The Business Law and Policy Specializations are designed to provide additional guidance to UCLA Law students in course selection, as well as highlight the program's curricular strengths. Students begin with foundational courses, and then select from recommended specialized courses, and courses that provide further depth in a variety of areas. In culmination, the program offers students the opportunity to take an intensive transactional skills course. Each Specialization consists of nine upper-division courses.

Specialization in Business Law - More Information 

• Recommended track for students interested in Bankruptcy and Commercial Law 
• Recommended track for students interested in Corporate Law 
   

Specialization in Taxation - More Information

The Business Law and Policy Specializations guide students in sequencing their curriculum from foundational courses to substantive business law courses to the most advanced seminars, practicums and clinics that integrate substantive law issues with exercises that develop and improve lawyering skills for the business lawyer.

The foundational courses — Accounting for Lawyers, Financial Analysis, Business Associations and Introduction to Federal Income Taxation — explore the forces underlying the world of business transactions.

Accounting and Financial Analysis for Lawyers explains the rudiments of the accounting and microeconomic conventions that underlie contemporary analysis of market transactions; knowing the conventions behind the assignment of costs allows students to think themselves into the position of those who engage in business transactions. Business Associations explores the basic legal forms for entities engaging in business transactions. Federal Income Taxation provides insight into the tax consequences of transactions and the importance of structuring transactions for tax efficiency.

Beyond these foundational courses, each Specialization offers basic courses for students intending to enter general business practice or other specialty practice areas (Group A courses), as well as courses that provide further depth in a variety of areas (Group B courses).

Finally, each Specialization anticipates that each student will take an intensive transactional course that includes advanced skills training. Simulations and exercises are a natural vehicle for integrating advanced instruction in several bodies of law with training in lawyering skills. Thus, an advanced seminar in mergers and acquisitions law might involve simulations that require students to integrate corporate law, taxation, securities law and antitrust law in the course of structuring, negotiating and drafting the documents necessary for the merger of two firms. Or an advanced course in securities law might call for students to structure, negotiate and draft documents pertaining to an initial public offering or private placement, integrating securities law, corporate law, taxation and commercial law, as well as skills development.

UCLA School of Law students can visit the Business Law Specializations MyLaw page for more information on the Specializations.