The principal goal of Foundations in Business Law, a first-year day elective course, is to provide a substantive foundation in the most important fields of business law. These include Business Associations; Securities Regulation; Intellectual Property; Commercial Law under the Uniform Commercial Code; Antitrust; International Business Transactions; Bankruptcy; and Taxation. The Director and Associate Director of the Business Law Program will have overall responsibility for the course. Each specific subject matter in the course, however, has a lecturer who specializes in the field, whether as a professor at the law school or as a leading practitioner of business law. The course is not intended, however, as a substitute for the upper-divisional courses in those substantive fields.

Foundations in Business Law is a requirement for students pursuing the Business Law Track. (For more information see https://www.law.umaryland.edu/Programs-and-Impact/Business-Law/Track-Requirements) Because it sets a foundation for the study of the specialized fields of business law, first year students interested in pursuing the Business Law Track essentially are required to choose this course for their first-year elective. (Upper-divisional students are permitted to take the course only with special permission.) Nonetheless, the course also is appropriate for students who are simply curious about business law or who seek an introduction to (or review of) the core fields of business law as well as basic business and financial concepts.

A second goal of Foundations in Business Law is to expose students to the practice of business law. The lecturers for the course thus include leading professors and practitioners with expertise on (among others) negotiating business deals, drafting contracts, structuring mergers and acquisitions, managing corporate litigation, business client counseling, and venture capital investing. As part of these lectures, the Course also will introduce basic principles of accounting, finance, and investing.