Class assignments are listed alphabetically by course name. All will be posted as received. If you do not see the assignments you are looking for, check TWEN, CANVAS, your professor's personal homepage or return to this web page to check again later.
MEDIATION §A
[ALDR-302-A]
Professor Knapp
First Assignments
Register for this course on WestLaw's TWEN at you earliest convenience. Materials will be posted there. Textbooks
Class #1 Tue. 1/14/2020
Class #2 Thu. 1/16/2020
Business Entities-A
[BUSN-300-A]
Professor Kirkwood
First Assignment
International Business Transactions
[BUSN-320-A]
Professor Mark Chinen
Reading Assignment
Mon. 1/13 Chow & Schoenbaum pp. 1-22
Wed. 1/15 Chow & Schoenbaum pp. 22-47
UCC Secured Transactions
[COMM-355-A]
Professor Diane Dick
1/13: Introduction; Remedies of Unsecured Creditors under State Law
Textbook: Read pages 3-19.
Statutes: Read UCC §§1-101 through 1-103 (and Official Comments).
Problems: 1.1 through 1.5
Recommended: Anthony Clark, Brides left scrambling after wedding businesses close doors, Gainesville Sun.
1/15: Security and Foreclosure
Textbook: Read pages 22-36.
Statutes: Familiarize yourself with the structure of UCC §1-201 through §1-206, UCC §9-101, and UCC §9-102 (and skim Official Comments). Please do not worry about mastering substance; read only to gain a sense of the layout of the UCC and where to find relevant definitions and rules of interpretation. Skim the Official Comments to gain a sense of the tone and depth of this explanatory material.
Problems: 2.1 through 2.6.
Recommended: Rebecca Burns, The infamous practice of contract selling is back, Chicago Reader.
Contracts B
[CONT-105-B]
Professor Mark Chinen
Reading Assignment
Mon. 1/13 Fall 2019 Coursebook Unit 26
Wed. 1/15 Fall 2019 Coursebook Unit 27
Civil Procedure Section 1
[CIVL-100-1]
Professor Shapiro
First Assignment -- Week 1
[NB.] I generally give all the reading assignments for a week at a-typically on Friday afternoon of the preceding week. I post them on the course page maintained on Canvas. I know from experience that there is almost always slippage in class coverage. The materials assigned for Tuesday may carry over into Thursday and those for Thursday may carry over into Friday.
I realize that this can be frustrating, but I find it is best to give the assignment in advance even though the timing may be a bit off. Be assured we will cover all the assigned materials, typically on the day they are assigned or the day after. I will not skip materials I have assigned. And I will revise assignments as the week progresses so that you will always know what we are doing in the next class.
You should be aware that if you do the reading for Friday over the preceding weekend you will not have ready command of it by the time the Friday class rolls around. This is probably also true for Thursday's readings. Thus, even if you do the reading in advance, try to review it shortly before class.]
Before classes begin: In early January there will be a fully operational Canvas site for the class. You should go and check it out. I will use the site extensively during the semester so you should make it a habit to check there. I will not clutter your inbox with notices every time I add material, so the onus is on you to check the site regularly.
With all that said, here are the reading assignments for the first week of class. The two main readings will be (or have been) e-mailed to you. I am also providing an extensive list of questions to guide you in your readings. (All of these materials will also be available on the Canvas site.)
Class 1. For Tuesday, January 14, 2020.
Look over the section of the casebook labeled "Study Guide." (This begins on page xxxvii.) This is purely introductory, but it is a good place to start. You may also wish to review the Comprehensive Study Guide. (You will find the Comprehensive Study Guide on Canvas. You may wish to download a copy.) It is written by the casebook authors. There's a lot of useful information there. On one or two occasions I may make specific assignments from the Comprehensive Study Guide.
During the first portion of this class I will describe my goals and expectations for the semester. There is no reading for this part of the class.
In the second part of the class, we will begin discussion of the two readings listed below. This discussion will carry over to the following class (Thursday, January 16). You will get more out of the discussion if you do both readings for the first class and then review them for January 16.
The assigned readings are:
--Walker vs. City of Birmingham. I will post the opinion on the Canvas site and I am also sending a copy to you via e-mail.
--Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail (linked here). You can find that online here. I will also e-mail you a copy. Focus on the first six pages of The Letter.
As you can see, Walker arises from the same events that lead Dr. King to write The Letter. These are, in a sense, different ways of looking at the same thing. We will use these readings to expose some of the central issues in law and in civil procedure.
Questions to guide your reading will be posted separately on Canvas, linked here as well as emailed to you.
