Curriculum
The Baylor Law Executive LL.M. in Litigation Management provides candidates with a broad understanding, as well as a deep dive into the highly valued disciplines, tools, and techniques critical to successful litigation management.
From the fundamentals of litigation planning, strategy and risk management, to electronic discovery, case assessment and fee management, to new and evolving technology tools, data analytics and cybersecurity—candidates hone their skills with guidance from the top litigation management experts in the country.
The LL.M. degree program requires 36 trimester hours (equivalent to 24 semester hours), spanning three trimesters, along with a research project. Courses are taught online with a short, on-campus requirement at Baylor Law at the close of each of the three trimesters.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Designed to accommodate working attorneys, the Baylor Law Executive LL.M. in Litigation Management program maximizes your time and helps you reach your goal—efficiently and effectively. The three-trimester program can be completed in 17 months, with approximately two-thirds of the content provided online via live lectures and flexible learning tools. The remaining coursework takes place in three, one-week segments on campus where participants interact with nationally recognized experts in focused, compact time frames. During the first trimester, participants select a specific area of interest to devote to research, will work on outlines during the second trimester, and submit final papers in the third—all while maintaining a regular, full-time practice.
Here's how it works:
18 weeks flexible online learning
- During each approximately 18-week-long trimester, candidates have weekly learning sessions that are self-paced. Designed for working professionals, the lectures, interviews, and projects are available 24 hours a day so that each candidate can complete assignments at times that are convenient for them. Faculty are available virtually to assist and answer questions. The flexible course design means you continue your career while augmenting your skills and knowledge base.
1+ week intensive on-campus learning
- Three times during the program, candidates’ study at the award-winning Sheila and Walter Umphrey Law Center at Baylor Law. These weeklong, intensive, on-campus sessions are held at the end of each trimester. On-campus sessions feature extensive personal interaction with leading litigation counsel from across the nation. During these intensive periods, students dive deeply into cutting edge strategy, work collaboratively with other candidates, faculty and mentors, and hone strategic skills.
COURSES
Click on a program year to view the courses:
2022-23, Trimester 1 Courses: |
Credits |
9334 Business Strategy and Processes in Litigation Management
This course covers a broad range of topics important to law firms and in-house legal departments, including the rapidly-changing manner in which legal services are delivered, the need of law firms to make a reasonable profit to survive, and the pressure on in-house legal departments to reduce spending. Given advances in technology, socioeconomics, demographics, and both globality and “glocality” issues, the delivery of legal services is rapidly changing. This course will explore the reasons for rapid change, the basic nature of changes, and lawyer personality traits that may impede or support change. |
3 |
9215 Case Assessment Techniques
Effective case assessments are foundational to effective litigation management. This course will equip candidates to utilize early case assessment (ECA), decision tree analysis (DTA), and multiple forms of focus group jury testing. |
2 |
9238 Data Analytics for Litigation
This course enables students to identify how data and data analytics can be useful in the practice of litigation management. |
2 |
9130 Forum Issues Affecting Major Litigation
Lawyers often spend much time litigating about where to litigate. This one-hour course explores (1) why parties might prefer federal or state court; and (2) an overview of the doctrines that govern who wins the forum fight. In particular, we'll review the major grants of federal subject-matter jurisdiction. We will also explore an overlooked but surprisingly recurring issue: what happens when parties find themselves fighting the same (or similar) lawsuits in different forums. |
1 |
9137 Fundamentals of Litigation Management
This is the introductory survey course to expose candidates to vital principles and tools in the strategic management of litigation, including application of data analytics, information management and cybersecurity, key emerging technologies, application of business processes and metrics to litigation, case and risk management, jury testing, litigation project management, discovery management including developments in electronic discovery, economic strategies in litigation, and management of complex litigation. |
1 |
9232 Proving and Attacking Damages
