Second and Third Year Courses

Current Curricular Offerings (by subject area)

Clinics and Experiential

This course is a limited extension of a clinical experience at the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic based on factors such as the nature of litigation engaged in by the student in the prior semester.

Pre-requisites: General Practice Clinic-LAW 663, and permission from the instructor.

Offered: Every Year

Externships offer second-year and third-year students the opportunity to gain legal experience and receive feedback on their work from seasoned professionals with guidance and support from a faculty member. Externship students earn 6 academic credits and spend approximately 18 hours per week over the course of the semester at their placements, and also participate in a mandatory course, which runs contemporaneously.

Pre-requisites: All placements require the successful completion of all first-year courses, as well as good academic standing. Some placements also require eligibility for certification as a student attorney or specific coursework.

Only students who have been selected for an externship may register for this course and students may only drop with approval from the Externship Program Director.

Offered: Every Year

This course is designed for students who want to have the broadest possible clinical experience. Each student is admitted to practice in Maine courts as a “student attorney,” and will maintain an active case load of four to eight cases, which may include general civil, family, probate, appellate, or criminal cases. The course is practice- and skill-oriented, covering client counseling, ethics, investigation, pre-trial practice, negotiation, document drafting, trial experience, and appeals. You will learn how to be a lawyer, and how to interact with other lawyers, the courts and clients. Students will work with the close supervision and mentoring of a faculty supervisor. Along with regular work on cases, students also participate in a weekly one-hour seminar to discuss ongoing cases, ethical issues, lawyering skills, and other topics.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the strategies and practical skills necessary to advocate effectively for public policy reform. Students will learn to think beyond litigation and other traditional legal strategies to solve problems and meet societal goals. Students will be required to identify and define a problem that speaks to a pressing systemic racial, economic, or social injustice in the community, which could be addressed through a change in law, regulation, ordinance, or other public policy.

Working individually and in small groups, students will learn and practice key skills to advocate for a policy solution. Students will gain an understanding of the varied strategies involved in developing and advancing a public policy reform as well as the particular skills and tactics required to engage in those strategies. Students will learn how to employ equity-based criteria for policy development, conduct a landscape analysis of decision-makers and influencers, determine a strategy for change, and implement the tactics necessary to carry out that strategy. Specific skills covered include “power mapping”; drafting legislative and/or regulatory proposals, policy papers and reports; locating, evaluating, and using social science research and data; lobbying elected officials; preparing and delivering written and oral testimony; working in coalitions; and developing an external communications plan and targeted messaging. Students will also explore how coalition building, grassroots organizing, and public policy advocacy are used to enhance more traditional legal strategies.

In addition to learning the strategies and skills to advance a policy change, students will gain an understanding of the broader context for influencing law and public policy and the possible roles lawyers can play in change efforts. The goal of the course is to help students become effective advocates and allies for social change as well as good lawyers.

This course serves as both a foundation for and complement to students’ client work in a Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic course, as they will learn specific skills and strategies for serving their clients now and throughout their legal careers. The course gives students an opportunity to dig deeply into the key aspects of lawyering, develop and hone skills through simulations and role playing, work on specific aspects of their current cases, give and receive peer feedback and support, engage in critical reflection, among other activities. During the course the students will learn the specific skills and competencies related the following aspects of lawyering, among others:

professional relationships and communication
developing a meaningful and effective attorney-client relationship
developing and cultivating a cultural humility framework to explore and learn from the perspectives of clients, peers, and instructors in the Clinic
developing key professional and leadership skills for an attorney, including time management, receiving and giving feedback, and deep listening
using narrative theory for persuasion
client interviewing
case theory
fact investigation
negotiation
client counseling
trauma-informed lawyering
trial advocacy
reflection and developing a professional identity
identifying and managing ethical issues

Student must be enrolled for the first time in a Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic class, (General Practice Clinic, Juvenile Justice Clinic, Prisoner Assistance Clinic, or Refugee and Human Rights Clinic) each of which has enrollment caps.

Offered: Every Year

Mediation Practicum provides students with the opportunity to learn and practice mediation skills. Mediation is an important form of dispute resolution in Maine and many other jurisdictions both in legal and non-legal disputes. In the Mediation Practicum, students learn basic skills of mediating and go to the courthouse to mediate Small Claims cases in Maine District Court (with supervision). In class meetings, students also analyze their mediation experiences and discuss best practices and ethical challenges for mediators.

Enrollment is limited to 6 students, selected by lottery.

Offered: Every Other Year

This course provides students with extensive opportunities to serve clients on a wide range of civil matters, such as family law, trust and probate, contracts, insurance, consumer rights, wages, and any other civil legal issue that might arise. Students enrolled in this clinic are admitted to practice in Maine courts as student attorneys and provide the full range of civil legal services to prisoners in the Maine prison system. Students go to the Maine Correctional Center or Southern Maine Reentry Center (both located in Windham) each week to meet with prisoners seeking legal help. On a few occasions prisoners in other facilities are assisted through telephone and written correspondence. The legal services provided by students can range from answering questions and providing assistance with completion and filing of legal forms to full representation in court proceedings (including trials and appeals). Since the level of representation varies, students in the Prisoner Assistance Clinic will have between six and ten cases at any given time. We do not provide assistance on criminal, post-conviction or prisoners’ rights matters in this program. Along with regular work with with the faculty supervisor on cases, students also participate in a weekly one-hour case rounds meeting to discuss cases.

Students must have completed at least three semesters of law school to enroll.

Pre-Requisites: Evidence (LAW 644), Trial Practice (LAW 650) [or Trial Advocacy and Evidence (Law 755)], and Professional Responsibility (LAW 632).

Co-Requisite: Lawyering Skills for Clinical Practice (Law 667) is a co-requisite for all students enrolling in a clinical course for the first time. Students must have completed at least three semesters of law school to enroll.

Enrollment is by lottery.

Offered: Every Year

The Refugee and Human Rights Clinic provides an exciting opportunity for students to advocate on behalf of low-income immigrants in a broad range of cases and projects. Clients include, for example, asylum applicants who have fled human rights abuses in their home countries and are seeking refuge in the United States, immigrant survivors of domestic violence, immigrant victims of certain crimes, and abandoned or abused children seeking legal status in the United States. Under faculty supervision, student attorneys not only develop their substantive knowledge of immigration law and human rights laws and norms but they also build core legal skills relevant to the general practice of law. Students’ clinical work includes interviewing clients and witnesses and preparing their testimony, conducting factual and legal investigation and marshaling of evidence, analyzing and presenting human rights documentation, developing case strategies, writing legal briefs, appearing in administrative hearings, and participating in human rights advocacy projects. Along with regular work with the faculty supervisor on the cases, students also participate in a weekly one-hour seminar to discuss ongoing cases, ethical issues, lawyering skills, and substantive and practical aspects of immigration law.

The Rural Practice Clinic (RPC) is an immersive clinic located in Fort Kent, Maine, where the students will live and work for the semester. The RPC provides students the opportunity to provide direct representation to low-income clients in need of legal assistance in a rural setting– in other words, to practice law. While Clinic faculty provide instruction and supervision, the students are, in every respect, the lawyers for the RPC’s clients. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theory, conduct discovery, negotiate outcomes with opposing parties and counsel, prepare cases for court, and handle hearings, trials and other contested evidentiary proceedings. Students represent clients in matters involving a broad range of issues at the trial level including: family, criminal, civil, guardianship, constitutional, administrative, consumer, and probate law.

Another significant component of the RPC is Case Rounds, student-led classes modeled after “rounds” in the medical setting which will provide you with opportunities to learn from and support other students. In each rounds, one or more students will present a particular case (generally one in which a challenge of some kind has arisen) to the group, and all students discuss the case and help the student develop a plan. RPC students will participate in Case Rounds via Zoom with the Portland-based clinical students.

In addition to traditional clinic experiences, RPC students will present to the community and students at the University of Maine at Fort Kent (UMFK) on a variety legal topics, participate in educational outreach and assistance activities at the courthouse, act as Lawyer of the Day in Fort Kent and Madawaska District Courts, and represent clients in jury trials should the opportunities present themselves. RPC students will live in a suite on the UMFK campus at no cost to them. Fall and spring students will be provided a meal plan. Students will have access to a wide variety of outdoor recreational activities, from Nordic and Alpine skiing to canoeing, biking, and hiking. Most importantly, students will get to experience working with a tight-knit group of lawyers, clerks, and judges on a regular basis while developing their own voices and roles within the community.

Offered: Occasionally

Business, Commercial, Tax

This collaborative course, developed and presented jointly by Professors Harkins and Kaufman, will give law students and graduate business students working together hands-on experience in how transactional lawyers and business professionals approach, analyze, identify and resolve issues arising in a pending business transaction — in this case, a business acquisition financed with both debt and equity components. During the course, students will examine not only substantive legal and business issues presented by the transaction, but also process. Not just the “why” of the transaction, but the “how.”