Class 2. For Thursday, January 16. Reread the materials assigned for Class 1. Also read 32-34 in the Comprehensive Study Guide (get to it via the Canvas page).
The bulk of this class will be devoted to discussion of the readings for Class 1. You should reread the materials assigned for that class. We will also review the criminal/civil distinction, how the adversary system works and how attorneys are paid. Think about how fees structure attorney behavior. Pay particular attention to contingency fees.
Class 3. For Friday, January 17. Read 733-36 and 744-49 (the materials on standard of review)
These materials cover appellate procedure. We are taking these materials out of order and may return to them in more detail much later in the course. For now, however, a rough understanding of appellate procedure will help you understand the written opinions that form the basis for most of your classes.
Federal Courts
[CIVL-305-A]
Professor David Skover
All information concerning the course, including the Syllabus, is available in "Skover Online"
For the first day of class, please: (1) familiarize yourself with the pages of the website associated with the course, and (2) read the materials in Section I (Introduction), Assignment 1 (Pushaw article).
Civil Procedure II
[CIVL-325-A]
Professor Brooke Coleman
First Assignment
The material for this course is a "Civil Procedure II Reader" that is available for purchase in the bookstore.
I will assign readings on a weekly basis. For the week of January 13, please read 28 U.S.C. § 1291, § 1292; FRCP 23(f); FRAP 1-6; Hamer v. Neighborhood Housing Servs. of Chicago, 138 S.Ct. 13 (2017); In re Trump, 874 F.3d 948 (6th Cir. 2017); Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Carpenter, 558 U.S. 100 (2009); Microsoft Corp. v. Baker, 137 S.Ct. 1702 (2017). (These are all included in the Reader.)
A Canvas site for this course has been established, and you should register for it. I have posted the syllabus for this class. You should read it before attending the first day.
Constitutional Law II
[CNLW-300-A]
Professor David Skover
All information concerning the course, including the Syllabus, is available in "Skover Online"
For the first day of class, please (1) familiarize yourself with the pages of the website associated with the course, and (2) read the materials in Section I (The State Action Doctrine), Assignment 1 (Text 1435-1450).
Environmental Law Fundamentals §A
ENVL-300-A
Professor Gonzalez
Required Texts:
1. Percival, Schroeder, Miller and Leape, Environmental Regulation: Law, Science and Policy 8th ed. 2018).
2. Percival and Schroeder, Environmental Law Statutory and Case Supplement 2019-2020 (2019).
First assignment:
1. Textbook pages 1-29
2. Excerpt from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (available on TWEN)
3. Excerpt from The Shock of the Anthropocene (available on TWEN)
4. Article published in the Anthropocene Review (available on TWEN)
5. Watch documentary (53 minutes): Endangered Planet.
Please see Endangered Planet Handout for questions to ponder as you watch the film and do the readings.
Evidence §A
[EVID-200-A]
Professor Ahrens
First Assignment
Family Law §A
[FAML-300-A]
Professor Bowen
First Assignment
Read from your Sixth Edition Family Law textbook pp 125-138 and 164-170.
COMPARATIVE LAW: The Middle East
[INTL-350-A]
Professor Powell
Textbook: We will use Albert Hourani's A History of the Arab Peoples ("H") (Warner Books Edition), Abdullahi Ahmed An-Nai'im's Toward an Islamic Reformation ("An-Naim") and the articles available on TWEN, along with articles available on the web.
Register for this course on WestLaw's TWEN at your earliest opportunity and read the syllabus posted there.
Trademark Law
[INTP-315-E]
Professor Cumbow
First Class Assignment
The class meets for the first time on Monday evening, January 13, 2020 in Room C1, from 4pm to 5:50pm. Please come to class having read the following:
Textbook:
27-30: Borchard, "A Trademark Is Not a Patent or a Copyright ..."
539-545: Dastar Corp. V. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
61-65: Kellogg v. Nabisco
Additional Required Reading: "Five Common Misconceptions Regarding Trademark Protection"
Assigned readings are found in the assigned Textbook, the Supplement, and in pdf format on the Additional Required Readings page in the "Pages" section of the course Canvas site, arranged by the class date for which each is required.
Required Materials
The required text for the course is the Sixth Edition of Trademark and Unfair Competition Law by Ginsburg, Litman, Kevlin (identified in the Syllabus as "Text"). It is available in several formats at varying prices, including standard hardcover text, eTextbook for a variety of devices and platforms, looseleaf, and ring-bound. I encourage you to look at the options and choose the format that works best for you. You can see all of the options here and here.
Also required is the 2018 Letter Update (identified in the Syllabus as "Supplement"), which is available as a free pdf download here.
