Areas of Concentration
Business Transactions
Primary Contacts: Professor Elizabeth Miller, Associate Dean Leah Jackson
The Business Transactions area of
concentration builds upon concepts taught in Business Organizations I and
Federal Income Taxation to provide students with an understanding of
fundamental issues business attorneys routinely face, including basic tax
treatment of various business entities and basic analysis and planning in
the organization and operation of a business. This area of concentration
also exposes students to more sophisticated corporate issues, including the
federal securities concerns in raising capital and issues facing
publicly-held companies.
Business law is a broad area in which attorneys are usually focused on one
or more specific areas of business practice. The electives within this
Business Transactions concentration reflect a wide range of subjects that
may arise in a business practice. Students may choose from sixteen
specialized courses to further focus their studies in one or more specific
areas of business (such as employment law, tax, international law, or
commercial transactions) or to prepare them for an anticipated career path.
Students pursuing this concentration are encouraged to take as many courses
from the elective list as scheduling permits.
The culminating experience for students in this area of concentration is the
Business Transactions Capstone. This capstone course builds on and ties
together various substantive areas covered in the core courses of the
concentration by requiring students to devise a plan or draft documents for
a hypothetical business transaction. Students who anticipate a general
business planning practice are encouraged to coordinate the Estate Planning
concentration with the Business Transactions concentration due to the
interrelationship between closely-held business planning and the owner’s
personal estate planning.
After taking Business Organizations I and Federal Income Taxation (courses
required of all students), those choosing to concentrate in Business
Transactions complete the following courses:
Business Organizations II
Business Planning and Drafting
Business Transactions Capstone
Corporate Taxation
Partnership Taxation
Securities Regulation
Business Transactions students must either complete the Client Counseling
course or participate in the annual Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee Client
Counseling Competition.
Business Transactions students also complete seven hours from among the
following courses:
Antitrust
Bankruptcy
Business & State Issues in Environmental Law
Commercial Transactions: Negotiable Instruments
Commercial Transactions: Secured Transactions
Employment Discrimination
Employment Relations
Estate Planning
Family Business Planning
Franchising
Health Care Law
Intellectual Property
International Business Transactions
International Trade Laws
Real Estate Finance
White Collar Crime