Topics will include transactional risk assessment and management, transaction structure, valuation fundamentals, and key steps in the transacting process.

Using hypothetical situations based on actual situations, this course will offer students a hands-on journey through a variety of important commercial law transactions that are regularly encountered in today’s business world, including commercial financing arrangements, secured transactions, letters of credit, commercial guarantees, personal property sales and leases, and – time permitting – checks and electronic funds transfers, warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. Students will gain experience in the various tasks that lawyers representing parties in these transactions typically undertake and in the preparation and negotiation of relevant commercial transaction documents. In addition, students will see firsthand how transactional lawyers can apply principles of commercial law to the process to make it more likely that their clients will realize their objectives in entering into the transaction.

This course examines the control of private economic power through government enforcement and private damage suits under the Sherman and Clayton Acts. The topics considered include legal and economic concepts of monopoly power and monopolization; collaboration among competitors to restrain trade by fixing prices, allocating markets or customers, or by other conduct with the same effects; vertical relationships among firms at different levels of production that operate to restrain trade; and horizontal, vertical and conglomerate mergers.

This course will focus on federal bankruptcy law and practice. Coverage will include the study of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, as applied to business and consumer cases. The public policy issues implicated by the bankruptcy system will also be examined. A business bankruptcy case simulation will be used to teach the capstone module of the course.

This course reviews principles of agency and the essentials of partnership, limited partnership, and the limited liability company. The primary focus of the course is the legal framework for the governance of the modern corporation. Topics considered include choice of organization, distribution of powers, fiduciary duties, questions of corporate governance, the special problems of closely held corporations, the regulation of securities transactions, mergers, acquisitions, and takeovers.

This course will examine selected legal topics not addressed – or addressed only at an introductory level – in Business Associations regarding the formation, organization, operation, and capitalization of the principal forms of business associations used today, including partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and for-profit business corporations. The content of the course may vary from year to year depending on the instructor and the matters previously covered in Business Associations. However, topics will likely include an examination of customary organizational, and related operational documents for the various forms of business enterprises; issues arising in connection with the issuance of stock, and other ownership interests, dividends and distributions; an enterprise’s redemption or repurchase of its shares or other ownership interests; valuation of a corporate or other business enterprise; the rights and remedies of preferred shareholders, bond holders and others who hold debt (convertible or other senior securities); mergers, acquisitions and other fundamental transactions; the securities regulation process and the exemptions therefrom; and the rights and liabilities of purchasers and sellers of securities.

Cannabis Law & Policy covers a spectrum of legal considerations that affect cannabis businesses and the policy driving the legal status of cannabis. It includes the policy reasons behind federal illegality and states’ growing acceptance of cannabis; constitutional considerations around federal law and state laws; the federal, state, and local legal issues that cannabis businesses must consider; and the lawyer’s ethical considerations in assisting cannabis businesses.

This course provides an integrated examination of sales of goods and secured transactions as governed by Articles 2 and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code and related bodies of law, including Articles 1, 2A, 3, 5 and 8 of the Uniform Commercial Code and the federal Bankruptcy Code. Commercial law in general – and sales of goods and secured transactions in particular – provide the legal foundation for our economic system, and virtually all lawyers (regardless of practice concentration, and including both litigators and transactional practitioners) will encounter these matters in their practices (both for themselves and on behalf of their clients).

Students taking the course will learn not only the substantive law upon which these transactions are based, but also the commercial and transactional context and vocabulary relevant to these transactions and the role that transactional lawyers play in planning and executing them. Stressing careful statutory analysis and problem solving, we will analyze issues that arise in these transactions from a multitude of perspectives, including those of the buyer, the seller, their creditors and third parties. Additionally, we will examine more modern concepts of contract formation in the age of electronic commerce. The format of this class will be problem and transactional based, providing a more hands-on and practical approach to applying the UCC provisions. Finally, we will consider the impact of bankruptcy on these transactions.

This course examines the social and environmental obligations, if any, imposed on corporations beyond pure profit maximization. Milton Friedman famously wrote that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,” and, indeed, a course in the law of business associations likely reinforces the commitment to profit-maximization as a legal obligation as well. However, as evidenced by the development of new corporate forms (such as the “benefit corporation”) and the policies of Fortune 500 companies, the recent trend has been towards a recognition a broader corporate purpose in law and practice.
This course will examine corporate social responsibility, with a particular focus on sustainability and the environment. The course begins with the question of whether such a responsibility exists, drawing on potential legal, ethical, and societal sources. We will then turn to how corporations can meet their environmental obligations, or fail to, under existing law. Looking at what has already been done by some of the “best” actors, we will ultimately aim to determine the proper role for corporate governance in the pursuit of a healthier climate system and planet as a whole.

Economic development takes many forms in a wide range of settings. This course focuses on the domestic policy and practice of development in disadvantaged urban and rural communities, with attention to enterprise organization, finance transactions, and creative use of the law. We will work through a series of problems that require application of lawyering skills in simulated private sector transactions and in related public policy challenges. This work implicates corporate law and alternative enterprise forms, as well as federal tax law such as New Markets Tax Credits, the Low Income Housing Credit, and charitable exemptions and constraints.

This course provides an introduction to the law of employee benefits. We will examine federal regulation of employer-sponsored benefit plans with respect to retirement and health care, and the underlying public policy issues. From time to time, we will discuss related topics such as profit-sharing plans, cafeteria plans, family and medical leave, executive compensation, workers’ compensation law, and collective bargaining. This inquiry necessarily implicates reference to selected provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code. Class discussion will be supplemented with selected problem sets and simulations in class. In the context of an employee stock ownership (ESOP) transaction and other workplace settings, we will explore ERISA “qualified plan” operation and administration, employer obligations and fiduciary duties, and rights and responsibilities of employees. In addition to participation in classroom discussions, students will be required to produce several short writing projects during the semester, with the option to expand one assignment into a full-length term paper to satisfy the upper level writing requirement and earn a third credit.

This course will cover issues related to employment from hiring to firing. It will provide an overview of the statutory, constitutional, and common law rules that regulate employment relationship. We will cover a variety of topics, focusing on the at-will employment doctrine, wrongful discharge, employment discrimination based on race, sex, age, religion, disability, harassment, retaliation, covenants not to compete, unemployment insurance, employee privacy, workplace freedom, wages and hours regulation, and some other topics. We will also spend significant time discussing issues that commonly arise in employment litigation and client counseling.

The course examines the goals of the U.S. health care system, which is designed to provide high-quality, affordable, and accessible health care. We will explore the regulation of health care professionals and institutions. The course will also discuss the contract, tort, and administrative law issues that come up in cases of informed consent, liability, malpractice, and end-of-life care. The course will also examine legal efforts to make health care affordable and accessible. We will study the regulation of both public and private insurance systems and use basic insurance principles to explore this area of law. Health law is complex for many reasons, including because it involves the interactions of state and federal statutes (and regulations) with longstanding principles of contract and tort law. The intersections between state and federal statutes and policies are also challenging. The 2010 Affordable Care Act will of course be a focus of the course.

Information privacy is one of today’s critical legal subjects. The rapid pace of technology development has raised far-reaching questions about the future of privacy. The role of law is central to answering many of these questions. In the past few decades, many new laws have been passed, hundreds of cases have been decided, and fascinating new issues have arisen. This class is designed to provide you with an introduction to the study of information privacy law and to equip you with the broad issue-spotting and other practical skills needed to navigate the complex array of legal, business, and public policy issues in this area. Students in this class will be eligible to take the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) exam following completion of the course.

This course is designed to cover the “how” of being a privacy lawyer, including the ethics challenges confronted by in-house privacy counsel serving roles like Chief Privacy Officer and Data Protection Officer. Students will develop practical skills using real world problems in the information privacy and cybersecurity areas. Pragmatic guidance will be provided from experienced in-house and outside privacy counsel. Students will assume the roles of lawyers to perform tasks in hypothetical situations. The goal is to give students the chance to integrate legal theory, practical skills and ethics while engaging in a number of professional skills in a classroom setting.

Case studies will be drawn from various real world examples such as: Cambridge Analytica/Facebook, Equifax data breach and compliance with GDPR to form the basis for a number of different exercises. The exercises will focus on key areas of privacy and cybersecurity legal practice. By way of example, such exercises might focus on the following topics:

Privacy impact assessments – providing advice with respect to when and how to use them, how to go about completing them, tools available for completing assessments and how to utilize the results of the assessment, including action steps to take based on the assessment.

