LLM-Business

Media and the Law Seminar

This seminar will examine a series of legal issues raised by (1) the flow of personal information through social media, (2) the emergence of business models that make money from those information flows, and (3) the role of social media companies as information gatekeepers. Together we will explore the interplay of law (like the rights and freedoms the media enjoy under the First Amendment), and ethics (the professional responsibilities that historically have cabined the exercise of these rights).

Liability Among Associated Business Entities Seminar

This seminar provides students an opportunity to research and discuss a variety of doctrines that can be employed to enable the contract and tort claimants against one entity to access the resources of another entity. Doctrines in various stages of development include alter ego, fraudulent transfer, integrated business, joint venture, nominee, partnership, principal/agent, successor liability, veil piercing. Students will orally present their papers and write after receiving comment from the instructor.

Law and Entrepreneurship

This course provides a survey of business law topics typically encountered when advising small, new, and entrepreneurial businesses. Topics range from selection of an appropriate business entity type and completing the legal formalities to establish the entity to exits from business ownership. In between students will be exposed to legal issues of importance to entrepreneurs including basic tax considerations, debt and equity finance, employee and independent contractor issues, securing intellectual property rights, typical contract matters, insurance, creditors rights and the UCC.

Law and Economics

Economics plays an important role in all areas of the law. This course introduces students to the economic concepts that they will need to know to be effective litigators and transactional lawyers. Among other things, we will address the following questions. How do markets work? What happens when one party to a transaction has an informational or bargaining advantage? How can we tell whether a party is acting rationally or irrationally? How can lawyers use economics to advice clients, draft contracts and make persuasive legal arguments?

Law & Risk Management

The course consists of lectures from industry specialists in the Florida insurance market and professors from the Risk Management division of FSU's College of Business. These lectures provide students with a wealth of valuable information on risk management policy in addition to tips for success in the practice of law and business. During the course students have the opportunity to meet with Florida's insurance regulatory officers and leaders in Florida's administration and public finance sectors.

Land Transfer

A study of basic transactions in real property. Among the topics covered are the respective roles of lawyers and brokers in the conveying process, sales contracts, recording acts, title insurance, remedies for contract breach, and basic mortgage law. 

Introduction to Business, Finance, and Commercial Transactions

This course introduces students to business law, finance, and commercial transactions. The course covers key topics in business, economics, and finance that students will need to know if they plan to do transactional work or commercial litigations. It covers these topics through the lens of corporate law and commercial law (sales, secured transactions, commercial paper). Second-year students taking the course will be introduced to a set of foundational concepts that they will revisit in greater detail if they take more advanced courses in the area.

International Trade and Investment Law

This course covers the law and institutions governing the global trading system, including that of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and regional trading arrangements (e.g., the European Union and NAFTA). The WTO incorporates a dispute settlement system, including the Appellate Body, the jurisprudence of which is followed by other trading regimes. The laws and institutions of the United States that are relevant to international trade are addressed, including constitutional aspects, import and export rules, and rules providing border protection for intellectual property.

International Sales & Arbitration

This course is a primer on international commercial sales and the international arbitration mechanism utilized to resolve most all international sales disputes. It introduces international sales; in particular, the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the contract law covering merchant to merchant international sales of goods. And it introduces international arbitration; particularly, international commercial arbitration tribunals, the private, consensual bodies that resolve most international sales disputes.

International Business Transactions

This course provides an introduction to the work performed by lawyers in international business transactions and to the specific skills and knowledge needed to negotiate multinational transactions. International and several domestic regulatory frameworks for foreign trade and investment will be analyzed. We will focus on single, commodity trades; distributorships; technology transfer; and joint venture vehicles for direct foreign investment. Negotiating strategies and cultural considerations in multinational transactions will be discussed.