This course provides an overview of the law as it relates to modern families, including defining a family, the parties' relationships with each other and their children as well as the consequences of dissolution of the family. The main topics covered will be marriage, divorce, spousal and child support, encroachments on family privacy, and rights and obligations of individuals in families. The subject matter also covers abortion, alternative methods of bringing a child into a family as well as government involvement in the family. Family law is in a period of rapid change in the 21st. century. Participants in various family situations search for legal change to accommodate the rapid change in society. Court decisions, lawyers' arguments and the legal issues themselves all show the impact of societal, political, and economic change in the field of family law practice. The course will also explore how the law has evolved, and is continuing to evolve, in recent years. Class time will be used for lecture and discussion regarding text materials. The course is designed to cover the law on a national scope.

This course is designed to jumpstart your bar exam preparation by developing your substantive knowledge and sharpening your critical bar exam success skills. Specifically, you will receive in-depth review of highly tested topics in Contracts, Evidence, Torts and Real Property. You will then put that knowledge to use working through practice MBE and essay questions. You will learn how to develop a strong but flexible framework to resolve bar exam problems, sharpen your reading comprehension, issue identification, rule mastery, critical thinking and legal analysis skills.

The focus of this course will be on understanding the nature and impact of trade secrets law in the US on domestic and global business practices. The course will examine: (a) the theory behind trade secret protection; (b) comparisons with approaches to the protection of valuable commercial information in other jurisdictions; (c) the definition of a ?trade secret? in the US; (d) elements of the misappropriation of trade secrets tort at the state level; (e) the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 and the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 at the federal level; (f) scope of civil and criminal liability for trade secret misappropriation; (g) duties of confidentiality in relation to trade secrecy; (h) loss of status of a trade secret; (i) trade secrets as a(n) (intellectual) property right; (j) defenses to trade secret actions; (k) remedies for misappropriation of a trade secret. Hybrid Juris Doctor students cannot take this course for an S/U grade.

Patent systems and patent laws exist to promote investment in and development of technology. The recently-enacted America Invents Act (AIA) and certain U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the last 5 years have brought the most dramatic changes to U.S. patent law in more than 50 years. This course focuses on the fundamentals of U.S. patent law including patentability, infringement, inventorship, and ownership. The course will also explore some of the underlying themes in patent law as well as the purpose of and justifications for a patent system. The course reading includes the patent statute (Title 35 of the United States Code) both pre-AIA and post-AIA and selected case law primarily from the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The course will generally address both the procurement and enforcement of U.S. patents. Although this course will cover the legal principles underlying patent claim drafting and patentability, this course will not focus on patent practice and procedure. Hybrid Juris Doctor students cannot take this course for an S/U grade.