Flex-LLM in U.S. Law: Accelerated D.C. Bar Prep is for students who hold a non-U.S. law degree and want to meet D.C. Bar requirements.
Flex-LLM in U.S. Law: Accelerated D.C. Bar Prep
- For students who hold a non-U.S. law degree and want to meet DC Bar requirements
- Remote course options that serve working professionals
- Includes BARBRI bar preparation program
- Complete the degree in 1 year of full-time study
- Full access to law school resources, including library and advising services
Required Courses
The Flex-LLM in US Law makes you D.C. Bar eligible quickly. The streamlined 28-credit program breaks classes into manageable 8-week increments and includes concurrent bar preparation services that are specifically designed to prepare you for the D.C. Bar exam.
Intro to U.S. Law & Professional Responsibility
1 Credit
This course is designed to provide LL.M. students who did not receive their legal education in the United States with an overview of U.S. law. Students will develop basic research and writing skills necessary for the study and practice of law in the U.S., while covering substantive areas of law, including contracts, torts, and Constitutional law. This course will not provide an exhaustive survey of each topic, but rather exposure to a large amount of foundational information in a short period of time.
A study of the activities and responsibilities of lawyers and their relationships with clients, the legal profession, the courts, and the public. Problems of professional responsibility are treated in several contexts, e.g., the lawyer’s duty to the client, the provision of adequate legal services to all, and the reconciliation of the lawyer’s obligations to the client with the demands of justice and the public interest.
Torts
2 Credits
This course examines the fundamental principles of legal obligation in the absence of voluntary contract or family relationship. In such circumstances, why, when, and to what extent should one person ever be financially liable to another? The legal rules and doctrines are considered in themselves and in relation to moral philosophy, political theory, and economics.
Criminal Law
2 Credits
General principles of the substantive criminal law and its major processes are derived from study of its common law origins and the effects of such variables as societal values, legislation, and judicial activity. Inquires into uses of the coercive power of the state, the federal-state relationship, and the concepts of group criminality, liability for uncompleted crimes, and rationale for punishment.
Contracts
2 Credits
Introduction to the principles of contract law, including the consideration doctrine, offer and acceptance, promissory estoppel, and the regulation of the bargaining process.
Property
2 Credits
This required course is a survey of the law of property. It emphasizes the process and rationale for the creation of private interests in tangible, intangible, and intellectual property; the Anglo-American system of estates in land (including landlord-tenant law and future interests); transfers of land (including the real estate contract and deed); and methods for title assurance (including deed covenants, the recording system, and title insurance).
Business Associations
2 Credits
Provides a detailed introduction to the law and economics of agency, partnerships, corporations, and limited liability companies. The majority of the course focuses on corporation law.
Secured Finance
2 Credits
Explores the law and economic consequences of secured finance. The principal focus is on the Uniform Commercial Code’s Article 9 (on security interests in personal property) and its influence on financial transactions between debtors and creditors. Includes examination of how bankruptcy law affects secured credit.
Economics for Lawyers
1 Credit
Economics for Lawyers (formerly Economic Foundations of Legal Studies) exposes students to a broad survey of economic, statistical, financial, and accounting concepts in which those concepts play a crucial role in determining the outcome of legal disputes. Students will not become experts in these technical areas but will be exposed to both the mechanics and subtleties of these tools. The goal is to educate and train students so that they will be better prepared to understand a dispute, craft an argument, or prepare a witness.
Civil Procedure
3 Credits
This basic course is for the study of the legal process, with emphasis on the powers and operations of courts deciding disputes between private parties. Examines the organization of state and federal courts and the relations between them; the processes by which courts resolve disputes; and the extent to which judicial decisions are conclusive of subsequent disputes. Among the topics studied are jurisdiction of courts over persons, property, and subject matter; the finality of judgments; the choice of applicable law; the scope of litigation as to claims, defenses, and parties; the processes of stating claims and exchanging information in discovery; trials and the division of functions between judge and jury; the right to jury trial; a brief introduction to the law of evidence; summary methods of decision without trial; and appellate review.
Constitutional Law
3 Credits
This course will introduce students to some of the foundational concepts and questions of United States constitutional law. Students will first consider the nature and function of a constitution in general, along with methods of constitutional interpretation that have played an important role in U.S. constitutional jurisprudence. The majority of the term will be spent examining two core aspects of the U.S. Constitution: its provision for government structure and the distribution of power, and its protections for individual rights. Students will learn how to read constitutional cases to understand their holdings and arguments, trace the development of legal rules, and analyze and critique the Supreme Court’s constitutional interpretations. Additionally, the course will address how such concepts are tested on the bar exam. Course enrollment is limited to LLM students at the law school.
Evidence
2 Credits
Examines legal rules governing the proof of disputed issues of fact during adversary proceedings. The emphasis is on rules determining the admissibility of various types of evidence, including testimonial evidence (hearsay rules and impeachment of witnesses), documentary evidence, and scientific and expert evidence. The course also considers judicial notice as substitute for evidence, burdens of proof, and the effect of jury trial on rules of evidence. Civil Procedure is a prerequisite for this class.
Family Law
2 Credits
The course is focused on the formation of families, marriage, marital dissolution and the division of marital assets, cohabitation, issues connected with children, and contemporary directions in the reform of family law.
Conflict of Laws
2 Credits
Focuses on choice of law problems, particularly in relation to property, family law, contracts, torts, trusts, and the administration of estates. Consideration is given to acts of jurisdiction, effects of judgments, special problems of federalism, and transnational regulation.
Trusts and Estates
2 Credits
A study of the basic devices in gratuitous transfers, including the will, the trust, powers, selected problems in class gifts, will and trust substitutes, and social restrictions upon the power of testation, the formation of property interests, and the trust device.
Sample Schedule
| CLASSES | COURSES | CREDITS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quick-Start: Fall Term 2023 (2 Weeks) |
Weeks 1 & 2: Intro to US Law & Professional Responsibility (1 cr) |
1 credit | ||
| Fall 2023 |
Session 1: Civic Procedure (3 cr) Contracts (2 cr) |
Session 2: Constitutional Law (3 cr) Evidence (2 cr) |
10 credits total | |
| Spring 2024 |
Session 1: Conflicts of Law (2 cr) Business Associations (2 cr) Economics for Lawyers (1 cr) |
Session 2: Trust & Estates (2 cr) Secured Finance (2 cr) |
9 credits total | |
| Summer 2024 |
Session 1: Torts (2 cr) Property Law (2 cr) |
Session 2: Criminal Law (2 cr) Family Law (2 cr) |
8 credits total | |