Law 234 – Accounting For Lawyers

Law 234 – Accounting For Lawyers

This course introduces basic accounting principles, concepts and terminology. It is intended for the law student who does not have an accounting background. Permission of the instructor to enroll is required for students who have had any accounting courses.

This is a two-unit course which will meet for the first 6 weeks of the semester. There will be a “problem set” to complete, discussion of several case studies and a final exam (to be administered during week 7 of the semester).

The course begins with an introduction to basic accounting principles and how firms record transactions and summarize their economic activities. Having established this foundation, the course will then move on to consider the accounting for, and presentation of, specific financial statement elements including receivables, inventories, fixed assets, intangible assets, liabilities and contingencies, and revenue and expenses. Interspersed with the discussion of these specific financial statement elements will be presentation of the concept of the time value of money and its pervasive influence on accounting principles and economic decisions. The role and responsibilities of the independent auditor and the concept of full and fair disclosure of financial information as required by generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S.A. will also be introduced. Students with no quantitative training should be able to comfortably grasp the material because, at most, only basic high school-level algebra is needed.