Law & Business Curriculum - University of Virginia School of Law

Curriculum

Students interested in business law can take advantage of three major curricular opportunities available through the Law & Business Program.

Accounting and Corporate Finance
Each semester we offer a combined Accounting and Corporate Finance course taught by professors from Virginia’s graduate and undergraduate business schools. The course provides a foundation in the language and skills of business finance and strategy.

Core Courses
After taking the Accounting and Corporate Finance course, students move on to the second step: the core business law courses, including Corporations, Bankruptcy, Secured Transactions and Securities Regulation, all taught in an innovative format that focuses on both the business and legal problems that businesses and their lawyers must solve. The most enduring way to learn a new skill is to put it immediately to use in applied settings. These courses enable students to practice the skills they have learned while providing a business context for the study of business law.

Intensive Short Courses
Having mastered the foundational business and legal knowledge necessary to become a successful practicing lawyer, students can take advantage of the third phase of the Law & Business curriculum: a rich, diverse series of intensive courses that put legal and business analysis into practical, real-world settings. These courses are typically limited to 20 students and are taught over a two-week period by distinguished business executives or lawyers. More on Short Courses

BASIC SKILLS LAW AND BUSINESS COURSES

Accounting: Understanding & Analyzing Financial Statements
Accounting is the primary language that businesses use to communicate their operations and results to investors, regulators, and other interested parties. Business lawyers routinely use accounting concepts in negotiations, contract drafting, and regulatory filings. This course provides essential training in basic accounting concepts.

Corporate Finance
Businesses constantly confront the question of value—what is this factory, patent, or potential merger partner worth? Lawyers who understand the language and analytical techniques of finance can communicate much more effectively with their clients than those who don’t. This course, which is similar to the core finance courses taught in MBA programs, teaches students to understand and quantify the sources of value.

ENHANCED CORE BUSINESS LAW COURSES

Corporations
This is the core business law course, covering the basics of corporate organization and governance. The course explores the legal rules regulating the multiple relationships among corporate managers and directors, investors, employees, and other parties who interact with a business. Throughout, we consider the business context in which the legal issues arise.

Bankruptcy
This course focuses on the reorganization of financially distressed firms under the Bankruptcy Code. Compared to traditional bankruptcy courses, the emphasis is less on bankruptcy case law and more on the economic fundamentals of financial deal-making and restructuring.

Securities Regulation
Securities laws impose disclosure obligations and other requirements on companies whose stock, bonds, or other securities are publicly sold or traded. This course studies those laws and the underlying financial and accounting practices of public companies. Students also learn about the organization of financial markets in the United States and elsewhere.

Secured Transactions
When a bank lends an individual money to buy a house or car, the bank typically takes a security interest, allowing the bank to take possession of the house or car if the borrower doesn’t pay. The same is true for business loans, and the law of secured financing is of critical importance to lawyers representing businesses. This course examines the legal and financial aspects of secured lending.

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SAMPLE COURSE SCHEDULE

FIRST YEAR

FALL

Civil Procedure* (4 credits)
Contracts* (4)
Criminal Law* (3)
Legal Writing* (1)
Torts* (4)

SPRING

Constitutional Law* (4)
Legal Writing* (1)
Property* (4)
Corporate Finance** (2)
Accounting** (2)
Other Elective

* REQUIRED first-year curriculum
** REQUIRED (unless studied elsewhere) for core classes

SECOND YEAR

Corporations (4)
Bankruptcy (3)
Federal Income Tax (4)
Negotiation Institute (1)
Other Elective
Securities Regulations (3)
Secured Transactions (3)
Corporate Tax (3)
European Union Business Law (1)
Other Elective

THIRD YEAR

Agency and Partnership (3)
Antitrust (3)
Law and Economics (3)
Mergers and Acquisitions (3)
Other Elective
Constructing the Deal (2)
Copyright Law (3)
International Banking Transactions (1)
Internet Law (3)
Law and Technology Policy (1)
Other Elective

NOTE: students interested in a general overview of these classes but not planning to practice transactional law (and not interested in taking finance or accounting) can take introductory-level Corporations, Bankruptcy, Securities Regulations, and Secured Transactions.

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