of criminal offenses) and its “special part” (the part that identifies and defines the specific offenses that are subject to criminal sanctions). Among the topics dealt with will be the nature and purposes of punishment, the act requirement, omission liability, causation, legality, complicity, inchoate liability, justification, excuse, the codification of criminal law, and various specific offenses such as homicide, rape, and theft.

Advanced Trial Practice

Credits: 2
Prerequisites: Trial Presentation and Evidence.
Advanced Trial Practice will afford students the opportunity to refine their litigation skills and to explore more advanced aspects of trial advocacy, such as jury selection, case theory and strategy, the ways in which jurors process information, working with experts, principles of persuasion, storytelling and narrative, and the use of computers in the courtroom. All students will be involved in weekly in-class simulations. Judges and practicing attorneys will attend classes frequently and speak on different aspects of trials, and will help to critique the students as they do the class exercises.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Credits: 3 
This course introduces law students to the range of dispute resolution processes increasingly in use both within and outside of the courts. These techniques – including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and so-called hybrid processes such as early neutral evaluation, summary jury trials, and mini-trials — have been incorporated into both state and federal court programs and may be available through private providers. Under a recently-adopted New Jersey Court Rule, lawyers are urged to “become familiar with available CDR (Complementary Dispute Resolution) programs and inform their clients of them.”

Anatomy of a Civil Case

Credits: 2
This skills seminar will utilize a semester-long simulation to take the class through all of the practical and strategic aspects of a relatively simple personal injury action.  The class will be divided into teams representing the plaintiffs or defendants throughout the semester.  In these capacities, students will interview their respective clients; draft a complaint or answer; engage in fact investigation, including an inspection of the scene of the accident; work with experts to develop a theory of the case and produce expert reports; conduct and defend a deposition; argue or defend against a motion for summary judgment; engage in settlement negotiations; and conduct an abbreviated trial.

Appellate Advocacy

Credits: 3 
A study of appellate practice and procedure, brief writing, and oral advocacy through both lectures and practical experiences. Each student is given the record of an actual case and is required to prepare a full brief and present an oral argument.

Appellate Advocacy Strategies

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Appellate Advocacy.
This course is an advanced course in appellate advocacy open to second and third year students and those selected for the National Appellate Team. Students will have an opportunity to improve appellate advocacy skills by working on a brief in a mock appellate case, with individual tutorial oversight, and then presenting the oral argument in a mock setting. Aside from the individualized feedback on the brief and oral arguments, an instructional component will address advances strategies for advocacy in the appellate setting, including analyzing the substantive and procedural issues raised by the case and the most effective strategy for advancing your client’s cause, both in writing and at argument.

Civil Litigation Practice and Strategy

Credit: 2
This course will focus on practical aspects of civil litigation tactics and techniques, such as the “how to” of interviewing clients and case evaluations, drafting effective pleadings, obtaining temporary restraining orders and other emergent relief, effective discovery planning, witness preparation, conducting and defending depositions, retaining and using expert witnesses, motion strategy and practice, and more. The course will integrate the study both the Federal and New Jersey Rules of Court governing civil litigation with the practical considerations of using those rules strategically in both the federal and states courts of New Jersey. Instruction will include both lecture and mock skills exercises and will include analysis of the divergence between civil practice in New Jersey Superior Court and the U.S. District Court.

Complex Litigation Practice

Credits: 3
Modern society generates legal problems of a scale and complexity unimaginable to the drafters of the 1938 Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. This course explores the ambitious — and at-times controversial — ways that courts and litigants have responded. The course begins with a review of procedural doctrines such as joinder and preclusion that determine how much "peace" a lawsuit can provide. We then turn to a close study of the most important attempt to scale-up civil procedure to the problems of mass society — the class action. Although the modern class action rule was adopted in 1966, courts continue to grapple with basic questions about the circumstances in which a claim can be litigated on an aggregate basis. After studying the evolution of class action law through the current Supreme Court term, we explore other leading responses to mass harms, including multi-district litigation, informal aggregation, and arbitration. By the course's conclusion, students will gain exposure to some of the most timely issues in civil litigation. Throughout, we will consider litigation strategy, the role of settlement, and the demands complex litigation places on the judiciary. Short written assignments and robust class participation are required.