Commercial transactions between parties involving the transfer and handling of personal information – drafting and negotiating contract provisions (from the perspective of both parties) that address privacy and data security concerns (e.g. Data processing agreements) and the related regulatory and other risks associated with handling personal information.

Data breach notification – providing end to end advice to a business that is the victim of a data breach, beginning with the initial notification of the security incident, working with the IT and forensics teams to figure out what happened and how to contain the incident, determining whether there are any breach notification obligations, crafting the breach notification letter, responding to regulatory inquiries and enforcement actions, crafting notice of claim to insurance carriers of third party providers that may be at fault, pursuing insurance claims, defending and bringing litigations, and negotiating resolution of such claims and disputes.

This course focuses on the essential role of insurance as an institution in the United States. Substantively, the course focuses on insurance contract interpretation, regulation, and various types of insurance including liability, health, life, and disability insurance. The course will deal with both theoretical issues involving the law and policy of insurance and with practical issues such as how to read insurance contracts. The role of insurance in litigation will receive particular emphasis.

This course provides a broad survey of the three main branches of intellectual property law, namely trademark, copyright, and patent law. We will explore the similarities and differences among these varied systems of intellectual property protection, as well as examine the challenges brought about by new technologies. This course provides a foundation for advanced intellectual property courses but is also appropriate for students who seek only a general understanding of intellectual property law. A science or technical background is not necessary.

This class examines an attorney’s role in internal and regulatory investigations which take place when an institution has engaged in, or is suspected of engaging in, wrongdoing or misconduct. In these investigations, attorneys must make a number of strategic decisions about how to conduct the investigation, how to fix any identified gaps in internal controls, whether individual employees require discipline, whether to draft a report of any findings and, ultimately, whether to cooperate with regulators. The execution of the internal investigation requires attorneys to have a variety of skills, including selecting and interviewing witnesses; gathering, reviewing and evaluating evidence; drafting reports and memoranda. Regulatory investigations also require lawyers to prepare witnesses for testimony and negotiate document requests and settlements with regulators. Using investigative reports, Department of Justice and SEC memoranda, and case law, this course is intended to develop those skills and explore the many difficult decisions attorneys must make in the course of these investigations, including conflicts with witnesses; whether and how to cooperate with regulators; attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine waiver issues; the potential collateral consequences to the institution’s business and reputation; and the collateral consequences of employee discipline, civil litigation and regulatory investigations.

This course focuses on three aspects of the law of international trade. First, the basic elements of transnational commercial transactions will be examined. Second, the GATT and various other multinational trade agreements will be considered and discussed. Finally, United States domestic trade legislation will be reviewed and compared to approaches taken by other countries. If time permits, a number of discrete issues in international trade will be considered, including the transfer and protection of technology, the regulation of foreign investment, and the resolution of international commercial disputes.

This course provides a broad survey of the numerous issues arising from the rapid growth of the Internet and other online communications. We will explore whether the application of existing legal rules to new technologies is appropriate or if completely novel approaches are necessary when dealing with problems that arise in cyberspace. Topics to be examined include jurisdiction, the domain name system, regulation of online service providers and digital content creators, freedom of speech as well as privacy.

Negotiation is explored in two ways: readings are assigned on interpersonal communication skills, bargaining theory, and negotiating techniques; and a series of problems assigned which students negotiate. The negotiations are critiqued. A wide range of the types of negotiations in which lawyers participate will be examined in the course. Students in the course will develop a conceptual understanding of the theory behind the negotiation process and practice the skills needed to apply their knowledge.

This course explores nonprofit corporations and related organizational forms of nonprofit enterprise. We examine state corporate law and federal tax law affecting the nonprofit sector, with attention to formation and dissolution, operation and governance, tax exemption, political and commercial activity, and regulatory constraints. We also compare nonprofit corporations with government, for-profit, and limited equity entities and identify public policy arguments for tax exemption and other differential treatment of nonprofit organizations. Class discussion is supplemented with selected problem sets and simulations in class, and students are required to produce several short writing projects during the semester.

Federal income taxation of partners and partnerships (and other business entities such as limited liability companies that are treated as partnerships for tax purposes) is governed by a tax regime that is separate and distinct from those that govern the taxation of individuals (Taxation I) and corporations and their shareholders (Taxation II). The course focuses on various aspects of this unique tax regime including the considerations that affect choice of entity and qualification as a partnership, and the tax consequences to the partnership and its partners in connection with the formation, operation and termination of a partnership, the sale of partnership interests and property, distributions from the partnership to its members and allocations of income, losses, deductions and credits.

This course examines the major issues of the substantive patent law of the United States. Topics include patentable subject matter, utility, novelty, statutory bars, priority of invention, non-obviousness, scope and content of the prior art, disclosure and enablement, reissue and reexamination, infringement, misuse, remedies, and the relationship between trade secret and patent law. The process for obtaining a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office will not be covered in depth, but there will be an introduction to this process.

This course is concerned with the acquisition, financing, development, operation, and disposition of real estate. The course provides an introduction to the essential material that a lawyer needs for participation in sophisticated real estate practice, including relevant doctrines and principles of the law of contracts, property, conveyance, mortgages, and leases. Attention is also devoted to financing techniques for the acquisition and development of real estate.

Issues of risk management and compliance are attracting increasing focus and attention throughout society and legal practice. Government regulation and regulatory oversight, industry-based codes of ethics, and standards of social responsibility and conduct all have been proliferating in recent years. These developments raise many issues for lawyers. This course will explore the law and practice relevant to these issues, principally from a transactional lawyer’s perspective. After a general introduction to risk and risk management, we will address a number of specific topics such as the reputational, operational and enterprise implications of risk, the transactional lawyer’s role in helping clients develop and manage appropriate and effective risk management and compliance programs, the tools available to the transactional lawyer to identify and help manage risks in the client’s transactions and business operations, and the transactional lawyer as “whistle blower” or “gate keeper.” Finally, we will examine the transactional lawyer’s own management of the risks she or he encounters in client representation (including the “bad actor” client, conflicts of interest, engagement letters and advance waivers, theories of attorney liability, transactional legal opinions, audit letter responses, and dealing with wayward partners and associates). We will use actual case studies to supplement our discussions.

Business start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures present a unique set of legal and business problems and challenges both to the principals undertaking them and to their lawyers and other advisors. The success of these ventures relies heavily on building a world-class team around the founders where the totality of those working to move the startup forward have a common language and goals. Building these ventures requires not only substantive expertise, but also emotional intelligence, an understanding of the risks, goals and personalities involved, and capacity for counseling and guiding the parties on an often wildly unpredictable journey. This course, taught collaboratively by Professors Harkins and Kaufman and including both law and MBA students, will examine these issues through these various lenses.

Topics will include case and client management, business plans, basic financial literacy, entity selection, capital formation (including the unique types, sources and roles of start-up and entrepreneurial financing), operational challenges, intellectual property identification and protection, and the roles of lawyers and other advisors in representing start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Taxation I is a basic federal income tax course dealing with taxation of the individual. It covers the questions of what income is, what expenses are deductible, when such income and deductions are realized or allowed, at what rates the income is taxed, and whether income can be assigned to another. Both policy and practical concerns will be discussed.

A study of the taxation of corporations (including S corporations) and their shareholders, with principal emphasis on the tax consequences of forming, operating, terminating, and selling an interest in a corporation, as well as some exploration of issues arising when one corporation acquires another corporation.

This course is designed for students who intend to practice tax law, whether in tax planning or in tax controversy work. The course will develop the student’s proficiency in conducting tax research, and will cover major aspects of federal tax practice and procedure that are of importance to tax counsel (i.e., from properly characterizing a transaction on a tax return to defending the transaction in an IRS audit and court). Topics include: Advising tax return positions and preparing returns; IRS audits; administrative resolution of tax disputes; tax litigation and settlement of tax cases; civil tax penalties and interest on underpayments and overpayments; administrative and judicial collection procedures; criminal tax investigation and prosecution; and special ethical issues in tax practice. Students will develop important practical lawyering skills by engaging in several research and drafting exercises, such as a tax opinion letter, a private letter ruling request, an IRS administrative appeals protest letter, a Tax Court petition, and an Offer-in-Compromise.

This course explores the tax consequences of creating, acquiring, exploiting, and transferring various intellectual property (IP) assets (including patents, trade secrets, know how, copyrights, trademarks, and computer software) in both domestic and international transactions. The course also explores popular tax-planning strategies used in connection with IP (e.g., the use of domestic and foreign IP holding subsidiaries) and raises interesting tax policy questions. Valuation of IP, the use of IP by non-profit organizations, and special business and estate planning considerations involving IP are also addressed.

