SUNY Buffalo Law School offers students the opportunity to participate in a curricular program focused on corporate finance and the role of lawyers in business transactions.

Successful representation of clients seeking to buy or sell assets or raise, invest, borrow, or lend money requires much more than a narrow understanding of certain legal constraints or rules which place limits on the client's proposed plans. The best business lawyers are part of a team engaged in creatively solving problems, with the client's ultimate goals always in mind.

In order to become this type of lawyer, students need to understand how the complex set of economic, social and political conditions and relationships shapes the client's business and legal options.

Students must receive a minimum grade of B in any course used to satisfy any of the requirements for completion of this program.

A. Context Courses
Students will be required to complete a total of 18 credits of coursework in courses that study the context of business and business transactions. These courses include law school courses such as corporations, taxation, securities regulation, debtor-creditor law and secured transactions. Any School of Management course which is cross-listed with the Law School can be used to meet this requirement. In addition, Transactional Course credits in excess of the Transactional Course requirement (6 credits) may be used to satisfy the Context Course requirement. A list of those courses which meet the context requirement is attached to this program description.

B. Transactional Courses
These courses allow students the opportunity to analyze and participate in actual or simulated transactions. Students will be required to complete a total of 6 credits in these courses. Neither Acquisition Transactions nor the Finance Transactions Colloquium may be used to satisfy this requirement. A list of courses which meet this requirement is attached to this program description.

C. Required Courses
In addition to the course requirements described in Sections A and B above, students in the Program are also required to successfully complete Acquisition Transactions and either (i) one semester of the Finance Transactions Colloquium or (ii) the UB in NYC Program. The Finance Transactions Colloquium will only be offered in either the Spring semester or the Fall semester, but not both. Third year students who plan on completing the Program must note when the Colloquium is available and plan accordingly.

A. Context Courses (18 credits required)

• Advanced Bankruptcy
• Advanced Topics in Tax
• Administrative Law
• Affordable Housing Development
• Agency and Partnership
• Antitrust 
• Bankruptcy Reorganization 
• Bankruptcy 
• Commercial Paper
• Comparative Corporate Governance
• Consumer Bankruptcy 
• Copyright Law
• Corporate Reorganization
• Corporate Tax 
• Corporations 
• Debtors & Creditors
• Employment Law
• Environmental Law 
• Exempt Organizations
• Federal Taxation 
• Globalization of Capital
• Housing and Land Policy
• In-House Counseling
• Insurance and Public Policy
• Intellectual Property
• Intellectual Property Colloquium
• Intellectual Property Externship
• International Business Transactions
• International Trade 
• Introduction to Antitrust 
• Introduction to International Law
• Introduction to Patent Practice
• IRS Externship
• Land Development & Finance 
• Land Use Planning 
• Non-Profit Corporations 
• Partnership Taxation
• Patents 
• Payment Systems II 
• Pension and Employee Benefits
• Problems in the Corporation and the Market
• Property II 
• Regional Economic Development
• Sales
• Secured Transactions 
• Securities Regulation 
• State & Local Finance 
• State and Local Taxation
• Theory and Practice of Negotiations 
• Topics in Antitrust Law 
• Topics in Regional Economic Development
• Trademark Law
• UB in NYC Program (up to 9 credits)
  

Any School of Management course which is cross-listed with the Law School can be used to meet the Context Course requirement. In addition, Transactional Course credits in excess of the transactional course requirement (6 credits) may be used to satisfy the Context Course requirement.

B. Transactional Courses (6 credits required)

• Advanced Finance: Regulation after the Crisis (Westbrook)
• Affordable Housing Clinic 
• Applied Consumer Finance (Breen)
• Applied Taxation: Using IRC to Alleviate Poverty (Breen)
• Buying and Selling Businesses (Fine)
• Closing a Tax Credit Deal in New York (Hezel)
• Commercial Real Estate Development and Finance (Property III) (Reis)
• Community Economic Advocacy Clinic (Breen)
• Consumer & Financial Advocacy Clinic (Breen)
• Corporate Finance (Westbrook)
• Corporate Finance Seminar (P. Halpern)
• Counseling Small Business (Zimmermann)
• Finance and Financial Markets (Halpern)
• Financing Small Business (Zimmermann)
• Housing Finance and Development (Hezel)
• International Business Transactions
• International Business Transactions from an In-House Counsel’s Perspective (Norman)
• Legal Opinions (O’Laughlin)
• Project Finance: International Power Plant Projects (Drocker)
• Related Practices (Schlegel)
• UB in NYC Program (Program Faculty) - Maximum of 3 credits
  

Courses constantly come and go. Any student planning to take a course which is not listed above, but which seems appropriate may check with Professor Tom Disare for a determination as to whether or not the course will meet either of these two requirements.

Director: TBD