Consumer Fraud Act Litigation

Credits: 2
This course will focus on the law and practice of consumer fraud litigation in New Jersey, a practice which is important to attorneys practicing at solo and small firms. Students will gain a proficiency in analyzing and initiating consumer fraud cases through a comprehensive examination of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act and associated New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs regulations, as well as other consumer protection statutes, relevant case law and the practical application in the litigation context. The course will also focus on the practice aspects of consumer fraud litigation, through discussion and fact based problem solving exercises geared towards developing the skills needed for assessment and initiation of consumer fraud cases from review and analysis of transaction documents to identify viable claims through to the drafting a complaint.

Contract Drafting & Negotiation

Credits: 2 
Contract drafting and negotiation is one of the most significant and critical functions of an attorney - applicable to both litigators and transactional attorneys. This course will help students develop their contract drafting and negotiation skills. This will be accomplished by contracting drafting assignments, mock negotiations, critique sessions, and classroom lectures. Students will learn both the mechanics and the art of contract drafting and negotiation.

Corporate & Commercial Mediation

Credits: 2
This course will focus on the theory and practice of mediation and will address the legal, ethical, and practical issues that arise during the course of a mediation. It will explore the each stage of a mediation and compare and contrast a mediation with an arbitration or trial and will focus on the skills one must acquire to facilitate a successful conclusion of the mediation. This will satisfy the skills requirement.

Criminal Motion Practice

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Evidence
Criminal Motions Practice will focus on the theory, practice and strategies involving criminal practice in New Jersey. Students will study the New Jersey Rules of Criminal Procedure, prepare pleadings and litigate motions in a mock court setting. Beyond the craft of drafting and oral advocacy, students will develop the strategy of criminal motions – the “why” as well as the “how”.

Criminal Trial Presentation

Credits: 2 
Prerequisite: Evidence.
Practice in preparing for and conducting criminal trials with systematic study of problems of gathering evidence, strategy in planning the trial, order of proof, empaneling a jury, openings to jury, direct and cross-examination, and summations.

Discovery & Pretrial Process

Credits: 2
This is an advanced skills course in civil litigation focused on pretrial proceedings and the strategy and use of discovery. Students will draft discovery devices such as interrogatories, requests for documents and requests for admissions, participate in oral and written exercises, including client interviews, depositions, and arguing discovery disputes, and observe court proceedings and will receive individualized feedback on the performances. In addition, the course will include lectures and readings on relevant topics. Enrollment limited to 14 students.

Electronic Discovery

Credits: 2
The course explores an essential element in modern litigation – the discovery and use of electronic information (emails, databases, and other digital data sources). Recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, as well as changing judicial attitudes toward best practices in this area will be examined. For litigators of the future, basic skill in this area will be critical to success.

Employment Litigation Skills

Credits: 2
Through the use of a hypothetical case, students will engage in the full adjudication process from commencement of a lawsuit to its resolution. At the beginning of the semester, students will be assigned a specific case to adjudicate (either employer or employee side). Students will identify the key issues, develop the case strategy, and be assessed on their ability to execute that strategy throughout the semester including negotiating a settlement if that would serve their client’s best interests. Depending on the decisions made by the lawyering teams, students may have opportunities to represent their clients in simulated negotiation, mediation, state and federal agency proceedings, and in state and federal court. The instructors, as practicing attorneys will offer instruction in practical skills directly related to the progress of the simulation (such as strategic and tactical factors, settlement negotiations, etc.). Some attention will be given to the unique considerations involved in representing public sector employees and employers. Throughout this two credit course, students will have opportunities to craft their strategies and hone their skills.

Evidentiary Issues at Trial

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Evidence. Students who are enrolled in Advanced Trial Practice Seminar may not enroll in this course.
This two and a half-day evidence advocacy program focuses on special evidence issues presented at trial with respect to the legal and presentation issues that commonly arise using business records, photographs, illustrative and demonstrative aids, and summary charts. The program includes a legal and strategy analysis of the evidence advocacy issues presented by specific problems and then participants will offer the exhibits into evidence through relevant witnesses in a simulated trial setting in small group performance workshops. The analysis and performance workshops will be supplemented by a lecture on the effective advocacy with exhibits at trial, using exhibits in the courtroom, the relevant evidentiary and presentation issues presented by the specific exhibits.

