Advisory Curricular Concentrations
Planning three years of law studies is not an easy task for beginning law students. While the first year of required courses provide vital building blocks for future curricular choices, the large number of legal topics and the many areas of modern law practice make planning one’s second and third year of legal studies difficult.
In order to assist students in this curricular planning, we have prepared the following advisory guide to our upper-level elective curriculum. It identifies courses that form a curricular concentration in four separate fields of law or legal practice. These concentrations serve as suggested curricular choices for students interested in those fields.
It is usually not possible or desirable to take all the courses offered in a particular curricular area. That’s why the guide identifies certain foundational, core, related and capstone/clinical/externship courses within each curricular concentration. These distinctions are designed to help you prioritize your curricular choices and suggest an order in which you might take those courses.
Foundational courses are those that you either must take as a required pre-requisite for upper-level courses in the concentration or courses that seem essential to the legal foundation of a particular area of law or legal practice. Core courses are upper-level courses that present some of the most important legal issues in a concentration field or different aspects of the practice of law in that field. Such courses are highly recommended to all students who wish to practice in the field. Related courses are those courses in the UDSL course inventory that have a close connection to the practice of law in the concentration field.
Except for pre-requisite course requirements, you need not take any particular course or group of courses within a concentration. Instead, most upper-level course choices, though informed by the faculty’s suggestions, are left entirely to you.
For More Information
Civil Litigation Concentration
| Foundational Courses | ||
| Appellate Advocacy | LAW 6220 | 2 credits |
| Civil Procedure (Required 1L Class) | LAW 6101 | 4 credits |
| Evidence (Required 2L/3L Class) | LAW 6820 | 3 credits |
| Trial Practice-Civil | LAW 6880 | 3 credits |
| Core Courses | ||
| Advanced Civil Procedure | LAW 6210 | 3 credits |
| Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Litigator | LAW 6200 | 3 credits |
| Discovery Techniques | LAW 6518 | 1 credit |
| Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation | LAW 6310 | 3 credits |
| Remedies | LAW 6845 | 3 credits |
| Related Courses | ||
| Administrative Law | LAW 6205 | 3 credits |
| Employment Discrimination | LAW 6846 | 3 credits |
| Family Law | LAW 6831 | 3 credits |
| Interstate Family Law Litigation | LAW 6822 | 2 credits |
| Immigration Law: Process and Policies | LAW 6851 | 2 credits |
| Law Practice Management | LAW 6315 | 2 credits |
| Mock Trial Competition | LAW 6871 | 2 credits |
| Moot Court: Interschool | LAW 6872 | 2 credits |
| Capstone, Clinical & Externship Opportunities | ||
| Advanced Dispute Resolution | LAW 6920 | 4 credits |
| Civil Rights & Liberties Litigation | LAW 6921 | 4 credits |
| Complex Civil Litigation | LAW 6923 | 4 credits |
| Externship | LAW 6900 | 4 credits |
| Law Clinic Intern | LAW 6950 | 4 credits |
| Patent Litigation | LAW 6905 | 4 credits |
| Tort Litigation - Med. Malpractice | LAW 6925 | 4 credits |
| Current Experimental Courses | ||
| The Jury | 2 credits |
Criminal Law Concentration
| Foundational Courses | ||
| Criminal Law (Required 1L Class) | LAW 6107 | 3 credits |
| Criminal Procedure: Adjudication | LAW 6216 | 3 credits |
| Criminal Procedure: Investigation | LAW 6112 | 3 credits |
| Core Courses | ||
| Appellate Advocacy | LAW 6220 | 2 credits |
| Evidence (Required 2L/3L Class) | LAW 6820 | 3 credits |
| Federal Criminal Law | LAW 6215 | 3 credits |
| Trial Practice-Criminal | LAW 6885 | 3 credits |
| Related Courses | ||
| Cybercrimes: Law & Procedure | LAW 6975 | 2 credits |
| Cybersecurity Law & Nat’l. Security | LAW 6894 | 2 credits |
| Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation | LAW 6310 | 3 credits |
| Law Practice Management | LAW 6315 | 2 credits |
| Capstone, Clinical & Externship Opportunities | ||
| Capstone: Criminal Advocacy | LAW 6922 | 4 credits |
| Capstone: Cybercrimes | LAW 6924 | 4 credits |
| Externship | LAW 6900 | 4 credits |
| Law Clinic Intern | LAW 6950 | 4 credits |
| Current Experimental Courses | ||
| The Jury | 2 credits | |
| Social Media & Criminal Law | LAW 6541 | 1 credits |
Intellectual Property & Emerging Technology Concentration
| Foundational Course | ||
| Intellectual Property Law | LAW 6832 | 3 credits |
| Core Courses | ||
| Copyright Law | LAW 6415 | 2 credits |
| Trademark/Unfair Competition Law | LAW 6971 | 2 credits |
| Licensing Intellectual Property | LAW 6420 | 2 credits |
| Patent Law | LAW 6425 | 2 credits |
| Related Courses | ||
| Antitrust Law | LAW 6405 | 3 credits |