Additional required readings are listed in the Syllabus and are provided as pdf documents in the Additional Required Readings page in the "Pages" section of the course Canvas site. All required readings are listed in the Syllabus under the class date for which they are required.
Please familiarize yourself with the policies, standards, expectations, and day-by-day Syllabus found on the "Syllabus" page in the "Pages" section of the course Canvas site (not in the "Syllabus" section of the Canvas site, which I've intentionally left blank).
INTP 367: Introduction to the Law of FinTech
Professor Vincent
Class 1 -- 1/14/2020
Assigned Reading:
Preliminaries: Introductions | Expectations for Students | Overview of the Course
Lecture 1: What Is FinTech?-Platform Thinking, APIs, Dapps, AI & Big Data (Professors Vincent & Rogers)
COURSE MATERIALS
Required: NOTE: in time. You can do just as well (or better, in case of e-book options) ordering these books online.
Edward A. Morse, ed. Electronic Payment Systems: Law and Emerging Technologies (Chicago: ABA Publishing, 2018), 325 pages. ISBN: 9781634259620. Order here: $89 (No E-Book)
James A. Cox and Mark W. Rasmussen, Blockchain for Business Lawyers (Chicago, ABA Book Publishing, 2018), 352 pages. ISBN: 9781641051965. Order here: $129 (E-Book available too)
Daniel Drescher, Blockchain Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction in 25 Steps, 1st Edition (New York: Apress Media LLC, 2017), 255 pages. ISBN-10: 1484226038, ISBN-13: 978-1484226032. Order here: $21.95 | $16.95 (Paperback/Kindle)
Additional Online Materials: As Noted Below & Subject to Announcement (TWEN & Updated Syllabus)
The Business of Intellectual Property
[INTP-392-A]
Professor Steven Tapia
First Assignment
Required Text: Transactional Intellectual Property: From Startups to Public Companies, by Gruner, Ghosh & Kesan, 4th Ed, Carolina Academic Press, 2018
Register for this course on WestLaw's TWEN site at your earliest convenience as most of the study materials will be posted there including your class syllabus and your Class #1 reading assignment(two article).
Professional Responsibility
[PROF-200-A]
Professor Kirsten Schimpff
Real Estate Transactions §A
[PROP-300-A]
Professor Steven Bender
**Register for this class on WestLaw's TWEN at your earliest opportunity. Your syllabus is posted there.
First Assignment
Class 1 Tuesday January 14
Introduction: The Nature of Modern Real Estate Transactions pages 1-13 2.
Class 2 Thursday January 16
Overview of Lawyer's Role in Real Estate Conveyancing and Broker Competition 17- 38 (middle); Douglas v. Visser, 295 P.3d 800 (Wash. App. 2013)
Documents Manual referred to in the casebook
Remedies-A
[REMD-300-A]
Professor Sid DeLong
Purchase the Remedies 300-A Bundle from the Seattle Bookstore as well as Laycock's Modern American Remedies Casebook.
Follow the Instructions for the First Assignment in your Remedies Workbook to do the first assignment.
Register for this course on WestLaw's TWEN at your earliest convenience.
Taxation of LLCs and Partnerships
[TAXL-307-A]
Professor Diane Dick
1/13-1/15: Introduction; Business Entity Classification
Textbook: Read pages 3-39.
Code: Read §§761(a),(b), 7701(a)(1)-(3).
Regs: §§1.761-1(a),(b),-2(a), 301.7701-1,-2,-3.
Problems: Complete Problem 1 on Page 23.
TORTS §A
[TORT-105-A]
Professor Gonzalez
Assignment for week of January 13, 2020
Welcome to Torts! Last semester, you covered intentional torts and strict liability. The focus of this semester will be the law of negligence. The reading assignment for the first week of class is as follows:
Vicarious Liability: textbook pages 159-173
Compensatory damages: textbook pages 621-649
For those of you who would like to read ahead: After we discuss the readings assigned for the first week, we will cover pages 650-676, culminating with a negotiation exercise based on Problem 38 (which begins on page 657).
Problem 38: The class will be divided into teams of four students (two representing the plaintiff and two representing the defendant) that will conduct a negotiation in an attempt to settle the tort claim brought by Sidney Rothman against Tompkins Department Store. Each team will receive detailed instructions and a confidential information packet prior to the exercise. You will need to read pages 657-676 to prepare for this assignment. As you read the problem, please apply the compensatory damage and vicarious liability cases you have read to calculate the damages to which the plaintiff Sidney Rothman might be entitled.
TORTS §C
[TORT-105-C]
Professor Powell
FIRST ASSIGNMENT