Fact Investigation

Credits: 3 
Cases are determined by applying a set of rules or laws to the particular facts of a controversy. In the cases studied in previous courses, facts were provided by appellate courts in their opinions. As a case develops at trial, however, the facts are provided not by the court, but by the attorney. This course explores the process by which factual information is obtained, the manner in which facts shape legal claims, and, in turn, the way in which legal issues shape factual investigation and the presentation of facts at trial.

Foreign, Comparative, & International Legal Research

Credits: 1
As the practice of law becomes increasingly influenced by extra-judicial or extra-national events and organizations, knowledge of foreign, comparative, and international legal research becomes increasingly important. This course introduces upper-class students to the research strategies and resources useful in the study of transnational legal organizations, foreign jurisdictions, and public international law. Upon completing this course, students should be able to identify and evaluate research resources for public international law, the laws of foreign jurisdictions, and legal materials from international and non-governmental organizations.

Intensive Deposition Advocacy

Credits: 1
Prerequisite: Evidence.
Students who have taken Fact Investigation may not enroll in this course.
This three-day deposition program focuses on effectively eliciting relevant information and obtaining admissions through depositions. Participants will enhance their deposition information gathering through frequent opportunities to conduct deposition examinations and defend depositions in a simulated deposition setting, followed by faculty commentary and critique. Strategy sessions will include legal analysis of the issues in the case, developing working theories of the case, planning deposition strategy, and effective use of documents and information previously obtained through discovery. Lectures on several topics relevant to effective depositions will supplement participant performances and faculty critique. The exercises will focus on witness preparation, dealing with preliminary matters, a technique for effectively eliciting complete information from witnesses, using exhibits, dealing with obstreperous opposing counsel, obtaining admissions and theory testing.

Intensive Trial Advocacy

Credits: 2
This skills course will focus on the procedure, strategy, and evidentiary issues involved in presenting a case to a jury, whether in the civil or criminal context. Course will include lectures, discussion workshops, and practical skills workshops in a mock trial setting.

International Alternative Dispute Resolution

Credits: 2
This course will explore the distinctive fora, processes, and law governing alternative dispute resolution in the international context by examining the entire dispute resolution process from beginning to end, i.e., from drafting alternative dispute resolution clauses to enforcement of awards or settlements. The course will focus on these issues in the commercial context. There will also be an emphasis upon different forms of dispute resolution such as mediation and arbitration and the cultural differences of which international practitioners should be aware. Students may be invited to participate in an international mediation competition in the spring semester.

Labor & Employment Arbitration Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar will consider practice and procedure in public and private sector labor arbitration, and mandatory arbitration agreements for non-union employees. The purpose of the seminar is to study the practical and legal aspects of the arbitration process, and to consider the differences between labor arbitration in a union setting, and mandatory arbitration for non-union employees. Among the topics discussed will be: sources of arbitration law, discovery techniques, submission of an issue to arbitration, conduct of the hearing, rules of evidence, burdens of proof, remedies, and the enforcement and vacation of an arbitrator’s award. Each student will be required to attend one actual arbitration and to write a post-hearing brief. Guest lecturers will include a labor arbitrator and a Superior Court Judge.

Labor Negotiations Seminar

Credits: 2 
This seminar will present an overview of the case law in the public and private sectors on negotiations practice and procedure, and a practical application of the law. Students will initially participate in a few short mock negotiations. For the remainder of the semester, students will be broken into teams and will negotiate an actual labor contract. The last day of the semester students will negotiate, as in actual labor negotiations, until a final agreement is reached. Students will each be required to write a memorandum of agreement memorializing the agreement reached. During the semester, students will be required to solve a few short problems regarding scope of negotiations issues that grow out of semester long negotiations. They will be required to research a short legal memorandum for each problem. Guest lecturers will include a mediator and a union and/or management negotiator.

Legislative Advocacy

Credits: 2
Incorporating the law, politics, and communications, this is not your parents' course on how a bill becomes a law. Students will learn the steps, challenges and solutions to passing legislation from an insider's perspective, using a multi-faceted approach that reaches beyond a classical roadmap. Using the New Jersey legislature as a prime focus, this course will provide a hands-on experience in how to draft legislation, work with legislative leadership and committees, involve interest groups, influence public opinion, deal with opponents, and earn the support of officials and staff from across the political spectrum. Speakers will include officials, staff, and other opinion leaders. The course will include at least one visit to the State House in Trenton. The final paper will consist of a proposal for legislation and a plan to get it passed, based on skills taught in the class.

