Business Law: Home

With the prior edition of this concise, up-to-date casebook having been adopted at over 100 law schools, the twelfth edition (formerly Klein, Ramseyer, and Bainbridge's Business Associations casebook) continues to provide a comprehensive overview of agency, partnership, and corporation law. It also continues to emphasize five basic editorial principles: Cases edited ruthlessly to produce a readable and concise result. Facts matter, so they are included in all their potential ambiguity. Bring a planner's perspective to the table through extensive use of transactionally-oriented problems. It's a casebook not a treatise. No long, stultifying textual passages. Provide the cases and let the individual teacher use them as he or she sees fit. Try to find cases that are fun to teach. Great facts or a clever analysis are always given first priority in case selection.

This edition incorporates recent updates to the Model Business Corporation Act, Delaware General Corporation Law, and the rules under the Securities Exchange Act. Among the most significant changes in this edition are the changes to the DGCL made by the controversial SB 313. These include: New § 122(18) sets forth certain types of provisions that may be included in contracts between a corporation and its current or prospective stockholders or beneficial owners of its stock, even if those provisions are not set forth in, or referenced as a fact ascertainable in, the certificate of incorporation pursuant to § 141(a), which legislatively reversed West Palm Beach Firefighters' Pension Fund v. Moelis & Company, 2024 WL 747180 (Del. Ch. Feb. 23, 2024). New § 147 provides that whenever the DGCL expressly requires a board of directors to approve or take other action (such as making an advisability determination or a recommendation to stockholders) with respect to an agreement, instrument or document, the agreement, instrument or document may be approved in final form or substantially final form. The new provision effectively reverses Sjunde AP-Fonden v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., 2024 WL 863290 (Del. Ch. Feb. 29, 2024).

For guidance on efficiently forming and expertly advising LLCs, turn to The Limited Liability Company. Model formation and operation documents, drafting tips, sample client letters, comparison charts, IRS revenue rulings and more. The authors discuss each state act separately in a detailed state-by-state analysis that includes checklists and forms.

Completely revised and updated, conversational in tone, the book summarizes all major forms of business, not simply the corporation. It features numerous examples to illustrate key concepts. Comprehensive yet concise, it addresses the theory of the firm, including the emergence of greater concerns for constituencies other than shareholders, as well as the nuts-and-bolts of corporate law. It offers separate consideration of specialized issues raised in closely-held and public corporations. With updated discussion of recent case law, particularly about controlling shareholders and takeovers, the book offers detailed comparison of Delaware and other leading corporate law legislation. The book also covers relevant federal law, including Sarbanes-Oxley, Rule 10b-5, and Section 16(b). Financial and accounting concepts are explained with helpful examples, so that even sociology majors need not fear them.

The study of business organizations is, broadly speaking, a study of how people engage in business and, more importantly, how the law facilitates and regulates the operation of such businesses. Written in a clear and informative style, and chock full of examples and illustrations, this book examines the legal rules and doctrines associated with running a business--from formation to dissolution to everything in between. These rules and doctrines are explored within the context of the various organizational forms in which a business may be operated. Thus, reading this book will provide you with a solid grounding in the law of agency, general partnerships, corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and limited liability companies.

This book is indeed “short” - much shorter than any other student guide. The reason is that other student guides are written to help you understand your business associations/organizations course, to get you through 42 or 56 class hours. This student guide is different. It is written to help you understand your prof’s final exam questions – to get you through a 3 or 4 hour exam. Rather than teaching you how cases and concepts are applied in the real world, this book teaches you how cases and concepts need to be applied in the “unreal” world of law school exams.

This book provides a clear and concise explanation of corporations, agency and partnership, and the other subjects addressed in most Business Associations courses. To accompany its explanations, the guide utilizes a checklist format to lead students through questions they need to ask and issues they need to address, to fully evaluate the agency, partnership or corporations, problems they will face when studying this subject. It also synthesizes the material in a way that most students are unable to do on their own, and organizes the critical issues, presenting a clear guide to analyze business associations issues that students can draw upon when writing their exams.

Exam Pro-Objective on Business Associations is a study aid that helps law students prepare to take their Business Associations exam. Taking the sample objective exams and using the corresponding answers and analysis provides students with a more thorough understanding of Business Associations and a better understanding of how to take exams.

This outline clearly examines the full range of issues that arise in classes focused on business organizations. The central distinctions among business forms such as general and limited partnerships, limited liability corporations as well as close and public corporations. Both federal and state statutes that regulate the affairs of corporations are examined. The legal requirements for their formation, operation and management. Also includes shareholders' right to inspect records, shareholders' suits, capitalization, dividends, redemption of shares, fundamental changes in corporate structure, and applicable conflict of laws principles.

Many students find their Corporation Law class difficult because they do not understand the transactions giving rise to those cases. As with its predecessors, this fourth edition is intended to assist students by not only restating the law but also by putting the law into its business and financial context.

Clear, succinct, descriptions of the reasoning and policy issues underlying corporate law that is accessible to law students with no business or economic background. The 2020 edition is thoroughly updated to include recent U.S. Supreme Court, Delaware and other leading decisions and regulatory developments (for example, the most recent version of the Model Business Corporation Act as well as the Delaware statute) that impact the conduct of corporate affairs including fiduciary obligations and duties in corporate transactions, governance, and management of corporations and LLCs, as well as benefit corporations, including the landscape of securities fraud suits in the federal courts, new discussions of unincorporated forms of business, insightful explanations of such news-making issues as corporate governance and director liabilities, and coverage of LLCs and LLPs.

This authoritative text explains the basic economic elements and legal principles of business organization and finance.

This book gives students in an introductory course in business associations a succinct but reliable overview of the principle legal issues that arise in business relationships over the life cycle of the business. It explains the basic concepts that govern these relationships and provides specific examples of how they apply. It also explains similarities and dissimilarities in the business associations covered. The book is intended to help students understand the course whether their background is in accounting or music.

This Hornbook clarifies rather than simply recites corporation law, while paying attention to correcting common misconceptions held among students and attorneys about the subject. This book is also intended for courts and commentators seeking the appropriate resolution of issues of corporation law. It is written in a "user-friendly" style, with citations kept to a minimum.