Golden Gate University

The purpose of this course is to help students learn approaches to negotiation and conflict resolution, and to understand various dispute resolution processes, principally mediation and arbitration. Students will be exposed to simulated negotiations and mediations and will be expected to participate in exercises and to act as advocates and/or mediators. Guest lecturers may include a hostage negotiator, an aikido master, a retired superior court judge now serving as a JAMS mediator, and prominent mediators and arbitrators. This course counts toward completion of the Experiential Learning Requirement.

Prerequisite: Civil Procedure I and II., Units: 3 , Offered: Fall 2013 , Spring 2013

Children and the Law is a seminar that examines the unique status of children under our legal system, and explores the fundamental question of how the law allocates decision-making power and responsibility for children among the child, the family and the State. The course will focus on both the theory underpinning the child welfare and delinquency systems as well as the function of those systems in practice. Topics we cover include delinquency and juvenile justice; abuse and neglect; foster care and adoption; and the rights of children within the family. Unlike a course in family law, we will not focus on marriage, divorce, or reproductive rights. This course satisfies the JD upper division writing requirement.

Units: 3

This course covers the law of California marital property. Topics include general principles of classifying marital property, management and control of community property, division of community property upon dissolution or death, and the property rights of putative or meretricious spouses. This course counts toward completion of the California Bar Subject Requirement.

Prerequisite: Property I and II (6 units) or Property (4 units)., Units: 2 , Offered: Fall 2013 , Spring 2013

This seminar studies the historical, cultural, and psychological aspects of domestic violence in addition to the civil and criminal changes in the law both nationally and internationally. Students are assigned a reader composed of relevant articles, cases, and legislation.

Units: 2 , Offered: Spring 2013

Elders represent the fastest growing segment of our society, and confront unique legal and financial issues. Topics explored in this course include: elder physical, emotional, and financial abuse; capacity and undue influence; role of Adult Protective Services; civil remedies including EADACPA (the Elder and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act); Government benefits and programs for the elderly; nursing home and related facilities litigation; and end-of-life issues.

Units: 2 , Offered: Fall 2013

This course includes a study of various estate planning topics such as the unified credit, marital deductions, charitable deductions, generation-skipping transfers, life insurance, trusts and their uses, and family limited partnerships. Emphasis is on practical skills needed to create a uniform estate plan. Prerequisite: Estate and Gift Taxation. (Offered through the LLM in Taxation Program. JD students seeking to enroll must obtain the approval of the program director.)

Units: 3 , Offered: Spring 2013

For estate planners representing blended families such as second marriages, same sex relationships, and families with difficult children, this one-unit course will explore and analyze technical and tax issues surrounding the marital deduction, discretionary trust distributions, retirement plan distributions, community property characterization, tax allocation and payment planning, post mortem planning, death versus divorce and the individual psychologies of the parties. This course will also address ethical conflicts and dissect some "typical" estate planning documents to show drafting modifications appropriate for the blended family.

Prerequisite: Estate and Gift Tax; Estate Planning. (Offered through the LLM in Taxation Program. JD students seeking to enroll must obtain the approval of the program director.), Units: 1 , Offered: Fall 2013

This externship is designed to address a vastly underserved population: low income persons and families with urgent family law issues. Students will work with non-profit organizations, government agencies, and private attorneys specializing in Family Law, to handle all aspects of Family Law cases at all stages, from client interview to representation at court hearings, assisting in trials, and writing legal briefs. Students are responsible for obtaining their own placement. For help in finding a placement, please contact Law Career Services, the Externship Director, or the professor well in advance of the start of classes. Eligible students may become certified to argue cases in court. This course counts toward completion of the Experiential Learning Requirement. Corequisites: Students should have taken either Community Property, Family Law, or Family Law Practice, or be taking one of these courses contemporaneously with this externship. This course is graded on a Credit/No Credit basis.

Units: 2 - 4 , Offered: Fall 2013 , Spring 2013

This analysis of public and private regulation of the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of the de facto and de jure family unit includes the respective custody, support, and property rights and obligations between mates and between parents and children. This course counts toward completion of the Upper Division Writing Requirement. Prerequisite: Property I (3 units) or Property (4 units).

Units: 3 , Offered: Fall 2013 , Spring 2013

This course focuses on the skills necessary to carry on a basic family law practice in California. Students prepare and argue motions, learn trial skills, and practice using the most popular computer programs for setting child support according to the detailed provisions of the Family Code. Students also develop parenting and child visitation plans, calculate spousal support, and learn various methods of dividing community property. Priority is given to graduating students. Prerequisite: Family Law.

