Virginia’s Principles & Practice Program,
a major curricular innovation that is the first of its kind in
the country, is designed to give students the opportunity to
apply legal theory in real-life situations. The program teams
law professors with practitioners, judges, and other distinguished
professionals for a semester or more. Lauded by students and
practitioners alike, the program melds the insights of theory
with those of contemporary practice, giving students a more sophisticated
and useful understanding of a field than either perspective can
yield on its own.
PRINCIPLES and PRACTICE COURSES (not offered every semester/year):
Note that some P & P courses have
the same or similar titles as regular courses
COURTS AND SOCIAL POLICY: LITIGATING
ERISA [LAW 3722] Mr. Tom
White (3) The course addresses
a number of employee benefit controversies between employers,
employees, insurers and other financial institutions, other
fiduciaries and potential fiduciaries, medical and other service
providers, federal regulatory agencies (Department of Labor,
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, Internal Revenue Service)
and others. Controversies considered may include: "managed
care" situations involving incentives given to doctors
and hospitals to reduce costs; benefit claims (severance pay,
early retirement, continued medical, etc.) in facility closing
situations; claims based oral representations inconsistent with
published plan descriptions; use or abuse of pension plan stock
holdings to resist takeovers or achieve other corporate purposes;
treatment of pension and medical plan entitlements in insolvency
situations; use or abuse of mutiemployer benefit funds to achieve
union institutional objectives or mutiemployer competitive objectives.
Procedural issues will include federal preemption, choice of
law, pleading, discovery and remedies—not merely "who
wins," but also "who wins when, who wins what, and
who cares." The seminar will also address certain ethical
considerations when a lawyer represents a fiduciary.
EMERGING MARKETS [LAW
5648] Mr. Dean/Mr. Stephan (3)
This seminar explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting
foreign investors seeking to participate in the development
of the so-called “e'merging markets,” and in particular
in the restructuring of formerly socialist economies. Topics
to be covered include: forms of foreign investment and commercial
transactions, local accreditation, taxation, the privatization
process, intellectual property protection, import-export regulations,
currency controls, project and conventional financing, banking,
the development and regulation of capital markets, securities
and commodities exchanges, financing, labor law, environmental
protection, and antitrust issues.
EMPLOYMENT LAW [LAW
3679] Mr. Davidson/Mr. Steen (3) Ranging from Title VII
to defamation law, from ERISA to workers' compensation, from
the Americans with Disabilities act ("AD") to the
law of employee handbooks, employment law encompasses a vast
body of law regulating the nonunion employment relationship.
This course examines employment law doctrine and theory from
a practical perspective. Problems drawn from litigated cases
and counseling practice will illustrate how attorneys use these
doctrinal rules and theoretical principles to control the legal
consequences of their clients' employment relationships. Class
discussion and weekly assignments focus on topics such as: the
standards governing vicarious liability for employment discrimination
and employee torts; the task of designing internal complaint
procedures, handling harassment and discrimination complaints,
and responding to EEOC investigations; problems associated with
drafting and litigating severance agreements; FMLA compliance
issues; the interactions between the ADA and other statutes;
and drafting, enforcement, and preclusion issues surrounding
arbitration agreements. Grades will be based on periodic written
and oral assignments and on class participation.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LITIGATION: COURTS
and SOCIAL POLICY [LAW
3722] Mr. White/ Mr. Cummings (3) This is a seminar in litigation
of disputes involving employee benefit plans. Controversies
to be considered may include: “managed care” situations
involving incentives given to doctors and hospitals to reduce
costs; benefit claims (severance pay, early retirement, continued
medical, etc.) in facility closing situations; claims asserting
investment mismanagement and other fiduciary matters; claims
based on oral representations inconsistent with published plan
descriptions; and use or abuse of pension plan stock holdings
to resist takeovers or achieve other corporate purposes.
ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYERING [LAW
4664] Mr. Cannon/Mr. Szeptycki (3) This course is about
the tasks of lawyers representing clients in environmental disputes,
from rulemaking to litigation to negotiation. The course develops
several case scenarios based on actual proceedings. These include
interpreting the requirements of the Clean Water Act for local
watersheds and litigation involving endangered aquatic species
(Bull Trout) and wetlands development. The cases involve a range
of parties, including property owners, developers, and environmental
groups as well as governmental agencies at the local, state
and federal levels. Students draft documents (memoranda, pleadings,
etc.) and engage in simulated hearings and negotiations on behalf
of clients.
ESTATE PLANNING [LAW
5707] Mr. Aucutt/Mr. Erdman/Ms. Robinson (3) This seminar
considers the principal aspects of estate planning, with emphasis
on sophisticated tax planning techniques for wealthy individuals.
