Prof Wooten wants YOU -- to take his course!

[Student Affairs]

Sent on behalf of Professor Wooten

My course in employee benefit law focuses on ERISA, a federal law that regulates employee benefit plans sponsored by private sector employers. Most people in the United States work for a private sector employer. Many of these employers have retirement plans. As a result, many millions of working age and retired Americans look to ERISA for protection of their retirement benefits. Most working age Americans and their children get their medical coverage from a health plan that is covered by ERISA. Many millions of working age Americans have life, disability, or accident insurance through an employee benefit plan covered by ERISA. One consequence of all this is that law firms are looking for graduates who want to practice employee benefit law. And even if you do not want to practice employee benefit law, a working knowledge of ERISA should be valuable if you plan to practice in other areas, such as employment law, corporate law, or health law.

This spring I am also teaching a course in legislation and statutory interpretation. This too is a course that can help you when you enter law practice. Whether you are a litigator or an office lawyer, chances are you are going to spend time interpreting statutes. Competence in statutory interpretation requires a basic understanding of how legislatures work and familiarity with the principles courts apply when they interpret statutes. If you do not take a course in statutory interpretation, you likely will have to develop your statutory interpretation skills in a hurry at the same time you are trying to make sense of the specific statute you are interpreting. If you do take course in statutory interpretation, you will be able to examine the legislative process and the key principles of statutory interpretation in a sustained and systematic way. This will allow you to head into law practice with a good knowledge of the rules courts invoke when they interpret statutes and with a sense of the bigger picture of how statutory law comes into being.

So, if you are still looking for courses this spring, I hope you will consider employee benefit law (LAW 691) and legislation and statutory interpretation (LAW 562). Both courses cover interesting fields of law that are likely to be helpful in law practice.