Law schools teach remedies but devote very little time to proving or attacking damages. The ability to assess, predict, discover, and compel evidence to prove or attack damages at trial, however, is vital to litigation management and strategy. This program will provide key skills for creating damage stories and theories, defending against damages claims, handling experts, assessing risk, and ultimately handling damages at trial. |
2 |
9129 Research Project Phase 1
This writing and research component of the LL.M. program is intended to help candidates develop their interests that coincide with a primary focus of their LL.M. studies. Building upon the course work and discussions with experts, candidates will complete a written paper on a litigation management topic in which they wish to gain specialized expertise during and after the LL.M. program. The subjects and materials covered in Fundamentals of Litigation Management course are designed to serve as a springboard for identifying a potential topic. |
1 |
2022-23, Trimester 2 Courses: |
Credits |
9216 Cybersecurity in Litigation Management
As the world becomes more digitally interconnected and technology-driven, businesses and consumers are increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats. Regardless of your industry, the security of sensitive information is top priority. This program will provide you a fundamental understanding of cybersecurity and privacy law as it relates to your role in litigation management. You will also learn from some of the nation’s foremost cybersecurity experts how to effectively manage risks to a client’s most sensitive information, and how to quickly and decisively respond to threats. |
2 |
9121 Litigation Funding
In the modern world of litigation, the options are growing rapidly for litigation finance by outside parties, in which the capital necessary for litigation is provided in return for a share of the recovery if successful. This course introduces and contrasts consumer litigation funding and commercial litigation funding, as well as new crowdfunding and insurance alternatives that may satisfy some of the same objectives, and then focuses primarily on commercial litigation funding alternatives and issues for litigation management. |
1 |
9304 Litigation Project Management and Process Improvement
This course covers the interrelationship between litigation project management, process improvement, and value-based billing. |
3 |
9431 Management of Electronic Discovery
Increasingly, attorneys are becoming “general contractors” when it comes to certain highly technical areas of the law. This is certainly true of the practice of eDiscovery. Unless you have chosen to make eDiscovery the focus of your practice, you will most likely instead be charged with assembling and then managing the right team of attorney specialists, technologists, and allied professionals who will conduct the eDiscovery components of cases on your behalf and under your direction. Any attorney serving in such a capacity will need to know enough about the law and technical aspects of eDiscovery to assemble the right team, keep costs under control, and ensure that legal and ethical obligations to clients, the court, and opponents are met and discharged. This course endeavors to impart such “general contractor” knowledge and expertise. |
4 |
9109 Privilege Issues Affecting Litigation Management
This course teaches students to recognize privilege-related problems they will face in managing litigation. Students will review the most important privileges, studying the general rule of the privilege and waiver issues including those encountered in healthcare matters. Additionally, students will study the issues arising when the cases they manage proceed in multiple jurisdictions with differing privilege rules. |
1 |
9111 Research Project Phase 2
This writing and research component of the LL.M. program is intended to help candidates develop their interests that coincide with a primary focus of their LL.M. studies. Building upon the course work and discussions with experts, candidates will complete a written paper on a litigation management topic in which they wish to gain specialized expertise during and after the LL.M. program. The subjects and materials covered in Fundamentals of Litigation Management course are designed to serve as a springboard for identifying a potential topic. |
1 |
Summer: Independent Study - Research Project Phase 3 |
2022-23, Trimester 3 Courses: |
Credits |
Advanced Litigation Issues. Select three of the following four options: | |
9128 International Issues in Litigation Management
Today’s global and interconnected economies mean more litigation – and discovery – may take place in countries other than the “home office” of the client. This course addresses managing litigation across borders, whether representing a U.S. client in a foreign jurisdiction or a foreign client in a U.S. court. Of special focus are international data privacy, security, and transfer issues – all of which represent unique obligations and challenges for the U.S. client operating abroad. |
1 |
9117 Management of Expert Witnesses
