Three semester hours credit. Offered periodically.

An examination of the issues and major federal statutes commonly associated with corporate and white collar prosecutions, including such topics as mail fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, RICO, criminal liability of corporations and corporate executives, and the jurisprudence of white collar crime. Some attention will be given to major parallel state provisions.

Two semester hours credit. Graded honors pass, pass, low pass, or fail. Normally offered twice each academic year.

Prerequisites: Completion of the first 30 hours of required courses, but completion of fewer than 60 semester hours.

This course is designed to provide intensive training in trial advocacy and culminates each semester in a mock trial competition. Each class will have limited enrollment, and students are divided into teams of four. Each team prepares for the direct and cross-examination of witnesses, opening and closing statements, and trial motions. Students practice and develop skills in theory development, evidence analysis, forensic persuasion and litigation advocacy. No final examination.

One semester hour credit. Graded honors pass, pass, low pass, or fail. Normally offered three times each academic year.

Prerequisites: Completion of the first 30 hours of required courses.

Students are selected by the director of advocacy because of their interest and ability in appellate advocacy competitions. The course is limited to students who are members of a competition team or brief writers for a competition team engaged in one of the inter-law school moot court or mock trial competitions. Once accepted to a competition, it is the student’s responsibility to officially register for Moot Court/Mock Trial through the Registrar’s Office. This must be done during the semester of the competition. No retroactive approval will be granted. This course may be taken for one credit per semester up to a maximum of three hours credit.

Two semester hours credit. Graded honors pass, pass, low pass, or fail. Normally offered twice each academic year.

The course focuses on substantive instruction and clinical experience in techniques for effective jury communication in all phases of the trial. Particular attention is given to jury selection and techniques for conducting an effective voir dire.

One semester hour credit. Graded honors pass, pass, low pass, or fail. Normally offered twice each academic year.

Prerequisites: Completion of Legal Research & Writing II and completion or concurrent completion of the first 30 hours of required courses.

Students are divided into teams of two members. Each team prepares an appellate brief and presents oral arguments in a competition. (The Leroy Jeffers Competition is conducted in the fall and the Spurgeon Bell Competition takes place in the spring.) Students practice and develop skills in legal research, brief writing and forensic persuasion. No final examination. Students are encouraged to register for Appellate Advocacy in their first semester or session after completing their first 30 required hours.

Two semester hours credit. Graded honors pass, pass, low pass, or fail. Normally offered as an intersession course.

This course explores the ethical obligations and discretionary responsibilities related to criminal practice. It exposes students to a range of complex representational decisions involving the exercise of attorney discretion and legal, ethical, and policy considerations. While the primary focus is on the role of the prosecutor in the criminal justice process, the course will also explore unique challenges associated with defense practice. The outcome of this course will be a greater understanding of the responsibility inherent in the role of attorneys in the adversarial criminal justice process, enabling students to approach their future responsibilities having had the opportunity to exercise and test their practice related instincts. For future prosecutors, this will enhance the understanding of the unique charge to do justice while at the same time representing the people; for the defense counsel, this will enhance understanding of the true extent of the zealous representation obligation; and for all students it will produce an understanding of the unique challenges confronted by opponents, enhancing the professionalism of their practice. Typical professional responsibility courses seldom have the time to address the exercise of representational discretion and the ethical dimension of such challenges in criminal cases. This course will expand the student’s basic understanding of the ethical rules and prepare students for the ethical challenges they will likely confront in the legal profession as a criminal practitioner.

Three semester hours credit.

Prerequisites: 30 semester hours completed. Recommended: Criminal Procedure.

Students in the Actual Innocence Clinic investigate allegations of wrongful conviction based on claims of innocence, suggest strategies for relief on those cases, and study the root causes leading to wrongful convictions. In addition to work on individual cases, students research criminal justice practices, and when appropriate, recommend systemic changes and reforms.

Three or four semester hours credit.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of all courses required for graduation (with the exception of the substantial writing requirement) and not less than 45 credit hours and a 2.8 grade point average. Completion of or concurrent enrollment in Texas Pretrial Procedure is recommended.

