Download New And Revised Course for 2010-2011

New and Revised Courses for 2011-2012
Summer 2011
Medical Malpractice, LAW 664C/490, Intersession Course, 7/16-7/30
Focusing specifically on medical malpractice, this course offers students the opportunity to delve
deeply into the substantive law, litigation practices, and policy implications of medical
negligence and related litigation. Malpractice cases involve unique pleading requirements,
pretrial procedures, standard of care issues, causation challenges, expert witness burdens, jury
selection considerations, discovery practices and investigational techniques. The course also
examines Ohio and federal statutes relating to medical liability, immunity from suit, privacy
rights, testimonial privileges, limitations on actions, damage caps and tort reform.
Approximately one-half of the course will consists of practical litigation skill exercises,
including motion practice, witness examinations, opening statements, and summations specific to
medical malpractice. Although not required, students will benefit from having completed
courses in Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Trial Advocacy. Evaluation will be based on student
performance on written assignments and practical litigation exercises. This is a 3 credit offering
of the course and it will satisfy the Skills requirement.
The course will be taught by Alan B. Parker and W. Bradford Longbrake, attorneys with the
Reminger law firm.
This course will be taught during the intersession between Summer Term and Fall Semester. It
will meet 3 Saturdays, July 16, 23, & 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will meet Monday,
Wednesday & Thursday evenings (July 18-21 and 25-28) from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Note: students may register for the course as part of Summer Term (LAW 664C/490, #11169) or
as part of Fall Semester (LAW 664C/490, #10512).
Fall 2011
Constitutional Law Seminar: Supreme Court, LAW 707/1, TTh, 9-10:15 AM
(3 Credit Hours)
Judge Baughman
This course will examine the process by which advocates present cases to the Supreme Court of
the United States and the process by which the Court decides thoses cases. The topics covered
include Supreme Court jurisdiction and procedure, constitutional interpretation, the philosophy
and technique of opinion writing, preparing and presenting oral argument to a court of last resort,
and an examination of how Supreme Court justices prepare for oral argument and decide cases.
Students will learn about the judicial process by actually performing the work done by advocates
and justices on three cases pending before the Supreme Court in the current term., based on the
opinions in the lower courts and the briefs filed by the parties.
Each student will write an opinion, 20-25 pages in length, completing a number of interim steps
(submission of an outline, research path, consultations w/ the instructor, etc.) prior to submission
of the final project. The course will satisfy the upper level writing requirement.
Environmental Law Seminar: Legal Issues of the BP/Gulf Oil Spill, LAW 711B/51 &
711C/52, W, 4:10-5:50 PM
(2 or 3 Credit Hours)
Dean Robertson and Maureen Brennan
Prerequisites: RCC*; Environmental Law, LAW 671 or Administrative Law, LAW 623. This
seminar will explore the many varied legal issues at play in the BP/Gulf Coast Oil Spill. It will
consider the science of deep water oil drilling and the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. It will
explore the contract issues involved in carrying out a major drilling operation, and the roles of
local, state, and federal governments in the permitting and approval processes and in postdisaster response operations. It will investigate the compensation issues and processes for
redress of damages. It will consider the economics and politics of the oil drilling industries in
the Gulf and the effect of a drilling moratorium on those industries and the population of the
region.
Students will be required to participate in the preparation and presentation of a group project on a
related issue. Students may, at their election, complete a paper that will satisfy the upper-level
writing requirement. Students who wish to satisfy the upper level writing requirement should
sign up for the 3 credit hour section of the course (LAW 711C/52).
HIPAA and Privacy, LAW 690/61, T, 7:30-9:10 PM
(2 Credit Hours)
Christel Turner
Prerequisites: RCC. * The course will focus on the laws pertaining to confidentiality and
disclosure relative to patient medical documents and information. Most of the course will be
based on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) but Ohio laws that
govern medical information privacy will also be examined as will relevant administrative
regulations and processes. Satisfies Administrative Law requirement.
Legal Developments in Housing, LAW 725/61, Th, 6-9:50 PM
(3 Credit Hours)
Dennis Keating
Legal and Policy issues in Housing are in the headlines. This course will address such issues as:
litigation and legislation associated with the subprime mortgage crisis after the housing bubble
burst; the rebuilding of neighborhoods devastated by the foreclosure crisis; reform of the
mortgage system for home buying, including the future of the government-owned mortgage
finance giants; the future of the National Housing Trust Fund; the status of community
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development corporations in providing affordable housing; inclusionary housing programs; and
proposed cutbacks in federal and state housing programs.
Legal Drafting: Drafting for the Basic Business Deal, LAW 798/1, TTh, 8:00-8:50 AM
(2 Credit Hours)
Julanne Montville
This course is designed to arm students with basic skills needed to draft documents that
memorialize a business deal. Students will learn how to write a basic business contract and how
to think about contract writing. The course will be team taught by an experienced deal lawyer
and a legal writing professor.
