Corporate Law Concentration

Cincinnati Law’s business law curriculum integrates core and advanced classes with practical skills courses that allow students to hone the skills necessary to deliver legal solutions to business clients. Through our Corporate Law Concentration, students will complete a minimum of 24 credits, including two required doctrinal courses for 3 credits each, one skills-based course for 2 credits, one experiential course for 3–4 credits, and a combination of eligible elective courses offered by the College of Law.

• Business Associations (3 credits)
• Federal Income Tax (3 credits)

• Introduction to Legal Drafting (2 credits)

Practical exposure to the corporate legal setting is equally as important as the work you'll do in class. This is why you are required to take an experiential-based course. Students can fulfill this requirement by taking either a business law clinic or a business law externship that is offered by the College of Law from time to time. The following is a list of experiential courses that are offered now or in the near future: 

• Entrepreneurship and Community Development Clinic (4 credits)
• The Brandery Program (1 credit, summer clinic)
• HCBC/First Batch Program (1 credit, summer clinic)
• Mortar Program (1 credit, summer clinic)
• Trademark and Patent Clinic (pending approval) 

• Frost Brown Todd externship at Ocean
• D.E. Foxx & Associates, Inc. - General Counsel’s Office
• AK Steel Corporation – Legal Department
• Contech Engineered Solutions – Office of General Counsel
• The Kroger Company – Legal Department
• Macy’s – Legal Department
• Fifth Third Bancorp – Legal Department
• General Cable Corporation – Legal Department
• Great American Insurance Group – Legal Department
• Tire Discounters – General Counsel’s Office
• Comfort Keepers – General Counsel’s Office
• General Counsels’ Offices for cities and municipalities
• Corporate Tax Externship
• Non-Profit Externships

In addition to the required doctrinal, skills-based, and experiential courses, students may take any combination of the elective courses offered by the College of Law toward the completion of the Certificate, subject to availability at the time of the students’ enrollment and any prerequisite requirements. The following courses are currently eligible elective courses, but the list is subject to change by the College of Law from time to time. Note that some of these courses will have their own prerequisites.

• Advanced Legal Drafting (2 credits)
• Bankruptcy (3 credits)
• Business Basics (2 credits)
• Business Tax (3 credits)
• Copyright Law (3 credits)
• Corporate Finance (2 credits)
• Corporate Transactions – Deal Sheet to Close (3 credits)
• Corporations II (2 credits)
• International Business Transactions (3 credits)
• International Commercial Arbitration (2 credits)
• International Intellectual Property Law
• International Tax (2 credits)
• Introduction to Intellectual Property (3 credits)
• Negotiations (3 credits)
• Patent Law (3 credits)
• Payment Systems
• Real Estate Transactions (3 credits)
• Sales (3 credits)
• Secured Transactions (3 credits)
• Securities Regulation (2 credits)
• Trademarks and Unfair Competition (3 credits)

Upon completion of the Concentration, students should be able to:

• Compare and contrast the rights and obligations of agents, principals, creditors, and other parties in various enterprise contexts, and identify the enforcement mechanisms and dispute resolution systems for those rights and obligations
• Provide advice on the benefits and pitfalls of different forms of enterprise organizations for various constituencies
• Recall the basic mechanisms of corporate governance and anticipate the situations and extraordinary transactions that render these mechanisms deficient
• Broadly identify the pertinent international, federal, state, and local regulations that affect business transactions
• Draft and edit core contractual provisions governing the substance, waiver, and enforcement of core rights and duties
• Navigate the negotiation and settlement of business transactions by accounting for the governing laws and the range of human incentives
• Communicate how the law applies in important business situations in a form that conforms to basic professional conventions

For further details about the Concentration, please contact Professor Felix Chang, who serves as the program’s Director. In order to apply for the Business Law Concentration, you may request the application.