Exciting New Spring 2018 Courses Focus on the Future

UC Law SF is primed for the Spring 2018 semester with cutting-edge classes to equip students with the tools for success as a modern attorney.

New courses will also collaborate with the recently established LexLab at UC Law SF to provide students with entrepreneurial, design, and technical skills necessary to envision and implement advancements in legal services.

“Innovative courses round out the strong core of our curriculum. Our students need to acquire basic lawyering skills, including oral and written communication and legal research, writing and analysis,” says Academic Dean Morris Ratner. “But they also need to have opportunities to engage, to be thoughtful about justice and the practice of law, to develop their professional identities, and to be inspired about the future and their place in it. We are fortunate to be able to offer a curriculum that is rich enough to hit all those bases.”

Some of the can’t-miss courses include:

Using Artificial Intelligence in Legal Practice
Part of the LexLab offerings, this course will leapfrog students into the 3rd year of law practice by helping them to understand and master the use of AI in the legal space. Three key aspects of the course 1) understanding AI, metadata and the synergy of the two; 2) confronting legal, ethical, and behavioral implications of using AI in legal practice; and 3) developing an ability to use legal robots in the practice of law.

Advanced Immigration Law Seminar
This seminar will explore the following advanced topics in immigration and nationality law: 1) the rights of non-citizens under U.S. and international law, including issues involving counsel, detention and procedural due process; 2) non-citizens’ right of access to public benefits; 3) the rights of non-citizens in the workplace; 4) the tensions between state/local and federal government in regulating immigration law; and 5) non-citizens’ access to federal courts in addressing violations of their rights under the immigration laws.

Legal Tech Startup Skills
Another LexLab collaboration where students will study startups and entrepreneurial ecosystems, including how ideas are developed, plans implemented, teams built, funding found and other skills explored that are necessary to creating a viable startup. Students will be instructed on the legal issues that startups often must confront as they mature and will deep dive into legal tech startups and how they differ from more general startups.

Stalking and the Law Seminar
This seminar will address the law’s response to stalking and explore the prevalence, characteristics, and lethality of stalking. Students will examine the impetus for, and nature of state and federal criminal stalking statutes, compare the criminal versus civil response to stalking, and explore the law’s response to stalking in marginalized subpopulations (i.e., students on college campuses, immigrant victims, and child victims).

Other new Spring 2018 offerings available to UC Law SF students are Nonprofit Law Experiential Module, Health Law Practice, Financial & Risk Management, Con Law II: Law & Process, Litigation Finance, Education & the Law, Torts II: Law and Process, and Public Health Law-Statutory Interpretation.

“Our curriculum is dynamic because the law and legal services market are constantly changing. This is especially true with regards to technology, where we benefit from proximity to thought leaders,” concludes Dean Ratner. “Classes like AI and Legal Tech Startups add to our existing technology curriculum – including E-Discovery, Data Privacy, and the Startup Legal Garage – to prepare our students for the future of law practice.”