Expert witnesses are ubiquitous in litigation in state and federal courts. Some commentators estimate that experts testify in 85% of American trials, and the percentage is certainly near 100 for complex commercial cases and tort claims with technical or scientific issues. Moreover, experts can have an outsize effect on the course of trials. Litigators are familiar with the articulate, professorial witness in the tweed jacket who takes over the courtroom and, ultimately, the jury’s view of the case. A cottage industry of expert testifiers has arisen, with expert referral services listing thousands of candidates in hundreds of categories. In response, courts and legislatures have enacted rules to control expert testimony, both through discovery procedures and limits on admissibility. This course examines the current state of the use of expert witnesses, focused on pretrial matters, from selection through discovery and including the gatekeeping procedures now available to courts and litigants. |
1 |
9136 Issues in Management of Complex Litigation
This course will cover the unique issues in managing complex litigation, such as those found in forum selection, multi-district litigation, class actions, and mass torts. |
1 |
9108 Litigation Crisis Management
This course will prepare students to be prepared for, and to properly handle, a litigation crisis for their company and/or their clients. The course is designed primarily to educate in-house counsel; however, it will provide both education and insights for outside counsel, also. |
2 |
9233 Management of Complex Arbitration and Negotiation Issues
This course focuses on the mechanics of arbitration and the distinctions between complex arbitration and the litigation process. It addresses the different perspectives and roles of each participant in an arbitration process, the language of common arbitration agreements and the operative language of each such agreement. This course also addresses international dispute arbitrations, class action arbitrations and the strategies and mechanics of settlement of large multi-plaintiff claims. |
2 |
9218 Management of Regulatory Investigations
This course explores the unique issues associated with corporate internal investigations by outside counsel. Particular consideration will be given to the scope of the engagement, the collection and evaluation of evidence, privilege issues, and the preparation of reports. |
2 |
9115 Applying Technology to Litigation Management
This course is a survey of technology trends and issues that are currently, or may in the future, affect litigation management. |
1 |
9120 Ethical Issues in Litigation Management
Complex litigation, whether very large cases or very large dockets of smaller cases, presents unique ethical issues. This course will discuss those ethical issues and help students successfully navigate them. |
1 |
9250 Insurance in Litigation Management: Coverage and Analysis
Candidates focus on the fundamentals of insurance claim valuation and reservation for risk, with specific focus on advanced issues of coverage, notice and tender, reservation of rights, declaratory relief, right to independent counsel, bad faith, and potential excess coverage and liability. |
2 |
9112 Research Project Phase 4
This writing and research component of the LL.M. program is intended to help candidates develop their interests that coincide with a primary focus of their LL.M. studies. Building upon the course work and discussions with experts, candidates will complete a written paper on a litigation management topic in which they wish to gain specialized expertise during and after the LL.M. program. The subjects and materials covered in Fundamentals of Litigation Management course are designed to serve as a springboard for identifying a potential topic. |
1 |
Trimester 1: Courses |
Credits |
9334 Business Strategy and Processes in Litigation Management
This course covers a broad range of topics important to law firms and in-house legal departments, including the rapidly-changing manner in which legal services are delivered, the need of law firms to make a reasonable profit to survive, and the pressure on in-house legal departments to reduce spending. Given advances in technology, socioeconomics, demographics, and both globality and “glocality” issues, the delivery of legal services is rapidly changing. This course will explore the reasons for rapid change, the basic nature of changes, and lawyer personality traits that may impede or support change. |
3 |
9215 Case Assessment Techniques
Effective case assessments are foundational to effective litigation management. This course will equip candidates to utilize early case assessment (ECA), decision tree analysis (DTA), and multiple forms of focus group jury testing. |
2 |
9238 Data Analytics for Litigation
This course enables students to identify how data and data analytics can be useful in the practice of litigation management. |
2 |
9130 Forum Issues Affecting Major Litigation
Lawyers often spend much time litigating about where to litigate. This one-hour course explores (1) why parties might prefer federal or state court; and (2) an overview of the doctrines that govern who wins the forum fight. In particular, we'll review the major grants of federal subject-matter jurisdiction. We will also explore an overlooked but surprisingly recurring issue: what happens when parties find themselves fighting the same (or similar) lawsuits in different forums. |
