The overall purpose is to explore the full 180-degree sweep of ways in which legal services (a) have been, (b) are now, and (c) could, perhaps, in the future be funded.

(For example, the breakdown is not by subject matter area (e.g., patent law, tax), or activity (e.g., court room litigation, office practice) but by source of funds and theory of payment, e.g., (a) conventional law firm, hourly billing, (b) the contingent fee, (c) house counsel on salary, (d) public interest non-profits with legal agendas (funded by, say, foundation grants, or settlements and judgments), or (e) treble-damage-plus-attorneys’-fees legislation.)

Papers will be required, and will, ultimately, become part of a Web site with the student work, and links to other resources, as a service of the University of Iowa College of Law to the legal profession.

Students will also be encouraged to be innovative in coming up with new, and as yet untried, ideas for funding legal services.

• Some students will approach the seminar from a realization that the 21st Century is much less likely to provide “jobs” (in the 1950s sense), and more likely to demand entrepreneurial creativity.  The seminar will help them to think of innovative ways to support themselves financially.

• Some will be thinking in terms of more traditional jobs with traditional law firms, but want to focus a bit more on the economic realities before they arrive.

• And some will be thinking of “justice for all,” and methods of funding legal services for the poor or other “public interest” representation..

Casebook: There is no assigned casebook as such. Such shared seminar readings as there may be will, to the extent possible, be drawn from the Internet (plus Westlaw and Lexis).

Class meeting: There is presently no regularly scheduled time for full seminar meetings. Enrollment will be limited, and most student-professor contact will be one-on-one conferences during the course of the semester. Such full seminar sessions as will be held during the early, and late, portion of the semester will be scheduled to minimize conflicts with students' other class schedules. (The only time Mr. Johnson does not have available is Wednesday evenings, 6:30-8:30 p.m., when he is teaching Law of Electronic Media.)

Contacts:  Feel free to stop in Mr. Johnson’s office (BLB 445) any time the door is open.  Or, if you prefer, you may make an appointment.  The best phone number for messages is 337-5555.  His e-mail address is njohnson@inav.net  His Web page, with links to former Law of Electronic Media classes is https://www.nicholasjohnson.org [Previously http://soli.inav.net/~njohnson ]  [click on "Research Resources" and then "teaching"]. His assistant is Sharlee Feller, Room 433, 335-9091.