Topics to be covered include: pre-marital planning with special
attention to second marriages; use of marital deduction, credit
shelter, and generation-skipping trusts; techniques for lifetime
transfers of assets; use of charitable trusts and other deferred
giving techniques; life insurance in estate plans; dealing with
special assets, such as personal residences, art and other collectibles,
farms and ranches, retirement benefits, and closely held businesses
including family limited partnerships; planning for the payment
of taxes, including both federal and state taxes; post mortem
planning; and more.
EMERGING GROWTH COMPANIES AND VENTURE
CAPITAL FINANCING[LAW
7628] Mr. Lincoln (3) This course deals with legal and business
issues that arise in the context of representing emerging growth
technology companies, with a particular emphasis on corporate
formation, governance and capital structure, key employee contracts,
venture capital transactions and intellectual property. The
course includes several practice exercises designed to introduce
students, working in practice teams, to the process of structuring
and executing transactions in this area.
PRACTICAL TRIAL
EVIDENCE [LAW 7665] Mr. Crigler/Mr.
Livingston/Mr. Sinclair (3) This class explores the most
commonly encountered evidentiary challenges in litigation. The
keys to trial success include forms of proof where the factual
foundations are challenging, where the law demands unexpected
elements to support offered proof, or where the unwritten aspects
of trial practice interfere with “textbook” efforts
to get proof in the record. Class meets regularly in a Moot
Court room. Among the issues to be explored in complex partial-trial
simulations are problems of limited admissibility, partial communications
(oral, taped, or computer-related), in limine rulings, character
and habit proof, subsequent remedial measures, impeachment (particularly
complex criminal record impeachment and impeachment with prior
inconsistent statements), rehabilitation of impeached witnesses,
and expert proof. A half-dozen key hearsay definitions and exceptions
are explored in depth, including the state of mind rules, and
problems involving medical records, business and governmental
records (paper and electronic).
PRE-TRIAL LITIGATION
[LAW 4654] Mr. Bradford Jr./Ms.
Marshall/Mr. Sinclair (3) This course deals with civil litigation
from the initial pleadings through discovery and a wide variety
of motion practice events. Students draft pleadings, conduct
discovery activities, and make a number of motions. The course
emphasizes the creation of clear and effective pleadings, and
powerful briefs. Brief writing in motions at the trial court
level is a central focus.
PROSECUTORIAL FUNCTION
[LAW 4664] Mr. Dudley/Ms. Morrison
(3) The course examines the theoretical, ethical and doctrinal
principles and the practical constraints governing the exercise
of the prosecutorial function at both state and federal levels.
We focus on such topics as the interplay between prosecutors
and investigators, the nature of prosecutorial discretion, the
political dimension of the prosecutorial function, issues and
controversies surrounding the independent counsel statute, the
use and abuse of the grand jury, criminal discovery, and the
special obligations of the prosecutor as trial counsel.
REAL ESTATE FINANCE
[LAW 4633] Mr. White (3) This
course deals with financing techniques used in acquiring and
developing long-lived assets. Initially, the course focuses
on techniques for evaluating investment in assets that generate
long-term cash flows, as exemplified by income-producing real
estate. Next, financial structures used to invest in real estate,
principally limited partnerships, are analyzed. Multi-family
residential projects are used for analytic purposes, including
the use of low income housing tax credits to assist in funding
moderate-income housing. The use of publicly held investment
vehicles to finance real estate ventures are discussed, including
REITs and UPREITs, investment by tax exempt institutions and
debt securitization. Finally, attention is paid to debt structures
and relationships between creditors and investors.
REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
[LAW4 633] Mr. T. White (3)
This course is about making deals to acquire or develop long-lived
income producing assets, focusing specifically on financing
techniques for the equity piece of investment in income-producing
real estate. The course emphasizes present value analysis and
the use of spreadsheets to perform this analysis. Students analyze
financial structures used to invest in real estate—principally
pass-thru entities taxed as partnerships, and study multi-family
residential projects, including the use of low-income housing
tax credits. Other topics covered include: development issues,
including site acquisition and evaluation; environmental regulation;
market analysis and obtaining public approvals; the use of publicly
held investment vehicles to finance real estate ventures, including
the use of REITs and UPREITs, investment by tax exempt institutions
and issues raised by debt securitization; debt structures and
relationships between creditors and investors; protection of
equity investors in troubled projects; special problems with
leverage, possibly including leveraged leases; defaults and
workouts. Experienced professionals from outside the Law School
will discuss specific problems.