1 |
9137 Fundamentals of Litigation Management
This is the introductory survey course to expose candidates to vital principles and tools in the strategic management of litigation, including application of data analytics, information management and cybersecurity, key emerging technologies, application of business processes and metrics to litigation, case and risk management, jury testing, litigation project management, discovery management including developments in electronic discovery, economic strategies in litigation, and management of complex litigation. |
1 |
9232 Proving and Attacking Damages
Law schools teach remedies but devote very little time to proving or attacking damages. The ability to assess, predict, discover, and compel evidence to prove or attack damages at trial, however, is vital to litigation management and strategy. This program will provide key skills for creating damage stories and theories, defending against damages claims, handling experts, assessing risk, and ultimately handling damages at trial. |
2 |
9129 Research Project Phase 1
This writing and research component of the LL.M. program is intended to help candidates develop their interests that coincide with a primary focus of their LL.M. studies. Building upon the course work and discussions with experts, candidates will complete a written paper on a litigation management topic in which they wish to gain specialized expertise during and after the LL.M. program. The subjects and materials covered in Fundamentals of Litigation Management course are designed to serve as a springboard for identifying a potential topic. |
1 |
Trimester 2: Courses |
Credits |
9216 Cybersecurity in Litigation Management
As the world becomes more digitally interconnected and technology-driven, businesses and consumers are increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats. Regardless of your industry, the security of sensitive information is top priority. This program will provide you a fundamental understanding of cybersecurity and privacy law as it relates to your role in litigation management. You will also learn from some of the nation’s foremost cybersecurity experts how to effectively manage risks to a client’s most sensitive information, and how to quickly and decisively respond to threats. |
2 |
9121 Litigation Funding
In the modern world of litigation, the options are growing rapidly for litigation finance by outside parties, in which the capital necessary for litigation is provided in return for a share of the recovery if successful. This course introduces and contrasts consumer litigation funding and commercial litigation funding, as well as new crowdfunding and insurance alternatives that may satisfy some of the same objectives, and then focuses primarily on commercial litigation funding alternatives and issues for litigation management. |
1 |
9304 Litigation Project Management and Process Improvement
This course covers the interrelationship between litigation project management, process improvement, and value-based billing. |
3 |
9431 Management of Electronic Discovery
Increasingly, attorneys are becoming “general contractors” when it comes to certain highly technical areas of the law. This is certainly true of the practice of eDiscovery. Unless you have chosen to make eDiscovery the focus of your practice, you will most likely instead be charged with assembling and then managing the right team of attorney specialists, technologists, and allied professionals who will conduct the eDiscovery components of cases on your behalf and under your direction. Any attorney serving in such a capacity will need to know enough about the law and technical aspects of eDiscovery to assemble the right team, keep costs under control, and ensure that legal and ethical obligations to clients, the court, and opponents are met and discharged. This course endeavors to impart such “general contractor” knowledge and expertise. |
4 |
9109 Privilege Issues Affecting Litigation Management
This course teaches students to recognize privilege-related problems they will face in managing litigation. Students will review the most important privileges, studying the general rule of the privilege and waiver issues including those encountered in healthcare matters. Additionally, students will study the issues arising when the cases they manage proceed in multiple jurisdictions with differing privilege rules. |
1 |
9111 Research Project Phase 2
This writing and research component of the LL.M. program is intended to help candidates develop their interests that coincide with a primary focus of their LL.M. studies. Building upon the course work and discussions with experts, candidates will complete a written paper on a litigation management topic in which they wish to gain specialized expertise during and after the LL.M. program. The subjects and materials covered in Fundamentals of Litigation Management course are designed to serve as a springboard for identifying a potential topic. |
1 |
Summer: Independent Study - Research Project Phase 3 |
Trimester 3: Courses |
Credits |
Advanced Litigation Issues (choose one of the two following courses):
9128 International Issues in Litigation Management |
