Course Description

An examination of agency, partnership, and corporation concepts with emphasis on the rights and obligations of partners. The formation, management, and operation of for-profit and nonprofit corporations will be taught.

Rationale

Most people probably think of litigation-related work when thinking of the legal profession. However, many paralegals and other legal professionals spend much of their time on transactional work. Understanding the law governing corporations and other business organizations is essential to providing excellent legal services in both transactional and litigation-oriented settings. Thus, the successful paralegal must learn to master business organization law. This course is designed to introduce the students to transactional practice through the study of the law governing corporations and other business organizations.

Measurable Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. 1. Apply the principles of agency law.
   2. Describe the rights and duties of owners (entrepreneurs, partners, members, and shareholders) and managers (managing partners, managers, directors, and officers) in the various business organization forms.
   3. Distinguish among the various business organization forms.
   4. Describe the schemes of securities regulation and investor protection.
   5. Draft basic business organization formation documents.
   6. Analyze all of the preceding in light of a distinctly evangelical Christian worldview.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and lecture presentations/notes

Course Requirements Checklist

Before working through the checklist outlined in the Course Overview, the student should review the Liberty University curriculum.

Discussions (5)

Five Discussions will be posted in order to generate interaction among students in regard to relevant current course topics. The student is required to post 1 thread of at least 250 words. Additionally, the student must post 2 replies of at least 150 words each. For each thread, the student must support his/her assertions with at least one citation in the current Bluebook format. Each reply must also be in the current Bluebook format. Acceptable sources include textbooks, the Bible, and other more scholarly, academic sources.

Getting Started Exercise Assignment

The student will read the following information and complete this assignment:

The United States of America is a very entrepreneurial nation. When surveyed, most Americans have either owned their own business in the past, owned their own business now, or would like to start their own business in the future. This assignment will give students a chance to exercise a little of that entrepreneurial spirit.

The student will think about a type of business that he/she would like to start, (have started, or operate right now). Then, the student will answer the questions in the Getting Started Exercise Instructions for his/her business in the form of a memorandum to be submitted to Blackboard.

Formation Documents Assignment

The student will draft a set of organizational documents to form a business organization.

Business Organization Form Choice Memorandum Assignment

The student will submit an objective memorandum analyzing a set of facts to determine which proper business organization form is for the client. This will include both the selection of the state-law business organization form and the proper federal tax regime choice. The memorandum must be at least 3,000 words and supported by at least 5 scholarly, academic sources.

Quizzes (16)

Each module contains two MindTap quizzes. The quizzes cover the Learn items for the module in which they are assigned. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, multiple-answer, or short-answer questions, and have a time limit.