Students arrange their own placements with local governmental agencies. Potential placements include the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the legal department of the City of South Texas College of Law, the Harris County Attorney’s Office, the EEOC, the IRS, the Office of Homeland Security, and many others. These placements provide access to the South Texas College of Law legal community and give law students the opportunity to expand their professional skills and identify challenging and fulfilling work possibilities.

Two semester hours credit. Offered periodically.

Prerequisites: 45 semester hours plus completion or concurrent enrollment in all required courses (with the exception of the substantial writing credit).

This seminar examines the law governing application of the death penalty in the context of moral, social, and political questions raised by capital punishment. The seminar considers key issues including the meaning and limits of the Eighth Amendment; attempts to enact constitutional death penalty statutes; the issues regarding legal representation in capital cases; jury selection; international law and the death penalty; the effect of race in the application of the death penalty; and the post-conviction review of death sentences.

Two semester hours credit. Normally offered twice a year.

Prerequisites: 45 semester hours plus completion or concurrent enrollment in all required courses (with the exception of the substantial writing credit).

The forensic evidence seminar is an exciting course that will examine selected topics in the forensic disciplines devoted to the investigation and trial of cases. Prior topics have included blood spatter, DNA, firearms examination, arson investigation, bite marks, and death investigations. There is also an optional autopsy viewing. By the completion of the course students should develop a better understanding of admissibility of evidence based on Texas and federal standards, articulate the controversy surrounding the admission of forensic evidence in the courtroom through class discussion, oral presentation and a written paper, and recognize and explain various ways to communicate the strengths and weaknesses of forensics to a judge or jury. There is no final exam for this course. Students are required to complete a seminar paper, give a brief oral presentation of their topic, and participate in class discussions. This class will be useful for any student who enjoys delving into forensic evidence, but is particularly well-suited for students interested in practicing criminal law. Warning: Class contents may be graphic in nature.

Two or three semester hours credit. Offered periodically.

This course focuses on substantive international criminal law and the institutions designed to enforce it. Substantive topics include the basis and objectives of international criminal law, theories of jurisdiction, criminal responsibility of people, groups and states, and potential defenses and immunity from prosecution. Both international and transnational crimes are addressed. These include genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, terrorism, drug and human trafficking, and piracy. The history of international criminal prosecutions from Nuremberg to present day ad hoc and permanent tribunals is examined, with an emphasis on both substantive law development and the structure and procedural safeguards of those tribunals. Additional procedural topics include: national prosecution of international crimes, international criminal investigations, state cooperation with international courts and tribunals, and sentencing and punishment.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered once each academic year. 

The course considers the United States constitutional framework for the exercise of national security powers by the three branches of government; maintaining national security abroad through war, self-defense, reprisal, humanitarian intervention, and intelligence operations; fighting terrorists and international criminals; and protecting national security information in a democratic society. Class meetings often begin with student and instructor contributions on current news of national security relevance.

Two semester hours credit. Offered periodically.

The course explores the relationship between law and counter-terrorism policy. Students will learn to analyze the legality of various responses to terrorism from a national and international legal perspective by studying legal opinions from a variety of specially affected states, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Israel, Russia, and Turkey, as well as international tribunals. The course focuses on four primary response modalities: criminal; economic; civil; and military. The course not only surveys the law related to each of these modalities, but also analyzes how each implicates a fundamentally different legal issue.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered once each academic year.

This course provides a survey of immigration law. The topics covered include asylum and other humanitarian-based forms of protection, family and employment-based immigrant visas, central nonimmigrant visas such as H-1B, grounds of inadmissibility and inadmissibility waivers, admission to the United States, grounds of deportability, the various mechanisms used to remove noncitizens from the country, and the various forms of relief from removal.

Two semester hours credit. Graded honors pass, pass, low pass, or fail. Normally offered as an intersession course.

This course examines problems encountered in establishing and operating the business side of a successful law practice, and offers practical solutions. During the course, students will design a business plan for their own potential practice with the professor’s guidance. Among the subjects covered are office location and layout, technology, including the web-based law library, filing and control systems and accounting methods, insurance needs, IOLTA, SBOT and other administrative obligations, document retention requirements, alternative systems of fee determination and billing with an introduction to case evaluation, and attracting, retaining, interviewing and counseling clients.