Note: This course is restricted to first-year J.D. students only.

The drop deadline for 1L January Experiential Term (JET) classes is Friday, December 3, 2021. Students may not drop a course if they do not have an offer to enroll in a different JET course.

1L JET courses are intensive learning courses. Class attendance is required in each course every day of the term. Students should make their travel plans accordingly. Students should not take on other work commitments during the term.

Exam Type: No Exam

Lawyers routinely use and critically analyze financial statements and business valuations. Of course, corporate lawyers advise organizations and design deals that depend on these skills, and tax lawyers, commercial litigators, and international trade lawyers also use these skills. But less obviously, family lawyers need them in divorce cases, constitutional lawyers use them in takings cases, and class action lawyers use them in products liability cases. In fact, lawyers of all kinds, including prosecutors, other government lawyers, and public interest lawyers, use these skills to present and resolve disputes, and to propose, critique and defend regulation of businesses.

This course will provide students with an opportunity to engage in hands-on, law-related analysis of financial statements and business valuation and analysis. No prior background in these topics is required. We will first analyze basic financial statements; then move to more advanced financial statement analysis; then review basic methods of business valuation; then build information from financial statements into standard valuation model; then see how practitioners argue for wildly different valuations drawing on the same basic financial information. Students will work in teams, and build their knowledge through hands-on experience using case studies of real companies.

Note: There may be days throughout the winter term that require attendance beyond the scheduled times. Please refer to the course syllabus and page for more information.