Legislative Drafting

Credits: 2
The course will focus upon the study of statutes generally, with a goal of developing facility in reading and understanding statutes as well as writing them. We will examine the sources from which statutes are often derived, the different kinds of statutes (i.e., criminal, civil, administrative, etc.), current styles in statutory writing, and the parts of a statute and their functions. Students will attempt to write a statute on a subject that presents difficult problems in order to explore the kinds of issue that must be addressed in statutory drafting.

Legislative Research

Credit: 1
Prerequisite: LAWRS I & II.
This intensive course will consist of lectures and direct research over three class days. Students will study the theory and methodology of performing legislative research and compiling legislative histories and learn to use legislative research as a tool for legal advocacy. The course will focus on federal legislative materials as well as legislative documents in New Jersey and New York. Students will gain hands-on experience utilizing the resources of the Rutgers Law Library and the library’s computer labs and examine legislative documents in both print and online formats. Each student will produce a legal memorandum that analyzes the legislative history of a particular statute. This course will be graded Pass/Fail. Enrollment in this course is limited.

Matrimonial Litigation

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Family Law.
This course aims at familiarizing the students with matrimonial litigation practice. Specifically, the students will learn all procedural aspects associated with the commencement of a divorce action and the related pre-trial motion practice necessary to prepare a divorce action for trial. The students will then be taught substantive law in four key areas of New Jersey family practice litigation: equitable distribution, custody, alimony and child support, and attorney’s fees. Finally, each student will be given an opportunity to draft and argue before a New Jersey Superior Court Judge three distinct motions: an application for pendente lite relief, one to enforce court ordered obligations, and an in limine application to address trial related issues.

Mediation

Credits: 2 or 3 (as designated)
Mediation, in which a neutral third party assists people in resolving their disputes, has witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last few years. Many court systems use mediation as a way to settle cases without a trial. Lawyers may urge their clients to try mediation to get better agreements less expensively, without the hostility and aggravation that often accompany litigation. The practice of mediation seems to be on its way to becoming a profession. Even if they do not act as mediators themselves, lawyers may find themselves representing parties in mediation sessions or drafting mediation clauses for contracts. But mediation raises substantial questions about fairness, accuracy, confidentiality, equity, and differences in power: Should it replace the traditional ways of resolving disputes? This course will cover the key skills that mediators should have, using simulated mediations in which students will participate. It will also cover the conceptual issues that should be understood to make sound judgments about the use of mediation. After initial skills training in the course, students may have the opportunity to act as mediators in real disputes, such as those pending in small claims courts, municipal courts, and other venues. Students should have enough flexibility in their schedules to make themselves available for this kind of work. 
 This course may be used to satisfy part of the requirements for the Certificate in Conflict Management. It is designed to follow up in a more intensive way some of the concepts introduced in Alternative Dispute Resolution, and may be of particular interest to students who have taken, or are concurrently taking, that course but Alternative Dispute Resolution is not required.

Negotiations

Credits: 3 
Lawyers may negotiate more than they engage in any other single task. Arranging business deals, setting the terms of employment (both union and non-union), transferring real estate, guiding divorces, setting all kinds of civil litigation, and plea bargaining are all familiar features of lawyers’ work. Good negotiating involves both skill and understanding of what one is doing. This course pays attention to both. Students participate in and critique several simulated negotiation exercises, drawn from varied aspects of legal practice. The course also surveys key modern ideas about negotiation. The last few decades have seen a substantial growth in the breadth and richness of negotiation theory, and the course will pay attention to how theory can usefully inform practice. This course is designed to follow up in a more intensive way some of the concepts introduced in Alternative Dispute Resolution, but Alternative Dispute Resolution is not a prerequisite.

New York Legal Research

Credits: 1
Students will gain an in-depth knowledge of New York State primary and secondary legal materials in both online and print formats. New York legal databases will be explored each week through in-class exercises. New York City legal materials will also be covered. For the final paper, students will produce a five-page annotated bibliography on a substantive area of New York law.

Patent Claim Drafting

Credits: 2
Prerequisite: Patent Law.
This course focuses on the mechanics of drafting patent claims to define the protected scope of an invention. The course covers drafting and analysis of independent and dependent claims, apparatus claims, Markush groups, means-plus-function limitations, method and system claims, and other claim types. Students are given a number of claim drafting homework exercises focusing on simple inventions that persons from any technical discipline should be able to understand, and receive individualized feedback on their claims.

