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.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.

Problems of the family, including marriage, termination of the marital status, the parent-child relationship, assisted reproduction and adoption.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year. 

Texas community property system, property rights of husband and wife, rights of other parties, and homestead.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year. 

A study of the execution and revocation of wills, intestate succession, will contests and will substitutes; creation and administration of private express, charitable, resulting, implied and constructive trusts; duties, powers and responsibilities of trustees; and the basics of estate administration.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Two semester hours credit. Offered periodically.

Prerequisites: Wills, Trusts & Estates.

A skills-based, practice-focused study in the area of wills and estate administration including guardianship representation, basic estate planning, creditor claims, client development, fiduciary responsibility, and the role of the personal representative in decedents’ estates.

Relevant bar examination topic.

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

Texas civil procedure in trial courts from the prelitigation phase to the beginning of trial. Includes subject matter jurisdiction in the Texas courts, provisional remedies, prelitigation devices, jurisdiction over the person, venue, pleadings, parties, res judicata and collateral estoppel, discovery tools and techniques, and summary judgment and other methods of disposition without trial, as governed by Texas law.

Relevant bar examination topic.

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

Texas civil procedure in trial courts from the beginning of the trial through the motion for new trial with particular emphasis on pleading and practice in Texas and jury charge, jury and non-jury trial, verdict and judgment. Appellate procedure, method, nature and scope of appellate relief; appealable judgments; jurisdiction of appellate courts; procedure and parties; effect of transfer; supersedeas; records and brief; motion for rehearing review by the Court of Civil Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court.

Three semester hours credit. Offered periodically. Enrollment limited to 14 students.

Prerequisites: Must have completed 45 semester hours and Evidence. These prerequisites will be strictly enforced.

Note: Students may receive credit toward graduation for only one trial advocacy course (Civil Trial Advocacy, Criminal Trial Advocacy, or Family Law Trial Advocacy).

This course is designed to simulate the resolution of a family law case. Students begin with an initial client interview, and proceed with emergency temporary hearings, issue identification, discovery, attempted settlement, and trial. Special issues peculiar to family law are addressed, such as client control and communication in the family law setting, expedited hearings, and children’s issues. Since the majority of family law cases are resolved without a jury trial, the course focuses on resolution of a family law matter in a bench trial.

Two semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year. Maximum of eight students.

Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed a minimum of 45 semester hours and must have taken or be concurrently taking Wills, Trusts & Estates or a Probate Clinic.

This hands-on civil practice clinic targets skills development in client interviewing and counseling and transactional document drafting. These cases tend to be balanced between client counseling and intensive document drafting. There is some limited skill development in legal research, file documentation and maintenance, legal and case theory development, and professional development. The beginning of the course will teach students basic interviewing skills using classroom lecture components, simulations, a live-client file, and a supervised live-client interview in which students interview a client with modest estate planning needs. Subsequently and within the contextual setting of each client’s articulated needs and goals, students draft the appropriate array of seven potential estate planning documents.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered twice each academic year. Maximum of eight students.

Prerequisites: Students must have successfully completed a minimum of 45 semester hours and a Family Law course or a Family Law Clinic.

Cases in this clinic tend to have more advanced, mixed issues than are found in Family Law Clinic-Basic, such as a divorce joined with contested property, children issues, parentage, grandparent access, post-judgment enforcement or modification, state agency involvement, or service in a court-appointed position (AAL or AMICUS). This hands-on civil practice clinic targets skills development in factual investigation, client interviewing and counseling, legal research, document drafting (transactional and court-related), file documentation and maintenance, legal and case theory development, and professional development. This course assumes some basic knowledge of family law substantive practice.

Two semester hours credit. Offered periodically.

This course first provides an in-depth study of negotiation because mediation is essentially a facilitated negotiation. Next, students will be exposed to mediation theory and process in order to gain an understanding of what is important while representing clients in the mediation session itself. Pre-mediation matters will be addressed including preparing cases and clients for mediation. The course will also cover advocacy during the mediation process. All students will have the opportunity to play the role of advocate in several in-class mediations. The goal of this interactive course is for students to develop the essential problem-solving skills for effective client representation in the mediation process.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.

A study of the legal doctrines governing the formation, operation, and termination of corporations, including the rights, duties, and obligations of shareholders, directors, and officers.

Relevant bar examination topic.

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

A study of the legal doctrines governing the formation, operation, and termination of agency relationships, partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies, including the rights, duties, and obligations of owners and managers.

Crossover bar examination topic.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.

This is an introductory course in the fundamentals of federal income taxation designed to prepare students, as lawyers, to recognize and appreciate the impact of income tax consequences on transactions and events they encounter in the general practice of law, including family law, dispute settlement, real estate, investments of various types and small business counseling. Areas of coverage include the definition and characterization of income, exclusions from income, deductions, and the determination of gain or loss from property transactions. With an emphasis placed on the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury regulations, students are introduced to essential legal skills of learning to read and understand the language of statutes and regulations as well as judicial interpretations and administrative pronouncements.

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.

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.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.

