FALL 2008

Trade Secrets

Course No. 9200-704 (and 804)-801 ID No. 16545	MW 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.	Room L-134
Professor Jay Dratler, Jr.	Room 231D (IP Alcove)	(330) 972-7972	dratler@uakron.edu

Course Requirements and Policies

Electronic Communication

Attendance and Class Participation

Evaluation of Your Performance

Electronic Communication

All class information and assignments will be posted on this Website. You should be comfortable enough with Web "surfing" to navigate through this Website, find what you want, save it on your hard drive and, if necessary, print it out. Please be sure to check this Website when in doubt as to your assignment or any changes in the class schedule.

Some time-critical or urgent messages may be sent by e-mail. More important, you will use e-mail to receive your final examination and submit your answers or (if the whole class chooses a paper option) to submit the drafts and final versions of your paper. During the first class session, you will be asked to specify one or more e-mail addresses for communication in this course. You should check the address(es) that you have specified for e-mail pertaining to this course at least twice per week, including once on the day before each class. To avoid last-minute panic regarding the final examination, please try to select e-mail addresses that will be valid for the entire semester. You may designate more than one e-mail address.

Attendance and Class Participation

This is not a course for "back benchers." What you get out of it will depend strongly on your attendance and diligent preparation. Accordingly, regular attendance, good preparation, and participation in class discussions will be mandatory and will be considered in grading. You may excuse yourself from class discussion and nevertheless attend class no more than twice during the semester. You may exercise this option only by giving give me an "unprepared" note before class. Please use a full page for each such note (little slips of paper may get lost!), and please include (1) your printed name, (2) the date, (3) the words "I pass" or "unprepared," and (4) your signature.

Evaluation of Your Performance

Your grade for this course will be based primarily on one of the following: (1) an e-mail "take home" examination, or (2) a paper on a subject that you choose and I approve. The choice among these options will be up to the class as a whole.

If the class chooses the examination option, grades will be based primarily upon a written, e-mail "take home" examination. The examination will have a time limit (three consecutive hours) and a word limit (usually 2,000 words) and will be designed to give no credit whatsoever to pre-prepared or "canned" passages. During the examination, you may consult any generally published material and any material that you yourself have prepared, including LEXIS and other legal research aids. The following materials, however, should be sufficient for the examination and are strongly recommended as part of your learning process:

1) An outline or issues checklist that you have prepared, on a single letter-sized (8-1/2" x 11") sheet of paper, both sides; and

2) These Web materials and your statutory supplement, with your own annotations. The obvious purpose of recommending in advance a short outline and annotating your materials is to encourage you to: (1) begin making an outline or other conceptual overview of the course as early as possible in the semester; and (2) annotate your reading materials in a way that will be useful for the examination and perhaps later in practice. "Pulling the course together" is best done periodically throughout the semester, not just before the final exam.

Your grade will not be based entirely upon the final examination or your paper, however. Your class performance, participation, and attendance also will count. At the semester's end, I will assess your overall class performance; those whose performance is consistently superior (typically from 10% to 30% of the class) will receive a one-step advance (for example, from B+ to A-, or from C to C+) in their examination or paper grades. As is true in all my classes, quality will count more than quantity. Consistently helpful participation may boost your grade, but passing or "winging it" when called upon will count against you.


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FALL 2008 COURSES