Personal Injury Litigation Skills

Credits: 2
This course will provide an overview of the organization of New Jersey courts, including the Supreme Court. It will examine all stages of personal injury litigation, with emphasis placed on New Jersey practice and procedural law as to pleadings; motion practice; discovery and case management; alternative dispute resolution; trials and adjournments; and dismissals, default and enforcement of judgments.

Policing the City

Credits: 1
This course will study the development, implementation, and practical effects of urban policing strategies in New York City and the surrounding metropolitan area. In August 2013, a federal judge ruled that the New York Police Department's (NYPD) use of the popular urban policing strategy "stop-and-frisk" had violated the constitutional rights of the city's residents (Floyd). In this course, we will study policing innovations, including stop-and-frisk, along with community policing, problem-oriented policing, hot spots policing, third-party policing, and evidence-based policing. The court's rulings in Floyd v. City of New York, along with the resulting remedial efforts by the City and the court-appointed independent monitor and facilitator, will form the raw material for this course. Students will develop critical and practical analytical perspectives on the problems attendant to policing urban areas and the promise of reform and court-ordered remedial efforts.

School Law

Credits: 2
Successful School Law attorneys must have a solid and comprehensive understanding of the present and emerging legal issues impacting schools in New Jersey and across the nation. The specialized legal issues presented in School Law will address cases and concepts that ensure that the District’s policies, procedures, and practices are in conformity with local, State, and federal law and are equitable in their application. Students will receive hands-on experience addressing topics such as student safety and discipline, special education, DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the classroom), tenure and seniority, collective negotiations, and school funding. Students will be inspired to be analytical, insightful School Law attorneys, while guiding and advising clients through the lens of equity and inclusivity.

Transactional Competition Course

Credits: 2
The conventional law school curriculum has traditionally emphasized appellate litigation. Yet, today, it is important to prepare our students not only to argue cases and predict how judges will decide cases, but also to counsel clients engaged in buying and selling businesses and help them manage transactional risks, and to structure and draft agreements. In brief, transactional practice calls for new skills, which cannot be gleaned from casebooks.
This unique innovative Competition was originally developed by Cornell Law School. The seminar consists of two parts. In the first part, students will be taught the basic concepts used in structuring deals, including transaction costs, information, and incentives. There will be nine lectures and guest presentations, where distinguished practitioners will share their experience with the students.
The second part is the Transactional Competition. It will be held at Rutgers Law School on April 7 and 8, 2017. During the Competition, students will work in deal teams. Each team will represent either the Buyer or the Seller in an asset acquisition and will markup an agreement that will be used in buyer-seller negotiations. Judges, experienced practicing attorneys from prominent NY and NJ firms, will review the markups and negotiations, score student performance, and provide feedback to the student-attorneys.
The final grades will include two components. The first component (30% of the final grade) is the grade received by the teams during the Competition. The second part of the final grade (70%) will be based on a 48-hour take-home exam, which will be similar to the transactional documents covered during the Competition. Exams will be available starting on April 10, 2017. All exams are due by April 17, 2017.

Trial Advocacy Strategies

Credits 2
Prerequisite: Evidence and Trial Presentation.
This course is an advanced trial advocacy course open to second and third year students and those selected for the National Appellate Team. Students will have an opportunity to improve trial advocacy skills by preparing and presenting a mock trial. Workshops and exercises will focus on analyzing the case file and developing a trial theory, theme and effective trial strategy, evaluating evidentiary issues and developing a strategic approach to addressing them most effectively to advance the legal theory and trial strategy, conducting persuasive direct and cross examinations that advance the trial strategy and theory, developing and delivering persuasive opening statements and closing arguments, as well as effective use of exhibits to advance the legal theory and trial strategy.

Trial Presentation

Credits: 2 or 3 (as designated)
Prerequisite: Evidence.
Practice in preparing for and conducting trials, including development of trial strategy, opening statements and summations, the making of a trial record, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, and preparation and introduction of exhibits. Intensive classroom exercises will culminate in simulated bench trials, in which students will participate as members of trial teams. In connection with these trials, participant trial teams will be expected to submit trial memoranda of approximately 10-20 pages in length. Each case can be tried in approximately 4-5 hours and each is conducted in one trial day, thereby simulating an actual trial schedule.