Areas of Expertise — Louis D. Brandeis School of Law

Photograph of professors Tony Arnold, Jamie Abrams and JoAnne Sweeny speaking as panelists at the National Conference of Law Reviews.

Brandeis Law faculty are experts in a variety of topics ranging from civil rights to intellectual property. Our professors have appeared as legal experts on national news programs; they have helped train metropolitan police departments on minority outreach; they have helped educate prison inmates about their rights; they have spoken all over the world on everything from disability laws to privacy rights; they have published books about mental illness; they have sat on panels with British Royalty; advised the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; have had interpretations and amicus briefs presented before the United States Supreme Court; and much more. Their specific areas of expertise are below.

Administrative Law: Administrative law encompasses the substantive, procedural and jurisdictional aspects of state and federal government agencies.
Affirmative Action: This law ensures that affirmative action is taken by covered employers to recruit and advance qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and covered veterans, and that procedures are incorporated into the company’s written personnel policies.
Appellate Advocacy and Procedure: Legal representation by an attorney before any state or federal court of intermediate or final appeal.
Bioethics and Genetics Law: These laws cover medical ethics and the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to medicine and also encompass the practical application in clinical settings as well history, philosophy, theology and sociology.
Civil and Criminal Procedure: Civil procedure involves the jurisdictional, pre-trial, trial and post-trial aspects of civil litigation, such as divorces, estate distribution or injury cases, between private parties. Criminal procedure applies to both the constitutional issues and legal processes arising in pre-trial, trial and post-conviction criminal litigation.
Civil Rights: Civil rights law includes the areas of equal protection and due process.
Constitutional Law: The body of law governing the relationships among and powers of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government and between the federal and state governments.
Contracts: Contract law covers the elements of a valid contract, and issues pertaining to verbal or oral contracts.
Corporate Law: Corporate law is the study of how shareholders, directors, employees, creditors, and other stakeholders such as consumers, the community and the environment interact with one another.
Courts and the Judiciary: The judiciary is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the name of the state.
Criminal Law: Criminal law regulates social conduct and proscribes whatever is threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people. It includes the punishment of people who violate these laws.
Defamation: Defamation law includes libel and slander.
Disability Law and the ADA: Disability law includes the range of common law, statutes, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, and regulations, protecting the rights of and remedies available to individuals with physical and mental disabilities.
Education Law: Education law includes schools, school systems and school boards, students' rights and student movements.
Election Law: Election laws regulate who votes, when and how they vote, for whom they can vote, how campaigns are conducted and how votes are recorded, counted and allocated.
Employment Law: Employment law governs the rights and duties between employers and workers.
Entrepreneurship: This law covers issues that arise when taking an entrepreneurial venture from conception, through formation, financing and growth, including exit strategies.
Environmental Law: Environmental law includes the areas of land use, planning, regulation and zoning, sustainable growth and development, and water policy and regulation.
Family Law: Family law refers to rules, regulations, and court procedures involving the family unit, such as marriage, divorce and division of property, child custody and adoption.
First Amendment: First amendment law includes the areas of free exercise and government establishment of religion, freedom of speech, the press and association.
Freedom of Information: The Freedom of Information Act is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government.
Gay Rights and Sexual Orientation: This area of study includes same-sex marriage laws, adoption and discrimination cases.
Immigration Law: Immigration law refers to the rules established by the federal government for determining who is allowed to enter the country and for how long.
Intellectual Property: Intellectual property law includes the areas of copyright, trademark, patent and publicity.
International Law: International law is the set of rules generally regarded and accepted as binding in relations between states and between nations. It serves as a framework for the practice of stable and organized international relations.
Judicial and Legal Ethics: Judicial and legal ethics define the attorney-client relationship and prescribe standards of conduct and professionalism for judges and attorneys.
Law and Economics: Law and economics refers to the application of microeconomic analysis to legal problems.
Law and Literature: The examination of the intersection between literary and legal studies.
Lawyering Skills: Includes use of a law library and legal materials, preparation of legal memoranda, brief writing and oral advocacy.
Legal History: Legal history is the study of how law has evolved and why it changed and includes U.S., Kentucky and English legal history.
Legal Research: Identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making.
Legal Writing: Writing used by lawyers, judges, legislators and others in the field of law to express legal analysis and rights.
Legislative Process: The process by which statutory laws are developed and enacted by legislative bodies.
Mental Illness and Professionals: Legal topics that pertain to people with a diagnosis or possible diagnosis of a mental health condition, including employment, education and laws governing treatment professionals.
Native American Law: The examination of federal and state jurisdiction, rights and obligations regarding Native American tribes and tribal governments' control over individuals' lives and activities.
Non-Profit Law: The laws that regulate the operation of non-profit organizations.
Privacy Law: Privacy Laws relate to an individual or business entity's expectation to be left free from scrutiny or public exposure by either the government or other members of the public.
Property Law: Property governs the rights, obligations and limits of ownership and tenancy in real and personal property.
Race Relations: Race relations examine civil rights issues, as well as population diversification and racial inequalities and injustices within our communities.
Search and Seizure: Search and Seizure Law concerns the specific powers of and limits on governments to gather information about and evidence against individuals in criminal investigations, including searching persons or their property and conducting surveillance.
Securities Regulation: Securities law covers transactions and other dealings with securities with an objective of ensuring that investors receive accurate information, such as interest amount, regarding their purchase.
Tax Law: Covers the application of existing tax laws on individuals, entities and corporations, in areas where tax revenue is derived or levied, e.g. income tax, estate tax, business tax, employment/payroll tax, property tax, gift tax and exports/imports tax.
Tort Law: Tort law includes the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice and products liability.
Wills, Trusts and Future Interests: This area of law concerns the making of valid wills and trusts, into which property is placed for the benefit of others, the consequences of intestacy (dying without a will) and limits on property interests created for the future benefit of others.
Women and Gender: Includes discrimination, health laws related to gender, equal access to property, gender-based violence and more.