First-Year Courses
All Oregon Law students take Property and Contracts in their first year of law school.
Property law covers the legal rules and regulations surrounding the ownership and use of property, including intellectual property such as patents and trademarks.
Contracts law covers the legal principles governing agreements between parties, including the formation, performance, and enforcement of contracts.
Through these foundational courses, you’ll gain a deep understanding of the legal principles and concepts that underpin many areas of business law. You’ll develop the analytical skills and legal reasoning abilities needed to tackle complex legal issues and will be better equipped to advise clients and make informed decisions in a variety of business settings.
Business Law Concentrations
Business law students can pursue an emphasis or a concentration in the following areas:
Estate Planning
To keep up with America’s aging population and their need of assistance in managing their assets, the number of jobs in estate planning is expected to grow significantly in the next decade.
Green Business Law
Oregon Law’s Green Business Law concentration was one of the first law school programs in the country dedicated to the intersection of law, business, and the environment.
The interdisciplinary Green Business Law courses focus on how businesses can successfully create both societal well-being and private benefit.
For those with an interest in sustainable business, you can elect to pursue a concentration in Green Business Law or Environmental Law. You can also enhance your experience through affiliated student organizations, clinics, and externships.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property (IP) Law focuses on protecting the rights of individuals who have, from the creativity of their own mind, produced anything from software and new technology to musical or visual-based arts.
These protections are based on bodies of law such as patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret laws. Situated on the Pacific Rim, Oregon Law offers IP Law with both a domestic and an international focus, simultaneously examining cultural context and business practices in an era of increased globalization.
You can also enhance your experience through affiliated student organizations, clinics, and field placements.
Learn more about Intellectual Property Concentration Requirements
Law and Entrepreneurship
Located at the intersection of innovation, business, and law, Oregon Law’s Law and Entrepreneurship concentration combines forward-thinking coursework with knowledgeable faculty and real-world experiences to provide you with the skills necessary to advise start-ups, whether in-house, at a firm, or in a practice of your own.
You can enhance your experience through student organizations like the Law and Entrepreneurship Student Association, clinics like the Business Law Clinic, and in-house field placements. You could also explore a joint JD/MBA degree. For additional details about the concurrent JD/MBA degree program and other concurrent degrees, visit our Concurrent Degrees page.
Learn more about Law & Entrepreneurship Concentration Requirements
Examples of Upper Division Law & Entrepreneurship Courses:
Tax Law
Oregon Law’s Tax Law coursework probes the crucially important and increasingly complex provisions of tax law. This concentration provides you with the foundational principles and advanced theory of tax law while you learn how to navigate real-world transactions.
Examples of Upper Division Tax Law Courses:
Transactional Business Law
A concentration in Transactional Business Law provides you with specialized knowledge of legal procedures related to the regulation of businesses, corporations, and organizations.
Students seeking to study the management and internal control of large and small-scale business in greater depth may also want to take courses in the university’s Graduate School of Management, or pursue the JD/MBA concurrent degree program.
Learn more about Transactional Business Law Concentration Requirements
Summer Programming
Launch your sports law career with world-class faculty, guest speakers, career panels, and field trips. At Oregon Law’s award-winning Summer Sports Law Institute, we assemble the nation’s best sports law faculty for a midsummer, six-credit immersion into the world of sports law.
The Summer Sports Law Institute’s comprehensive curriculum introduces aspiring sports lawyers to a broad range of legal topics relevant to the practice of sports law. We view sports law as a subset of business law and, by using the sports industry as a case study, we train not only the best sports lawyers, but the best business lawyers.
Concurrent JD/MBA Degree
Do your career plans require in-depth knowledge of business planning and decision making in addition to law? Are you interested in the intersection between business and legal theory? Consider our concurrent JD/MBA program with the UO Charles H. Lundquist College of Business.
In this four-year program, you will study the business and legal aspects of corporate finance, accounting, corporate management, sports marketing, and international business, and graduate with two degrees: a Doctor of Juris Prudence and a Master of Business Administration degree.
Advantages to the Concurrent JD/MBA degree program:
- Less Time: Compared to the two stand-alone degrees, the concurrent JD/MBA degree saves one year. (Complete both degrees in three and a half to four years instead of five.)
- Fewer Law Credits Required: Concurrent degree students must earn only 75 credits, rather than the usual 85, at the law school. (You may include field placements towards your law degree if you meet all other JD requirements.)
- Fewer MBA Credits Required: Concurrent degree students need only 5 electives; regular MBA students must take 12.
- Accelerated MBA Option: If you have a bachelor’s degree in business, you may apply for the accelerated MBA, which allows you to skip the first year of the two-year program. (If your undergraduate degree is in any other discipline, you must enroll in the regular MBA program.)
Applying for the Concurrent Degree
Students must apply separately to each program. Most students apply first to the law school and apply to the MBA program during their 1L year in law school.
Once you are admitted to both programs, a separate concurrent degree form is required. For assistance, contact the LCB Graduate Programs Office at (541) 346-3306.