Units: 3 , Offered: Spring 2013

This seminar will examine key legal issues related to women and children within the international context and the relevant responses designed by international law. Each week we will look at current international issues such as gender discrimination, violence against women, women's violence, religious or traditional practices, including female genital cutting and forced child marriages, abortion, sex trafficking and prostitution, women in peace building, women's land and property rights, child labor, child soldiers as well as other war crimes affecting women and children in hostilities. This course counts toward completion of the Upper Division Writing Requirement.

Units: 2 , Offered: Fall 2013

This course explores the evolving views, skill sets, and ethical considerations for facilitative attorneys practicing consensual dispute resolution, principally mediation and Collaborative Practice, and how attorneys conduct themselves as part of an interdisciplinary team working with mental health and financial professionals. Students will participate in a mock client consultation with a local Collaborative attorney and a mock first Collaborative meeting. Guest lecturers will include leading Bay Area CDR professionals. This course counts toward completion of the Experiential Learning Requirement.

Units: 2

The primary objective of this course is to introduce students to the unique legal issues of the poor and how the legal system deals with access to justice and indigency. We will review historical and contemporary challenges facing public interest lawyers, legal problems and policy choices regarding poverty, and effective advocacy strategies. These themes will then be traced through three areas of substantive discussion: government benefit programs, housing law and homelessness, and family law. We will conclude the course with an examination of new trends in legal services.

Units: 2

The purchase of a home represents the most important financial transaction in their lives for most Americans. (It is also one of the topics most frequently covered on the bar exam.) This course goes through the steps of a real estate "deal" from beginning to end, covering the roles of brokers and attorneys, drafting of contracts, dealing with physical and title defects, closing of escrow, priorities (i.e., ranking of claims against the property), title insurance, mortgage financing, and income tax consequences. The course is a prerequisite for Real Estate Finance. This course counts toward completion of the California Bar Subject Requirement. Prerequisite: Property (4 units)

Units: 2 , Offered: Fall 2013 , Spring 2013

Going beyond Roe v. Wade and its progeny, this course aims to develop students' understanding of the interrelationship of legal rules, politics, ideology, and socio-economic realities that shape reproductive rights and justice. In this seminar, students will be introduced to the meaning behind "reproductive rights" and "reproductive justice" and explore a wide spectrum of related topics, including the types of abortion restrictions upheld since Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, access to contraception and reproductive health services, implications of new assisted reproductive technologies, the intersections between criminal law and reproductive autonomy, and the U.S. government's role in reproductive rights.

Units: 2

This survey of the ways in which the law treats matters of sexual orientation emphasizes civil and constitutional law. The issues to be addressed include the right to privacy as applied to sexual orientation and conduct, issues of communication about controversies related to sexual orientation, definitions of discrimination in law applied to sexual orientation controversies, and decriminalization of lesbian/gay sexual activity.

Prerequisite: Constitutional Law I and II or consent of the instructor., Units: 2

The Street Law Project operates in conjunction with approximately 25 Bay Area high schools and several middle schools and their respective school districts. Law students, working under faculty supervision, serve as student instructors and teach a course entitled "Street Law" which annually reaches 2,000 predominately inner-city school students. The program seeks to promote legal literacy among young people to ensure that they possess that minimum amount of practical, legal knowledge needed to understand the system as a whole and how it can work in their behalf. Law student instructors deliver units in Housing, Consumer, Family, Criminal, and Constitutional Law at their assigned school sites. They also participate in weekly seminars and research and develop additional material on California law to be used in their classes. Prerequisite: completion of first-year courses. Street Law is taught by the University of San Francisco School of Law, with classes meeting at their campus. This course counts toward completion of the Experiential Learning Requirement. This course is graded on a Credit/No Credit basis. Students must have approval from the associate dean for student services to enroll in this course.

Units: 3 , Offered: Fall 2013 , Spring 2013

A study of nontax estate planning devices, this course explores intestate succession; restrictions on the power to dispose of property; the execution and revocation of wills; and the nature, creation, modification, and termination of trusts. Future interests and perpetuities problems are also discussed. This course counts toward completion of the California Bar Subject Requirement.

Prerequisite: Property I and II (6 units) or Property (4 units)., Units: 4 , Offered: Fall 2013 , Summer 2013 , Spring 2013