This course offers students an introduction to acquiring and protecting trademarks. Students learn how to counsel clients on what may serve as a proper trademark, how to register a mark with the state and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the nature of an infringement lawsuit, and defending trademarks against domain name “cybersquatters” in US courts and through international arbitration systems. This course is designed to give students a practical rather than theoretical view of trademark law and as such frequently incorporates local practitioners in delivering course materials and answering students’ questions.

This course will introduce students to the lawyer’s role in transactional practice and provide practical experience in the dynamics of a corporate “deal.” Students will examine a hypothetical, Maine-based transaction that includes a business acquisition component, a financing component, and an equity component. Students will “represent” the various parties to the transaction and work through the required tasks and challenges to bring the transaction to fruition, resulting with a “closing” at the end of the course. Deliverables will include negotiated “deal documents” and other related closing items. The course will meet twice per week in 1-1/2 hour sessions. Focus of the sessions will alternate between an examination of the substantive issues and their practical application in a “deal” context.

“History and application of general workers’ compensation principals, relationship to personal injury negligence and strict liability law, and general common tort law. Compare and contrast alternative WC statutory schemes for indemnifying injured workers. Discuss public policy issues of maintaining WC remedies in light of employer cost containment and risk management, changing industrial landscape from manufacturing to service economy.

Course will focus primarily upon Professor Larson seminal treatises and materials. We will be cross-referencing Maine law to provide hands-on understanding of how to initiate and defend WC claim/case.”

Constitutional Law and Civil Rights

Animal Law is a rapidly developing area of law and one which demonstrates the challenges of regulating and mediating the complex and sometimes mystifying relationship between humans and nonhuman animals. Tasked with questions such as whether depictions of animal cruelty are protected by free speech; how to regulate massive factory farms; why the Animal Welfare Act exempts so many laboratory animals used in experiments; whether it is proper to bait black bears with buckets of human treats; how to deal with wild horses or your neighbor’s bees; or whether dogs and cats may inherit millions of dollars, Animal Law attempts to balance interests and find workable solutions to problems that range from neighbor disputes and veterinary care to some of the most critical problems facing our species, such as stewardship of our planet, food insecurity, and the moral question of who can be a rights-holder. This course will cover selected topics in the field, including recent thinking about animal intelligence, using animals for research, food, and entertainment, animal activism, and animals as companions.

This course focuses on the enforcement of federal constitutional rights against state officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The substantive topics we will cover include police misconduct claims under the Fourth Amendment and prisoner litigation under the Eighth Amendment. We will also address the major jurisdictional and procedural obstacles to relief, including the immunities of governments and their officers from suit. Students will gain a practical understanding of civil rights litigation strategies as well as have opportunities to develop lawyering skills through hands-on exercises.

This course will focus on the investigative phase of criminal proceedings. We will examine the law that governs police conduct, including search and seizure, arrest, and interrogation of suspects. The class will emphasize the interplay between abstract constitutional principles as interpreted by the courts and law enforcement on the street.

This course will explore professional issues involved in representing elderly clients as well as key statutes and regulations of particular importance to seniors. Topics of study will include, among other things, ethical issues in representing elders; age discrimination; income maintenance and the social security system; access to health care and the role of Medicare and Medicaid; senior housing (including nursing home and assisted living issues); advance planning and guardianship; and elder abuse and neglect. Particular attention will be paid to the impact that cognitive and physical impairments can have on legal rights and the ability to exercise those rights.

Transforming federal constitutional rights from paper to reality is no easy task. Constitutional rights do not enforce themselves; there is a complex enforcement system of federal courts and state courts. How this federal system of courts functions and why it functions in these ways is at the core of the course. Understanding this system is a prerequisite to operating within it to conduct constitutional litigation.

A number of thorny questions are addressed. Must the constitutional issue initially be raised in state court or may it be raised initially in federal court? If the former, when may the state court judgment be reviewed directly by the Supreme Court or by a lower federal court on habeas corpus? If the latter, what is the basis of federal court jurisdiction? Does the federal plaintiff sue the state by name or a state officer? What remedies may be granted? Closely associated with these enforcement questions is the question of whether a federal constitutional right should be recognized at all or the matter should be left to state law.

The course approached these questions historically. As constitutional rights have changed over time, so too have their enforcement system. Thus it aids understanding to adopt a historical perspective.

The emphasis of this seminar will be on the body of federal law that defines the relationship between Native Americans and the federal and state governments.

The United States grants a broader right of freedom of speech than other Western Democracies. The first part of this course will examine the cases and underlying theories of free speech in American Constitutional Law. The second part of the course will examine the development of the Equal Protection Clause since World War II. Race, gender, and other forms of discrimination will be analyzed.

This course surveys the legal, historical, and political considerations that shape U.S. immigration law. The course will review the constitutional basis for regulating immigration into the United States, and, to some extent, the constitutional rights of non-citizens in the country; the contours of the immigration bureaucracy, including the roles played by various federal agencies in immigration decisions; the admission of non-immigrants (i.e., temporary visitors) and immigrants into the U.S.; the deportation and exclusion of non-immigrants and immigrants; refugee and asylum law; administrative and judicial review; citizenship and naturalization; undocumented migration; and comprehensive immigration reform.

This is a research seminar in international human rights law. It covers the fundamentals of the international human rights system, including standards and drafting, human rights treaties, fact-finding and reporting, non-state actors, complaint procedures, charter-based procedures, women’s human rights, refugee and asylum law, humanitarian intervention, regional human rights systems, domestic remedies, and special problems in human rights such as cultural relativism, capacity building and accountability.

Juvenile Law is a non-traditional course blending lecture and discussion with a significant skills component. This course will examine the procedural and substantive parameters on juvenile courts and the court’s authority to intervene in children’s lives. We will analyze issues in juvenile justice in the broader context of youth policy, developmental psychology, and the legal status of children.

This course provides an introduction to American legal history. This course begins by considering the general question of what is history, and, more specifically, what is legal history. It then looks at the ways legal history is used (and/or abused) in contemporary legal discourse and considers the use of historical analysis more generally. The course then considers the English and colonial background to American legal history. The course then moves on to consider the development of public and private law during the antebellum period. The third part of the course considers public and private law during post-Civil War America.

Although barely touched upon in many law school courses, states and local governments play an important role in our everyday lives. They enjoy substantial law-making power; are responsible for financing and providing many public goods and services; and are the location of a great deal of political participation. This course will examine the theory behind and sources of local government power as well as the advantages and disadvantages of decentralized decision-making. Specific topics include: voting rights, local government formation and boundary change, state-local relations and local home rule, interlocal conflicts, school finance reform, and regional governance.

Students examine several basic and interrelated questions. First, what political and moral assumptions are implicit in American conceptions of legal rights? Second, in an age of skepticism, can fundamental legal rights be justified? Finally, is there a method to legal thought, or were the legal realists correct in asserting that the law depends upon what the judge ate for breakfast?

Constitutional law in the U.S. (based on both the federal and state constitutions) has played active roles in framing issues related to race, gender, and sexual orientation and legal equality in the last sixty years. The course will examine cultural ideas and constitutional theories that relate to civil rights litigation of various types related to these categories. The course will also analyze critiques of those ideas and theories, and consider alternative viewpoints.

The unique challenges associated with regulating speech platforms online deserves more attention. This course will focus on US law and speech online, the jurisdictional issues arising from the internet’s global structure, the ramifications of democratic culture on the internet and the seismic shift in how society communicates ideas, and the First Amendment’s role in contributing to the diversity of all we see and do online today.

The class will be organized into five sections:

Limits on Governmental Regulation of Social Media (e.g., Reno case, NetChoice cases, Thomas concurrence in Knight Institute, Google v. AG Hood cases; Equustek case, Ford trade secret case);

Is the Internet actually a “place”, and how law should apply “there” (e.g., Marsh case, Prager U. v. YouTube case, Halleck case, Internet Brand/Model Mayhem case, Snap’s Speedfilter case, Baidu case, McManus case, Oberdorf Dog Leash case)

Responsibilities of Speakers Online (e.g., O’Kroley case, Stayart case, e-Ventures case, MLB case, Tabari case)

Regulating Hate Speech (e.g., Brandenburg case, Black anti-cross burning case, Revenge Porn case, Packingham sex offender case, Facebook Oversight Board and private regulation)

Recent developments in the Rest of the World (e.g., NetzDG in Germany, Digital Services Act)”

This course explores various aspects of election law by focusing on judicial and legislative regulation of the political and electoral process. We will examine constitutional and statutory law of voting rights in the United States and ways in which the law has shaped the structure of American political participation. We will begin with an overview of the restrictions on the right to vote, ranging from residency requirements to discrimination on the basis of sex and race to the recently enacted Voter ID laws. We will also cover the major Supreme Court cases on topics like reapportionment/redistricting, ballot access, regulation of political parties, campaign finance, popular democracy, judicial elections, term limits, and election administration (and the legacy of the Bush v. Gore litigation).

