Corporate Criminal Investigations

LAW9249
Section 1, Spring 26

Schedule Information

Enrollment: /16
Credits: 2
Days Time Room Start Date End Date

Mon

 		1300-1500 WB278 01/26/2026 04/20/2026

Course Description

Few events impact corporations more significantly than criminal investigations and prosecutions of misconduct. Regardless of the corporation’s size, criminal investigations disrupt business, consume employee and senior management time, require reviews of and enhancements to the corporation’s compliance program and internal controls, and can impact a corporation’s stock price and reputation. This course is a simulation course in which students act as outside lawyers hired to defend a hypothetical corporation in every phase of a criminal investigation from the discovery of potential misconduct through the criminal resolution. The course explores the various ways corporate criminal investigations can begin; considerations regarding voluntary self-disclosure and self-reporting of misconduct; data and document collection and privacy issues; respondeat superior liability for corporations and DOJ policy regarding the prosecution of individual wrongdoers; witness interviews; the importance of cooperation; the factors the DOJ considers in determining whether to charge corporations; parallel and multi-jurisdictional investigations and civil litigation; effective compliance programs; and the different forms of corporate criminal resolutions.

Course Requirements

Exam Information

Final Type (if any): None

Description: None

Written Work Product

Students will prepare a memo memorializing a witness interview (due directly to the instructor, not via EXPO).

Other Work

In simulation exercises, students will conduct an initial interview of an employee immediately following the corporation’s discovery of suspicious conduct by him; they will conduct a second in-depth interview of another employee based on facts and documents discovered during the investigation; and for the final project, they will work in teams to prepare and present a one hour advocacy presentation to the DOJ laying out the facts discovered during the corporation’s investigation and arguing why the DOJ should not charge the corporation. In addition, during the weekly seminars, students will participate in in-class discussions, exercises and strategy sessions related to developments in the investigation and how the corporation should respond.

Other Course Details

Prerequisites: Because the credits in this course count toward the JD Program Professional Skills requirement, JD candidates will be given enrollment priority for this class. LLM students may email Prof. Wheeler to request a prerequisite waiver, and if granted, must provide it to SRO. Concurrencies: None

Exclusive With: None

Laptops Allowed: Yes

First Day Attendance Required: Yes

Course Resources: To be announced via Canvas.

Course Notes: Because each student will be required to conduct two witness interviews and teams of students will be required to make an advocacy presentation to DOJ, students will be required to sign up for three slots outside of class to complete these simulation exercises (one 30 minute slot, one 75 minute slot, and one 120 minute slot).

Graduation Requirements

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

Satisfies Writing Requirement: No

Credits For Prof. Skills Requirement: Yes

Satisfies Professional Ethics: No

Additional Course Information

Schedule No.: 126219079

Modified Type: Simulation

Cross Listed: No

Waitlist Count: 0

Concentrations: Corporate, Business and Transactional , Criminal Justice

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Opens: Tuesday, April 14, 12:01 AM

Evaluation Portal Via LawWeb Closes: Sunday, April 26, 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.