Summer Legal Institute

The Programme

SLI Part B Participants 2009The Summer Legal Institute in London provides lawyers and advanced law students trained outside the U.S. with intensive preparation in legal English and writing, and exposure to substantive American law topics in key areas of international business practice.

The Summer Legal Institute is open to graduates of law faculties outside the United States and to advanced, non-U.S. law students who are about to complete their law studies in their home countries. The programme's content is ideally suited for current - and future - global lawyers who:

* Seek to improve their ability to communicate and work effectively in English with American-trained lawyers and U.S. law firms and corporations

* Want substantive training in important American commercial law topics

* Anticipate pursuing an LL.M. degree in a U.S. school, whether at BU Law or elsewhere.

Summer 2010 Dates
Part A: 4-24 July
Part B: 25 July - 14 August

Academics

The programme is divided into two Parts, A and B, each three weeks in length. Students can choose to attend one or both parts of the programme, depending upon their areas of interest. During Part A, students take foundation courses in Legal English and Legal Writing, while Part B has a more subject-specific nature, with courses such as International Business Agreements, U.S. Corporate Law, U.S. Civil Procedure and U.S. Contract Law. A full listing of 2009 courses, with links to course pages, is listed below.

Part A: Students take both courses
Legal English
Legal Writing
Part B: Students choose two courses
International Business Agreements
U.S. Civil Procedure
U.S. Contract Law
U.S. Corporate Law

Student Experience

"The teaching style is extremely comprehensive and outstanding...It was a great program, and perfect for legal professionals." Anon., Summer 2009

"My favourite part was meeting people from all around the world in a great city. Attending high quality classes offered by high quality professors." Anon., Summer 2009

"The Program was worth every penny spent." Anon., Summer 2009

"I enjoyed the second part of the program as the classes were of great use to my professional career. Living in London was also an incredible experience." Anon., Summer 2009

“I really enjoyed the programme- I only wish we had more time.” Anon., Summer 2008

"The teachers are great and they enjoy their work. They encourage students to participate and ask questions and are open minded when students try to share their thoughts." Anon., Summer 2008

Faculty

Robert VolkProfessor Robert Volk (Legal Writing) As BU Law's director of the Legal Research and Writing Program, Professor Volk is responsible for developing the curriculum for one of America's most highly acclaimed legal writing programmes and overseeing the writing programme for BU Law's foreign LL.M. students. A member of the faculty since 1982, he also has served as associate director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law and has taught courses in banking law, law and morality and the American legal system.

Connie BrowneConnie Browne (Legal Writing) came to Boston University School of Law in 1982 as an instructor in the First-Year Writing Program and joined the full-time faculty of Clinical Programs in 1989. As an associate professor in the Civil Litigation Program, she supervises students who represent clients in special education, unemployment, divorce, disability and housing cases. She also teaches courses in lawyering skills, helping students to develop and polish their interviewing, counseling, negotiating and trial advocacy abilities. In addition to teaching in the clinical programme, Professor Browne offers an advanced writing and editing seminar and a seminar in trial advocacy. She helped initiate the Student Trial Team Program and served as a faculty advisor for the School of Law's Public Interest Law Journal from the publication's inception until 1995.

Michael FeldmanMichael Feldman (Legal English) is a senior lecturer at Boston University's Center for English Language and Orientation Programs (CELOP), where he teaches English to international M.B.A and LL.M. candidates. He holds an A.B. degree Psychology and Social Relations and an M.S. degree in Education. Mr. Feldman spent several years in Ecuador, where he founded the English Language department at Universidad Espiritu Santo (UEES) in Guayaquil. He also spent ten years living in Peru and has extensive knowledge of South American countries and culture.

Lynn BonesteelLynn Bonesteel (Legal English) is currently a senior lecturer in English as a Second Language at the Center for English Language and Orientation Programs (CELOP) at Boston University, where she teaches Legal English to both pre-LLM candidatesand legal practitioners. She has extensive experience as a teacher in higher education and as a writer of ESL textbooks and teachers' manuals. Ms. Bonesteel has also written materials for the Program for Legal English Academic Development (PLEAD), an online academic programme designed to help university law faculties and language schools throughout the world offer Legal English training to lawyers and law students.

Ward FarnsworthProfessor Ward Farnsworth (U.S. Civil Procedure, U.S. Contract Law) Since joining BU Law in 1997, Professor Farnsworth has taught civil procedure, contracts, tort law and rhetoric. After graduating from the University of Chicago, he worked as a law clerk to Richard A. Posner, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and to Anthony M. Kennedy, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. In 1996, he served as a legal adviser to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. The University of Chicago press recently published Professor Farnsworth's book, The Legal Analyst, a wide-ranging guide to intellectual tools for thinking about legal questions. He is also the author of a book about rhetoric that will be published in August 2010 and a treatise on chess that is available on the Internet.

Virginia GreimanProfessor Virginia Greiman (International Business Agreements) is a nationally recognized expert on corporate reorganizations, privatization, international commercial contracting and international joint venture law. She has served as special assistant to the attorney general and United States trustee for the U.S. Department of Justice, as international legal counsel to the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Trade Development Agency. As chief counsel and executive director to the Massachusetts Office of Economic Development, Professor Greiman presently advises minority and women-owned businesses on international business transactions and Massachusetts corporations on foreign direct investment opportunities.

Tamar FrankelA long term member of the Boston University School of Law faculty, Tamar Frankel (U.S. Corporate Law) is a leading expert in the areas of corporate law, financial system regulation, and fiduciary law. She has published more than 60 articles and book chapters on subjects relating to these areas. These publications can be download from her website. A native of Israel, she has lectured, worked and taught in the U.S., India, Japan, China, Malaysia, England, and Switzerland. She has been an attorney fellow at the Securities and Exchange Commission, a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institute, and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School.

Further Information

If you have any queries about the Summer Legal Insitute, please visit the BU Law website. For London-specific enquiries, please contact Elisabeth Schreiber.

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