Organization and procedure of federal and state administrative agencies; boards and bureaus; distinction between legislative, executive and judicial powers; delegation of powers; requirements of due process; constitutional limitations; and judicial control over administrative agencies are among the topics covered.

Two semester hours credit. Offered periodically.

This course examines the central conventions, statutes, regulations, and case law that pertain to refugee and asylum law. The primary focus of the class will be asylum and refugee law in the United States. Students will learn about the main requirements for establishing asylum and refugee status, including persecution, the requisite nexus, and the role of the State. The course will also cover the mechanisms used to limit asylum and refugee relief, and the claim adjudication process.

Description coming soon.

Three semester hours credit.

Prerequisites: 45 hours completed.

Students in this clinic aid children and vulnerable adults – those who were forced into prostitution or labor by human traffickers, those who were abandoned in this country by their parents, and those who came here themselves to escape danger in their native countries. These cases present opportunities for students to hone lawyering skills in a variety of venues, including state court, federal agency hearings, and federal court.

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 involves the history and evolution of immigration and naturalization law, including the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996, the organization and structure of the Department of Homeland Security/Citizenship and Immigration Services, the petition and application process, representation of immigrants and non-immigrants, including temporary workers and intra-company transferees, the admission and exclusion of aliens, removal proceedings and relief from deportation, naturalization and citizenship procedures, and judicial review of the immigration judge’s decisions.

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.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Three semester hours credit.

The course focus is upon the basic understanding of criminal accountability that dictates, in other than strict liability offenses, the government must establish four basic components: a mens rea (or mental state), an actus reus (a prohibited act), a concurrence of the two, and causation. The primary offenses focused upon as well as their historical and philosophical development include homicide, non-homicide offenses against the person or against public safety, accomplice liability and inchoate offenses, theft and related crimes, strict liability offenses, and law of the parties. Attention will also be given to the presumption of innocence, burdens of proof, and a number of defenses, such as self-defense, defense of others, defense of property, and insanity. Additional topics covered may include theories of punishment, sentencing, constitutional limitations on penal legislation, historical development of certain felonies and defenses, the Model Penal Code, Texas criminal law, the role of prosecutorial discretion, modern federal criminal statutes, and regulatory offenses.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Four semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.

This course focuses on federal criminal procedure, and includes the constitutional and statutory rules defining the limits of permissible government conduct in the investigation, trial, and punishment of criminal suspects and defendants. Some attention may be given to those parameters that differ at the state level.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Two semester hours credit. Normally offered twice each academic year.

This course introduces the upper-division law student interested in prosecution or defense careers to the statutes governing criminal trials in Texas. The course will also include the following topics: courts and criminal jurisdiction; arrest with and without warrant; bail and forfeiture; search warrant; grand juries: organization, duties and powers; charging instruments: indictments and informations; subpoena and attachments; motions and pleadings: challenges and pre-trial hearings; jury selection; special evidentiary concerns; punishment options; verdict, judgment and sentence; new trial; rights of crime victims; collateral consequences: sex offender registration, enhanced punishment; habeas corpus.

Relevant bar examination topic.

Three semester hours credit. Normally offered three times each academic year.

History and development of the rules relating to presentation of proof and evidentiary matters pertaining to the judicial functions, with emphasis on the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Texas Rules of Evidence, including preparation for trial, examination of witnesses, competency of witnesses, types of evidence, burden of proof, hearsay rule and exceptions, judicial notice, privileges, and impeachment in civil and criminal proceedings.

Four semester hours credit. Normally offered twice each academic year.

Prerequisites: Must have completed 45 semester hours, Evidence, and have taken or be concurrently enrolled in Criminal Procedure. These prerequisites will be strictly enforced.

Note: Students may receive credit toward graduation for only one trial advocacy course (Civil Trial Advocacy, Criminal Trial Advocacy, or Family Law Trial Advocacy).

This course is designed as an introduction to trial tactics in Texas criminal cases, including the introduction and exclusion of evidence at trial and the teaching of special techniques in areas such as juror voir dire, opening statement, impeachment, objections and final argument. For the first nine weeks, students are assigned problems which involve performance of a segment of a trial. Students take the roles of attorneys and witnesses. During the balance of the semester the students are divided into prosecution and defense teams. Each team uses an entire class period to try a mock criminal case.

Two semester hours credit. Normally offered as an intersession course.

Whether a future lawyer is interested in criminal prosecution or criminal defense, a significant aspect of an attorney’s practice will be spent outside the courtroom drafting documents. This course is intended to introduce students to practical, litigation-focused documents that arise in typical criminal cases. The course will help students develop both practical and writing skills necessary to become effective criminal law practitioners.

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 Criminal Procedure is recommended.

Students arrange their own placements in the office of the Harris County District Attorney, the district attorney’s office of neighboring counties, or with the Harris County Public Defender’s Office. Potential placement sections within the prosecutor’s office include felony, misdemeanor, welfare fraud, domestic violence, and environmental crimes. Depending upon the placement, and upon obtaining a temporary bar card, students may observe and participate in pretrial investigation, plea negotiations, and trial.

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.