Secured Transactions

This course will cover the essential provisions and structure of Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The law of secured transactions facilitates the taking of security interests by creditors to secure loans they make to debtors. Unlike a creditor who asserts a common law contract claim only, the secured creditor potentially has a right to seek payment on his contract claim by directly seizing certain agreed upon items of debtor’s property that serve as collateral for the creditor’s loan. Among the issues covered in this course are how creditors receive security interests in debtor’s property (“the attachment” process); how they obtain priority over competing creditors asserting interests in the same collateral (the “perfection” process); how creditors maintain security interests in collateral transferred by the debtor, acquired by the debtor, and acquired by debtor after debtor’s name or corporate status changes; and how creditors maintain security interests in proceeds of collateral. The course aims to provide students with knowledge of the Code sufficient to enable them to structure secured transactions and litigate secured claims successfully. The course is taught with an emphasis on Code mastery, while underscoring the policy objectives and business contexts relevant to secured transactions generally.