Criminal Law

A growing number of lawyers market themselves as appellate specialists. This course aims to interest students in the appellate specialty; provide an overview of the different types of appeals and appellate rules of procedure; and provide a forum to practice written and oral appellate advocacy.

Students will ghost write at least two appellate pleadings in pending cases, litigated contemporaneously with the course offering in state and/or federal court. The course also will simulate client management skills and students will have the opportunity to practice oral arguments. In the process, students will learn a variety of fungible skills, e.g. how to evaluate strategic litigation choices and how to communicate those choices to the client; how to work with “good” and “bad” facts; how to best frame the legal questions presented by the case; and how to appropriately confront the ethical issues that routinely confront courtroom lawyers.

At the conclusion of the course, students should feel comfortable independently prosecuting a direct appeal in state or federal court. Students should also pass any question about the Maine Rules of Appellate Procedure on the Maine Bar Exam.

This course is designed for students with a strong interest in pursuing a career in criminal law. Each week students examine one area of criminal law, for example: the intersection of technology and privacy; the supposed militarization of the civilian police force; the prevalence of “junk” science in criminal cases; capital punishment; the legalization, prosecution, and sentencing of drug crimes, etc. Throughout the term, students will have several opportunities to draft the sorts of legal documents and pleadings that criminal lawyers typically file. The overall course goal is to encourage future prosecutors and defense attorneys to think critically about the issues they will encounter in practice and to provide a forum for a lively discussion of hopefully diverse viewpoints.

At the heart of the criminal process is discretionary decision-making by prosecutors and defense counsel. The prosecutor has vast, unreviewable power over the charging decision. But with that power comes the responsibility to evaluate the truthfulness of potential testimony by cooperating witnesses, police officers, law enforcement experts, and alleged victims. Law by agreement of the prosecutor and defense counsel is the “law” that settles more than 90 percent of criminal cases, and the most important advocacy of defense counsel is often directed to the prosecutor. Before plea bargaining, the lawyers must evaluate everything that has gone before, such as the results of formal and informal discovery, the amount of time served pending trial, and the likelihood of conviction and of a particular sentence. Mutual trust between prosecutors and defense counsel, or its lack, significantly influences the functioning of the criminal process. Having identified the powers of prosecutors and defense counsel, the course attempts an extended inquiry onto how these powers should be exercised.

This course provides: (1) an orientation to the key rules, concepts, and controversies concerning the presentation and admission of evidence in criminal and civil trials; and (2) an introduction to the specific skills used by attorneys in litigation as proponents and opponents of evidence. Specifically, we will examine: the overall structure of trials; how evidentiary disputes are raised and resolved; the examination and impeachment of witnesses; relevance; character evidence; hearsay; and opinion testimony. The goal is to gain a solid grounding in the key rules, concepts, and controversies to enable you to use the rules strategically and effectively in your own cases (whether in Trial Practice, a clinical or externship course, or your practice), to critically evaluate the evidence rules and their application, and to understand how the rules operate in conjunction with substantive law (i.e. criminal law, tort law, etc.). Accordingly, we will study not only the rules’ explicit requirements and prohibitions but also the policy goals and assumptions underlying the rules. The Federal Rules of Evidence will be our primary focus for the course; however, you are also responsible for learning some important distinctions between the Federal and Maine Rules of Evidence.

Environmental, Energy, Land Use, and Oceans

Much of the world’s commerce moves by water. The admiralty law intersects with domestic civil law at many points, including defining the rights of seamen, passengers, certain landside workers, ship responsibilities, cargo rights, and insurance. The same admiralty framework extends to the fishing industry and pleasure vessels in many instances. This course surveys general principles of admiralty and maritime law in its many applications.

Students will acquire a fundamental knowledge of Arctic law and science coupled with applied skills in field research compliance. The course will begin with an in-depth study of the Arctic including regional challenges of climate change, commerce and geopolitics. The remainder of the course will entail working with University of Maine scientists (the clients) to prepare an Arctic field expedition to Greenland. Students will review proposed field projects to identify plausible risks and mitigation means. They will determine regulatory requirements including, inter alia, necessary permitting, Government of Greenland regulations, National Science Foundation guidelines, University of Maine Office of General Council directives, the Arctic Science Agreement and related treaties. Students will draft a comprehensive field manual for responsible research in the Arctic. This course may be applied as an elective for the Environmental and Oceans Law Certificate. In addition to class meetings, students must expect to devote at least four hours and forty minutes out of class.

In Climate Change, we are confronted with the defining policy challenge of our generation. Every institution of power, whether it be a national government or a corporate board of directors, must decide how to respond to it. The aim of this course is to inform the leaders who will guide those climate change policy decisions. We will build from an understanding of the fundamental facts of climate change, and its potentially devastating impacts, to the study of the tools available to governmental and non-governmental actors for climate mitigation and adaptation. The course will focus on not only the legal mechanisms targeted at climate change (laws, regulations, litigation), but also on the perhaps equally important measures taken by corporations and other private actors. We will discuss what can, what will, and what should be done.

Mark Twain observed “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” What we understand as climate is the sum total of weather as it evolves day upon day. Weather hazards, such as hurricanes and heatwaves, or persistent unusual weather over time, such as diminished rainfall leading to drought, are climate extremes. It is now understood that many climate extremes are increasing in frequency and intensity with accelerating climate change. When people and property are vulnerable to these hazards, a disaster can result, but meteorological science has devised sophisticated predictive and analytical tools that provide advance warning. The tools are global and thus intersect with international law at every stage of the extreme climate event—prior, during and post. This class will place students at the center of climate and law operations and debates in the experiential learning venue of the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

This course will examine corporate social responsibility, with a particular focus on sustainability and the environment. The course begins with the question of whether such a responsibility exists, drawing on potential legal, ethical, and societal sources. We will then turn to how corporations can meet their environmental obligations, or fail to, under existing law. Looking at what has already been done by some of the “best” actors, we will ultimately aim to determine the proper role for corporate governance in the pursuit of a healthier climate system and planet as a whole.

Our modern civilization increasingly is dependent upon energy, yet over 80% of the energy consumed in the U.S. and world is from fossil fuels—which account for the lion’s share of greenhouse gas emissions that are the primary cause of climate change. Climate change has become the subject of major economic, political and scientific concern and debate, with direct impact upon energy law and policy—as well as growing economic, health and social impacts in Maine. Which is creating growing opportunities for work for attorneys and those trained in the law, especially given goals set by the Governor of Maine, and by other States. This course is a practical introduction to the three pillars of energy—electricity, hearing, and transportation—and to evolving energy technologies and initiatives being pursued. It will also introduce students to some of the key Maine business and professional leaders in these fields, as well as develop and strengthen their oral and written advocacy skills.

The course will introduce students to the broad and deep field of Environmental Law. Environmental Law is practiced at the local, statewide, national, and (increasingly) international level. It contains elements of energy law, natural resources law, and land use law. It also crosses disciplinary lines with science and engineering, business and finance, and public policy. The course will introduce students to five of the major federal environmental statutes and regulations and the case law that interprets them. The five statutes are the Clean Air Act; the Clean Water Act; the National Environmental Policy Act; the Endangered Species Act; and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (a/k/a as the Superfund Law). In addition, we will briefly introduce students to several other of the three dozen or more extensive federal statutes addressing environmental issues.

This is a hands-on, experiential skills building course. Increasingly, attorneys who litigate are doing so not before judges or juries, but before regulatory bodies or officers—for example, on issues of planning and zoning, unemployment/social security benefits, environmental permitting, tax review, and asylum to name just a few. The art of advocating for clients in a regulatory arena has differences from a courtroom—oftentimes the adjudicators are laypeople, the rules of evidence do not apply, there may be no discovery, and one must master varying (by agency) procedural rules. This course will begin with an overview of the administrative adjudicatory process, with a primary focus upon Maine law, and then an overview of the relevant environmental law and regulations relating to development projects. As a “practicum” students will develop necessary practical lawyering skills by engaging in a variety of written and oral advocacy exercises using a Maine wind power project simulation; you will be representing the developer in one class, the next class representing the opponents. You will draft and orally present to classmates a client memo, op-ed, and a recommended decision on the project. You also will do an expert witness exercise, present an opening or closing argument, and address ethical issues. There are no examinations, no books to buy.