1 |
9115 Applying Technology to Litigation Management
This course is a survey of technology trends and issues that are currently, or may in the future, affect litigation management. |
1 |
9120 Ethical Issues in Litigation Management
Complex litigation, whether very large cases or very large dockets of smaller cases, presents unique ethical issues. This course will discuss those ethical issues and help students successfully navigate them. |
1 |
9136 Issues in Management of Complex Litigation
This course will cover the unique issues in managing complex litigation, such as those found in forum selection, multi-district litigation, class actions, and mass torts. |
1 |
9250 Insurance in Litigation Management: Coverage and Analysis
Candidates focus on the fundamentals of insurance claim valuation and reservation for risk, with specific focus on advanced issues of coverage, notice and tender, reservation of rights, declaratory relief, right to independent counsel, bad faith, and potential excess coverage and liability. |
2 |
9108 Litigation Crisis Management
This course will prepare students to be prepared for, and to properly handle, a litigation crisis for their company and/or their clients. The course is designed primarily to educate in-house counsel; however, it will provide both education and insights for outside counsel, also. |
2 |
9233 Management of Complex Arbitration and Negotiation Issues
This course focuses on the mechanics of arbitration and the distinctions between complex arbitration and the litigation process. It addresses the different perspectives and roles of each participant in an arbitration process, the language of common arbitration agreements and the operative language of each such agreement. This course also addresses international dispute arbitrations, class action arbitrations and the strategies and mechanics of settlement of large multi-plaintiff claims. |
2 |
9218 Management of Regulatory Investigations
This course explores the unique issues associated with corporate internal investigations by outside counsel. Particular consideration will be given to the scope of the engagement, the collection and evaluation of evidence, privilege issues, and the preparation of reports. |
2 |
9112 Research Project Phase 4
This writing and research component of the LL.M. program is intended to help candidates develop their interests that coincide with a primary focus of their LL.M. studies. Building upon the course work and discussions with experts, candidates will complete a written paper on a litigation management topic in which they wish to gain specialized expertise during and after the LL.M. program. The subjects and materials covered in Fundamentals of Litigation Management course are designed to serve as a springboard for identifying a potential topic. |
1 |
Trimester 1: Courses | Credits |
Business Strategies and Processes in Litigation Management | 3 |
Case Assessment Techniques | 2 |
Data Analytics for Litigation | 2 |
Fundamentals of Litigation Management | 2 |
Proving and Attacking Damages | 2 |
Research Project Phase 1 | 1 |
Trimester 2: Courses | Credits |
Cybersecurity in Litigation Management | 2 |
Litigation Funding | 1 |
Litigation Project Management and Process Improvement | 3 |
Management of Electronic Discovery | 4 |
Privilege Issues Affecting Litigation Management | 1 |
Research Project Phase 2 | 1 |
Summer: Independent Study - Research Project Phase 3 |
Trimester 3: Courses | Credits |
Advanced Litigation Issues (choose one out of two): | 1 |
• Forum Issues Affecting Major Litigation | |
• International Issues in Litigation Management | |
• Future Technology Trends in Litigation Management | |
• Management of Expert Witnesses | |
Ethical Issues in Litigation Management | 1 |
Issues in Management of Complex Litigation | 1 |
Insurance in Litigation Management: Coverage & Analysis | 2 |
Litigation Crisis Management | 1 |
Management of Complex Arbitration & Negotiation Issues | 2 |
Management of Regulatory Investigations | 2 |
Law 9112 Research Project Phase 4 | 1 |
Trimester 1: Courses | Credits |
Fundamentals of Litigation Management | 0 |
Cybersecurity for Litigation | 0 |
Proving and Attacking Damages | 0 |
Data Analytics for Litigation | 0 |
Forum Issues Affecting Major Litigation | 0 |
Management of Expert Witnesses | 1 |
Research Project Phase 1 | 1 |
Trimester 2: Courses | Credits |
Management of Electronic Discovery | 4 |
Business Strategy and Processes in Litigation Management | 3 |
Case Assessment Techniques | 2 |
Litigation Crisis Management | 1 |
Privilege Issues Affecting Litigation Management | 1 |
Research Project Phase 2 | 1 |
Summer: Independent Study - Research Project Phase 3 |
Trimester 3: Courses | Credits |
Litigation Project Management and Process Improvement | 4 |
Complex Arbitration and Negotiation Issues | 2 |
Insurance Coverage and Claims | 2 |
Management of Regulatory Investigations | 2 |
Future Technology Trends in Litigation | 1 |
Research Project Phase 4 | 1 |

Skyler Howton
Partner,
Commercial Litigation,
Perkins Coie
Executive LL.M. Candidate
"The pragmatic approach of the program makes the real-time application into existing day-to-day work activities an easy and seamless process."