Business and commercial law
The influence of business law is evident in everything from buying groceries to raising billions of dollars in capital. Regulating and facilitating trade and commerce are crucial functions of the law and play a central role in national and international economies. Recent surveys suggest that about 60 percent of all lawyers practice some form of business law. About 15 percent of Indiana Law graduates choose a full-time business career.
Indiana Law's extracurricular offerings, joint degree programs with the Kelley School of Business, and a wide selection of courses, including an excellent curriculum in international business law, ensure that you will be ready for real-world practice upon graduation. You will complete your program prepared to represent clients in a broad range of transactions, from consumer purchases to international exchanges, as well as in related litigation.
Courses
After the required first-year courses, students may select from a broad range of offerings in the field of business and commercial law, including several clinics and clinical opportunities.
- B652: Accounting for Lawyers
- B631: Advanced Bankruptcy
- B729: Antitrust Law I
- B769: Banking Law
- B725: Bankruptcy
- B625: Commercial Arbitration
- B656: Corporate Finance Law
- B653: Corporations
- B590: Entertainment Law
- B561: Entrepreneurship Law Clinic
- B717: Insurance Law
- B735: International Business Transactions
- B666: International Securities Regulation
- B759: International Trade
- B797: Law and Globalization: Corporate Law and Lawyering
- B678: Law and Sports
- B582: Mergers and Acquisitions
- B582: Mergers & Acquisitions
- B623: Negotiable Instruments
- B568: Non-Profit Corporations
- B670: Sales
- B672: Secured Transactions
- B648: Securities Litigation and Enforcement
- B727: Securities Regulation
- L690: Seminar in Corporate Law
- L713: Seminar in Law and Economics
- L650: Seminar in Tort Reform
- B709: Transactional Drafting
Student Activities and Opportunities
- The Business and Law Society sponsors lectures and informal discussions and provides members with a forum in which to discuss their ideas, as well as opportunities to meet practicing business lawyers.
- The Indiana Law Journal and the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies provide participating students with the opportunity to write notes and edit articles related to business and commercial law.
- Each year, the Law School sponsors formal and informal presentations by prominent lawyers and scholars on business law topics. Check Indiana Law Annotated for recent and upcoming speakers.
- The Elmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic provides a capstone experience for students enrolled in joint degree programs in law and business with IU’s top-ranked Kelley School of Business.
Scholarships and Fellowships
The Sigmund J. Beck Award is given each year to students who produce the best written work in bankruptcy law or a related commercial law topic. More information about financial aid is available from the Office of Student Affairs.
Career Opportunities
Our alumni hold positions with a wide variety of business and financial organizations, including the Chicago Board of Options, Citibank, Eli Lilly and Company, IBM, CBS, the New York Times Company, and the World Bank.
Faculty
- Kevin Brown
- Hannah Buxbaum
- Kenneth Dau-Schmidt
- William Henderson
- William Hicks
- Sarah Jane Hughes
- Donna Nagy
- Mark Need
- Christiana Ochoa