| Conflict Management & ADR | LAW 6410 | 3 credits |
| Cyberspace Law | LAW 6835 | 2 credits |
| Entertainment Law | LAW 6841 | 3 credits |
| International IP Law | LAW 6972 | 2 credits |
| Law of Video Gaming | LAW 6534 | 1 credits |
| Moot Court: IP Interschool | LAW 6874 | 2 credits |
| Trade Secret Law | LAW 6535 | 2 credits |
| Transactional Drafting | LAW 6910 | 2 credits |
| Capstone, Clinical & Externship Opportunities | ||
| Commercialization of Intellectual Property | LAW 6941 | 4 credits |
| Dot.com Law: The On-line Business Entity | LAW 6943 | 4 credits |
| Externship | LAW 6900 | 4 credits |
| Law Clinic Intern: Intellectual Property | LAW 6950 | 4 credits |
| Patent Litigation | LAW 6905 | 4 credits |
| Patent Practice & Procedure | LAW 6940 | 4 credits |
| Trademark Prosecution & Practice | LAW 6926 | 4 credits |
Business Practice Concentration
| Foundational Courses | ||
| Business Organizations | LAW 6801 | 3 credits |
| Individual Income Tax | LAW 6305 | 3 credits |
| Core Courses | ||
| Fed. Taxation of Business | LAW 6875 | 3 credits |
| Securities Regulation | LAW 6890 | 3 credits |
| Transactional Drafting | LAW 6910 | 2 credits |
| Related Courses | ||
| Administrative Law | LAW 6205 | 3 credits |
| Antitrust Law | LAW 6405 | 3 credits |
| Creditors’ Rights | LAW 6830 | 3 credits |
| Electronic Commerce | LAW 6836 | 2 credits |
| Employment Law | LAW 6840 | 3 credits |
| Employment Discrimination | LAW 6846 | 3 credits |
| Environmental Law | LAW 6833 | 3 credits |
| Health Care Law | LAW 6842 | 3 credits |
| Intellectual Property Law | LAW 6832 | 3 credits |
| Int’l Business Transactions | LAW 6977 | 2 credits |
| Natural Resource Law | LAW 6426 | 3 credits |
| Trademark/Unfair Competition Law | LAW 6971 | 2 credits |
| Trade Secret Law | LAW 6535 | 2 credits |
| UCC: Sales/Personal Property Leases | LAW 6899 | 2 credits |
| UCC: Payment Systems | LAW 6898 | 3 credits |
| UCC: Secured Transactions | LAW 6897 | 3 credits |
| Wills & Trusts | LAW 6809 | 3 credits |
| Capstone, Clinical & Externship Opportunities | ||
| Advanced Commercial Transactions | LAW 6930 | 4 credits |
| Business Planning for Small Business | LAW 6931 | 4 credits |
| Commercial Real Estate Transactions | LAW 6932 | 4 credits |
| Dot.com Law: The On-Line Business Enterprise | LAW 6943 | 4 credits |
| Estate & Tax Planning | LAW 6933 | 4 credits |
| Externship | LAW 6900 | 4 credits |
| Law Clinic Intern: Intellectual Property | LAW 6950 | 4 credits |
| Current Experimental Courses | ||
| Corporate Compliance & Ethics Programs | LAW 6821 | 3 credits |
| Contracting with the Federal Government | LAW 6540 | 1 credits |
Designing Your Own Curricular Concentration
It is unlikely that UDSL’s four basic curricular concentrations will match the interests or career goals of all students. But UDSL’s flexible, elective upper-level curriculum permits you to design your own curricular concentration focusing on other areas of legal practice. You may plan your future course choices on your own or in consultation with a faculty member.
For example, if you wish to practice in the area of law not covered by one of the four general concentrations, you might design your own upper-level curriculum combining classes dealing with the substantive law in the area with courses that explore the lawyering skills frequently encountered in that field. A student interested in practicing Family Law, for example, might design an upper-level curriculum that looked like this:
| Foundational Courses | ||
| Children & the Law | 2 credits | |
| Family Law | LAW 6831 | 3 credits |
| Core Courses | ||
| Adoption and Assisted Reproduction | 2 credits | |
| Interstate Family Law Litigation | LAW 6822 | 2 credits |
| Related Courses | ||
| Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Litigator | LAW 6200 | 3 credits |
| Individual Income Tax | LAW 6305 | 3 credits |
| Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation | LAW 6310 | 3 credits |
| Law Practice Management | LAW 6315 | 2 credits |
| Trial Practice-Civil | LAW 6880 | 3 credits |
| Transactional Drafting | LAW 6910 | 2 credits |
| Capstone, Clinical & Externship Opportunities | ||
| Capstone: Family Law | LAW 6934 | 3 or 4 credits |
| Externship | LAW 6900 | 4 credits |
| Law Clinic Intern | LAW 6950 | 4 credits |
An upper-level student who wishes to generalize rather than focus on a specific field of law might construct a curricular concentration that is built upon the bar examination requirements of the state in which she/he expects to practice after graduation. Such a student would find it profitable to consult the bar examination rules of the state or states in which they might later practice to see what subject areas are tested on the bar exams of those states. The list of topics tested on Ohio’s bar examination can be found on the Ohio Supreme Court's website.
More information on the topics tested by other states is available from the National Conference of Bar examiners.
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