Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Regan

J.D. Course 465 | 3 credit hours

This course, which satisfies the Professional Responsibility requirement, explores ethical issues, tensions, and dilemmas that arise in law firm and corporate practice. Most lawyers in private practice work in these settings. This means that a large proportion of lawyers practice law in organizations and have organizations, primarily corporations, as clients. Navigating the landscape of the large law firm and the corporation requires awareness of the distinctive experience of lawyers involved in this work. This course is designed to help students develop this awareness.

First, we will examine research on how organizations shape the perceptions and choices of the people who work within them. We will explore the implications of this process for the capacity of persons in large organizations to identify and respond to ethical questions. Then, focusing more specifically on law practice, we will discuss material on the history and structure of the large law firm, as well as case studies and current news items on developments in law firm practice. We will then study how in-house corporate legal departments are organized and how they operate, and the ways in which in-house counsel may provide a combination of legal and business advice.

With the benefit of this background, we will spend the remainder of the course analyzing problems that focus on the specific kinds of projects on which law firm and in-house lawyers work, such as incorporation, securities, regulatory counseling and compliance, transactions, civil litigation, internal investigations, criminal defense, mergers and acquisitions, shareholder litigation, and other matters. By the end of the course, students should have a more sophisticated understanding of the challenges, risks, and rewards of the work in which most lawyers in private practice are involved.

Prerequisite: Corporations.

Students may not receive credit for this course and the graduate course, Professional Responsibility in Corporate and Securities Practice. Students MAY receive credit for this course and American Legal Profession taught by Professor Frisch or Professional Responsibility.

This course DOES fulfill the Professional Responsibility requirement. Note for Professor Regan's Spring 2012 section: Laptop use is not allowed during class.