Special Term Registration Considerations
Spring Course Bidding and Registration Information
Bidding and Registration Dates For Spring 2027:
Round One: Monday, November 2nd at 8am through Monday, November 9th at 8am
Round Two: Thursday, November 12th at 8am through Monday, November 16th at 8am
Students can enter bids in the system at any time during each round. The bids stored in the system when each round closes is what it will use to compile bidding results.
Open Enrollment (when students can add/drop classes themselves): Begins Friday, November 20th at 9am
Non-Law Course Petitions: Students who wish to take a graduate-level, non-law course in Spring 2027 must submit a complete petition no later than Monday, October 26th at 9am to lawreg@colorado.edu. Up to six credits of approved non-law coursework can count towards the JD. Non-law coursework is part of the 14-credit cap. Additional info will be sent via email to students. The schedule of classes for graduate coursework becomes live on October 12, 2026.
Wintersession Trial Advocacy (LAWS 6109) Registration: These will all be handled via special signups, so watch your email for details!
Summer Registration: Summer 2027 registration occurs in March/April each year.
Clinics: Refer to the clinic website. Email law-clinics@colorado.edu if you have questions about clinic placements. Spring 2027 clinic enrollment will occur in November 2026. Students who are on a waitlist for a clinic will not be enrolled in Buff Portal, but if a spot opens up over the summer, you will be notified. Reminder: Clinics are not part of the 14-credit cap, but they do count towards the experiential learning graduation requirement.
Advanced Legal Writing Courses for 2026-2027
*Spring 2027 Special Topics course info will be added as it is known!
Spring 2027 Special Topic Course Info
LAWS 6708 Cybersecurity in Practice, 2 credits, letter graded, taught by Professor Bruce Plotkin
This course examines the legal and policy challenges that arise when organizations and individuals confront cybersecurity threats in the real world. Students will explore federal and state data-security regulation, industry-specific requirements, data-breach notification and litigation, cybersecurity frameworks and standards, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the DMCA and “hacking back,” government surveillance, ransomware, and other emerging issues.
The course emphasizes how lawyers analyze and respond to cybersecurity problems, including advising organizations on compliance, navigating a breach, assessing potential liability, and understanding the legal limits of defensive and investigative actions. The course is designed to give students a practical understanding of a rapidly changing area of law and does not require a technical or computer science background. Students may take both this course AND LAWS 7361 (Cybersecurity) if they choose.
LAWS 6708 Oral and Written Communication with Nonlegal Audiences, 2 credits, letter graded, taught by Professor Zachary Schmook
This course develops students’ ability to communicate complex legal concepts clearly, strategically, and ethically to nonlegal audiences. Lawyers routinely translate law for clients, corporate decisionmakers, regulators, legislators, journalists, and the public. Yet most legal education focuses on writing for courts. This course fills that gap by training students to adapt legal analysis for varied audiences while maintaining accuracy and professional credibility.
The course is organized around two integrated modes of advocacy: presenting and counseling. During the first half of the semester, students work through an administrative law scenario involving a proposed regulation. They research the rulemaking context and prepare a series of public-facing advocacy documents and oral communication exercises. During the second half, students shift to client-centered counseling and resolution-based communication, including negotiation and ADR contexts. The emphasis throughout is on audience awareness, clarity, strategic framing, ethical constraints, and professional judgment.
LAWS 6708Colonialism, Racism, and International Law, 1 credit, letter graded, taught by Professor Justin Deystone (wintersession course, January 4-8, 2027)
This course explores the colonial and racialized foundations of international legal thought, roughly from 1500 to the late twentieth century. It begins with a survey of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, moves through the legal construction of the post-Napoleonic rise of the so-called "standard of civilization," and examines the racial dimensions of the League of Nations and United Nations systems, the principle of self-determination, nationalism, and decolonization. The course concludes with an analysis of international human rights law from the perspective of critical race theory.
LAWS 8112 Seminar: Advanced Natural Resources, 3 credits, letter graded, taught by Professor Sarah Krakoff
Students should familiarize themselves with the course pre/co-reqs by reviewing the general course description here. The term specific details for spring 2027 are listed below.
This three-credit seminar, which is designed as the capstone course of our natural resources, environmental, and American Indian law curricula, is available for up to twelve law students. The seminar provides students with an in-depth opportunity to tie together the materials they have studied in various courses in these fields. Another main objective is to take students outside of the classroom to spend time in places shaped by natural resources conflicts and to meet with decision makers, community members, legal advocates, and state, tribal, and federal officials who work on and live with these issues every day.
The subject matter, which changes annually, is not defined by legal doctrine (e.g., Water Law, Public Land Law, etc.) in the traditional fashion. Rather, coverage is based on some specific geographical area where numerous issues converge. The course begins with a study of historical, literary, and scientific materials. Students then move to analysis of current problems in the region relating to matters such as federal public lands, wildlife habitat, water quantity and quality, Indian and Tribal law, land use planning, and pollution control.
This year the seminar will study the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau comprises the canyon country that encompasses, among other places, the Four Corners area and the high deserts of southern Utah. The Colorado Plateau is home to more national parks and monuments than any place in the world and includes the territories of multiple Tribal Nations. The course includes a required field trip throughout the Plateau over spring break, for which lodging and travel expenses are covered.
