Accounting: Understanding and Analyzing Financial Statements

LAW6100
Section 1, Spring 26

Schedule Information

Enrollment: /64
Credits: 2
Days Time Room Start Date End Date

Tue

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Thu

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Fri

 		1130-1250 SL294 01/20/2026 02/27/2026

Course Description

The principal goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the concepts of financial accounting and published financial statements. Attorneys need a basic understanding of financial statements in order to work with corporate clients and certified public accountants. This knowledge is particularly important if the practice involves investment banking, initial public offerings, and the issuance of securities. Course content will include the conceptual framework of accounting, specialized accounting terminology, generally accepted accounting standards, and the distinction between financial accounting and income tax accounting. The roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Internal Revenue Service will be delineated. Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to understand how components of financial statements such as inventories, plant and equipment, bonds, leases, sales revenues, cost of goods sold expense, and depreciation expense are measured and reported. In addition, the student should be able to analyze financial statements to derive more information about a corporation. The course is designed to provide a financial accounting knowledge base to students with no previous course work or practical training in accounting. To help students quickly become competent in understanding and using financial information, the course content is relatively extensive and rigorous.

Course Requirements

Exam Information

Final Type (if any): Flex

Description: A Flex exam will be available for checkout from SRO during business hours on business days between March 2-13, 2026. Students must take the exam in the Library or Scott Commons Reading Room. Moreover, at the time of checkout, the EXPO receipt must reflect a deadline no later than 5:00pm for the student to finalize the EXPO upload process. If the upload deadline at the time of checkout is later than 5:00pm, the student will not be able to take the exam that day and will need to return to SRO and checkout the Flex exam on another business day during the availability window.

Other Course Details

Prerequisites: None Concurrencies: Students will be enrolled in Corp. Finance concurrently with this course. Students wishing to take Accounting without Corporate Finance (or vice versa) must submit a written waiver from the professor to SRO.

Exclusive With: Students who have completed more than one university level accounting courses or have practical training in accounting are not eligible to enroll in this course unless they obtain instructor permission.

Laptops Allowed: Yes

First Day Attendance Required: No

Course Resources: To be announced via Canvas.

Course Notes: This course is the first half of the semester-long two-course sequence of Accounting and Corporate Finance. Students who enroll in this course will automatically be enrolled in the section of Corporate Finance (2 credits) as well. Students who have completed MORE THAN ONE university level accounting courses or have practical training in accounting are not eligible to enroll in this course unless they obtain instructor permission. Similarly, students who have completed MORE THAN ONE university level corporate finance courses or have practical training in corporate finance are NOT eligible to enroll in the corporate finance course unless they obtain instructor permission. Once enrolled, students who are not eligible to enroll in either accounting or corporate finance must drop the ineligible course. To do so, e-mail the Student Records Office ([email protected]) at any time prior to the end of the add/drop period and ask to be dropped from the ineligible course.

Graduation Requirements

Satisfies Understanding Bias/Racism/Cross-Cultural Competency requirement: No

Satisfies Writing Requirement: No

Credits For Prof. Skills Requirement: No

Satisfies Professional Ethics: No

Additional Course Information

Schedule No.: 126217817

Modified Type: Lecture

Cross Listed: No

Waitlist Count: 0

Concentrations: Corporate, Business and Transactional , Tax Law

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Opens: Tuesday, February 17, 12:01 AM

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Closes: Sunday, March 01, 11:59 PM

Information reflected on this page was last refreshed at: Tuesday, July 08, 2025 - 7:02 AM *

*During open enrollment periods, live enrollment data may be found in SIS.