A seminar providing law students the opportunity to teach a formal course in Environmental Law to undergraduate nonlaw students. Enrollment initially limited to two University of Maine School of Law students for the 2022-2023 academic year. The Maine Law student teachers will be conjoined for the 2022-23 academic year with 10 law student teachers from Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard Law Schools in the BCLS4450-01 Law-Teaching Program Seminar. The intention is to have the program seminar continue thereafter based at the University of Maine School of Law. Under the professor’s direction, two-person teams of law students are trained for the teaching program during the Fall semester in six extensive working sessions plus simulation exercises. They then teach, with faculty status, a Spring semester course in the structures and doctrines of environmental protection law, within an undergraduate curriculum. The initial year’s undergraduate teaching placement for the Maine Law teachers will be within the curriculum of the Center for Sustainable Leadership at St. Joseph’s College of Maine, Standish, Maine. In the program, each team-teaching pair is assigned an enrolled course section comprising fifteen to thirty-five undergraduate students registered for the course, from a variety of undergraduate departments. A weekly law school seminar in the Spring semester coordinates the course preparation, the classroom teaching, and the processes of evaluating their students’ work and assigning grades.

This course examines how land use is regulated and controlled. It begins by discussing why and when government regulation, rather than private market ordering, might be necessary to control land use and development patterns. It considers different regulatory and market-based tools that are available to control land use, including flexibility devices such as transferable development rights, contract zoning, and planned unit development. It then explores land use from the perspective of a project proponent, or developer. It examines the rights that an owner of land has if a particular land use regulation is inefficient, unfairly burdensome, unfairly disruptive of the owner’s settled expectations, or an infringement upon the owner’s civil liberties. The course then looks at land use issues from the other side, examining the rights of those who oppose the landowner’s plans (these project opponents are often neighbors). Finally, the course focuses on particular problems that plague the land use regulatory system, such as exclusionary zoning, the equitable distribution of undesirable land uses, sprawl, and smart growth.

This seminar explores claims to the seas as asserted by states and other actors. The theme is how such claims are shaping, and will shape, the contemporary world public order of the oceans. The seminar covers principally three categories of ocean claims: (1) Claims related to maritime navigation posed by state and non-state actors; (2) Claims related to maritime sovereignty and boundaries; (3) Claims to assert jurisdiction over maritime zones under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Within these categories the following topics will be covered: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), marine wildlife, maritime ports, baseline determination, maritime zones, the arctic, shipping, international straits, the regime of islands, piracy and counter-piracy, the Gulf of Maine, and the South China Sea. Our shipping law meeting will be held at Eimskip, the Icelandic shipping firm operating from the Portland container port. During several sessions we will interact via teleconference with a Maritime Law Class in Hong Kong.

This course surveys the laws governing the ownership, conservation, exploitation, and preservation of renewable and non-renewable natural resources, including wildlife, fisheries, wilderness, parks, water, forests, and energy. It examines the constitutional, historical, political, and economic underpinnings of natural resources law and the means by which public policies are formulated, implemented, challenged, and revised.

This course examines the world public order of the oceans from the classical origins of the law of the sea to the post-September 11, 2001 security environment. It will appraise contemporary oceans law and policy including the goals and common interests of the world community and the United States including Maine. A framework for analysis of contemporary oceans law problems and claims will be considered before proceeding to a detailed appraisal of specialized topics. Subjects covered include sources of oceans law, United States oceans policy, the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, maritime navigation, maritime zones, coastal law and policy, land-locked and geographically disadvantaged states, fisheries, straddling stocks and highly migratory species, weapons testing, the continental margin, protection of the marine environment, marine scientific research, maritime boundary delimitation, deep seabed mining, national security and international incidents, polar and exploration claims, settlement of disputes, and the future of oceans policy.

Family Law, Trusts & Estates, and Elder Law

This course focuses upon basic legal issues relating to marriage, family, and the termination of marriage. One segment of the course emphasizes jurisprudential and constitutional issues underpinning the institutions of marriage and family. A second segment emphasizes major doctrinal developments, including the laws of marital property, support, and child custody.

This seminar will provide an in-depth examination of a number of today’s most salient family law issues. Early in the semester, each student, after consulting with the professor, will select a modern family law issue about which the student will become the “class expert.” Each student will then prepare materials for and lead a one-hour class session on the legal issue the student has chosen. In addition, each student will write a substantial paper on a topic that falls within their chosen modern family law issue. A wide variety of topics are available to students, including: adoption and the foster care system, assisted reproduction, non-marital relationship recognition, divorce mediation, intra-family violence and abuse, how family law addresses issues related to race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion, and more. Finally, prior to each class, students will submit an informal, two-page reflection paper in which they respond to the materials assigned for the day. Grading is based upon class participation, weekly reflection papers, and a substantial scholarly paper on a topic of the student’s choice.

This course examines the law of gratuitous transfers and decedents’ estates. Topics to be considered are intestate succession, wills, trusts, and problems of construction. Special attention is given to the Uniform Probate Code.

Government and Regulation

Recently, there has been an explosion of legal battles involving efforts to undo old regulations and laws, as well as over how statutes and regulations should be interpreted. Moreover, today the vast majority of attorneys who litigate are doing so not before judges or juries, but before regulatory bodies or non-judicial officers without the Rules of Evidence or Civil Procedure, and that have special standards for issues like standing and finality. The American Bar Association estimates that 65 to 70 percent of the practice of adjudication actually occurs in an administrative setting, rather than a courtroom.

This course will first review the fundamental principles of and tools for interpretation of statutes and regulations. We then examine work that federal and state agencies do, the procedures they utilize, and the ways in which the political judicial branches seek to control administrative actions. Students will undertake practical exercises on relevant issues throughout the semester to best develop their oral and written advocacy skills, and to better learn and remember the legislative and regulatory doctrines. Maine Law alums who practice in a variety of regulated areas of law will share their insights with students. The goal is to better enable students to address issues in their other courses, as well as in any jobs they pursue.

This is a skills building course. Increasingly, attorneys who litigate are doing so not before judges or juries, but before regulatory bodies or officers—for example, on issues of planning and zoning, unemployment/social security/workers compensation benefits, environmental permitting, property tax review, and asylum to name just a few. And while this course will sharpen the skills of anyone who wants to do trial work, unlike trial practice the art of advocating for clients in a regulatory arena has differences—oftentimes the adjudicators are laypeople, the rules of evidence do not apply, there may be no discovery, and one must master varying (by agency) procedural rules. This course will begin with a review of the administrative adjudicatory process, with a primary focus upon Maine law, but as a “practicum” will involve the supervised practical application of administrative and environmental law concepts. Students will develop necessary practical lawyering skills by engaging in a variety of written and oral advocacy exercises using a wind power project simulation. You will draft and orally present to classmates a client memo, op-ed, and a recommended decision on the project. Students will also conduct a short direct or cross-examination of expert witnesses, present an opening or closing argument, and address ethical issues.

This course will provide law students with an introductory overview of research law and regulations including such topics as: clinical trials, animal and human subject research, researcher misconduct, conflicts of interest, data management, privacy law, export controls, field study permitting and foreign influence in research. The course will introduce the students to relevant federal law, regulations and case law. Students will gain a basic understanding of how funded research is developed and conducted at most institutions in the United States along with some exposure to international research. The individual classes will include reviewing relevant case studies and interactive exercises such as roleplaying. This will be supplemented by classroom lectures, both by the instructor and an occasional guest speaker, such as an attorney practicing in the field.

Finally, the students will be introduced to specific resources, certifications and organizations, providing them with the necessary tools to pursue an alternative legal career in a rapidly growing field. The USM Office of Research Integrity and Outreach (ORIO) works with the Law School’s Career Services to house multiple law interns. Several previous interns have gained employment in this field of law after graduation. In the last decade multiple Maine Law graduates have gone on to careers in research law and compliance.

Health and Bioethics

International, Human Rights, and Comparative Law

As its name would suggest, comparative law is not so much the study of any particular body of law as it is a study of what role the law plays in different cultures and societies and how culture, history, and economics in turn shape the law. This course will therefore take a detailed look at law as it is practiced in Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and elsewhere, with an emphasis on comparing and contrasting the civil-law and common-law traditions. Topics will include differences in legal education, the role of the legal profession, the judicial system, and societal attitudes toward these institutions. The course will also take a look at globalization and efforts at harmonization, as well movements toward “counter-harmonization” and areas of law that resist harmonization. The course will be graded primarily on class participation and a final written paper of law review length.

The course examines the principles used by the courts in choosing the law applicable to events and transactions having contacts with more than one jurisdiction. It also examines the reach of a jurisdiction’s domestic law, rules for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, and limits on jurisdiction to adjudicate in both interstate and international settings. Methods of harmonizing differing rules and policies in multi-jurisdictional transactions are considered.

The emphasis of this seminar will be on the body of federal law that defines the relationship between Native Americans and the federal and state governments.