LAWS 8795 Seminar: Topics in Law & Feminism, 2 credits, letter graded, taught by Professor Jennifer Hendricks
Topic: Reproductive Justice
Spring 2027 course description: Reproductive justice is a movement and a theory based on the premise that all people having the right to choose when and whether to reproduce and to raise any children they have with dignity. The movement emerged from Black women’s activism in the United States around issues of access to reproductive health care; opposition to coerced sterilization; and the right to nurture children in a safe and healthy environment. This seminar will focus on how the RJ movement has influenced and manifested in legal rights and theories.
Link to general LAWS 8795 course description here.
Note that scheduled course meetings for this seminar will occur before spring break.
Fall 2026 Special Topics Courses
LAWS 6708: Statutory Interpretation – American Law in Crisis, Professor Paul Campos, 3 credits, letter graded.
The focus of American Law in Crisis will be various issues at the center of the current crisis in American law and politics, and in particular the current assault on liberal democracy and the rule of law. One topic we will examine in some depth is extent to which the American legal and political systems are being pushed toward some variety of authoritarian Christianist nationalism, with potentially fascistic overtones. Related to this, we will look at the Supreme Court’s current legitimacy crisis, including reform proposals to curtail the Court’s power within the contemporary American legal and political system. We will consider the implications for the legal system of various prosecutions and civil actions in which Donald Trump is or was a criminal and civil defendant, and the effect of the Supreme Court’s recent decision, granting him broad-based immunity against criminal prosecution, both while he is in office, and in perpetuity afterwards. We will look at what the political scientist Juan Linz has called “the perils of presidentialism,” in the context of the contemporary American legal and political scene: that is, the historical tendency of presidential systems in the Americas to break down because of competing claims of ultimate sovereignty between the executive and legislative branches. We will compare the social crises of America in the late 1960s and those of today, and will focus on the issue of the extent to which today’s issues represent some sort of fundamental threat to social and political national stability. We will analyze the rise of a self-conscious white identity politics in America, and the implications this has for the American legal and political systems. We will look at the crisis of legal meaning that is one possible outcome of the current explosion of artificial intelligence technologies, that are playing an increasingly prominent role in the legal system. The class will also follow the most current political developments, and in particular the scheduled 2026 midterm elections, using them as a backdrop for discussing the larger issues that the ongoing political and legal crisis in America raises regarding the topics covered in the course. The course will feature a 10 to 15-page paper, rather than a final exam. The paper prompt will be designed to allow students to pursue whatever course topic or topics they found most engaging. Class discussion will be informal, and sensitive to pursuing those themes and topics that seem most important under the circumstances: those circumstances being the political and legal crisis currently faced by the American system of law and government. The readings for the class will be eclectic, and designed to inspire genuine engagement. They will include books such as Kristen Luker’s Abortion and Politics of Motherhood, and Robert Paxton’s The Anatomy of Fascism, along with essays such as Joan Didion’s “The White Album,” Umberto Eco’s “Ur-Fascism,” Rick Perlstein’s “The Long Con,” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’, “The First White President.”
LAWS 6708: Law and Literature, Professor Gabrielle Stafford
This week-long course offered in both Fallsession and Wintersession explores the intersection between law and literature and will provide an opportunity to think about the law by reading engaging works of fiction and non-fiction, viewing important films, and examining the law from a humanistic and philosophical perspective, 1 credit.
LAWS 6826 Interactive Programming For Lawyers, Professor Staci Pratt
Teaches students how to develop simple computer applications that would help in the practice of law and the delivery of legal services, using a drag-n-drop application development platform. Students will learn programming logic and principles of user-centric design. No programming experience is required. Includes substantial legal research and analysis. The course will focus on a pre-selected access to justice topic for the semester. In the past, the Lab has worked on family law triage, tenant rights, and labor issues. Developed applications will be tailored to the pre-selected topic, 3 credits, pass-graded.
LAWS 6856 Advanced Legal Research, Professor Karen Skinner
Offers an in-depth look at research resources and methods. Includes sources from the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of federal and state governments, research in litigation, transactional, business, and international law sources, and coverage of secondary and non-law resources. Students will have several assignments to practice research skills and a final project. 2 credits, letter graded.
LAWS 7629: Introduction to In-House Practice of Law, Professor Charles Baker
The past 30 years have seen significant growth in both the number and the stature of in-house lawyers, who are now viewed as true business partners within corporations, large and small, and who enjoy engaging and rewarding careers as valued and trusted professional corporate team members. This course introduces in-house legal practice and its many exciting elements, including the power of being embedded within your sole client, managing your practice and outside counsel as a service-oriented value center, advising on corporate risks, acting as the ‘conscience’ of the corporation, ethical and privilege issues, working with senior management and the board of directors, and proactive strategies to enhance your contribution to your one and only client’s goals, objectives and corporate purpose, 1 credit, letter graded.
LAWS 8002: Seminar: Topics in Labor and Employment Law, Professor Tanya Goldman
Examines current workplace trends and their interaction with labor and employment law. Topics include employment relationships in contemporary workplaces, the adequacy of existing legal regimes in addressing emerging technologies, and the implications of recent Supreme Court decisions. 2 credits, letter graded.