Matthew Marin

Professor Marin’s passion is teaching. Over the years he has taught many classes and instructed students in many disciplines.

Contracts: Instructor. Covers mutual assent (offer & acceptance), consideration, damages/remedies, parol evidence rule & interpretation of the contract, conditions & promises (including tender rules, substantial performance, & anticipatory repudiation), third-party contracts (third-party beneficiaries, assignments, & delegations), statute of frauds, and avoidance of the contract.

Torts: Instructor. Torts is a foundational course that introduces students to the legal principles governing civil liability for harm caused to people and property. With a primary focus on negligence, this course provides an in-depth exploration of its core elements and discusses related topics, including liability apportionment, limitations of liability due to remote or unforeseen causes, and defenses, such as contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and comparative fault. Additionally, students will be introduced to other concepts that are also heavily tested on the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) and the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), such as intentional torts and their defenses; vicarious liability; wrongful death; and survival actions. The course may also explore the following topics: strict liability, including products liability; defamation; nuisance, interference with business relations; invasion of privacy; and misrepresentation.

Conflict of Laws: Instructor. Conflict of Laws focuses on two procedural topics: choice of law and judgment recognition. Choice of law jurisprudence examines which jurisdiction’s laws will govern legal rights and responsibilities in cases with multi-jurisdiction connections. Basic concepts include characterization, renvoi, depecage, and substance and procedure. Judgment recognition is examined in the context of due process and full faith and credit. This two-credit elective will help students prepare for the essay portion of most state bar exams.

Research & Writing: Instructor. This class focuses on legal drafting and writing of formal interoffice memoranda. Students are instructed how to craft and write case illustrations, statements of facts, and taught how to produce effective legal analysis by applying new facts to rules of law. Students are also trained in how to complete efficient legal research, both in tangible and electronic form, and students are coached in correct grammar and punctuation usage.

Florida Bar Skills: Instructor. Substantive & skills teaching of the following Florida-specific topics: Business Entities (Corporations & Partnerships), Civil Procedure, Commercial Paper, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Procedure, Ethics, Evidence, Family Law & Dependency, Property, Sales, Secured Transactions, Torts, Trusts, & Wills.

Drafting: Instructor. Students learn the fundamentals of legal drafting, with an emphasis on drafting clear and unambiguous contracts. Assignments and exercises expose students to a variety of legal language, including provisions common to secured transactions and provisions explored in equity & remedies.

Introduction to Law: Instructor. Teaching the basic skills need to succeed in law school. Instruction includes how to use the pattern of legal text (cases, statutes, etc.), how to develop efficient note-taking for in-class and out-of-class notes, how to listen effectively in class, how to merge the law from various sources into an effective outline, how to write using the legal analysis pattern, and how to think through multiple-choice questions. The topics of Torts and Contracts are used and also taught in this course including the following: contract formation, damages, & statute of frauds; and intentional torts & negligence.

Scholarly Writing: Teaching Assistant. Instructed students on the legal research process, proper grammar & punctuation, and on the correct Harvard Bluebook legal citation format, for scholarly articles and publications.

Principles of Biology: Teaching Assistant. Emphasis in this class was on interrelationships of living things by examining metabolism, growth and development, genetics, behavior, ecology, and evolution.

Introductory Botany: Teaching Assistant. Focus on the development, physiology, and evolution of plants.

General Zoology: Teaching Assistant. Introduction to the biology of animals, including studies of the phylogeny, morphology, physiology, development, behavior, and ecology of representatives of the major phyla.

Physiological Ecology: Teaching Assistant. Biological stresses induced by environmental variables, physiological and molecular responses associated with temperature extremes, drought, and nutrient and energy competition are taught in this course.

Genetics: Teaching Assistant. Study of principles of inheritance and the modern concepts of the structure and chemistry of chromosomes and the molecular biology of the gene.

Microbiology: Teaching Assistant. The study of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and algae, with emphasis on physiology and adaptation that allows them to exploit certain environments.