This is a foundation course in public international law that is primarily, though not exclusively, concerned with legal relations among states and public entities in the global system. The course explores the dynamics by which international law is made and applied by appraising trends and outcomes in international decision bearing on problems of world public order. The goal is to equip students to understand why past decisions were made, to devise methods for predicting future decisions, to develop methods for inventing decision alternatives both at the structural or constitutive level, and to identify the conceptions and skills necessary for influencing future decisions in the range of arenas in which international law is made and applied: parliamentary, diplomatic, judicial, and arbitral in national and international settings. Topics covered include: origins of international law, sources of international law, establishment and transformation of states and other actors, state recognition, diplomatic protection, jurisdiction, international courts and tribunals, international organizations, international human rights, resort to and use of force, nation-building, the regulation of international agreements, sovereign immunity, and enforcement of foreign judgments.

IP and Information Privacy

This course examines the nature of the rights protected under federal copyright law and the types of work that qualify for protection, including literary, artistic, and musical works. This course also covers copyright duration, ownership, formalities, remedies for infringement, and principles of international protection. The Copyright Act of 1976 as amended forms the core statutory material covered by the course.

This course provides an introduction to cybersecurity law, with a focus on the nuts and bolts of how
lawyers assist organizations with managing cybersecurity risk, including regulatory compliance and
response to data security incidents. It is designed to help students develop the research, analytical
and practical skills necessary to deal with the technical and legal issues that may arise in connection
with a data security incident, including data breach notification, regulatory investigations and
enforcement, and litigation.

This course will use real world case studies, including a ransomware attack and the exfiltration of
sensitive data from an organization involving exploitation of a network vulnerability, to illustrate and
to teach some of the key technology fundamentals that lawyers need to understand to be able to work
effectively with technical experts to assess the legal implications arising from cybersecurity
incidents.

Because of the multidisciplinary nature of practice in the cybersecurity law area, the course will
incorporate certain technical, business, and public policy content which will be drawn from my
consultation and collaboration with selected faculty in several other schools and programs at the
University of Maine. The course content also will be supplemented by several guest lectures from
faculty in the Cybersecurity Program at UMA and the School of Computing and Information Science
at UMO.

Privacy impact assessments — providing advice with respect to when and how to use them, how to go about completing them, tools available for completing assessments and how to utilize the results of the assessment, including action steps to take based on the assessment.

Commercial transactions between parties involving the transfer and handling of personal information — drafting and negotiating contract provisions (from the perspective of both parties) that address privacy and data security concerns (e.g. Data processing agreements) and the related regulatory and other risks associated with handling personal information.

Data breach notification — providing end to end advice to a business that is the victim of a data breach, beginning with the initial notification of the security incident, working with the IT and forensics teams to figure out what happened and how to contain the incident, determining whether there are any breach notification obligations, crafting the breach notification letter, responding to regulatory inquiries and enforcement actions, crafting notice of claim to insurance carriers of third party providers that may be at fault, pursuing insurance claims, defending and bringing litigations, and negotiating resolution of such claims and disputes.

The class will be organized into five sections:

Limits on Governmental Regulation of Social Media (e.g., Reno case, NetChoice cases, Thomas concurrence in Knight Institute, Google v. AG Hood cases; Equustek case, Ford trade secret case);

Responsibilities of Speakers Online (e.g., O’Kroley case, Stayart case, e-Ventures case, MLB case, Tabari case)

Regulating Hate Speech (e.g., Brandenburg case, Black anti-cross burning case, Revenge Porn case, Packingham sex offender case, Facebook Oversight Board and private regulation)

Recent developments in the Rest of the World (e.g., NetzDG in Germany, Digital Services Act)

Litigation and Judiciary

This course considers alternative dispute resolution (ADR) as an important tool for the resolution of civil actions and family matters as well as disputes outside the judicial arena. ADR processes (including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluation, and hybrid processes) are examined in a theoretical context and through in-class exercises/simulations.

This course will focus on issues that frequently emerge in complex civil litigation, with a focus on class actions. Building on the foundations students have attained in their first-year civil procedure classes, the first portion of the course will cover the theories underlying class actions, the applicable rules and statutes, and the practical aspects of litigating a class action, including identifying a class and properly drafting a complaint, litigating certification, and managing class settlement. There will be an emphasis on recent developments in class action jurisprudence, an area which is constantly evolving in federal courts. The second portion of the course will examine the rise of arbitration agreements as a mechanism utilized by the defense bar to combat class actions, as well as the techniques advanced by the plaintiff’s bar to contest such agreements. Student evaluation will be based on written assignments; there will be no final examination.

The Mediation Practicum provides students with the opportunity to learn and practice mediation skills. Mediation is an important form of dispute resolution in Maine and many other jurisdictions both in legal and non-legal disputes. In the Mediation Practicum, students learn basic skills of mediating and go to the courthouse to mediate Small Claims cases in Maine District Court (with supervision). In class meetings, students also analyze their mediation experiences and discuss best practices and ethical challenges for mediators.

This course is offered to students who have completed Legal Research and Writing I and II (or the equivalent for transfer students) and who are selected through an open competition at the beginning of each fall semester. During the spring semester, selected students participate in an extramural moot court competition against teams from other law schools by writing an appellate brief and orally arguing both sides of it at the competition. Students may compete during their 2L or 3L year, or both.

The course will expose students to pre-trial practice and procedure through materials and exercises fashioned to familiarize them with civil proceedings’ procedural landscape, including, but not limited to drafting and responding to initial pleading interlocutory, and dispositive motions. In addition, students will learn effective use of available discovery devices and other important aspects of the pre-trial process.

This course examines the major provisions of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, common law, and statutory law that regulates lawyers’ conduct. We will also consider the policy underpinnings for the rules, the role of a lawyer in today’s society, and ethics issues likely to be encountered by students during their careers as lawyers. The problem-based approach this course uses is designed to encourage thoughtful discussion of ethical issues in law practice.

Successful completion of Professional Responsibility is required for graduation.

The study of judicial remedies focuses on the legal, equitable and restitutionary relief available for breach of contract, breach of duty in tort, violation of statute, unjust enrichment and other causes of action, as well as on the limits of such relief. The approach of this course combines the theoretical with the practical in exploring the social values that inform remedial principles as well as the nuts and bolts of remedies practice in federal and state court.

Trial Evidence and Advocacy is a 6-credit, integrated course that will both teach students the Federal and Maine Rules of Evidence and how to apply them in practical, experiential exercises based upon simulated adjudicatory proceedings. The combination of subjects will enable students to immediately put into practice the concepts they are learning, and to better remember the rules of evidence and advocacy principles. Because 65-70% of adjudication actually occurs in an administrative setting, rather than a courtroom, and people are ten times more likely to be tried by an agency than by a court, this course will train students to be effective advocates in whatever forum their future clients find themselves. Thus, students will learn the basic skills that are necessary to be an effective advocate whether involved in a jury or non-jury trial, or in an adjudicatory hearing before an agency or board.

Students will learn how to develop both a “theme” and “theory” for their client, and learn to how to make proper opening and closing statements, conduct direct and cross-examinations of witnesses, and how to properly present and object to evidence, including expert testimony. Faculty will utilize simulations, role-playing, demonstrations, and individual evaluation and feedback. At the end of the semester, students will try both a Bench Trial and a Jury Trial, which serve to bring together all the elements of a trial in simulated settings.

This class is designed to help you develop (1) a working knowledge of the FRE and MRE; (2) an ability to quickly and accurately solve evidentiary problems; (3) knowledge and understanding of key cases that discuss and analyze the FRE; (4) an understanding of the theory, purpose, goals, and implications of the FRE and MRE; and (5) the ability to both prepare and present persuasive, focused and compelling oral and written communication of your issues, regardless of whether you are representing the moving party or defendant, and regardless of whether your audience is a trial judge, jury, administrative law judge, or other tribunal.

Open to third-year students, with selection based on performance in the basic Trial Practice course and a competitive try-out process including a performance component, this course will involve development of trial advocacy skills and their application in preparing for the National Mock Trial competition.

This course offers the opportunity to develop the basic skills necessary to conduct a trial, including developing a case theory and theme, opening statements, direct and cross-examinations of witnesses, use of exhibits, evidentiary objections, and closing arguments. The study of trial techniques is primarily through use of simulations, role-playing, demonstrations, and individual evaluation and feedback.

History and application of general workers’ compensation principals, relationship to personal injury negligence and strict liability law, and general common tort law. Compare and contrast alternative WC statutory schemes for indemnifying injured workers. Discuss public policy issues of maintaining WC remedies in light of employer cost containment and risk management, changing industrial landscape from manufacturing to service economy.

