First-year law students at Baylor Law School must complete eight required courses during their first three quarters in law school. These courses provide instruction in basic legal doctrine and training in basic legal skills. These courses are similar to first-year courses at almost all law schools in the United States.
(1 quarter, 4 quarter hours)
Primary instructor: Professor Jeremy Counseller
An introduction to our judicial process as a method of dispute resolution. The focus of this course is on the choices open to litigants and how the rules of procedure facilitate or prevent the attainment of those objectives. Major areas of concentration include our system of pleading, jurisdiction, federalism, preclusion, and the rules that regulate the joinder of parties and claims.
(2 quarters, 8 quarter hours)
Primary instructor: Professor Larry Bates
A comprehensive survey of the law of contracts both at common law and under Uniform Commercial Code. This course examines the legal and equitable remedies for enforcing contracts, the creation of promissory liability, contract interpretation, performance and excuse, standards of fairness and restrictions on the bargaining process, express and implied conditions and the rights of third parties.
(1 quarter, 3 quarter hours)
Primary instructor: Professor Brian Serr
A study of the concepts basic to criminal law, including voluntary acts and omissions, states of mind, strict liability, murder and manslaughter, causation, accomplice liability, inchoate liability (attempt, conspiracy, and solicitation) and defenses (mistake, necessity, duress, self-defense, insanity).
(1 quarter, 3 quarter hours)
Primary instructor: Professor Brian Serr
A study of constitutional limitations on policy investigation of crime, including search and seizure, interrogations, lineups, and undercover activity.
(1 qtr. hr.)
Primary instructor: Professor Brian Serr
An introduction to the critical role that the legal profession plays in shaping a stable, peaceful and prosperous society. Through the study of historical events, literature, noteworthy opinions, documentaries and current events, students will become more conversant about the
importance of the rule of law and the lawyer’s role in implementing and upholding it.
(1 quarter, 4 quarter hours)
Primary instructor: Professor Ron Beal
A study through the use of statutes, of the processes by which legislative and administrative policy is translated into law and applied by the politically responsible agencies. Areas included are separation of powers, delegation, statutory construction, rule making, and adjudication.
(3 quarter hours)
Primary instructors:
Professor Brandon Quarles, Professor Cordon, Associate Professor Ryan
Legal Analysis, Research, and Communications (LARC) is a three-hour course that you will complete during two consecutive quarters. In this course, students learn fundamentals in important aspects of legal writing and problem-solving, including: (1) legal organization (issue, law, application, rebuttal), (2) legal clarity (sensitivity to legal terms of art, statutory phrases, elements of proof, and so forth), and (3) legal specificity (always tying general legal principles and elements to particular facts of the case). Students also receive instruction in legal research and citation.
LARC Part I focuses primarily on the basics of drafting a memorandum of law using case analysis, along with instruction about researching and citing to cases. Students complete two memoranda during the first quarter of LARC.
LARC Part II focuses on statutory analysis, forms of legal writing in addition to memoranda of law, and several legal research topics. During the second quarter of LARC, students complete a research memorandum and a final major research project.
(2 quarters, 7 quarter hours)
Primary instructor: Assistant Professor Fuselier
A study of the interests which may be created in real property, the rights and obligations that exist by virtue of ownership of such interests, and the means of transferring those interests. Topics covered include: possession and how it affects property ownership, estates in land, landlord tenant relationships, real covenants and equitable servitudes, easements, concurrent ownership, the real estate transaction, general warranty deeds, priorities and the recording system, title insurance, adverse possession, gifts of real and personal property, Texas homestead laws, and eminent domain. The first quarter of Property meets four hours a week and the second quarter of Property meets three hours a week.
(2 quarters, 7 quarter hours)
Primary instructor: Associate Professor Jim Underwood
A study of the standards and principles governing compensation at law for private wrongs, including the basic principles of intentional wrongs, negligence, strict liability, and the defenses thereto.
