2L-3L Upper Level Lesson Topics

A large percentage of litigation arising out of contracts results from poor drafting. In order to eliminate this litigation, it is imperative that students and legal professionals master good drafting skills. One of the most important aspects of drafting a contract is the operative language--language that affects legal relationships. This lesson is designed to introduce law students to operative language commonly used in drafting contracts, in particular, language of obligation (shall), language of authorization (may) and language of condition precedent (must).

This lesson covers the historical evolution of Congress's authority to enact legislation pursuant to the Commerce Clause. Congress's contemporary Commerce Clause authority is covered in a separate lesson.

This lesson explores the many uses of the doctrine of election of remedies. Students will discover that attorneys will invoke the doctrine of election of remedies to enforce statutory or contractual exclusivity of remedy; to require plaintiffs to be bound by their intentional choice; to protect defendants from prejudice due to their detrimental reliance on plaintiff's actions; to eliminate double recovery for the same wrong; or to eliminate splitting and relitigation of claims. By working through the problems in this lesson, students will become familiar with the many different purposes of the doctrine and recognize the overlap with other remedial doctrines, such as waiver, estoppel, laches, and res judicata.

This exercise is designed for use in conjunction with any Federal Courts, Federal Jurisdiction, or Civil Rights course that covers the Eleventh Amendment. The exercise takes the student through attempts to bring a federal lawsuit to rectify substandard conditions at a home for the mentally ill.

When an employer breaches an employment contract, the employee might seek any of several different types of remedies. In general, it will be difficult (if not impossible) for the employee to obtain injunctive relief against the employer. As a result, most of the litigation focuses on damages and the level of recovery that an employee might obtain against a breaching employer. This lesson focuses on the employee damage remedy, and is intended for students who have studied these issues in class and wish to refine their knowledge.

This lesson focuses on employee injunctive remedies against an employer. The issues raised by this lesson arise in a variety of different contexts, involving both low-level employees and famous individuals. They also involve various types of injunctive requests (e.g., attempts to enforce contracts, as well as for defamation). This lesson is intended for students who have studied these issues in class and wish to refine their knowledge.

This lesson examines the creation of the employer/employee relationship (formerly master/servant relationship) in agency law and contrasts that relationship with the status of independent contractor. The lesson provides an opportunity to think about why the distinction is important and how to tell whether a given relationship rises to the level of being an employer/employee relationship or is merely an independent contractor relationship.

This lesson deals with issues related to an employer's damage remedies for breach of an employment contract. As we shall see, employers might be able to claim various types of remedies depending on the circumstances and context. This lesson is intended for students who have studied these issues in class and wish to expand and refine their knowledge.

This lesson deals with issues relating to an employer's ability to use injunctive remedies against an employee who breaches a contract. In addition to examining issues relating to affirmative and negative specific performance, it also examines covenants not to compete. The lesson is intended for students who have studied these issues in class and wish to refine their knowledge.

This lesson is a review of child support enforcement at both the state and federal levels.

This is the first in a series of three lessons on limited liability companies. It provides a comparative overview of unincorporated entities such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and limited liability companies (LLCs), and incorporated entities including S and C corporations.