Research, Writing, and Legal Practice

This course is designed to prepare law students to conduct effective legal research in any setting; while working on a scholarly article or paper, or working as a judicial clerk, as a practitioner in a firm, government, or solo practice. Students will learn about the development of legal research tools and how to evaluate print and electronic resources for currency, authority, comprehensiveness, and utility. By the end of the course, students should be familiar with the entire universe of legal resources, be confident when using online sources, and be able to conduct professional-level legal research in any field, on any legal topic. The course will be divided into two major segments: a lecture and discussion section and a practical “lab” meeting in the library. During these lab sessions the students will use the resources discussed in the lecture portion of the course to conduct hands-on research using traditional print resources as well as electronic resources. Grades will be based on a combination of class participation, research assignments, and two larger writing assignments: a website review and a pathfinder on a topic of the students’ choosing.

Externships offer second-year and third-year students the opportunity to gain legal experience and receive feedback on their work from seasoned professionals with guidance and support from a faculty member. Externship students earn 6 academic credits, spend approximately 18 hours per week over the course of the semester at their placements, and also participate in a mandatory course, which runs contemporaneously.

Prerequisites: All placements require the successful completion of all first-year courses as well as good academic standing. Some placements also require eligibility for certification as a student attorney or specific coursework.

This course provides students with an intensive strategies review for the three parts of the Uniform Bar Exam – the Multistate Performance Test, the Multistate Essay Exam and the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). The course will include a focused review of these three parts with several scored assignments to gauge essay writing and performance test performance. It will also overlay multiple-choice diagnostic performance on the MBE so students can appreciate the scoring nuances of the bar exam and get a sense of their own relative strengths in either essay writing or multiple-choice test taking environments. The goal of the course is to enhance student ability to prepare for the essay and performance test portion of the bar exam as well as understand the role of developing baseline skills in effectively engaging with the multiple-choice component of the bar exam. These skills serve as a springboard to further intense review for the exam. The course is intended to supplement and precede, not replace, commercial bar preparation offered outside of the Maine Law curriculum.

Upper-class students may form a group under the guidance of a professor for the purpose of studying an area of the law that is not the subject of a currently-offered course. Group studies may not be composed of fewer than four or more than fourteen students. Such groups must be approved by the Curriculum Committee at least four weeks prior to the beginning of the semester. The members of the group must conduct weekly meetings and each member must submit an individual paper at the end of the semester.

On occasion an upper-class student may wish to pursue independent study, leading toward a paper of publishable quality, in an area not covered by a previous paper or the student’s upper level writing paper, or participation in Law Review, Ocean & Coastal Law Journal, or Moot Court. If the student secures faculty supervision and the approval of the Dean, two course credits may be given. Among the factors which the Dean will consider are whether the study and the resultant paper will be of substantial educational value and whether the study will not be duplicative of the student’s other efforts. In exceptional circumstances the Dean may approve the granting of one credit for reworking a previous paper toward publication.

The Independent Writing course is an independent study course where students, in consultation with a faculty adviser, complete a major research paper. Successful completion of the Independent Writing course satisfies the Upper Level Writing requirement, which is a requirement for graduation.

The Law Review provides students with an invaluable two-year research, editing, and writing experience that allows each to explore in-depth a legal issue of particular interest. Recent editions have contained student notes examining diverse issues of Maine law, such as the enforceability of local food ordinances, gestational surrogacy contracts, and the extent to which Miranda applies to matter-of-fact-communications with arrestees. Membership on the Law Review is by invitation based on academic performance and writing skills. The Law Review’s staff and board members usually total a combined 29 students. In general, the top six students from the rising second-year class are invited to join the Law Review based on their academic performance, leaving 9 membership positions available for those individuals who are selected after participating in an extensive summer writing competition.

This course will assist students in reinforcing fundamental skills in legal analysis and legal writing. Using the law from various substantive areas, students will complete a series of in-class and take-home writing exercises throughout the semester. In addition, students will meet individually with the professor to discuss assignments, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and develop strategies for enhancing their lawyering skills.

Open to those selected as third-year legal writing instructors.

The Ocean and Coastal Law Journal (OCLJ) is dedicated to facilitating discourse on legal issues related to domestic and international use of the sea and seashores. OCLJ provides two years of research, writing, and editing experience to its student editors, who are required to produce a comment or two case notes of publishable quality on an ocean or coastal issue during their second year. In addition to fulfilling their writing requirement, student editors become familiar with current issues in the field of ocean and coastal law while carefully editing works accepted for publication. Generally, OCLJ will select ten (10) rising second year students to join the Journal each year. Five (5) of these positions are awarded based on first-year academic performance alone, while the other five (5) are selected based on the write-on competition held each summer after the end of students’ first year.

The Student Journal of Information Privacy Law (SJIPL) is dedicating to publishing student-authored scholarship on the topic of information privacy law. Published papers may be written by students at Maine Law or solicited from students at other schools. The SJIPL publishes three categories of papers: (a) shorter-form commentary blog posts; (b) papers written by Maine Law students to satisfy their Information Privacy Law Certificate requirement; and (c) traditional law journal articles, in paginated volumes published online. Student editors will gain experience researching, writing, and editing papers about information privacy law. Membership on the journal is by invitation based in part on students’ commitments to the study of information privacy law. As the SJIPL is new, the number of students selected to join the journal and the specific process for joining will vary over the next few semesters. The SJIPL’s executive board will make an announcement with more detail on applying for membership on the journal around the time when registration opens up.

Taxation

The course is an examination of problems arising in the inter vivos and testamentary disposition of estates, including the tax problems of such disposition, the use of the trust and other methods for disposition of estates, and problems of drafting. The course emphasizes a problem oriented approach. Trusts and Estates (LAW 695), Estate and Gift Taxation (LAW 678), and Taxation I (LAW 649) are prerequisites, except by permission of the instructor.

Current Curricular Offerings (by subject area)

Clinics and Experiential

Advanced Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic – LAW 718

Externship – LAW 690

General Practice Clinic – LAW 663

Impact Lawyering: A Practicum for Social Justice Reform – LAW 721

Lawyering Skills for Clinical Practice – LAW 667

Mediation Practicum – LAW 665

Prisoner Assistance Clinic – LAW 712

Refugee and Human Rights Clinic – LAW 783

Rural Practice Clinic – LAW 730

Youth Justice Clinic – LAW 724

Business, Commercial, Tax

Acquisition Transactions: Execution and Risk Management – Legal and Business Perspectives- LAW 676

Advanced Commercial Law Practicum – LAW 727

Antitrust – LAW 626

Bankruptcy – LAW 625

Business Associations – LAW 601

Business Financing and Securities Regulation – LAW 668

Cannabis Law, Business, & Policy – LAW 756

Commercial Law: Sale of Goods & Secured Transactions – LAW 719

Corporate and Social Responsibility & the Environment – LAW 760

Economic Development Law Practicum – LAW 726

Employee Benefits Law – LAW 747

Employment Law – LAW 779

Health Care Law and Policy – LAW 618

Information Privacy Law – LAW 777

Information Privacy Law Practicum – LAW 735

Insurance Law – LAW 655

Intellectual Property – LAW 661

Internal and Government Investigations – LAW 749

International Trade Law – LAW 651

Internet Law – LAW 664

Negotiation – LAW 683

Nonprofit Organizations – LAW 734

Partnership Taxation – LAW 688

Patent Law – LAW 698

Real Estate Transactions – LAW 672

Risk Management and Compliance – Law and Practice – LAW 660

Startup and Entrepreneurship Law – LAW 685

Taxation I – LAW 649

Taxation II – LAW 654

Taxation Law Practicum – LAW 689

Taxation Law Seminar – LAW 670

Trademark & Unfair Competition – LAW 716

Transactional Practicum: Deals – LAW 662

Workers’ Compensation and Workplace Injuries – Law 769

Constitutional Law and Civil Rights

Animal Law – LAW 761

Civil Rights Litigation – Law 788

Criminal Procedure: Investigation – LAW 693

Elder Law – LAW 705

Federal Courts – LAW 645

Federal Indian Law – LAW 600

First Amendment – LAW 782

Health Care Law and Policy – LAW 618

Immigration Law – LAW 681

Impact Lawyering: A Practicum for Social Justice Reform – Law 721

International Human Rights – LAW 795

Juvenile Law – LAW 708

Legal History – LAW 628

Local Government – LAW 616

Philosophy of Law – LAW 674

Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation and the Law – LAW 692

Social Media Regulation – Law 675

Voting Rights & Election Law – Law 798

Criminal Law

Appellate Litigation Practicum – LAW 706

Criminal Law Seminar – LAW 679

Criminal Procedure: Adjudication – LAW 606

Criminal Procedure: Investigation – LAW 693

Evidence – LAW 644

Juvenile Law – LAW 708

Environmental, Energy, Land Use, and Oceans

Admiralty and Maritime Law – LAW 624

Animal Law – LAW 761

Arctic Law, Science and Policy – LAW 743

Climate Change Law and Policy – LAW 694

Climate Extremes & International Law – Law 687