Students will learn to understand the business deal, learn how to use contract concepts to
memorialize the deal accurately and effectively, and learn how their writing and use of language
can impact the deal. Specific concepts the course will cover include the following: understanding
the business deal; building blocks of a contract (i.e., representations and warranties, covenants,
rights, conditions, discretionary authority, and declarations); large-scale structure of a contract;
introductory provisions; definitions and defined terms; action sections; other contract building
blocks; legalese; clarity through format; ambiguity; numbers and financial provisions; organizing
a contract and its provisions; the drafting process; how to review and comment on another’s
draft; researching legal issues the contract raises; and researching the parties and the industry.
Satisfactory completion of the course will satisfy the third-semester legal writing and skills
requirements.
Medical Malpractice, LAW 664C/490, Intersession Course, 7/16-7/30
Focusing specifically on medical malpractice, this course offers students the opportunity to delve
deeply into the substantive law, litigation practices, and policy implications of medical
negligence and related litigation. Malpractice cases involve unique pleading requirements,
pretrial procedures, standard of care issues, causation challenges, expert witness burdens, jury
selection considerations, discovery practices and investigational techniques. The course also
examines Ohio and federal statutes relating to medical liability, immunity from suit, privacy
rights, testimonial privileges, limitations on actions, damage caps and tort reform.
Approximately one-half of the course will consists of practical litigation skill exercises,
including motion practice, witness examinations, opening statements, and summations specific to
medical malpractice. Although not required, students will benefit from having completed
courses in Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Trial Advocacy. Evaluation will be based on student
performance on written assignments and practical litigation exercises. This is a 3 credit offering
of the course and it will satisfy the Skills requirement.
The course will be taught by Alan B. Parker and W. Bradford Longbrake, attorneys with the
Reminger law firm.
This course will be taught during the intersession between Summer Term and Fall Semester. It
will meet 3 Saturdays, July 16, 23, & 30, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and will meet Monday,
Wednesday & Thursday evenings (July 18-21 and 25-28) from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
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Note: students may register for the course as part of Summer Term (LAW 664C/490, #11169) or
as part of Fall Semester (LAW 664C/490, #10512).
Regulatory Law
(3 Credit Hours)
Professor Hoke
Prerequisites: RCC*.
This course is designed to foster the practical skills and basic administrative legal knowledge that
are critically important for both “government relations” and internal agency lawyers. It provides
basic exposure to Administrative Law, legislative process, and regulatory institutions at both the
federal and state levels, but the course is primarily skill-focused. Cutting-edge regulatory issues
will include cell phone radiation, banking regulation, polluted drinking water, drivers' texting,
climate change, and software regulation, plus others that students identify as of interest.
Practical skill development encompasses regulatory strategic analysis and planning,
administrative law research, and presentation preparation.
Requirements: A class presentation on a student-selected regulatory problem during the last
half of the course; and, a final exam or paper option. The paper may be written on the same topic
as the class presentation. Students electing the paper option may satisfy the Upper Level Writing
requirement. Course satisfies the Administrative Law requirement.
Sports & Law: Evolution of Major League Sports
(3 Credit Hours)
Peter Carfagna
Prerequisites: RCC.* The course will explore the legal evolution of America’s three major sports
leagues (Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Basketball
Association), about which I published a Westlaw Casebook in 2009. The course will devote
approximately equal time to each of these three major leagues, and compare/contrast the
similarities and differences among them from an historical legal perspective. Specifically, the
course will evaluate the evolution of the three leagues, and examine how Supreme Court and
other courts’ landmark decisions have affected the path of their progress.
Spring 2012
Constitutional Law Seminar: Court Packing Plan, LAW 707/2, W, 10:45 AM-12:25 PM
(3* Credit Hours)
Professor Gelman
This course will focus on the 1937 confrontation between President Franklin Roosevelt and the
Supreme Court of the United States. Roosevelt had been reelected by a landslide in November
1936, after the Court had found some important New Deal measures unconstitutional during his
first term. Informed observers believed that Court was about to invalidate the Social Security
Act and the National Labor Relations Act, too, a development that Roosevelt believed would
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prevent any effective response to economic and social catastrophes associated with the Great
Depression. In February, 1937 Roosevelt proposed what quickly became known as the “Court
Packing Plan.” If enacted, it would have enabled the President to appoint up to six new Supreme
Court Justices, resulting in a Court of 15 members that would uphold New Deal measures against
all constitutional challenges. Although Roosevelt’s plan was rejected by a Senate Committee,
two Justices seemed to do an about face in early 1937 on constitutional issues involving the
Commerce and Tax and Spend Clauses as well as the Fourteenth Amendment. What resulted
were profound changes in Constitutional Law. From that point on, the Court upheld every New
Deal measure.
An historical debate has long raged about whether the two Justices responded to “political”
concerns when they changed course in 1937. Some historians and legal scholars even argue that
there was no abrupt constitutional change in 1937. The seminar will explore these historical
questions. We will also consider some basic issues that receive less explicit attention today. If
the Justices did respond to political pressures in 1937, were they wrong in doing so? Should
Roosevelt have put pressure on the Justices in the first place? What was the proper posture for
Justices who believed that Roosevelt’s legislative program threatened basic constitutional
limitations?
Such questions seem more salient today than at any time since 1937. An important new book
was published this year on the Court Packing Plan, and another major book about the Supreme
Court Justices of the Roosevelt era will be published this Fall. Judge Richard Posner has
explained this increased interest by noting parallels between 1937 and today. He writes:
Like Franklin Roosevelt, Barack Obama is an ambitious and charismatic liberal who took
over from a discredited conservative administration and a demoralized Republican Party
at a time of severe economic stress. Like Roosevelt, he is passionately hated in some
quarters and the subject of vicious, groundless rumors. As with Roosevelt, the election
that brought him to power created strong Democratic majorities in both the Senate and
the House of Representatives, yet also like Roosevelt he faces a politically conservative
Supreme Court that is more than willing to invalidate state and federal laws that it does
not like.
A paper and regular class participation are required. Constitutional Law is not a prerequisite for
enrollment in the Seminar. The course will satisfy the upper level writing requirement.
Negotiating & Drafting Sports Mkting & Venue Agreements LAW 754/61, Th, 6-8:50 PM
(3 credits)
Peter Carfagna
Prerequisites: RCC*. This course will provide students the opportunity to negotiate and draft
agreements that a lawyer advising a sports team would encounter. Students will learn about the
various components of complex deal documents and have the opportunity to then draft these
documents. Students will also explore and experiment with negotiating strategies. Overall, the
goal of the course is to have students master skills related to negotiating, drafting, and analyzing
the various "moving parts" of complicated agreements. The class will begin with a unit on
stadium lease agreements. From there, we will discuss naming rights agreements and proceed to
discuss some more specific agreements: presenting sponsorship agreements, media rights
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agreements, food and beverage agreements, an agreement with a provider of hospital and
medical services, a provider of financial services, a state-operated entity, and finally, purchase
and sale agreements for sports teams.
Representing the Professional Athlete, L753/480, Sat., 9-11:40 AM
(3 Credit Hours)
Peter Carfagna
This course will begin with an overview of the sports marketing industry and then proceed to
discuss some of the more important legal doctrines relating to that industry, involving intellectual
property law, labor law and contract law. In that context, the course will explore the skills
necessary to conduct a series of “hypothetical” sports-related contract negotiations. The students
will then participate in group-based contract-drafting exercises with an emphasis on client
representation. Contracts to be drafted include a “product endorsement agreement,” and a
“name, image and likeness” lithograph poster agreement. Simulated depositions and “oral
arguments” will also be conducted. Next, in the context of a mock litigation, students will
assume a “contract breach” of the agreements they have drafted. In turn, they will draft
document requests, deposition questions and legal briefs in support of the contractual positions
taken during the contract drafting exercise. Class participation and successful completion of
weekly assignments will count for a significant portion of the student’s final grade.
Tax: Procedures, Penalties and Crimes, L647/1, MW, 9-10:15 AM
(3 Credit Hours)
Professor Plecnik
Prerequisites: RCC*, Tax I (LAW 607). This course will provide a survey of tax procedure,
including the rules for practice before the IRS under Circular 230 and various tax litigation
issues. This course will also provide a survey of the tax penalties and tax crimes that
transactional and controversy tax practitioners must regularly consider and manage in
representing private and government clients. Transactional tax advisors need to consider
penalties and crimes when structuring deals and preparing opinion letters to support those deals.
Without an understanding of opinion letters and the penalty or crime risks to a client’s proposed
deal structure, a transactional tax attorney fails to adequately represent his client’s interest.
Indeed, this lawyer and the relevant law firm may themselves be at risk. Likewise, tax
controversy attorneys must have a comprehensive understanding of penalties and crimes to
effectively represent clients, whether in settlement negotiations, court or administrative
proceedings. These attorneys must be able to identify the range of applicable penalties and
crimes, address proof convincingly and understand relevant defenses.
Students in this class will examine relevant statutes, regulations and case law. The course will
cover both the substantive law and procedural issues. Penalties addressed will include tax
shelter, return preparer, responsible person, accuracy-related, delinquency and civil fraud.
Crimes addressed will include tax evasion, false returns, false claims, and Klein conspiracies.
Methods of proof and defenses to these penalties and crimes are, of course, critical to client
representation and will therefore be covered.
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Satisfies Administrative Law requirement.
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